Psychodynamic approach : psychosexual stages Flashcards
What is the order of the psychosexual stages ?
Old age pensioners love greens
oral
anal
phallic
latency
genital
What age is the oral stage ?
0-1 years
What is the anal stage ?
The anus is the focus of pleasure- child gains pleasure from witholding and expelling faeces.
conflict can occur during potty training
When can conflict occur in the oral stage ?
occurs during weaning
What is the phallic stage ?
focus of pleasure is the genital area.
Conflict can arise and cause the Oedipus or Electra complex
*Oedipus complex
*Boys desire closeness with the opposite sex parent i.e. their mother
*The same-sex parent (the father) is a rival who the boy wants out of the way
*Boys fear that their father will castrate them (castration anxiety)
*To reduce anxiety boys use defence mechanisms and identify with their father
*This reduces the threat and the boy internalises male characteristics and comes out of the Oedipus complex
*Electra complex
*Girls desire closeness with the opposite sex parent i.e. their father
*Girls do not fear their same-sex parent (the mother) as they believe that they have already been castrated; instead they experience penis-envy
*Girls fear losing their mother’s love
*To reduce anxiety the girls identify with their mother
*This reduces the threat and girls internalise female characteristics and come out of the Electra complex
What is the oedipus complex ?
Oedipus complex
*Boys desire closeness with the opposite sex parent i.e. their mother
*The same-sex parent (the father) is a rival who the boy wants out of the way
*Boys fear that their father will castrate them (castration anxiety)
*To reduce anxiety boys use defence mechanisms and identify with their father
*This reduces the threat and the boy internalises male characteristics and comes out of the Oedipus complex
What is the electra complex ?
Electra complex
Girls desire closeness with the opposite sex parent i.e. their father
Girls do not fear their same-sex parent (the mother) as they believe that they have already been castrated; instead they experience penis-envy
Girls fear losing their mother’s love
To reduce anxiety the girls identify with their mother
This reduces the threat and girls internalise female characteristics and come out of the Electra complex
What is the consequence of unresolved confllict in the phallic stage ?
Vanity, overambition, narcissism, impulsivity
Narcisistic and reckless
fixation at this stage could lead to gender conflict e.g shame at not feeling like a man
How is little hans a case study evidence for psycosexual stages?
horse in the phobia were symbolic of the father
hans feared the horse (father ) would bite (castrate) him as punishment for the incestous desires towards his mother
freud saw hans phobia as an expression of the opedius complex
horses especially with darkk harnesses symbolised hans father
horses were suitable father symbols because of their large penises
What was hans phobia?
5 years old
had a phobia of horses after he saw one collapse in the street
hans showed interest in his widdler he asked his mother to touch his penis
his mother said it would be cut off if he carried on touching it
fischer and greenberg- positive for psychosexual stages
they found that there is some evidence for freuds oral and anal personality types
they also found that these types could be identified reliably though standardised questionnares
What is the negative of the psychosexual stages?
clue: womb envy
freud believed that girls never fully resolve their penis envy
instead they sublimate it with their desire for a baby and all women remain fixated in this stage
This is disputed by horney that claims the theory is inaccurate and demeaning to women
instead horney proposed that men experience feelings of inferiority because they cant give birth to children
a concept she refers to as womb envy
What age is the latency stage?
6 years until puberty
What is the latency stage?
freud thought that most sexual desires are repressed during this stage
when a child realises their desire for their parent cant be fulfilled they repress these feelings and focus instead on school friends and hobbies
What is the result of unresolved conflict in latency ?
They can ger fixated in this stage
it results in immaturity and inability to form fulfilling relationships as an adult
