Sigmund Freud (/ˈfrɔɪd/ FROYD;[2] German: [ˈziːkmʊnt ˈfʁɔʏt]; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May

1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical
method for treating psychopathology through dialogue between a patient and a psychoanalyst. Freud was
born to Galician Jewish parents in the Moravian town of Freiberg, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He
qualified as a doctor of medicine in 1881 at the University of Vienna. Upon completing hishabilitation in
1885, he was appointed a docent in neuropathology and became an affiliated professor in 1902. Freud
lived and worked in Vienna, having set up his clinical practice there in 1886. In 1938 Freud left Austria to
escape the Nazis. He died in exile in the United Kingdom in 1939.
Jean Piaget (French: [ʒɑ̃ pjaˈʒɛ]; 9 August 1896 – 16 September 1980) was a Swiss clinical psychologist
known for his pioneering work in child development. Piaget's theory of cognitive development and
epistemological view are together called "genetic epistemology".

Piaget placed great importance on the education of children. As the Director of the International Bureau
of Education, he declared in 1934 that "only education is capable of saving our societies from possible
collapse, whether violent, or gradual."[12] Piaget's theory and research influenced several people. His
theory of child development is studied in pre-service education programs. Educators continue to
incorporate constructionist-based strategies.

Piaget created the International Center for Genetic Epistemology in Geneva in 1955 while on the faculty
of the University of Genevaand directed the Center until his death in 1980.[13] The number of
collaborations that its founding made possible, and their impact, ultimately led to the Center being
referred to in the scholarly literature as "Piaget's factory."[14]

According to Ernst von Glasersfeld, Jean Piaget was "the great pioneer of the constructivist theory of
knowing. However, his ideas did not become widely popularized until the 1960s.[16] This then led to the
emergence of the study of development as a major sub-discipline in psychology.[17] By the end of the 20th
century, Piaget was second only to B. F. Skinner as the most cited psychologist of that era.
Erik Homburger Erikson (born Erik Salomonsen;[1] 15 June 1902 – 12 May 1994) was a German-
born American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on psychosocial
development of human beings. He may be most famous for coining the phrase identity crisis. His son, Kai
T. Erikson, is a noted American sociologist.

Although Erikson lacked even a bachelor's degree, he served as a professor at prominent institutions such
as Harvard and Yale. AReview of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Erikson as the
12th most cited psychologist of the 20th century.[3]

Erikson's mother, Karla Abrahamsen, came from a prominent Jewish family in Copenhagen, Denmark.
She was married to Jewish stockbroker Valdemar Isidor Salomonsen, but had been estranged from him
for several months at the time Erik was conceived. Little is known about Erik's biological father except
that he was a Danish gentile. On discovering her pregnancy, Karla fled to Frankfurt,Germany, where Erik
was born on June 15, 1902 and was given the surname Salomonsen.[4]

Following Erik's birth, Karla trained to be a nurse and moved to Karlsruhe. In 1905 she married Erik's
Jewish pediatrician, Theodor Homberger. In 1908, Erik Salomonsen's name was changed to Erik
Homberger, and in 1911 Erik was officially adopted by his stepfather.[5]
Lawrence Kohlberg, (born October 25, 1927, Bronxville, New York, U.S.—died January 17, 1987,
Boston, Massachusetts) American psychologist and educator known for his theory of moraldevelopment.
Kohlberg was the youngest of four children of Alfred Kohlberg, a successful silk merchant of Jewish
ancestry, and Charlotte Albrecht Kohlberg, a Protestant and a skilled amateur chemist. When the couple
divorced in 1932 after 11 years of marriage, each of the children was required by a court order to choose
which parent he or she would live with. The two younger children chose their father and the older ones
chose their mother.

Kohlberg graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, in 1945. After serving in the
U.S. merchant marine, he worked on a ship that had been hired by Haganah, the Zionist military
organization, to smuggle Jewish war refugees into Palestine, past the British blockade. The ship was
intercepted, however, and Kohlberg was imprisoned in a British internment camp in Cyprus. Returning to
the U.S. in 1948, he enrolled at the University of Chicago, where he completed a B.A. in psychology in
one year and a Ph.D. in psychology in 1958. He subsequently held teaching positions at various
institutions before settling at Harvard University in 1968.
While pursuing his doctoral degree, Kohlberg became interested in Jean Piaget’s work on the moral
development of children. According to Piaget, children naturally progress from a form of moral reasoning
based on the consequences of an act (e.g., punishment) to one that takes the actor’s intentions into
account. Kohlberg interviewed 72 lower- and middle-class white boys, presenting each with a moral
dilemma: whether it would be permissible for a poor man to steal medicine for his dying wife. The
children’s responses became the basis of his six-stage theory of moral development.
Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky (Russian: Лев Семёнович Вы́ готский or Выго́тский, born Лев Симхович
Выгодский [Lev Simkhovich Vygodskiy], November 17 [O.S. November 5] 1896 – June 11, 1934) was a
Soviet psychologist, the founder of a theory of human cultural and bio-social development commonly
referred to as cultural-historical psychology, and leader of the Vygotsky Circle.

Vygotsky's main work was in developmental psychology, and he proposed a theory of the development of
higher cognitive functions in children that saw reasoning as emerging through practical activity in a social
environment. During the earlier period of his career he argued that the development of reasoning was
mediated by signs and symbols, and therefore contingent on cultural practices and language as well as on
universal cognitive processes.

Vygotsky also posited a concept he called the zone of proximal development, often understood to refer to
the way that acquisition of new knowledge depends on previous learning, as well as the availability of
instruction.

During his lifetime, Vygotsky's theories were controversial within the Soviet Union. In the 1930s
Vygotsky's ideas were introduced in the West where they remained virtually unknown until the 1970s
when they became a central component of the development of new paradigms in developmental and
educational psychology. While initially Vygotsky's theories were ignored in the West, they are today
widely known, although scholars do not always agree with them, or agree about what he meant. The early
21st century has seen scholarly reevaluations of many of Vygotsky's central concepts and theories.[1]
[2]
A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Vygotsky as the 83rd most cited
psychologist of the 20th century.[3]
Urie Bronfenbrenner (April 29, 1917 – September 25, 2005) was a Russian-born
American developmental psychologist who is most known for his ecological systems theory of child
development.[1] His scientific work and his assistance to the United States government helped in the
formation of the Head Start program in 1965.[2] Bronfenbrenner's research and his theory was key in
changing the perspective of developmental psychology by calling attention to the large number of
environmental and societal influences on child development.

Bronfenbrenner was born in Moscow on April 29, 1917.[3] When he was six, his family moved to the
United States, first to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, and then a year later to a rural part of New York state.
[4]
His father worked as a neuropathologist at a hospital for the developmentally disabled
called Letchworth Village, located in Rockland County, N.Y.

Bronfenbrenner received a bachelor's in psychology and music from Cornell University in Ithaca, New
York, in 1938.[3] He earned a master's in education from Harvard in 1940, and a doctorate in
developmental psychology from the University of Michigan in 1942.[2] He entered the U.S. military the
day after receiving his doctorate, going on to serve as a psychologist in various military bodies
during World War II.[5] After the war, he briefly obtained a job as an assistant chief clinical psychologist
for the newly founded VA Clinical Psychology Training Program in Washington D.C.[5] After that, he
served as an assistant professor at the University of Michigan for two years, and then moved to Cornell
Universityas an assistant professor in 1948.[5] At Cornell, his research focused on child development and
the impact of social forces in this development for the rest of his career.[6]

He was appointed to a federal panel about development in impoverished children around 1964 and 1965,
with this panel helping in the creation of Head Start in 1965.[3]

Bronfenbrenner wrote over 300 research papers and 14 books,[2] and achieved the title of Jacob Gould
Schurman Professor Emeritus of Human Development at Cornell University.[5] He was married to Liese
Price and had six children.[3] He died at his home in Ithaca, New York, on September 25, 2005 at the age
of 88, due to complications with diabetes.[3]

A. Freud’s Psychosexual Theory of Development

Psychosexual Approximate Age Description

Stage
 Oral Stage Birth – 18 Months Libidinal energy is focused on the mouth. Activities such
as eating, drinking, and sucking are important.

Anal Stage 18 Months – 3 Years Libidinal energy is focused on the anus. Toilet training is
a central event at this stage.

Phallic Stage 3 Years – 6 Years Libidinal energy is focused on the genitals. The Oedipus
complex and penis envy commonly occur at this stage.

Latent Period 6 Year – Puberty A period of relative calm, as libidinal energies become
less active. The ego and superego emerge.

The Genital Puberty Onwards If previous stages were successful, libidinal energies
Stage should remain focused on genitals. Mutually satisfying
relationships are central to this stage.

B. Piagets Stage of Cognitive Development

Stage Approximate Description
Age
 Sensorimotor 0-2 yrs During this first stage, children learn entirely through the movements they
make and the sensations that result. They learn:

 that they exist separately from the objects and people around them
 that they can cause things to happen
 that things continue to exist even when they can't see them

Preoperational Once children acquire language, they are able to use symbols (such as words
2-7 yrs or pictures) to represent objects. Their thinking is still very egocentric though
-- they assume that everyone else sees things from the same viewpoint as they
do.

They are able to understand concepts like counting, classifying according to

similarity, and past-present-future but generally they are still focused primarily
on the present and on the concrete, rather than the abstract.
Concrete At this stage, children are able to see things from different points of view and
Operational 7-12 yrs to imagine events that occur outside their own lives. Some organized, logical
thought processes are now evident and they are able to:

 order objects by size, color gradient, etc.

 understand that if 3 + 4 = 7 then 7 - 4 = 3
 understand that a red square can belong to both the 'red' category and
the 'square' category
 understand that a short wide cup can hold the same amount of liquid as
a tall thin cup

However, thinking still tends to be tied to concrete reality

Formal Around the onset of puberty, children are able to reason in much more abstract
Operational 12 up ways and to test hypotheses using systematic logic. There is a much greater
focus on possibilities and on ideological issues.

C. Erickson’s Psychosocial stage and developmental process

Psychosocial
Age Description
Stage
Trust At this stage babies learn to trust that their parents will meet their basic needs. If a
vs child's basic needs aren't properly met at this age, he or she might grow up with a
Mistrust 0-1 general mistrust of the world.

Autonomy As toddlers, children begin to develop independence and start to learn that they can
vs do some things on their own (such as going to the toilet). If a child is not
Shame & 2-3 encouraged properly at this age, he or she might develop shame and doubt about
Doubt their abilities.
 Initiative As preschoolers, children continue to develop more independence and start to do
vs things of their own initiative. If a child is not able to take initiative and succeed at
Guilt appropriate tasks, he or she might develop guilt over their needs and desires.
4-6

Industry Throughout their school years, children continue to develop self-confidence through
vs learning new things. If they are not encouraged and praised properly at this age,
Inferiority 7-12 they may develop an inferiority complex.

Identity When they reach the teenage years, children start to care about how they look to
vs others. They start forming their own identity by experimenting with who they are. If
Role a teenager is unable to properly develop an identity at this age, his or her role
Confusion 13-19 confusion will probably continue on into adulthood.

Intimacy During early adulthood most people fall in love, get married and start building their
vs own family. If a person is unable to develop intimacy with others at this age
Isolation 20-34 (whether through marriage or close friendships), they will probably develop feelings
of isolation.

Generativity This is the longest period of a human's life. It is the stage in which people are
vs usually working and contributing to society in some way and perhaps raising their
Stagnation children. If a person does not find proper ways to be productive during this period,
35-65 they will probably develop feelings of stagnation.

Integrity As senior citizens, people tend to look back on their lives and think about what they
vs have or have not accomplished. If a person has led a productive life, they will
Despair 65+ develop a feeling of integrity. If not, they might fall into despair.