Freud's Psychosexual Stages of Development & Its Educational Implications.

Freud's Psychosexual Stages of Development & Its Educational Implications.

Freud (1905) proposed that psychological development in childhood takes place in a series of fixed psychosexual stages: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital.

These are called psychosexual stages because each stage represents the fixation of libido (roughly translated as sexual drives or instincts) on a different area of the body. As a person grows physically certain areas of their body become important as sources of potential frustration (erogenous zones), pleasure or both.

Psychosexual Stages of Development

1.      Anal Stage (1-3 years)

The libido now becomes focused on the anus, and the child derives great pleasure from defecating.  The child is now fully aware that they are a person in their own right and that their wishes can bring them into conflict with the demands of the outside world (i.e., their ego has developed). 

2.      Phallic Stage (3 to 5 or 6 years)

Sensitivity now becomes concentrated in the genitals and masturbation (in both sexes) becomes a new source of pleasure.  The child becomes aware of anatomical sex differences, which sets in motion the conflict between erotic attraction, resentment, rivalry, jealousy and fear which Freud called the Oedipus complex (in boys) and the Electra complex (in girls). 

3.      Latency Stage (5 or 6 to puberty)

No further psychosexual development takes place during this stage (latent means hidden).  The libido is dormant.  Freud thought that most sexual impulses are repressed during the latent stage, and sexual energy can be sublimated (re: defense mechanisms) towards school work, hobbies, and friendships. 

4.      Genital Stage (puberty to adult)

This is the last stage of Freud's psychosexual theory of personality development and begins in puberty.  It is a time of adolescent sexual experimentation, the successful resolution of which is settling down in a loving one-to-one relationship with another person in our 20's.  Sexual instinct is directed to heterosexual pleasure, rather than self-pleasure like during the phallic stage. 

Sigmund Freud proposed that the behavior and development of an individual are influenced by the interaction between the conscious and unconscious aspects of the person’s mind. Three components of the psychic apparatus function on different levels of consciousness and interact with each other to generate behavior.

1   Id – The Id is present at birth and represents everything that we inherit from our parents. It comprises our needs that require constant fulfillment and operates on the pleasure principle and the need for immediate gratification, without regard for consequences or realities.

2  Ego – The Ego develops as a result of the infant’s attempts to satisfy his needs through interactions with his physical and social environment. It arises from the Id, and attempts to fulfill the Id’s desire by serving as a negotiator that strives for a compromise between what the Id wants and what the outside world can grant it. The Ego is also a decision-maker that operates on the reality principle, evaluating conditions of the real world which may or may not satisfy the Id’s demands and seeking acceptable methods of fulfilling the Id’s wishes.

3   Superego – The Superego arises from the Ego and develops as an internal representation of the moral values of the environment. It judges what the individual should morally do or not do, and guides him about the shoulds and should nots of life. The Superego rewards the individual with pride and positive feelings upon doing good, and punishes the child with feelings of guilt, shame or fear for not abiding by values that one has set for oneself.