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.

Erikson’s Theory of psych Social Development & Its Educational Implications.

 Erikson’s Theory of psych Social Development & Its Educational Implications.

GLOSSARY

psychosexual development: process proposed by Freud in which pleasure-seeking urges focus on different erogenous zones of the body as humans move through five stages of life

psychosocial development: process proposed by Erikson in which social tasks are mastered as humans move through eight stages of life from infancy to adulthood

Erikson’s (1959) theory of psycho social development has eight distinct stages, taking in five stages up to the age of 18 years and three further stages beyond, well into adulthood.

Like Freud and many others, Erik Erikson maintained that personality develops in a predetermined order, and builds upon each previous stage. This is called the epigenetic principle.

During each stage, the person experiences a psycho social crisis which could have a positive or negative outcome for personality development. For Erikson (1963), these crises are of a psycho social nature because they involve psychological needs of the individual (i.e. psycho) conflicting with the needs of society (i.e. social).

According to the theory, successful completion of each stage results in a healthy personality and the acquisition of basic virtues. Basic virtues are characteristic strengths which the ego can use to resolve subsequent crises

Failure to successfully complete a stage can result in a reduced ability to complete further stages and therefore a more unhealthy personality and sense of self.  These stages, however,

Stage	Psychosocial Crisis	Basic Virtue	Age
1.	Trust vs. Mistrust	Hope	0 - 1½
2.	Autonomy vs. Shame	Will	1½ - 3
3.	Initiative vs. Guilt	Purpose	3 - 5
4.	Industry vs. Inferiority	Competency	5 - 12
5.	Identity vs. Role Confusion	Fidelity	12 - 18
6.	Intimacy vs. Isolation	Love	18 - 40
7.	Generativity vs. Stagnation	Care	40 - 65
8.	Ego Integrity vs. Despair	Wisdom	65+

1. Trust vs. Mistrust  (Oral-sensory, Birth-1 years)

• ·         Infants must rely on others for care
• ·         Consistent and dependable care giving and meeting infant needs leads to a sense of trust
• ·          Infants who are not well cared for will develop mistrust
• ·         Basic strength is HOPE

2. Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (Muscular-Anal, 2-3 years)

• ·         Children are discovering their own independence
• ·          Testing more independence by assuming more self-responsibilities

– Toilet, Feeding, Dressing

·   Those given the opportunity to experience independence will gain a sense of autonomy

·   Children that are overly restrained or punished harshly will develop shame and doubt.

·   Basic strength is WILL

3. Initiative vs. Guilt (Locomotor-Genital, Preschool, 3-6 years)

• ·         Preschoolers learn to plan out and carry out their goals
• ·         Sense of accomplishment leads to initiative
• ·         Feelings of guilt can emerge if the child is made to feel too anxious or irresponsible
• ·         Capacity of moral judgement has arrived
• ·         Basic strength is PURPOSE

4. Industry vs. Inferiority (Latency, 6-12 years)

·         Stage of life surrounding mastery of knowledge and intellectual skills

·         Sense of competence and achievement leads to industry

• ·         Feeling incompetent and unproductive leads to inferiority
• ·         Basic strength is COMPETENCE

5. Identity vs. Role Confusion (Adolescence, 12-18 years) 

·     

•               Developing a sense of who one is and where one is going in life

– The adolescent’s path to successful identity achievement begins with identity diffusion.

– This is followed by a moratorium period.

– Gradually, the adolescent arrives at an integrated identity

• ·         Successful resolution leads to positive identity
• ·         Unsuccessful resolution leads to identity confusion or a negative identity
• ·         Basic strength is FIDELITY

6. Intimacy vs. Isolation (Young adulthood, 20-40 years)

• ·         Time for sharing oneself with another person
• ·          Capacity to hold commitments with others leads to intimacy
• ·         Failure to establish commitments leads to feelings of isolation
• ·         Basic strength is LOVE

7. Generativity vs. Stagnation (Middle adulthood, 40-60 years)

• ·         Caring for others in family, friends, and work leads to sense of contribution to later
• Generations
• ·         Stagnation comes from a sense of boredom and meaninglessness
• ·         Basic strength is CARE

8. Ego Integrity vs. Despair (Late adulthood, 60-death)

• ·         Successful resolutions of all previous crises leads to integrity and the ability to see broad truths and advise those in earlier stages
• ·         Despair arises from feelings of helplessness and the bitter sense that life has been incomplete
• ·         Basic strength is WISDOM
•  
• 
  
• Educational Implications of Erikson's Theory

• The strengths of Erikson’s theory are:

o   Stage theory - development took place in stages

o   Ego identify - formation of ego identity right from birth

o   Crisis – every individual has to go through crisis in his/her life

• The weaknesses of Erikson’s theory are:

o   Focus on the competing forces rather than emotional development of individuals

o   Difficult to be tested scientifically as it is not possible to measure some of the concepts upon which the theory is based

o   Fails to specify the effect of failure in one stage impacts which other stages

• Various educational implications of Erikson’s theory are possible depending upon the age group of the learner and the tasks they are expected to perform. For example,

o   Allowing the child to play with various natural, simple materials, and role-playing for the expression of fantasy and imagination.

o   Games, stories and songs can be used. Real-life activities like serving food, chopping vegetables or making chapattis, prepare children for participation in the community around them.

o   Child-directed activities where the child chooses his or her activity and repeats it as often as they want must be encouraged.

• Erikson’s psychosocial theory is a very powerful way for building self-awareness and for improving oneself, as it helps to understand a person’s learning according to his or her personal differences

Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development & Its Educational Implications.

 Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development & Its Educational Implications.

Piaget's (1936) theory of cognitive development explains how a child constructs a mental model of the world. He disagreed with the idea that intelligence was a fixed trait, and regarded cognitive development as a process which occurs due to biological maturation and interaction with the environment.

According to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure (genetically inherited and evolved) on which all subsequent learning and knowledge are based.

There Are Three Basic Components To Piaget's Cognitive Theory:

·         Schemas: Schemas are the basic building blocks of such cognitive models, and enable us to form a mental representation of the world.

·         Adaptation:  processes that enable the transition from one stage to another (equilibrium, assimilation, and accommodation).

1.      Assimilation: Which is using an existing schema to deal with a new object or situation?

2.      Accommodation: This happens when the existing schema (knowledge) does not work, and needs to be changed to deal with a new object or situation.

3.      Equilibration: This is the force which moves development along. Piaget believed that cognitive development did not progress at a steady rate, but rather in leaps and bounds.

·         Stages of Cognitive Development:

1.      Sensori motor(Birth-2Years)

a)   Semantic function. During this stage the child develops the ability to think using symbols and signs. Symbols represent something or someone else; for example, a doll may symbolize a baby, child or an adult.

b)   Egocentrism. This stage is characterized by egocentrism. Children believe that their way of thinking is the only way to think.

c)    Decentering. A pre-operational child has difficulty in seeing more than one dimension or aspects of situation. It is called decentering.

d)  Animism. Children tend to refer to inanimate objects as if they have life-like qualities and are capable of actions.

e)   Seriation. They lack the ability of classification or grouping objects into categories.

f)    Conservation. It refers to the understanding that certain properties of an object remain the same despite a change in their appearance.

1. Preoperational (2-7Years)

a)         Think Symbolically: During this stage, young children can think about things symbolically. This is the ability to make one thing - a word or an object - stand for something other than itself.

b)         Thinking is still egocentric, and the infant has difficulty taking the viewpoint of others.

c)         Children at this stage tend to be egocentric and struggle to see things from the perspective of others.

d)        While they are getting better with language and thinking, they still tend to think about things in very concrete terms.

3           Concrete operational(7-11 Years)

a)   Piaget considered the concrete stage a major turning point in the child's cognitive development because it marks the beginning of logical or operational thought.

b)   This means the child can work things out internally in their head (rather than physically try things out in the real world).

c)   Children can conserve number (age 6), mass (age 7), and weight (age 9). Conservation is the understanding that something stays the same in quantity even though its appearance changes.

d)  They begin to understand the concept of conservation; that the amount of liquid in a short, wide cup is equal to that in a tall, skinny glass, for example.

e)   Their thinking becomes more logical and organized, but still very concrete.

f)    Children begin using inductive logic, or reasoning from specific information to a general principle.

4         Formal operational(11 Years & Above)

a)      The formal operational stage begins at approximately age eleven and lasts into adulthood. During this time, people develop the ability to think about abstract concepts, and logically test  hypotheses.

b)      At this stage, the adolescent or young adult begins to think abstractly and reason about hypothetical problems.

c)      Abstract thought emerges.

d)     Teens begin to think more about moral, philosophical, ethical, social, and political issues that require theoretical and abstract reasoning.

e)      Begin to use deductive logic, or reasoning from a general principle to specific information.

Educational Implications:

It is important when evaluating Piaget's theory to consider not only the empirical studies but also the great impact that Piaget had upon education. Although aspects of his theory have been critiqued it is important to note that he had a vast impact on the education of children especially primary age children. Piaget's work heavily influenced educational theories and practices. The following implications can be taken for the following stages;

1                 Sensorimotor Stage

Teaching for a child in this stage should be geared to the sensorimotor system. You can modify behavior by using the senses: a frown, a stern or soothing voice -- all serve as appropriate techniques.

2               

                 Pre - Operational Stage

Teaching must take into account the child's vivid fantasies and undeveloped sense of time. Using neutral words, body outlines and equipment a child can touch, gives him an active role in learning.

Some guidelines may include;

1. ·         Use concrete teaching aids such as sticks for teaching addition and subtraction.
2. ·         Reduce egocentrism by involving children in social interaction.
3. ·         Let students make comparison: big, bigger, biggest.
4. ·         Ask them to justify their answers.
5. ·         Provide a wide range of experiences such as taking field trips.
6. ·         Make short instructions, step by step

            Concrete Operational Stage

In teaching this child, giving him the opportunity to ask questions and to explain his responses allows him to mentally manipulate information.

Some other ways may be;

1. ·         Continue to ask students to justify their answers.
2. ·         Encourage students to work in groups and exchange thought.
3. ·         Use props and visual aids as well as familiar examples when teaching complex ideas.
4. ·         Involve students in adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, ordering, seriating, and reversing tasks.
5. ·         Create activities that require conservation.

          Formal Operational

 Teaching for the adolescent may be wide ranging because he is be able to consider many possibilities from several perspectives.

For example,

1. ·  Give students opportunities to debate and discuss in small groups.
2. ·  Develop projects for students to carry out.
3. · Give students opportunities to solve problem and reason scientifically.
4. An important implication of Piaget's theory is the adaptation of instruction to the learner's developmental level. The content of instruction needs to be consistent with the developmental level of the learner