Basic tenets of Freud’s
psychoanalytic theory

Three levels of consciousness



Conscious: what we’re thinking about or
experiencing at any given moment
Preconscious: what we can readily call to
consciousness (memories, knowledge)
Unconscious: thoughts, desires, and
impulses of which we’re not aware; this is
the largest level of consciousness.
Structure of the personality



Id
Ego
Superego
Id





Only purpose is to satisfy our desires
Completely unconscious with no basis in
reality
Operates according to the pleasure
principle—always seeks pleasure and avoids
pains.
Only part of the personality present from
birth.
The child gradually learns that the id can’t
always be satisfied.
Ego




Develops as child realizes that the id is
constrained by reality
Abides by the reality principle—goal is to
bring pleasure within constraints of reality
Mostly conscious
Also houses the higher mental functions such
as reasoning, problem-soliving, and decisionmaking
Superego




The moral branch of the personality; our
conscience
It can either reward or punish the ego
Doesn’t consider reality (like the id); it only
considers whether the id’s sexual and
aggressive impulses can be satisfied in moral
terms
Can operate on all levels of consciousness,
but it’s mostly preconscious
Defense mechanisms





Arise because of the anxiety due to conflicts
between id and superego; too much pressure
put on the ego
Protect the ego and reduce anxiety
Unconscious, so we’re not aware we’re using
them
Not necessarily bad when used on temporary
basis
Examples: repression, denial, sublimation,
regression
Libido




Sexual energy of the sex instinct
Sex instinct is the most important of life’s
forces and is the basis for most mental
disorders
Sex is much more than copulation and can
refer to anything pleasurable
As sex instinct matures, libido moves from
one body part to another, and child moves
into a new stage of psychosexual
development.
Adult personality



Determined by the way conflicts
between early sources of pleasure and
constraints of reality are resolved
When conflicts aren’t resolved
adequately, person can become
“fixated” at that stage of development
Fixation occurs when child’s needs are
either not met or are overgratified.
Five stages of psychosexual
development





Oral stage
Anal stage
Phallic stage
Latency stage
Genital stage
Oral stage



Birth to 1 year
Mouth is focus of sexual pleasure
Fixation: smokers, drinkers, loud
talkers, people who like to eat or chew
gum, dentists
Anal stage




1-3 years
Focus of sexual pleasure is the anus
Voluntary defecation is the primary way
to gratify the sex instinct during this
stage
Fixation: love of bathroom humor,
interest in bowel movements, extreme
messiness, prudishness, irritability
Phallic stage




3-6 years
Focus of sexual pleasure is on the
genitals
All children develop an incestuous
desire for opposite-sex parent
Oedipal and Electra complex develops
in males and females, respectively.
Oedipal complex





Boys have sexual longing for mothers and
jealousy of fathers
Boys want to hurt or kill fathers because
they’re a rival for Mom’s affection
Boy realizes he’s too weak to kill father and
develops “castration anxiety” (fears Dad will
cut off boy’s penis)
Castration anxiety causes repression of desire
for Mom and identification with Dad
Becomes psychologically male at this point.
Electra complex & penis envy



Girls realize at age 3-4 that they don’t have a
penis; blame Mom for castrating them.
Sexually desire fathers and want to bear
father’s child, preferably a son, to
compensate for her lack of a penis.
Freud didn’t know how girls resolved this
anxiety. Thought boys had stronger
superego than girls because they had to go
through the mental work of repressing their
castration anxiety whereas girls didn’t.
Latency period




Ages 6-12
Nothing much going on here
Child’s sex instinct is quiet, and libido is
channeled into acceptable activity like
schoolwork and play.
Continues until puberty.
Genital stage





Age 12 to late adulthood
Puberty brings maturation of
reproductive organs
Libido is once again settled in the
genitals
Aim of sex instinct is reproduction
In old age, person might regress to an
earlier stage of development.
Is Freud’s theory valid?


The theory of psychosexual
development has NOT held up to
scientific scrutiny.
It is still commonly assumed in the child
development community, though, that
children do go through a period where
they prefer the opposite-sex parent.
This resolves itself by age 5 or 6.
Erikson’s Theory of
Psychosocial Development

Basic ideas




A basic psychological conflict (not a sexual
conflict) determines healthy or maladaptive
behaviors at each stage.
Normal development must be viewed in the
context of one’s culture; we’re a product of our
society.
Focus is on psychosocial development, rather than
psychosexual development.
Conflicts are between biological maturation and
social demands.
Characteristics of Erikson’s
stages





Each stage contains a unique developmental
crisis that must be faced. There are 8 stages.
Crisis is not a catastrophe but merely a
turning point that can strengthen or weaken
us.
Each crisis is primarily social in nature.
There are degrees of success; the more you
resolve each conflict, the healthier you are.
Adjustment requires balancing both positive
and negative traits.
Basic trust vs. mistrust




Birth to 1 year
Corresponds to Freud’s oral stage
Babies must learn to trust caregivers.
You can’t “spoil” an infant; responding
to their cries teaches them to trust you,
which sets the pattern for relationships
throughout life.
Autonomy vs. shame and
doubt




1-3 years (Freud’s anal stage)
Children are developing new motor and
cognitive skills and want to be
independent.
Autonomy occurs when parent allows
child some freedom to make their own
decisions.
Shame & doubt occur when parent tries
to do too much for the child or makes
fun of him for doing something
Initiative vs. guilt





3-6 years (phallic stage)
Children try to act grown-up and do things
beyond their capabilities
May conflict with parents or feel guilty about
this
Initiative occurs when parent supports child’s
sense of independence
Guilt occurs if parent demands too much selfcontrol from child.
Industry vs. inferiority




6-11 years (latency stage)
Children master social and academic
skills.
Compare themselves to others—do they
measure up?
Can result in a sense of industry and
self-confidence, or a low self-esteem.
Identity vs. identity confusion



Adolescence
Who am I? What do I want out of life?
Many college students are still in this
stage.
Intimacy vs. isolation



Young adulthood
Task is to forge close relationships with
other people, both friendships and
romantic relationships.
If there’s a problem left over from stage
1 (basic trust vs. mistrust), there will be
a problem here, too.
Generativity vs. stagnation



Middle adulthood
Generativity—giving to others through
childrearing, careers, or caring for
others.
Stagnation—failing to find meaning in
life; person feels empty and thinks life
is meaningless
Ego integrity vs. despair



Late adulthood
Older person looks back on life and
assesses it
If dissatisfied with what they’ve
accomplished, they will fear death
more.
Comparing Freud & Erikson



Erikson’s theory is more optimistic than
Freud’s. (You can always go back and fix
things.)
Basic conflict in each stage is social, not
sexual.
Erikson’s theory, like Freud’s, defies
scientific testing.
Piaget’s CognitiveDevelopmental Theory





Most influential theory in child development
Piaget thought children were NOT passive
creatures who learned only through positive
and negative reinforcement.
Children learn by actively constructing
knowledge and manipulating objects.
Development occurs in stages; it’s not
continuous.
Key to cognitive development is not language
(as most theorists thought) but action—
manipulating objects and moving in space.
The clinical interview



A form of gathering information by asking
open-ended, flexible questions with follow-up
questions based on subject’s answers.
Nothing is standardized; subject determines
what questions are asked.
This is how Piaget came up with his theory.
He did clinical interviews while giving children
standardized IQ tests to follow up on their
incorrect answers.
Four States of Development




Sensorimotor stage: birth to 2 years
Preoperational stage: 2-7 years
Concrete operations: 7-11 years
Formal operations: 11 years on up (this
age range has been hotly contested as
being too young)
Sensorimotor stage





Infants “think” by acting on the world with
their senses—seeing, hearing, taste, touch.
They don’t “think” much but explore their
world through sensory and motor
experiences.
Acquire a primitive sense of self and others
during this stage; gain self-awareness by 18
mos.
Object permanence is the most significant
development.
By 2, infant can think & problem-solve.
Preoperational stage



Children use symbols to represent
earlier sensorimotor discoveries
(language and make-believe play)
Thought lacks logical qualities of later
stages
Major errors in thought (e.g.,
conservation error) dominate this stage.
Concrete operational stage



Reasoning becomes logical and
grounded in reality
Can organize objects into hierarchies of
classes and subclasses
Thinking isn’t yet abstract.
Formal operations




Characterized by abstract thought
Can reason with symbols and do
advanced mathematics
Can think of all possible outcomes to a
scientific problem, not just the obvious
ones.
Begin to question authority and become
frustrated with the lack of an ideal
world.
Limitations of Piaget’s theory





Seriously underestimated abilities of infants
and young children
Developmentalists don’t believe development
is as stagelike as Piaget thought…more
continuous
Children can be trained to solve Piagetian
tasks, which Piaget wouldn’t have thought
possible.
Children don’t reach formal operations by age
11. Some people don’t reach it at all.
There may be some postformal thought