Psychosexual Stages

Freud’s theory of personality

development

Oral Stage (up to 1 year)

Focus:SuckingChewingEatingBiting

Satisfaction of oral drives.

Sexual gratification from oral pleasure.

Oral Stage Five “modes of

functioning”1. Taking in 5. Closing

2. Holding on

3. Biting

4. Spitting out

Oral Stage Personality Implications:

1. An infant who found pleasure in taking in food, later enjoys “taking in” knowledge or power.

2. Holding on to the nipple leads to determination and stubbornness.

Oral Stage3. Biting is the prototype for

destructiveness, sarcasm, cynicism, and dominance.

4. Spitting out becomes rejection.

5. Closing firmly leads to rejection, negativism, or introversion.

Anal Stage (1 – 3 years)Focus:

Anal stimulation and subsequent reduction of tension produces pleasure. (defecation)

Toilet Training

Anal StagePersonality Implications

Overly strict toilet training may result in a messy, dirty, and irresponsible adult.

At the other extreme it may produce an orderly or obstinate adult.

Anal StagePersonality Implications

Parental Praise of a child’s success may result in a generous attitude, creativity, and productiveness. At the other extreme the adult may become stingy or become a pack rat.

Phallic Stage (3-5 years)Focus:

Pleasure and problems center on the genital area

Stimulations in the genital area brings tensions and, if the tensions are relieved, pleasure.

Phallic StageOedipus Complex

The sexual urge is directed toward the parent of the opposite sex.

For boys, the source of this desire is the strong emotional bond with the father, to be like him.

Phallic StageFor girls, the desire of the father stems from penis envy as the girl realizes that the father has a prized object that she does not have.

Phallic StageAn adults attitude toward the

opposite sex and people in authority develops as a result of the Oedipus Complex.

Parental attachment also depends on Oedipus resolve.

Latency Stage/5-puberty

Sexual drives are repressed and no new area of bodily excitement emerges.

Focus on Social development.

Genital Stage (Adolescence)

Sexual impulses that were repressed in the latency stage reappear in full force as a result of the physiological changes of puberty.

Directed toward a peer of the opposite sex. - Reproduction

Case Study

“Little Hans”

The Unconscious Personality

The Freudian Experience

Freudian Slips?

Freud believed that “accidental” slips of the tongue are not accidental at all, rather, our unconscious is revealing itself.

Structural Concepts?

The Id, Ego, and Superego explain how the mind functions and how the “instinctual energies” are regulated

The Id

Id: Instinctual and biological urges

Operates according to the pleasure principle

The Ego

Rational, thoughtful personality

Operates under the reality principle

The Superego

The moral part of the personality

Operates under the moral principle

Distinguishing between the structures.

Id: What I want.Ego: What I can do.Superego: What I should do.

Defense Mechanisms

Rather than face intense frustration, conflict, or feelings of unworthiness, people deceive themselves into believing nothing is wrong by using psychological defenses.

Types of Defense MechanismsRepression: Push thoughts or

urges into the unconscious (bottle them up)

Projection: Attributing one’s own thoughts, feelings, or motives to another.

Types of Defense Mechanisms

Reaction Formation: Behaving in a way that’s exactly the opposite of one’s true feelings.

Regression: Reversion to immature patterns of behavior. (childish boasting and bragging)

Types of Defense Mechanisms

Displacement: Diverting emotional feelings from their original source to a substitute target (usually anger)

Rationalization: Creating false but plausible excuses to justify unacceptable behavior.