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?