In this essay, I intend to discuss two psychological theories of development; The psychodynamic approach and the behavioral approach. To do this, I will introduce each theory and explain how it takes into account the psychological development, health and behavior of the individual. In addition to this, I will explain how understanding these theories relates to care and could help a healthcare professional support an individual in a care setting. The psychodynamic approach lends itself to being a controversial but highly influential theory in the history of psychology. . The theory has become one of the most important psychological approaches and its creator, Sigmund Freud, has become a major influence in modern psychology. The psychodynamic approach focuses largely on motivation and past experiences that develop the individual's personality. Freud used the iceberg metaphor to describe the three states of consciousness and argued that only twenty percent of the mind represents consciousness. Additionally, he hypothesized that there was a preconscious mind that represents general memory. Finally, the unconscious which is essentially the reservoir of repressed or hidden experiences and desires. This approach became the stimulus for a number of similar theories that share the same assumptions about psychological development but differ in details. (Gross, R, 2007) Erik Erikson, a neo-Freudian himself, accepted Freud's theory, but while the psychodynamic approach focuses on five main stages of development into adulthood, Erikson theorized that development lasts throughout life and continues throughout life until death. (Psychology for A Level 2000) Erikson imagined that psychosocial development was divided into eight distinct groups...... middle of paper ...... are determined by the stimuli of the environment in which we find ourselves. Behaviorists believe that all behavior is learned and can in turn be unlearned by identifying the stimulus that causes the behavior and changing the individual's learned response to it. Albert Ellis, like Freud, was the founding father of cognitive-behavioral psychology and theorized that people's beliefs strongly affected their emotional functioning. . (PsychCentral.com) Ellis believed that beliefs were either positive or negative, but having a negative belief was not necessarily a bad thing. However, when an individual believes something that is false, that belief tends to become what Ellis calls an "irrational belief." These beliefs are not healthy for happiness or contentment and Ellis believed he could eliminate these thoughts with his Rational Emotional Behavior Therapy (REBT).).)