Freudian Perspective on Personality and Psychosexual Development Flashcards
personality
A person’s unique and relatively stable behaviour patterns
psyche
Freud’s term for personality
Freud’s Perspective on Behaviour
- Freud saw the id, ego and superego working together in creating a behaviour (personality)
- The id creates the demands, the ego adds the needs of reality, with the superego adding morality to the action which is taken - Conflict results due to competing pressures within the elements of personality leading not only to anxiety and tension but also to inconsistencies in personality
Reality
Caused by real, objective sources of danger in the environment
Moral
Fear that the person will do something contrary to the superego, and thus experience guilt
Neurotic
Fear that the impulses of the id will overwhelm the ego, do something for which will be punished
Freud on Development: Psychosexual Stages
Foundation of personality laid by the age of 5 years
- Freud described 4 psychosexual stages of personality development
- He referred to these as psychosexual stages because he thought that the major factor underlying human development was the sex instinct (libido)
- He theorised that the ways in which children deal with immature sexual urges during different stages of development shape personality
- Sexual used as a general term meaning physical pleasure
- He proposed that each stage has a characteristic erotic focus and developmental challenge
- Each stage of psychosexual development is associated with an erogenous zone/body part
- Each stage requires the resolution of certain developmental tasks, or conflicts, before progression to the next stage is possible - Fixation is a failure to move forward from one stage to another as expected
- Fixation can occur due to excessive gratification or frustration during a particular stage, leading to an overemphasis on the psychosexual needs prominent during the fixated stage in adulthood
- Libidinal energy gets invested in that particular stage, leaving less energy for the stages that follow - Freud believed that the roots of a number of adult personality types can be traced to unsuccessfully resolved stages of psychosexual development
The Oral Stage
(Birth - ±18 months)
1. The erogenous zone associated with this stage is the mouth
2. Infants interaction with the world occurs orally (through feeding)
- The activities of sucking, biting, and chewing are sources of erotic pleasure for the child
3. Freud: Sexual activity is not separated from ingestion of food as yet
4. During this period, the developmental task involves being weaned from the breast and/or bottle
5. For the child to become independent from the mother
Personality traits emerging from the quality of resolution of this stage:
- Dependence-independence
- Trust-mistrust
- Optimism-pessimism
6. If a child is unable to resolve this conflict successfully, they may become fixated
- As an adult, may be excessively concerned about oral activities such as eating or drinking
7. Unsatisfactory resolution-fixation with negative aspects
-> “Oral Characteristics”
= Pre-occupation with oral pleasure
-Smoking
-Substance abuse
-Nail-biting
-Eating disorders
The Anal Stage
(18 months to ±3 years)
1. After the age of 18 months, the need for toilet-training arises
2. Most parents try to complete toilet-training by the time their children are three years of age
- The erogenous zone associated with this stage is the anus, and the retention and expulsion of faeces gives children erotic pleasure
3. During toilet-training this source of pleasure is interfered with when parents begin to set rules about when and where the child may defecate
4. Resolution of the conflict that arises sees children learning self-control
- They learn to differentiate between the id’s need for immediate gratification, and social constraints
5. If a child does not achieve this, there is likely to be conflict with the parents
Leads to one of two reactions
1. Defecating at inappropriate times and inappropriate places
- May lead to the development of an anal-aggressive personality (Impulsive, disorderly, sadistic, and hostile)
2. Retaining faeces
-Gives the child a sense of control over their parents
-May lead to the development of an anal-retentive personality (stubborn, stingy, compulsively neat, and overly conscientious)
Phallic Stage
(3-6 years)
- Focus of development moves to the genital region
- The developmental task confronting children during this stage is the need to identify with the same-sex parent
- This requires resolution of what Freud termed the Oedipus complex (for male children) and the Electra complex (for female children)
Oedipus Complex
- Refers to an unconscious desire to possess the opposite-sex parent and at the same time to dispose of the same-sex parent
- Mother is seen as the initial love object
- Has been the sole source of gratification from birth
- Male children have an unconscious wish to possess their mother
- Father is unconsciously perceived as the enemy and viewed as a rival for their mothers affections - However, they realise that their father is unlikely to tolerate their son’s affections for their mother
- Freud believed that this results in male children fearing that their father may retaliate by cutting of their penis (Castration Anxiety)
- This forces them to renounce their unconscious desire to have sex with their mother
- Eventually, they repress their sexual desire for theory mother, and begin to identify with their father
fixation at this stage:
Usually boastful, vain, and ambitious
Electra Complex
- Female children need to overcome in order to be able to identify with the same-sex parent
- Mothers are the sole source of gratification and thus initial love object since birth
- Changes when female child realises that they do not have a penis (Penis Envy)
- Blame their mother for this - Female children then become openly hostile towards their mother and wish to possess their father
- Freud was less able to explain how this conflict is resolved and only suggests that this is modified as female children begin to increasingly identify with their mother
fixation at this stage:
Flirtatious, seductive, and naïve
Latency
(6 years to Puberty)
- Resolution of the phallic stage
- Child enters a period of calmness - Sexual and aggressive instincts become inactive
- The libido is sublimated
- Channeled into non-sexual activities - Therefore it does not qualify as a psychosexual stage
- No new erogenous zone is identified and sexual instincts are seen as dormant
The Genital Stage
(Puberty)
1. Begins with the onset of puberty when many hormonal changes occur
2. In this stage, the genitals are the erogenous zone providing adolescents with gratification
= Sexual and aggressive impulses resurface
- With a corresponding increase in an individuals awareness of, and interest in, the opposite sex
3. This stage is important for how adult sexuality will manifest
4. Developmental tasks requiring resolution during this stage revolve around:
- Establishing intimate relationships
- Learning to work
- Learning to postpone gratification
- Becoming responsible
5. Successful resolution results in the ideal type of personality
- Such a person will have developed mature and responsible social-sexual relationships
Freud’s psychoanalytic techniques:
Free association
(no filter of thoughts)
clients spontaneously express what comes to mind, reporting any thoughts or feelings without censoring them
