If we read the biography of Walt Disney, Disney’s World, by Leonard Mosley, we see many aspects of development (age-related changes) that occur in Disney’s life. Many of these are directly applicable to psychosocial development theories, such as Erik Erikson’s eight stages of psychosocial development, Kohlberg’s moral reasoning theory, Freud’s psychoanalytic theories, and Maslow’s self-actualization theory. Throughout Disney’s life and development, we also see how environment and social learning affect personality formation.
Walt Disney suffered an austere childhood as the son of an austere Christian socialist hypocrite who regularly forced his sons to work and kept all the money for himself. Walt, himself, was getting up at 3:15am everyday to deliver papers for his father along with his brother Roy. The two were told their money was being kept in a “nest egg.” The ten year old Walt also loved sweets and he took on a side route in secret which meant a 3am wakeup. When his brother Roy demanded their money, he was told by father Elias, they had hit hard times and it was not available. While Walt remained happy-go-lucky and filled with hope and enthusiasm during this period, neither he nor Roy would ever have successful relationships with business partners ever again. Both he and Walt were betrayed in business confidences that saw them file for bankruptcy and lose millions of dollars before forming their own company. Walt’s would always need money for new projects once successful, and he was no different in this regard as a ten year old. If he wanted something money could buy, he put in whatever it took to acquire it, “I had exhaustible energy in those days, and I didn’t mind being scolded by my parents for bad marks and beaten by my teachers for inattention. In any case, I needed the money. I ate candy like a mad fool” (Disney 37). Freud might suggest the young Disney’s conscious mind could no...