The study of adolescent psychology has many different facets that have been debated since the invention of the concept of adolescence back in the early twentieth century. Two of the main contributors to the study of adolescent psychology are Erik Erikson and Jean Piaget. These two men come from strangely different backgrounds; Erikson, being kind of a wanderer with no interest in formal schooling and Piaget, the scholar for most of his life. Erikson's theory is more psychoanalytic in that it emphasizes the importance of adolescents' unconscious thoughts whereas, Piaget focuses more on cognitive theories that stress the importance of an adolescents' conscious thoughts (Santrock 43).
             Both of these theories stem from the works of Sigmund Freud. Freud studied both conscious and unconscious influences on cognitive and social development. His main emphasis was on the development of personality in the conscious and unconscious mind. Freud believed that there are three structures: the id, one's instincts; the ego, where rational decisions are made; and the superego, the conscience. These three structures function together in both the conscious and unconscious mind; the id, functions in the unconscious and the ego and superego function in both states of mind. Freud found that through studying his patients, many of their problems could not be solved just by looking at the id, ego and the superego. He felt he needed to look further into their development as a child and the particular stages each person goes through as a child.
             Erikson, like Freud, believes that each individual goes through numerous stages of development. Another theory of Freud's focuses on the psychosexual stages that occur within the first five years of life; Erikson expands on this by claiming that an individual goes through 8 different stages that are on going throughout one's life span. Each stage is considered to be a crisis ...