Voiceover: Alright, let's dive right
in to our first area of development,
and we're gonna take a look at Freud's
Psychosexual Theory of Development.
So here's Freud over here, and he proposed
that psychological development in
childhood takes places in a series of
fixed stages called psychosexual stages.
And he believed that life was built around
this concept of tension and pleasure,
in that the buildup of tension could cause
a lot of conflicts.
So this tension buildup or fixation was
due to this concept of libido.
Now, libido is a natural energy source
that fuels the mechanisms of the mind.
And when this libidinal energy is stuck or
fixated
as we like to call it in this theory
that's a term you should get familiar with
whenever
you hear the psychosexual theory of
development so fixation.
So when fixation occurs, it can have a
lifelong effect well into adulthood.
Cuz remember, Freud, Freud's theory
stressed
the importance of personality development
at childhood.
So if a certain stage, if fixation
occurred in a certain stage
in this childhood, it could have a lasting
effect well into adulthood.
So each of these stages is associated with
a particular conflict that has to
be resolved in order for the person to
successfully advance to the next stage.
So Freud again, stressed that the first
five years
of life are crucial to the formation of
adult personality.
Now this idea of libido and fixation is
centered around different areas of the
body at different stages of growth, which
is why he calls it a psychosexual
development.
So, you can remember the order of these
stages by
using this neumonic that I came up with
and it's called.
I'll just run through it.
It's Old, Age, Parrots, Love,.
Love.
Grapes.
Oops.
Let's give ourselves a little bit more
room over
here.
There we go.
Okay, so old age parrots love grapes, and
that's associated with each of the stages.
So the OId stands for the oral stage.
The Age stands for the anal
stage.
The P stands for
the phallic stage.
The L stands
for the latent stage or the
latent period.
And lastly grapes stands
for the genital stage.
So old age parrots love grapes.
Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latent, Genital.
Now, I was talking about how this fixation
of libido is focused
on different parts of the body, so
depending on what stage we're at, there is
going to be a certain fixation of this
energy at a certain body part.
So, when it comes to let's pick a
different
color, okay.
So when it comes to oral, the part of the
body that the libido is focused on is the
mouth.
Oral for mouth.
The anal stage is anus, pretty self
explanatory.
The phallic stage is the genitals.
And I'll go through and explain all this
in a bit.
The latent actually doesn't have anything.
And the genital last stage is again the
genitals.
Alright so let's go through the stages.
So the first stage, the oral stage, I'm
going
to try to pick a different color again
here.
Okay, so the oral stage is the
first stage of personality development.
And it occurs between the ages of 0 to 1
years of age.
So, there we go.
And this is when the libido is centered
around the baby's mouth.
So the infant's primary source of
interaction occurs through their mouth.
Through the rooting and sucking reflex.
And obviously the mouth is vital for
eating.
And the infant derives his or her pleasure
from
oral stimulation through activities such
as tasting and sucking.
And because the infant is completely
dependent
on their parents, their caretakers who are
responsible
for feeding the child, the baby also
develops this sense of trust and comfort
through
this oral simulation.
So, we can talk about the major
development over here as feeding.
Now if there's a fixation or conflict that
occurs here, through the weaning process.
So the baby.
Has to learn to wean off in order to
advance to the next stage, so
if there's a conflict in this process,
the child becomes less dependent upon the
caretaker.
And Freud believed that an individual with
fixation at
this stage could develop issues with
dependency or aggression.
So later in adulthood, we see an
oral type of personality in people
that smoke.
Or bite their fingers.
Or their nails, or that suck their thumb.
So the adult fixation personalities or
examples are of people that smoke.
Or bite their nails, or people that, over
eat.
Alright, moving on to the second stage.
The second stage is the anal stage and
that occurs between the years of 1 to 3.
And Freud believed that the primary focus
here was centered around the anus.
And in controlling the bladder and bowel
movements.
So, we can consider this trip, toilet
training.
So when the child gets older and starts to
wean off from
feeding in the oral stage, it's going to
start getting potty trained.
So the major conflict at this stage is
toilet training, where the child
has to learn how to control his or hear
bodily needs, and this leads
to developing a sense of control
and accomplishment, and independence, so
parents who
utilize praise and rewards for the child
using the toilet are encouraging positive
outcomes.
And helping the child feel capable and
productive.
And Freud believed that positive
experiences
in this anal stage can help serve
as the basis for people to feel competent
and productive and creative adults.
However, not all parents take an
encouraging approach to potty training,
so if any fixation occurs in this stage,
that can lead to problems as and adult.
And Freud said that adults, Who have
fixation at this stage
could possibly have problems with
orderliness and messiness, so these are
attributes of
the adult fixation.
Moving on to the third stage.
Stage the phallic stage.
So this occurs between 3 and 6 years of
age, and
its focus the genital area is the focus of
the libido.
So at this age, children are beginning to
discover the difference between the
males and females and here Freud came up
with two important terms.
So he believed that boys actually begin to
view their
fathers as a rival for their mother's
affections and he called
this the Oedipus complex which describes
the feelings of wanting
to possess the mother and the desire to
replace the father.
This is what little boys, go through.
And the same thing occurs.
For females towards, or young girls,
towards
their fathers which he termed the Electra
Complex.
So that's the major development here is
being able to resolve this
Oedipus and Electra Complexes.
And usually this is resolved through the
process of identification, where the child
starts to understand and develop similar
characteristics of their same-sex parents.
So they'll look up to fathers.
Little boys will look up to their fathers,
and little girls up to their mothers.
However, if there's a fixation at this
stage that can transform into
adulthood and cause sexual dysfunction if
this is isn't resolved.
The fourth stage is the latent period.
So this is usually between 6 to 12 years
of
age and there's really no focus of libido
over here and
this is a period in which 12 being puberty
so
6 to puberty so this is the time of
exploration in
which the sexual energy, this libido, is
still
present but it's not really focused on one
area.
It's being directed into.
It's not focused on one area of the body
rather, it's starting
to be directed into other areas
such as intellectual pursuits and social
interactions.
And children
developing new skills.
So this stage is really important in the
development of social and communication
skills.
So, you can say the socialism aspect and
the development of new skills.
So this begins around the time that
children enter school, and so
they become more concerned with the
peer relationships, hobbies, and other
interests.
And, play between children, starts to
become largely confined to children of the
same gender.
And, any fixation at this point doesn't
really
develop into an adult fixation.
And the last stage is the genital stage
which occurs from the age of 12 and above.
So here again, the focus is back on the
libido.
And that's because the individual starts
developing strong sexual interests.
So there starting to reach sexual
maturity.
And during this stage they develop the
sexual maturity
towards the opposite sex that lasts well
into their life.
Well through life till, till death.
So in early stages the focus was solely on
individual needs
but in this stage their interest in the
welfare of others so.
If all stages were successfully completed
then the
person should be sexually matured and
mentally healthy.
So, the adult fixation example is, since
this is the last
step there really isn't any adult fixation
because it's under the
assumption that all these other stages
were completed successfully so we can
just say the person is mentally healthy
that's what Freud said.
So if all the other stages have been
completed successfully
the individual should now be well
balanced, warm and caring.
So the goal of this stage, the genital
stage,
is to establish a balance between the
various life areas.
So this is Freud's theory of psychosexual
development in a nutshell.
