Psychoanalytic Theory

By Sigmeund Freud

Freud created the discipline called psychoanalysis, which is the study of unconscious mind.

Technique in Psychotherapy:
 Free Association - say the first thing that comes into your head without conscious filters. Goal is to get at
the unconscious processes.
 Dream Analysis - Identify your true desires and worst through analyzing the content of dreams.

ID - Natural Impulses ( Hunger, thirst, going to the bathroom, sex)

“The Pleasure Principle”

SUPER EGO - What society says that you should do in situation.

“The Moral principle”

EGO - Compromises between the ID and the SUPER-EGO to determine behavior.

“ The Reality Principle”

Freud came up with the idea of defense mechanisms, which is when the reality principle or ego is distorted in
order to protect itself from anxiety or negative feelings from ID Impulses. Defense Mechanism can be positive
or negative ways to deal with negative feelings.

DEFENSE MECHANISM(S) :
 DENIAL : (Need to avoid: Anxiety for the possibility of being rejected)
 REACTION FORMATION : (Need to avoid: Anxiety for the possibility of being rejected)
 PROJECTION : (Need to avoid: Anxiety for the possibility of being rejected)
 DISPLACEMENT : (Need to avoid: Anxiety for the possibility of being rejected)
 ACTING OUT : ( (Need to avoid: Expressing anger)
 FORGIVENESS : ( The matured defense mechanism)
 ACCEPTANCE : (Need to avoid: Expressing anger)

 REPRESSION - Being able to memories of traumatic events because they are too emotionally painful.
 DISSOCIATION : Feeling separated from one’s own body or identity because certain identities or events
trigger painful thoughts
 REGRESSION - Going back to a previous stage in development ro avoid painful memories and feelings

Identifying defense mechanisms and getting the client to express their true feelings is a goal of freudian therapy.

Psychosexual Theory
By Sigmeund Freud
Freud believe that there were conflicts between the id, natural impulses, and the super ego (the moral principle,
what society says is OK), and your ego (the reality principle or what you end up doing).

How these conflicts are resolved or not resolved in some cases can affect future development. Specifically,
unresolved conflicts can lead to what Freud called a fixation.

STAGE 1: ORAL STAGE - Birth to 1 year

“Infants operates solely on “id” or the pleasure principle because they don’t have
ego or super ego yet”
“Oral Fixation” - sucking too much

Consequences of Oral Fixation

1. Oral Aggressive : Chewing on objects such as pens or t-shirt collars
2. Oral Passive : Taking up oral activities such as smoking, eating, drinking or kissing.

Freud believed that individuals in an oral fixation may have passive or manipulative personality.

STAGE 2: ANAL STAGE - 1-3 years

“Toilet training is primary task of this stage. It involves competition between the
id impulses (to go to the bathroom) and the ego (to not get embarrassed from
soiling pants).
Parents who overemphasized toilet training and cleanliness during this stage may get a child who is anal
retentive or obsessed with cleanliness.

Parents that under-emphasized or do not emphasize toilet training may have children that have difficulty
controlling their impulses and get in trouble.

STAGE 3: PHALLIC STAGE - Ages 3-6 (Focus on Genitals)

“Oedipus Complex” - males view father as competition for affection from mother
“Castration Anxiety” - fear that father will castrate if child expresses his jealousy of father.

Boys who get fixated (stuck in Oedipus) in the phallic stage may be aggressive or jealous as adults.

“Electra Complex” - girls are attracted to their fathers and see their mothers as competition.
“Penis Envy” - girls get jealous of boys that they do not have a penis,

Girls fixated in the Phallic Stage may keep penis envy, so have a desire to dominate men or are passive
towards men.

Freud believed that the Oedipus Complex and Electra Complex were repressed from our conscious minds, so
we don’t think about it. However, these concepts were criticized because they are sexist and also not supported
or testable by research.

STAGE 4: LATENCY STAGE - Ages 6 through Puberty

The latency stage is one where there are no conflicts. The child is learning
hobbies, developing friendships, and growing. Any abnormal behavior
could be perceived to be attributed to what occurred during earlier stages
of development.

STAGE 5: GENITAL STAGE - Puberty through Adulthood

Psychological detachment and independence from parents. Attempts to
resolve issues that were caused during earlier stages of development.

Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual Development

(Summary)

STAGE 1: Oral Stage, 0-1

STAGE 2: Anal Stage, 1-3
STAGE 3: Phallic Stage, 4-6
STAGE 4: Latency Stage, 6-Puberty
STAGE 5: Genital Stage, Puberty-Death

Theory of Psychosocial Development

By Erik Erikson

Erikson adopted the belief from Sigmeund Freud that development is characterized by a series of stage related
conflicts between two perspectives. He believed that you must hold both perspectives in order to achieve
identity strengths, which he defined as virtues.

STAGE 1 Conflict : TRUST VS. MISTRUST

VIRTUE: Hope - where they view the world as a good place where people can be trusted
AGE: 0-18 months

Infants relies on the care of the mother. He can trust the mother to provide
consistent and attention to child’s needs.

STAGE 2 Conflict : AUTONOMY VS. SHAME DOUBT

VIRTUE: Will - child’s ability to express his or herself by doing things on their own
AGE: 2-4 years

During this stage, children’s learn to do the activity on their own without the help
of their parents
 STAGE 3 Conflict : INITIATIVE VS. GUILT
VIRTUE: Purpose - having a goal or reason for performing certain behaviors
AGE: 5-8 years

During this stage, children’s take a step from spontaneously doing the things on
their own to setting goals and working toward them.

STAGE 4 Conflict : INDUSTRY VS. INFERIORITY

VIRTUE: Competence
AGE: 9-12 years

During this stage, children’s are more receptive to feedback from adults about
their competence and begin comparing their achievement and abilities with their
peers.

STAGE 5 Conflict : IDENTITY VS. ROLE CONFUSION

VIRTUE: Fidelity
AGE: 13-19 years

During this stage, adolescence are having boundaries with their parents such as
setting their own private lives with friends and romantic interests. They are also
searching for a place within the adult society which can include a search for
occupation, gender, political views and religion. During this search, children may
often experiment with different identities and view points in order to fin their true
identity.

STAGE 6 Conflict : INTIMACY VS. ISOLATION

VIRTUE: Love - finding love
AGE: 20-39 years

This stage involves finding a true romantic or intimate partner in contrast living
alone aka isolation.

STAGE 7 Conflict : GENERATIVITY VS. STAGNATION

VIRTUE: Care - success in middle adulthood is providing care to the important
relationship in their lives such as parents and children. As such he believed that,
not having these important people to care for or not having the means to do so
can lead an individuality to feel non productive or stagnant
AGE: 40-59 years

Generativity as “generation” - giving back to the future generation. Involves:

starting a family, raising children, caring for aging parents, contributing to society,
for you careers, and being a supportive friend and family member.

STAGE 8 Conflict : EGO INTEGRITY VS. DESPAIR

VIRTUE: Wisdom - older adults who are satisfied with their life tend to be happy, while
others who felt like they didn’t live the life they wanted may feel sad or depressed.
AGE: After 60 years

In this stage, older adults look back on their life and reflect whether they lived a
happy or productive life.

Theory of Cognitive Development

By Jean Piaget

Schema - is any concept or idea of how the world works

Assimilation - taking a new experience and adding it to a pre-existing schema.

Accommodation - changing something in a schema to fit a new experience.

Piaget believed that real learning was taking place:

1. New Experiences are being assimilated into pre-existing schemas.
2. Pre-existing Schemas are accommodated to fit that new experience.
Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory is a discontinuous stage theory.
1. All children go through the same stages in the same order
2. You can only be in one stage at one time
3. It is not possible to regress into a previous stage.

Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory

1. Sensori-motor - STAGE 1 (Birth to 2 years of age)
Reflexes are innate reactions you are born with.

Primary Circular Reactions - are repeated acts that are not intended to accomplish a goal, at about 1-4
months
Secondary Circular Reactions - When a child repeats its the same action with an object which is a toy
without an intended goal, at 4-8 months
Coordination of Secondary Circular Reactions - Accomplishing a goal, at 8-12 months
Tertiary Circular Reactions - child can reverse what he accomplished prior, at 12-18 months
Object Permanence - Important part on the child being able to transition from a sensori-motor to pre-
operational stage. Child realizes object exists in the environment without them being able to be seen.

2. Pre-operational - STAGE 2 (2 - 7 years)

 Objects has human like emotions - Animism
 Objects in their surroundings can have intentions and human like actions - Artificialism
 Two events are related but in reality they are not related - Transductive Reasoning

 Children in Pre-operational Stage may engage in an imaginary play.

 Egocentrism - My perspective is everyone’s perspective
Idea that everyone has the same perspective
 Three Mountain Problem - tests the child’s ability to take perspectives of others.
 During this stage, children cannot combine two or more ideas
 Has a trouble in distinguishing between quantity and appearance

3. Concrete Operational - STAGE 3 (7 - 11 years)

 Seriation - able to sort objects or situations according to any characteristics such as size, color, shape or
type.
 Hierarchical Classification - can organize charts or concepts or groups based on hierarchy
 Reversibility - objects that may be broken can actually be fixed and return to its original phase.
 Decentration - can look on multiple aspects or decision.
 Transitivity - they can be able to put things in order based on characteristics or criteria
 Has a difficulty in Deductive Reasoning - cannot put multiple facts to draw conclusion

4. Formal Operational - STAGE 4 (Ages 11 and up)

 Deductive Reasoning - Able to conclude a deductive reasoning, could draw a conclusion
 Hypothesizing and Hypothesis Testing - able to take past experiences and make predictions about future or
test out their environment to help make predictions about the future
 Abstract Thinking - Child can think about different outcomes on particular situations, the consequences of
them and be able to make decision, to imagine what will able to happen in multiple scenarios.
 Meta-Cognition - able to think about how they are thinking. They could be able to change their thinking
pattern