Development Theories

Development theories are an important asset for social work. These theories help to better
understand human behavior and how the development stages are related to the way a human will
behave in the future. We can find development theories in another discipline that are directly
related to the social work field, like Sigmund Freuds Development Theory. In his theory, Freud
states the way parents deal with the childs basic sexual and behavior desire will determine the
childs personality (Oswalt, n.d.). He labeled five stages of children development, which we will
discuss further.
Sigmund Freud was a Austrian neurologist, who is best known as the father of
psychoanalysis, which analyses the conflicts based on the free associations, and unconsciousness
on a patient. He was influenced by the work of Josef Breuer. Freud theorizes that neuroses were
based on post traumatic events and believed those had been hidden from consciousness. The
method he used was making the patient recall the event to confront them and by this, discard the
event to be out of neurotic symptoms. His emphasis on his theory of Psychosexual Theory and
the sexual origins of patients neuroses cost Freud to end the work relationship with Breuer. This
point of view about sexuality was sees as scandalous in the early 1900s.
Freuds Theory stated that each stage was focused on the sexual activity and the pleasure in
any particular area of the body. The first stage, Oral, is focused on the pleasure of sucking and
biting. The second stage, Anal, is focused in the anus, since it is the time to control the bowel
movements. The third stage is known as the Phallic, and is centered in the genital stimulation and
the sexual identification. In addition, Freud stated that during this stage, the children trend to
love the opposite sex parent, and this idea was called the Oedipus Complex, based on Oedipus

desires to marrying his mother and kill his father. The next stage is identified as the Latency
period, where not interest in is sexual urges. The final stage is called Genital and this stage is
prolonged until adulthood, where the sexual interests and activities comes to dominate an
individual (Oswalt, n. d.)
Freud also developed a theory in which he described the parts of consciousness. He stated that
all babies were dominated by an unconscious, instinct and self urges for gratification, called the
ID. The Ego arises when the babies attempts and fail to get what they want, and develops a
realistic appreciation of what is realistic and possible. The Super Ego is when the babies
internalize and represent their parents values and rules, and which the base of the conscience
development is, and the struggling with what is right or wrong. The Super Ego will work with
the Ego to control the Id.
Besides the fact that Freuds Psychosexual Theory is not considered very accurate, it has
influenced all fields which work with the human behavior and development. The Psychoanalytic
Theory helps the social worker, because the behavior and the motivation to behave in certain
ways have their roots on the levels of awareness, and sometimes individuals are not aware of
what motivates them to act in certain ways. In these cases, social workers must be able to have
an active role interpreting the root of the human behavior in terms of ideas, wishes, feeling and
fantasies and the conflicts between them. Social workers need to focus their efforts on the client
and be able to put their feelings into words, so the client knows the social worker understands
their needs. (Greene, 2009. pp. 31-33)

References
Greene, R. R. (n.d.). Human Behavior Theory and Social Work Practice. Retrieved September
16, 2016, from https://books.google.com/books?id=BX5UAQAAQBAJ
Greene, R. R., & Kropf, N. (2009). Human Behavior Theory: A diversity Framework (Second
ed.). New Jersey, NY: New Brumswick.
Oswalt, A. (n.d.). Gulf Bend MHMR Center. Retrieved September 17, 2016, from
http://www.gulfbend.org/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc
Zastrow, C., & Kirst-Ashman, K. K. (2015). Understanding human behavior and the social
environment. Place of publication not identified: Cengage Learning.