Sigmund Freud postulated that a child passes through five major progressive stages of

psychosexual development namely: oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital. Each stage is
characterized by certain developmental and behavior changes. Further, each stage possesses for
children a unique conflict that they must resolve before they pass on to the next stage. Therefore,
this discusses the cycle sexual development of personality demonstrating how it centres on some
erogenous zones and explain its educational implications.

The first stage of development is oral. Oral stage occurs between zero to two years (0-2 years).
According to Freud (1998:23), “at this time the child’s most organized form of gratification is
done through sucking”. Freud said that it is at this stage of development that the child develops
the feeling of acceptance. Hence the relationship between the mother and the child is key.

The second stage of development described by Freud is the anal stage that is from two to three
years (2-3 years). At this stage the child is trying to acquire some bowel training”. The child
takes most pleasurable activities in urinating and defecating. The source of conflict results in
toilet training by the mother. The child develops ambivalent attitudes as a result of parent’s
interference with his or her activities. The child also resolves conflict between his need for
parental love and his need for instinctual gratification through the development of life long
attitudes toward cleanliness, submissiveness, orderliness, punctuality and so on. The problems
alongside with fixation are hostile and challenging personality accompanied with adherence to
rules, regulations, neatness and orderliness (Baller, and Charles, 1968).

Phallic is the third stage of development. This stage starts from approximately the age of three to
six (3-6 years). At this stage the child becomes aware of genital differences. The focus of
pleasurable body zone shifts from anus to the genitals (the sexual organs). The child’s
pleasurable body activity results to masturbation. Another important development at this stage is
the Oedipus complex and Elektra complex (Laura, 2007).

The fourth stage of psychosexual of development is latency; this stage is from the child’s sixth
year to the twelfth year (6-12 years). While anal and phallic stages correspond to pre-primary
school years, the latency stage corresponds to the primary school years in which children
suppress most of their infantile sexual feelings or sexuality and become interested in games and
sports. Their interest is no more centred at home. Further, the boys associate with their fellow

1
boys and girls and engage themselves in learning skills and values and so on (Baller and Charles,
1968).

The fifth stage in the psychosexual of development is the genital which occurs between twelve
years to adolescent (12-19 years). This stage corresponds to part of senior primary school and
junior secondary schools. The child is at the adolescence stage when sexual urges become more
specifically genital. In this stage, the focus of pleasurable activity shifts to the members of the
opposite sex. Both boys and girls experience romantic and emotional feelings (Derville, 1966)

All the above psychosexual stages of development are vital and helpful to the teacher to
understand the child as well as an adult. The importance of the first stage (oral) is to alert the
teacher that teaching and learning can be successful done if learners are given food. Teachers
should not have to shout at learners for being weak or not able to participate in class. The teacher
should find the root cause, especially those teaching from pre-school to grade four. Teacher must
learn to know and understand the learners and then find the ways and means to help them. If it
means to discuss with parents, he or she should do so (Baller, and Charles, 1968).

The other importance of the second stage is to open the mind of a teacher as it reveals them on
how the child can be handled in class. Looking at the behavior they develop, teachers should be
careful when handling them. They should not be harsh to learners as they will develop fear in
them. They should give them freedom of participation in class and encourage them to speak.
Because if they do not, learners will be fixated which means they will never be speaking in class
and always rely on a teacher or friends to give them answers or provide solutions to their
problems (Laura, 2007).

Derville (1966:153) states that, “anal stage helps teachers to match the state in which the
curriculum is carried to the psycho-sexual level of development and motivate the state of a
child”. This can be done by creating stimulating learning context which can be done to both oral
and anal stage of development. For example, safe treasure baskets for babies, sensation tables,
provision of wall mirrors and so on can be stimulated to create to stimulate learning in learners to
these stages.

The importance of the third stage (phallic) to the teacher is that, it helps a teacher to understand
children think and reason in their own view. For this reason, it becomes easy for a teacher to

2
teach children to operate independently with the boundaries of the behavior accepted in their
society.

Other than that, it guides the teacher in classroom situation to teach learners in intramental and
intermental levels successfully. Intermental is a social level at which learners learn in a two way
plenary, that is to experience and hear. It simply means learners should be taught from known to
unknown and from concrete to abstract. Intramental is said to be, a personal level at which
learners try to make sense of new knowledge and connect it to which he or she already knows
(Laura, 2007).

The importance of the fourth stage (latency) to teachers is to help them identify learners with
fixative behavior. They can also help them by guiding and counseling them. It can be done also
by helping them to resurface their compressed conflicts in order to lessen the psychological
symptoms they may have through clarifying some of the dimensions, variables or demands that
education setting have to take into account when educating such learners as openness,
encouragement and encouraging group work (Thomas, 1992).

The last stage (genital) guides the teacher that these pupils are no longer interested in concrete or
objects when teaching them. They become interested in knowing what is teaching them. For this
reason, it guides teachers to teach them using abstract method in order to promote critical
thinking in them. That is why a teacher, who teaches grade one to two, once they change to grade
six or seven, will definitely change the method of teaching because if he or she uses the same
method, learners will be bored and dodge classes (Baller, and Charles, 1968).

In general, psychosexual stages helps the teacher to understand the developmental characteristic
of learners and this will enable the teacher to improve the better understanding of the learners
thereby knowing that people in the process of growth and development pass through different
stages at different paces. Each individual person is unique and passes individual characteristics.
This is evident, because there are no two people that are exactly alike; they differ in their level of
intelligence, aptitudes and in other potentialities. Therefore, the teacher should accept uniqueness
of the learners and offer instruction according to their needs (Laura, 2007).

According to Hurlock (1990:131) “the psycho-sexual development help teachers in solving

problems among the learners in his or her class and in determining the strategy or method of

3
teaching properly and appropriate to be able to relate characteristics and uniqueness of the
individual, the type of teaching and learning style and the level of development being
experienced by the learners”. Once the teacher understands the root causes of problems face by
his or her learner at each stage of development, a teacher will be better placed to deal with those
problems and challenges and bring about effective teaching and learning process.

Psychosexual of development stages provides the teacher with the basic knowledge of the stages
of human growth and development and how they influence human behavior. These different
stages in human life are characterized by major and distinct ‘landmarks’ which play a significant
role in influencing the behavior of the child and how the child learns. Hence, it becomes
important to study the relevance of developmental psychology to the teaching-learning process
(Derville, 1966)

With the knowledge of developmental psychology, a teacher can understand the causes of
common problems that learners are faced with at different levels of development. Therefore this
will enable the teacher to carry research data, because the nature of psychology is precision, the
teacher will better equipped to handle educational research to find out and predict the behavior of
the learners in the classroom and to be able to devise measures to regulate such behavior
(Edward, 1994).

In conclusion, the sexual impulses undergo five developmental stages. These are oral, anal,
phallic, latency and genital. At each stage in a child's life, the drive for pleasure centers around a
particular area of the body that is mouth, anus, and finally the genitals. Freud believed that adult
personality is shaped by the way in which the conflicts between early id urges and the
requirements imposed by society, like for example in weaning, toilet training, prohibitions
against masturbation are resolved at each of the psychosexual stages. However, these stages help
the teacher to understand the developmental characteristic of learners. They also provide the
teacher with the basic knowledge of the stages of human growth and development and how they
influence human behavior. The psycho-sexual development helps teachers in solving problems
among the learners in his or her class and in determining the strategy or method of teaching
properly. Psychosexual stages enable the teacher to understand the causes of common problems
that learners are faced with at different levels of development.

4
 REFERENCES

Baller, W. R and Charles, D. C (1968). The Psychology of Human Growth and Development.
New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston, Inc.

Derville, L. M (1966). The Use of Psychology in Teaching. London: Longman.

Edward, C. (1994). Effective Early Years Education Teaching Young Children. New York:
McGrew-Hill Inc.

Freud, S. (1998). Beyond the Pleasure Principle. New York: Boni and Liveright.

Hurlock, E.B. (1990). Child Development. Tokyo: McGraw-Hill, Kogakusha Ltd.

Laura, E.B (2007). Development Through the Lifespan (4th Ed). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Thomas R. M. (1992). Comparing Theories of Child Development. California: Wadswoth

Publishing Company.