Freud's Theories
Freud's Psychosexual Theory of Development
Stage 1: Oral (birth to 1 year)
Stage 2: Anal (1-3 years)
Stage 3: Phallic (3-5 years)
Oedipus & Electra
Stage 4: Latency (6-12 years)
Stage 5: Genital (12-18 years)
Puberty reawakens sexuality!
According to Freud, children pass through a series of stages, where at each stage they derive pleasure from a specific part of the body. Each of these stages is described in your textbook. For the purposes of this class, there is no need to memorize the details associated with each stage. What is important for this course is to understand that Freud believed that at each stage we had to confront conflicts between our biological drives and the expectations of society, and that how we resolved these conflicts would have implications for our adult lives.
Freud believed that if parents permitted their child to receive too much or too little gratification of their basic needs at each of these stages, the child would experience difficulties later in life. This could occur by becoming "fixated" in a particular stage. Becoming fixated in a stage could lead to problems with adjustment as an adult. For example, an individual who receives too little gratification in the oral stage could develop an oral fixation that leads them to smoke or bite their nails as an adult.
Criticisms of Freud's Theory
As you can imagine, Freud's theory has received a great deal of criticism, such that the Psychosexual Theory of Development is now considered out-dated and outside of the mainstream of human development.
It has been criticized for overemphasizing the influence of sexual feelings on development.
It has also been criticized because it was developed based on Freud's experience with a very select, unique population of adults in Victorian society. As we will discuss in the lesson on Research Methods, the characteristics of this select sample make it problematic to attempt to generalize experiences of this unique group to the wider population.
Contributions of Freud's Theory
Despite these limitations, Freud's theory continues to have a prominent place in the study of human development.
Freud's theory contributed to our understanding of development by highlighting the value of considering unconscious wishes and feelings.
Most importantly, Freud's theory was the first to show that early experiences have a profound effect on development by setting us on a particular developmental trajectory. Specifically, Freud's theory stressed the influence of the early parent-child relationship on development paving the way for contemporary studies of child development.
Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development
Erik Erikson is another psychoanalytic theorist who was trained by Freud, but who developed a theory of development that is quite different from Freud's theory. First, unlike Freud's theory that ends in early adulthood, Erikson's theory is lifelong and includes stages from infancy into late-late life. Further, although we recognize Freud's contributions to the study of development, his theories are now considered out of date, whereas Erikson's ideas continue to be the topic of contemporary research studies.
Erikson believed that development is determined by how the organism adapts to the social environment. For Erikson, development involves successfully negotiating a series of conflicts, and it is not until these conflicts are resolved that a person moves on to the next stage. Erikson believed that how we resolved these conflicts could lead to either healthy or maladaptive outcomes at each stage of life.