Lesson 5 Ed 101

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

Freud view about human development are more than a century old.
-He can be considered as the very well known psychologist because of his very
interesting theory about unconscious and also about sexual development. -Although a
lot of his views were criticized and some considered them debunked.
-Freud theory remains to be one of the most influential in psychology.

Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development

-His theory of psychosexual development includes five distinct stages. According to
Freud, a person goes through the sequence of this five stages and along the way
there are need to be met.
-The theory is quite interesting for many because Freud identified specific
erogenous zone for each stages of development. These are specific “pleasure areas”
that become focal points for the particular stages. If needs are not met along the
are, a fixation occurs

Oral Stage (birth to 18 months)

-The erogenous zone is the mouth. During the oral stage, the child is focused on
oral pleasures.
-Too much or too little satisfaction can lead can lead to an Oral Fixation or Oral
Personality which is shown in an increased focus on oral activities.
- This type of personality may be oral receptive, that is, have a stronger tendency
to smoke, drink alcohol, overeat, or oral aggressive, that is, with a tendency to
bite his or her nails or use curse words or even gossip.

Anal Stage (18 months to 3 years)

-The child’s focus of pleasure in this stage is the anus. The child find
satisfaction in eliminating and retaining feces. Through society’s expectations,
particularly the parents, the child needs to work on toilet training.
-In terms of personality, fixation during this stage can result in being anal
retentive, an obsession with cleanliness, perfection, and control; or anal
expulsive where the person may become messy and disorganized.

Phallic Stage (ages 3 to 6)

The pleasure or erogenous zone is the genitals.
-During the preschooler age, children become interested in what make boys and girls
different.
-Preschoolers will sometimes be seen fondling their genitals.
- Freud’s studies led him to believe that during this stage boys develops
unconscious sexual desire for their mother.
-Boys then see their father as a rival for her mother’s affection.

These feeling comprise what Freud called Oedipus Complex.

- In Greek Mythology, Oedipus unintentionally killed his father and married his
mother Jocasta.
-Psychoanalyst also believed that girls may also have similar experience,
developing unconscious sexual attraction towards their father.
- This is what referred to as the Electra Complex.

According to Freud, out of fear of castration and due to the strong competition of
their father, boys eventually decide to identify with them rather than fight them.
-A fixation at this age could result in sexual deviances and weak or confused
sexual identity according to psychoanalysts.

Latency Stage (age 6 to puberty)

It’s during this stage that sexual urges remain repressed. -The children’s focus is
the acquisition of physical and academic skills.
- Boys usually relate more with boys and girls with girls during this stage.

Freud’s Personality Components

Freud described the personality structures as having three components, the id, the
ego, and the superego.
-For each person, the first to emerge is the id, followed by the ego and last to
develop is the superego.

The Id-Instict
Freud says that , a child is born with the id.
- The id plays a vital role in ones personality because as a baby, it works so that
the baby’s essential needs are met.
- The id operates on the pleasure principle.
-It focuses on immediate gratification or satisfaction of its needs.

Nothing else matters to the id except the satisfaction of its own needs.
- It is not oriented toward considering reality nor the needs of others.

The Ego-Reality
-As the baby turns into a toddler and then into a preschooler, he/she relates more
with the environment, the ego slowly begin to emerge.
-The ego operates using the reality principle. It is aware that others also have
needs to met.
- It is practical because it knows that being impulsive or selfish can result to
negative consequences later, so it reasons and considers the best response to
situations.
-As such, it is deciding agent of the personality.
-Although it functions to help the id meet its needs, it always takes into account
the reality of the situation.

The Superego-Morality
-Near the end of the preschool years, or the end of the phallic stage, the superego
develops.
-The superego embodies a person’s moral aspect.
-This develops from what the parents, teachers, and other person who exert
influence impart to be good or moral.
-The superego is likened to conscience because it exerts influence on what one
considers right and wrong.

The Three Components and Personality Adjustment

-Freud said that a well-adjusted person is one who has strong ego, who can help
satisfy the needs of the id without going against the superego while maintaining
the person’s sense of what is logical, practical, and real. -It is not easy for the
ego to do all that and strike a balance.
-If the id exerts too much power over the ego, the person becomes too impulsive and
pleasure seeking behavior takes over one’s life
-. On the opposite direction, one may find the superego so strong that the ego is
overpowered.

-The person’s best effort to be good may still fall short of the superego’s
expectation.
- Freud believe that the personality of an individual is formed early during the
childhood years.

Topographical Model
The Unconscious-id

Freud said that most what we go through in our lives, emotions, beliefs, feelings,
and impulses deep within are not available to us at a conscious level.
-He believed that most of what influence us is our unconscious.
-The Oedipus and Electra Complex, were both buried down into the unconscious, out
of our awareness due to the extreme anxiety they caused.

The Conscious
Freud also said that all that we are aware of is stored in our conscious mind.
-Our conscious mind only compromises a very small part of who we are so that, in
our everyday life, we are only aware of a very small part of what makes up our
personality; most of what we are is hidden and out of reach.

The Subconscious
The last part is the preconscious or subconscious.
-This is the part of us that we can reach if prompted, but is not in our active
conscious.
-Its right below the surface, but still “hidden” somewhat unless we search for it.
- Information such as our telephone number, some childhood memories or the name of
your best childhood friend is stored in the preconscious.

Nonconscious
-The water, may represent all that we are not aware of, have not experienced, and
that has not been made part of our personalities, referred to as the nonconscious.

Other Information

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

-He is a popular psychologist whose theory of human development.
-Freud's theory remains to be one of the influential in psychology. This 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 Erickson's Psychosocial
theory.

-According to Freud, a person goes through the sequence of these five stages and
along way here are needs to be met. Whether these needs are met or not, determines
whether the person will develop a healthy personality or not.

-The theory is quite interesting for many because Freud identified erogenous zones
for each stage of development.
- These are specific “pleasure areas” that become focal points for the particular
stage.

-If needs are not met along the area, a fixation occurs. As an adult. The person
will now manifest behaviours related to this erogenous zone.

•Human beings, from birth, possess an instinctual libido (sexual energy) that
develops in five stages;
➢ Oral
➢ Anal
-Phallic
-Latent
-Genital
Each stage is characterized by the erogenous zone that is the source of the
libidinal drive.

Freuds Psychosexual Stages

1.Oral stage: Birth to 1 year
Erogenous zone: mouth
2.Anal stage: 1 to 3 Year
Erogeneous zone: Bowel and Bladde control
3.Phalic Stage: 3 to 6 year
Erogenous zone: Genitals
4. Latent Stage: 6 to puberty
Libido Inactive
5.Genital Stage: Puberty to Death
Maturing Sexual Interest

PERSONALITY STRUCTURE
ID
-This is known as the biological drives with which the infant is born.
-It is said to be the earliest and most primitive personality structure and refers
to the unconscious and usually operates with the goal of seeking pleasure.
EGO
This structure is the rational, logical, problem-solving component of the
personality.
SUPEREGO
This is the structure based on the child’s internalization of the adults
attributes, beliefs and standards.