Father of Psychology!
SIGMUND FREUD
Sigmund Freud
Theory of Personality
Development
 Believed personality develops through a
series of childhood stages
 If the stages are completed successfully, the
result is a healthy personality.
Freud’s Stages
 Stage 1: The oral stage
 Last from birth to 18 months
 Primary source of interaction occurs through
mouth
 Mouth for eating, and infant gets pleasure
from oral stimulation through tasting and
sucking.
 Child depends on caregiver to feed them,
they develop a sense of trust and comfort
through oral stimulation.
 Child must become less dependant on
caretakers, if not child fixates at this stage
and would have issues with dependency and
aggression.
 Could cause problems with drinking,
smoking, and nail biting.
Stage 2: The Anal Stage
 Primary focus was on controlling bladder and
bowel movements.
 Success depends on parents toilet training
approach.
 If parents praise and reward
 If parents punish, ridicule or shame a child for
accidents
 If approach too lenient, an anal expulsive
personality can develop = messy, wasteful or
destructive personality
 If too strict = becomes orderly, rigid,obsessive.
Stage 3: Phallic Stage
 Focus on genitals
 Discover differences between males and females
 Boys begin to view father as a rival for their mothers
affection ( child fears punishment from father for
feeling this way) Oedipus complex
 Young girls experience penis envy ( electra complex)
 Child realizes and begins to identify with the same
sex parent as a means of possessing the other
parent.
 Believed that females never resolve their penis envy
and are somewhat fixated at this stage.
Stage 4: The Latent Period
 6- puberty ( around 12)
 Development of the ego and superego
 Become more concerned with relationships,
hobbies interests
 Time of exploration sexual energy still
present, but is directed into other areas;
intellectual pursuits and social
 Important in development of social and
communication skills and self confidence.
Stage 5: The Genital Stage
 Begins at puberty
 Resurgence of the sex drive
 Strong sexual interest in the opposite sex
 If all other stages were completed
successfully the individual should be well
balanced warm and caring
 Goal of stage is to establish a balance
between life areas.
Psychoanalytic theory of
personality:
 Composed of three elements
 These 3 elements work together to create
complex human behaviours.
The Id
 Only part of personality present at birth
 Unconscious ( includes instinct and primitive
behaviours)
 Source of all psychic energy,making it the
primary component of personality
The Ego
 Part of personality responsible for dealing
with reality.
 Develops from the id, and ensures that the
impulses of the id can be expressed in a
manner acceptable in the real world.
 Present in conscious, and unconscious mind
 Operates on reality principle( strives to satisfy
the id’s desires in realistic and socially
appropriate ways.
The Superego
 Last to develop
 Holds all our moral standards that we get from
parents and society ( sense of right and wrong)
 Provides guidelines for making judgements
 Emerges at around 5
 Acts to perfect and civilize our behaviour.
 Works to suppress unacceptable urges of the id
and struggles to make the ego act upon idealistic
standards.
Group Activity
 1) In your groups please come up with
strengths and weaknesses to this theory.
 2) In your groups you are to pretend that one
member is Sigmund Freud and the other
member is a patient coming to him for help.
 You are to develop a problem, and scenario where
Feud can help the patient to overcome their problems
based on his theory of personality development.
 Each group must have a script for their scenarios.