Theory of Psychosexual Development
- stages are associated with when certain behaviors naturally occur
- based on the assumption of infant sexuality
- sexuality was broader than reproductive activity
- included deriving pleasure from the body, and sublimation
- the stages describe a normative sequence of different modes for gratifying sexual instinct
- sources of pleasure
- sources of potential conflict
- a child can become fixated at a particular stage
- when under stress, an adult may regress to childish behavior
- development moves from autoeroticism to reproductive sexuality
Oral Stage – birth to age one
- the mouth is the main source of information and of pleasure
- eating, sucking, biting/chewing
- prototypes for later behaviors and character traits
e.g., the gullible person; using "biting" humor;
gum chewing and smoking
- two sources of conflict involve weaning and biting: may lead to a fixation
Anal Stage – 2nd and 3rd year of life
- pleasure is associated with expulsion or retention of feces
- often the first attempt to regulate instinctual impulses
- also when child begins to assert it's independence
- rigid, harsh training may lead child to rebel and hold back feces
- if this reaction generalizes, may develop a retentive character: obstinate and stingy
- or child may vent rage by expelling inappropriately
- may become prototype for expulsive traits:
tantrums, destructiveness, messy disorderliness
Phallic Stage – 4th and 5th year
- the little boy wants to be the exclusive object of the mother's love
- his main rival is the father
- he wants to eliminate the father, and experiences guilt and fear because of that
- fears castration
- the Oedipus complex is resolved when the little boy identifies with the father, gaining the mother's love vicariously
- the little girl discovers she has no penis
- assumes she has been castrated and blames the mother
- desires a penis (penis envy)
- chooses the father as a love object
- resolved through maturation, realizing she can't possess the father
- increased interest in gender differences
- genitals become the source of pleasure
- not associated with reproduction, but with autoeroticism
Latency Period
- a time of relative sexual calm
- sexual impulses are channeled into sports, intellectual interests and peer relations
Genital Stage
- genital organs mature
- rebirth of sexual drive, now redirected to others
- mature people satisfy their sexual needs in socially approved ways
Freud based his theory on clinical observations and rigorous self-analysis.
Is Freud's theory testable?
Can it be disconfirmed?
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