DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES AND OTHER RELEVANT THEORIES

(FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY)

 Done
I.                   INTRODUCTION

Freud’s views about human development are more than century old. He can be considered the most
well known psychologist because of his very interesting theory about the unconscious and also about
sexual development. Although a lot of his views were criticized and some considered them debunked,
(he himself recanted some of his earlier views). Freud’s theory remains to be one of the most influential
in psychology. His theory sparked the ideas in the brilliant minds of other theorists and thus became the
starting point of many other theories, notable of which is Erikson’s Psychosocial theory.

II.         LEARNING OUTCOMES      

At the end of this Module, you should be able to:

ü  Explain Freud’s views about child and adolescent development.

ü  Draw implications of Freud’s theory to education.

 
III.             COURSE CONTENT

Lesson 1

DEVELOPMENTAL THEORIES AND OTHER RELEVANT THEORIES

(FREUD’S PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY)

IV.             LEARNING EXPERIENCE/S

Freud's Psychosexual Stages of Development

Freud proposed that psychological development in childhood takes place during five psychosexual
stages: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital.

These are called psychosexual stages because each stage represents the fixation of libido (roughly
translated as sexual drives or instincts) on a different area of the body. As a person grows physically
certain areas of their body become important as sources of potential frustration (erogenous zones),
pleasure or both.

Freud (1905) believed that life was built round tension and pleasure. Freud also believed that all tension
was due to the build-up of libido (sexual energy) and that all pleasure came from its discharge.
In describing human personality development as psychosexual Freud meant to convey that what
develops is the way in which sexual energy of the id accumulates and is discharged as we mature
biologically. (NB Freud used the term 'sexual' in a very general way to mean all pleasurable actions and
thoughts).

Freud stressed that the first five years of life are crucial to the formation of adult personality.
The id must be controlled in order to satisfy social demands; this sets up a conflict between frustrated
wishes and social norms.

The ego and superego develop in order to exercise this control and direct the need for gratification into
socially acceptable channels. Gratification centers in different areas of the body at different stages of
growth, making the conflict at each stage psychosexual.

The Role of Conflict

Each of the psychosexual stages is associated with a particular conflict that must be resolved before the
individual can successfully advance to the next stage.

The resolution of each of these conflicts requires the expenditure of sexual energy and the more energy
that is expended at a particular stage, the more the important characteristics of that stage remain with
the individual as he/she matures psychologically.

To explain this Freud suggested the analogy of military troops on the march.  As the troops advance,
they are met by opposition or conflict.  If they are highly successful in winning the battle (resolving the
conflict), then most of the troops (libido) will be able to move on to the next battle (stage).

But the greater the difficulty encountered at any particular point, the greater the need for troops to
remain behind to fight and thus the fewer that will be able to go on to the next confrontation.

Frustration, Overindulgence, and Fixation

Some people do not seem to be able to leave one stage and proceed on to the next.  One reason for
this may be that the needs of the developing individual at any particular stage may not have been
adequately met in which case there is frustration. 

Or possibly the person's needs may have been so well satisfied that he/she is reluctant to leave the
psychological benefits of a particular stage in which there is overindulgence.

Both frustration and overindulgence (or any combination of the two) may lead to what psychoanalysts
call fixation at a particular psychosexual stage.

Fixation refers to the theoretical notion that a portion of the individual's libido has been permanently
'invested' in a particular stage of his development.

Psychosexual Stages of Development

You can remember the order of these stages by using the mnemonic: “old (oral) age (anal) pensioners
(phallic) love (latent) grapes (genital).

Oral Stage (Birth to 1 year)

In the first stage of personality development, the libido is centered in a baby's mouth. It gets much
satisfaction from putting all sorts of things in its mouth to satisfy the libido, and thus its id demands. 
Which at this stage in life are oral, or mouth orientated, such as sucking, biting, and breastfeeding. 

Freud said oral stimulation could lead to an oral fixation in later life.  We see oral personalities all around
us such as smokers, nail-biters, finger-chewers, and thumb suckers.  Oral personalities engage in such
oral behaviors, particularly when under stress.

Anal Stage (1 to 3 years)

The libido now becomes focused on the anus, and the child derives great pleasure from defecating.  The
child is now fully aware that they are a person in their own right and that their wishes can bring them
into conflict with the demands of the outside world (i.e., their ego has developed). 

Freud believed that this type of conflict tends to come to a head in potty training, in which adults
impose restrictions on when and where the child can defecate.  The nature of this first conflict with
authority can determine the child's future relationship with all forms of authority.

Early or harsh potty training can lead to the child becoming an anal-retentive personality who hates
mess, is obsessively tidy, punctual and respectful of authority.  They can be stubborn and tight-fisted
with their cash and possessions.

This is all related to pleasure got from holding on to their faces when toddlers, and their mum's then
insisting that they get rid of it by placing them on the potty until they perform!

Not as daft as it sounds.  The anal expulsive, on the other hand, underwent a liberal toilet-training
regime during the anal stage.

In adulthood, the anal expulsive is the person who wants to share things with you.  They like giving
things away.  In essence, they are 'sharing their s**t’!’ An anal-expulsive personality is also messy,
disorganized and rebellious.

Phallic Stage (3 to 6 years)

Sensitivity now becomes concentrated in the genitals and masturbation (in both sexes) becomes a new
source of pleasure.

The child becomes aware of anatomical sex differences, which sets in motion the conflict between erotic
attraction, resentment, rivalry, jealousy and fear which Freud called the Oedipus complex (in boys) and
the Electra complex (in girls). 
This is resolved through the process of identification, which involves the child adopting the
characteristics of the same sex parent.

Oedipus Complex

The most important aspect of the phallic stage is the Oedipus complex.  This is one of Freud's most
controversial ideas and one that many people reject outright.

The name of the Oedipus complex derives from the Greek myth where Oedipus, a young man, kills his
father and marries his mother. Upon discovering this, he pokes his eyes out and becomes blind.  This
Oedipal is the generic (i.e., general) term for both Oedipus and Electra complexes.

In the young boy, the Oedipus complex or more correctly, conflict, arises because the boy develops
sexual (pleasurable) desires for his mother.  He wants to possess his mother exclusively and get rid of his
father to enable him to do so.

Irrationally, the boy thinks that if his father were to find out about all this, his father would take away
what he loves the most.  During the phallic stage what the boy loves most is his penis.  Hence the boy
develops castration anxiety.

The little boy then sets out to resolve this problem by imitating, copying and joining in masculine dad-
type behaviors.  This is called identification, and is how the three-to-five-year-old boy resolves his
Oedipus complex.

Identification means internally adopting the values, attitudes, and behaviors of another person.  The
consequence of this is that the boy takes on the male gender role, and adopts an ego ideal and values
that become the superego.

Freud (1909) offered the Little Hans case study as evidence of the Oedipus complex.

Electra Complex

For girls, the Oedipus or Electra complex is less than satisfactory.  Briefly, the girl desires the father, but
realizes that she does not have a penis.  This leads to the development of penis envy and the wish to be
a boy.

The girl resolves this by repressing her desire for her father and substituting the wish for a penis with
the wish for a baby.  The girl blames her mother for her 'castrated state,' and this creates great tension.

The girl then represses her feelings (to remove the tension) and identifies with the mother to take on
the female gender role.

Latency Stage (6 years to puberty)

No further psychosexual development takes place during this stage (latent means hidden).  The libido is
dormant.

Freud thought that most sexual impulses are repressed during the latent stage, and sexual energy can
be sublimated (re: defense mechanisms) towards school work, hobbies, and friendships. 
Much of the child's energy is channeled into developing new skills and acquiring new knowledge, and
play becomes largely confined to other children of the same gender.

Genital Stage (puberty to adult)

This is the last stage of Freud's psychosexual theory of personality development and begins in puberty. 
It is a time of adolescent sexual experimentation, the successful resolution of which is settling down in a
loving one-to-one relationship with another person in our 20's.

Sexual instinct is directed to heterosexual pleasure, rather than self-pleasure like during the phallic
stage. 

For Freud, the proper outlet of the sexual instinct in adults was through heterosexual intercourse. 
Fixation and conflict may prevent this with the consequence that sexual perversions may develop. 

For example, fixation at the oral stage may result in a person gaining sexual pleasure primarily from
kissing and oral sex, rather than sexual intercourse.

THREE COMPONENTS OF PERSONALITY

Id, Ego and Superego

Perhaps Freud's single most enduring and important idea was that the human psyche (personality) has
more than one aspect.

Freud's personality theory (1923) saw the psyche structured into three parts (i.e., tripartite), the id, ego
and superego, all developing at different stages in our lives. These are systems, not parts of the brain, or
in any way physical.

According to Freud psychoanalytic theory, the id is the primitive and instinctual part of the mind that
contains sexual and aggressive drives and hidden memories, the super-ego operates as a moral
conscience, and the ego is the realistic part that mediates between the desires of the id and the super-
ego.

Although each part of the personality comprises unique features, they interact to form a whole, and
each part makes a relative contribution to an individual's behavior.

What is the id?

The id is the primitive and instinctive component of personality. It consists of all the inherited (i.e.,
biological) components of personality present at birth, including the sex (life) instinct – Eros (which
contains the libido), and the aggressive (death) instinct - Thanatos.

The id is the impulsive (and unconscious) part of our psyche which responds directly and immediately
to basic urges, needs, and desires. The personality of the newborn child is all id and only later does it
develop an ego and super-ego.

The id remains infantile in its function throughout a person's life and does not change with time or
experience, as it is not in touch with the external world. The id is not affected by reality, logic or the
everyday world, as it operates within the unconscious part of the mind.
The id operates on the pleasure principle (Freud, 1920) which is the idea that every wishful impulse
should be satisfied immediately, regardless of the consequences. When the id achieves its demands, we
experience pleasure when it is denied we experience ‘unpleasure’ or tension.

The id engages in primary process thinking, which is primitive, illogical, irrational, and fantasy oriented.
This form of process thinking has no comprehension of objective reality, and is selfish and wishful in
nature.

What is the Ego?

The ego is 'that part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external world.'

(Freud, 1923, p. 25)

The ego develops to mediate between the unrealistic id and the external real world. It is the decision-
making component of personality. Ideally, the ego works by reason, whereas the id is chaotic and
unreasonable.

The ego operates according to the reality principle, working out realistic ways of satisfying the id’s
demands, often compromising or postponing satisfaction to avoid negative consequences of society.
The ego considers social realities and norms, etiquette and rules in deciding how to behave.

Like the id, the ego seeks pleasure (i.e., tension reduction) and avoids pain, but unlike the id, the ego is
concerned with devising a realistic strategy to obtain pleasure. The ego has no concept of right or
wrong; something is good simply if it achieves its end of satisfying without causing harm to itself or the
id.

Often the ego is weak relative to the headstrong id, and the best the ego can do is stay on, pointing the
id in the right direction and claiming some credit at the end as if the action were its own.

Freud made the analogy of the id being a horse while the ego is the rider. The ego is 'like a man on
horseback, who has to hold in check the superior strength of the horse.'

(Freud, 1923, p. 15)

If the ego fails in its attempt to use the reality principle, and anxiety is experienced, unconscious
defense mechanisms are employed, to help ward off unpleasant feelings (i.e., anxiety) or make good
things feel better for the individual.

The ego engages in secondary process thinking, which is rational, realistic, and orientated towards
problem-solving. If a plan of action does not work, then it is thought through again until a solution is
found. This is known as reality testing and enables the person to control their impulses and demonstrate
self-control, via mastery of the ego.

An important feature of clinical and social work is to enhance ego functioning and help the client test
reality through assisting the client to think through their options.

What is the superego?

The superego incorporates the values and morals of society which are learned from one's parents and
others. It develops around the age of 3 – 5 years during the phallic stage of psychosexual
development.

The superego's function is to control the id's impulses, especially those which society forbids, such as
sex and aggression. It also has the function of persuading the ego to turn to moralistic goals rather than
simply realistic ones and to strive for perfection.

The superego consists of two systems: The conscience and the ideal self. The conscience can punish the
ego through causing feelings of guilt. For example, if the ego gives in to the id's demands, the superego
may make the person feel bad through guilt.

The ideal self (or ego-ideal) is an imaginary picture of how you ought to be, and represents career
aspirations, how to treat other people, and how to behave as a member of society.

Behavior which falls short of the ideal self may be punished by the superego through guilt. The super-
ego can also reward us through the ideal self when we behave ‘properly’ by making us feel proud.

If a person’s ideal self is too high a standard, then whatever the person does will represent failure. The
ideal self and conscience are largely determined in childhood from parental values and how you were
brought up.