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Course: MCAT > Unit 13
Lesson 1: Self-identity- Self identity questions
- Self concept, self identity, and social identity
- Self esteem, self efficacy, and locus of control
- Overview of theories of development
- Freud's psychosexual development
- Erikson's psychosocial development
- Vygotsky sociocultural development
- Kohlberg moral development
- Social influences
- George Herbert Mead- The I and the Me
- Charles Cooley- Looking glass self
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Freud's psychosexual development
Freud's theory of psychosexual development posits that childhood is divided into five developmental stages, each with a different erogenous zone. If a child doesn't resolve a stage successfully, they may develop "fixations" that affect their behavior into adulthood. Created by Shreena Desai.
Want to join the conversation?
- Not a question, just a comment that I really dislike this theory. It seems like total crap with no real way to disprove it.(64 votes)
- why do we still study freud when his theory is so ridiculous? There are so many better ways that are backed up by far better evidence for the influence of childhood and for the cause of the things freud sought to explain.(32 votes)
- because it's fun. I like studying him because it is fun to see this crackhead chainsmoker's ideas about children wanting to have sex with their mother or father depending on their gender, and he is fun to laugh at.(15 votes)
- At8:30, how would Freud explain the phallic stage of development for a child that is raised by 1 parent of the same sex? An example might be a single mother raising a daughter.(21 votes)
- There would be no resolution of the Electra complex, in the example above.(5 votes)
- Did Freud base his ideas on data or just his own notions?(21 votes)
- Most of Freud's work was done through case studies of individuals.(4 votes)
- I have actually read in quite a number of psychology books that Freud was actually against the term "Electra complex" and it wasn't him who coined the term but popular psychologists in the years after his theory grew. He actually called them the male oedipus complex and the female oedipus complex and also said that they don't necessarily relate to opposing the same sex ie male child rivals father for mother.. he stipulated that male child could also rival mother for father. This then would affect how well the oedipus complex would be shattered by castration complex which isn't mentioned. The incomplete shattering of castration complex is actually what leads to sexual dysfunction if I'm not mistaken. So could you check that out?(11 votes)
- There was a note that clarified her statement, saying it was actually Carl Jung that came up with the term or presented it(3 votes)
- what did freud say about same sex attraction/relationships?(6 votes)
- This Wikipedia article has a good overview: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud%27s_views_on_homosexuality
In a nutshell, he had some reservations about exclusive homosexuality (as well as exclusive heterosexuality), but was not willing to call it pathology. (Late Freud explicitly stated it was not a sin, crime, illness, nor anything to be ashamed of, nor something that could be "cured" in normal circumstances.) He argued that differences in sexuality were due to the different resolutions people find to the Oedipal problem, though he seemed to see exclusive heterosexuality as a more advanced solution.(10 votes)
- I don't really understand the latent stage. Is Freud suggesting that the development from 6-12 years old does not really affect our adult life? It feels like it should have a big part of it.. right?(7 votes)
- Freud actually really emphasizes the importance of the latent stage. He argues that it contributes to creativity and the libidinal energy is cathected (aligned) to fostering creativity and social skills for our adult lives. This is a massive part of who we are as adults!(3 votes)
- how does freud define sexual dysfunction?(6 votes)
- For Freud, sexual dysfunction would be the fixation of libidinal energy on an inappropriate object or idea. When this occurs, the ego has to cathect defense mechanisms to fight back these innappropriate impulses to prevent them from being expressed.(2 votes)
- Is Freud's theory of psychosexual development still relevant today? Or should I take this lesson with a pinch of salt and study it with a historical perspective?(6 votes)
- Not necessarily a question, but Electra's complex is a term Jung uses to determine what is explained. Freud talks about positive and negative Oedipus complex.(4 votes)
Video transcript
Voiceover: Alright, let's dive right
in to our first area of development, and we're gonna take a look at Freud's
Psychosexual Theory of Development. So here's Freud over here, and he proposed
that psychological development in childhood takes places in a series of
fixed stages called psychosexual stages. And he believed that life was built around
this concept of tension and pleasure, in that the buildup of tension could cause
a lot of conflicts. So this tension buildup or fixation was
due to this concept of libido. Now, libido is a natural energy source
that fuels the mechanisms of the mind. And when this libidinal energy is stuck or
fixated as we like to call it in this theory that's a term you should get familiar with
whenever you hear the psychosexual theory of
development so fixation. So when fixation occurs, it can have a
lifelong effect well into adulthood. Cuz remember, Freud, Freud's theory
stressed the importance of personality development
at childhood. So if a certain stage, if fixation
occurred in a certain stage in this childhood, it could have a lasting
effect well into adulthood. So each of these stages is associated with
a particular conflict that has to be resolved in order for the person to
successfully advance to the next stage. So Freud again, stressed that the first
five years of life are crucial to the formation of
adult personality. Now this idea of libido and fixation is
centered around different areas of the body at different stages of growth, which is why he calls it a psychosexual
development. So, you can remember the order of these
stages by using this neumonic that I came up with
and it's called. I'll just run through it. It's Old, Age, Parrots, Love,. Love. Grapes. Oops. Let's give ourselves a little bit more
room over here. There we go. Okay, so old age parrots love grapes, and
that's associated with each of the stages. So the OId stands for the oral stage. The Age stands for the anal stage. The P stands for the phallic stage. The L stands for the latent stage or the latent period. And lastly grapes stands for the genital stage. So old age parrots love grapes. Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latent, Genital. Now, I was talking about how this fixation
of libido is focused on different parts of the body, so
depending on what stage we're at, there is going to be a certain fixation of this
energy at a certain body part. So, when it comes to let's pick a
different color, okay. So when it comes to oral, the part of the body that the libido is focused on is the
mouth. Oral for mouth. The anal stage is anus, pretty self
explanatory. The phallic stage is the genitals. And I'll go through and explain all this
in a bit. The latent actually doesn't have anything. And the genital last stage is again the
genitals. Alright so let's go through the stages. So the first stage, the oral stage, I'm
going to try to pick a different color again
here. Okay, so the oral stage is the
first stage of personality development. And it occurs between the ages of 0 to 1
years of age. So, there we go. And this is when the libido is centered
around the baby's mouth. So the infant's primary source of
interaction occurs through their mouth. Through the rooting and sucking reflex. And obviously the mouth is vital for
eating. And the infant derives his or her pleasure
from oral stimulation through activities such
as tasting and sucking. And because the infant is completely
dependent on their parents, their caretakers who are
responsible for feeding the child, the baby also develops this sense of trust and comfort
through this oral simulation. So, we can talk about the major
development over here as feeding. Now if there's a fixation or conflict that
occurs here, through the weaning process. So the baby. Has to learn to wean off in order to
advance to the next stage, so if there's a conflict in this process, the child becomes less dependent upon the
caretaker. And Freud believed that an individual with
fixation at this stage could develop issues with
dependency or aggression. So later in adulthood, we see an oral type of personality in people that smoke. Or bite their fingers. Or their nails, or that suck their thumb. So the adult fixation personalities or
examples are of people that smoke. Or bite their nails, or people that, over
eat. Alright, moving on to the second stage. The second stage is the anal stage and
that occurs between the years of 1 to 3. And Freud believed that the primary focus
here was centered around the anus. And in controlling the bladder and bowel
movements. So, we can consider this trip, toilet
training. So when the child gets older and starts to
wean off from feeding in the oral stage, it's going to
start getting potty trained. So the major conflict at this stage is
toilet training, where the child has to learn how to control his or hear
bodily needs, and this leads to developing a sense of control and accomplishment, and independence, so
parents who utilize praise and rewards for the child using the toilet are encouraging positive
outcomes. And helping the child feel capable and
productive. And Freud believed that positive
experiences in this anal stage can help serve as the basis for people to feel competent
and productive and creative adults. However, not all parents take an
encouraging approach to potty training, so if any fixation occurs in this stage,
that can lead to problems as and adult. And Freud said that adults, Who have
fixation at this stage could possibly have problems with
orderliness and messiness, so these are attributes of the adult fixation. Moving on to the third stage. Stage the phallic stage. So this occurs between 3 and 6 years of
age, and its focus the genital area is the focus of
the libido. So at this age, children are beginning to
discover the difference between the males and females and here Freud came up
with two important terms. So he believed that boys actually begin to
view their fathers as a rival for their mother's
affections and he called this the Oedipus complex which describes
the feelings of wanting to possess the mother and the desire to
replace the father. This is what little boys, go through. And the same thing occurs. For females towards, or young girls,
towards their fathers which he termed the Electra
Complex. So that's the major development here is
being able to resolve this Oedipus and Electra Complexes. And usually this is resolved through the
process of identification, where the child starts to understand and develop similar
characteristics of their same-sex parents. So they'll look up to fathers. Little boys will look up to their fathers,
and little girls up to their mothers. However, if there's a fixation at this
stage that can transform into adulthood and cause sexual dysfunction if
this is isn't resolved. The fourth stage is the latent period. So this is usually between 6 to 12 years
of age and there's really no focus of libido
over here and this is a period in which 12 being puberty
so 6 to puberty so this is the time of
exploration in which the sexual energy, this libido, is
still present but it's not really focused on one
area. It's being directed into. It's not focused on one area of the body
rather, it's starting to be directed into other areas such as intellectual pursuits and social
interactions. And children developing new skills. So this stage is really important in the development of social and communication
skills. So, you can say the socialism aspect and
the development of new skills. So this begins around the time that
children enter school, and so they become more concerned with the peer relationships, hobbies, and other
interests. And, play between children, starts to
become largely confined to children of the same gender. And, any fixation at this point doesn't
really develop into an adult fixation. And the last stage is the genital stage
which occurs from the age of 12 and above. So here again, the focus is back on the
libido. And that's because the individual starts
developing strong sexual interests. So there starting to reach sexual
maturity. And during this stage they develop the
sexual maturity towards the opposite sex that lasts well
into their life. Well through life till, till death. So in early stages the focus was solely on
individual needs but in this stage their interest in the
welfare of others so. If all stages were successfully completed
then the person should be sexually matured and
mentally healthy. So, the adult fixation example is, since
this is the last step there really isn't any adult fixation
because it's under the assumption that all these other stages
were completed successfully so we can just say the person is mentally healthy
that's what Freud said. So if all the other stages have been
completed successfully the individual should now be well
balanced, warm and caring. So the goal of this stage, the genital
stage, is to establish a balance between the
various life areas. So this is Freud's theory of psychosexual
development in a nutshell.