Psycho Stages Essay, Research Paper

Freud s Five Psycho Stages in Children

Freud did a large study on how children feel and react to certain things as they are growing up. First, Freud believed that children have sexual tendencies as they grow up. Then, he felt that the child would learn to be infatuated with the parent that was the opposite sex from them. For example, if the child was a boy. The boy would start to become very jealous of the father as time went on. Same thing goes for a girl. In Freud s five theories, we will take a look at how each of them explains his beliefs on what children go threw as they are growing up.

The first stage was the Oral phase. The Oral phase begins at birth and lasts for about eight month s. During those eight month s, the child will experience needs to suck, bite and swallow. These things will need to be done in order to control a child s sexual needs. However, the most obvious oral stage is the eating stage. When a child eats, it is manipulating many parts of the mouth.

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This manipulation was said to be the activities of fulfilling a child s sexual urges according to Freud.

Each time a child goes and takes a bit of something or swallows something, Freud believes that it is all a part of controlling the child s sexual needs.

During those first eight month s, the child was experiencing the ID. The ID was a controlling stage in a child, satisfying a child s demands, needs and wants. A child will do anything to get what they felt was needed due to the ID. A child will cry, throw things and even point just to express and show what they want. As long as they have the power of controlling their parents, the ID will keep on growing inside of the child demanding more and more during the first eight month s.

Soon after the Oral phase was over, the Anal phase began to start. The Anal phase takes part mainly in the center part of the body, near the rectum. The child will get pleasure from bowel movements according to Freud. The bowel movements eventually will cause problems with the

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child s parents. How you may ask? Well, the child enjoys bowel movements so much, that eventually the child will go as frequent as possible just to satisfy the sexual needs of the child. After this happens, the child will then develop an ego.

The ego will set in to a child, and then the child will realize that you can not do what you always feel

like doing. Parents start to lay a little bit more rules, which in turn will make the child a little more cooperative.

However, once a child reaches two years of age, the Phallic stages will set in. The Phallic stage usually lasts from two years of age, to six years of age. Sexual gratification becomes more erotic during this time. Freud believed that an increase in a male s sexual organs leads him to eventually desire his mother. By doing this, the male child will become very jealous of his father, hoping to become the object of his mothers love. This is called Oedipus Complex.

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The same goes for females. A female will eventually start to develop an attraction towards her father. When this happens, the female will become very jealous of her mother hoping to win the heart of the father. This is called the Electra Complex. This complex states that a female will have penis envy. The female child believes that at one time, she did have a penis. Now since it is lost, Freud says that in order to make up for

its loss, the female child will want to have a child by her father. All of this jealousy will soon be over after the child turns six.

Next comes the Latency stage in a child. The Latency stage usually takes place during the ages six to eleven. During these five years, the child s sex identity becomes a lot stronger. Boys usually tend to favor their father. The boy s will learn speech, manners, gestures and values that are all taught to them by their fathers. However, girls are the same way. Girls tend to favor their mother, as well as speech, gestures, manners and values all taught to them by their mother.

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In the Latency stage, the super ego starts to develop even more. Now children will go and seek playmates of their own sex. Boys prefer boys, trying to avoid any contact with girls if at all possible. Girls prefer girls, trying to stay as far away from boys as possible. Children soon come to distinguish the difference between acceptable and unacceptable behavior in society.

Finally, the last stage will slowly set in. This stage is called the Genital stage. The Genital stage usually takes place during the ages eleven to eighteen. During these seven years, masturbation takes place and is engaged in much more frequently then the Anal stage. In the beginning of the Genital stage, a person will tend to show interest in his or her own sex. Freud believed that at first, everyone was homosexual. Even if homosexual activity didn t take place, he still believed that people truly had emotions and infatuation for someone of the same sex.

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However, as time progressed in the Genital stage, Freud believed that people went from being homosexual to heterosexual. Freud believed now that people started to like and show interest in the opposite sex. Freud felt that everyone who was homosexual, stopped. Then, as the children got closer to eighteen, the more they became heterosexual and began to like and date children of the opposite sex.

In the genital stage, the super ego takes in further development. The super ego will become a lot more flexible and start to realize that some rules are less vital then others. The behavior of a child will show this. In doing so, the child will accept some rules and make exceptions for the others. The child will listen partly to what the parents and guardians are saying, but more to what they tell themselves to do and what they like doing. This usually takes place around sixteen.

As my paper concludes, I fell that Freud was really a person with a lot of problems.

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You see, Freud made children sound perverted and horrible all at the same time. It makes you think how can a person say all of these things about children, when he was a child himself at one point. What made Freud write about these opinions anyway? Don t get me wrong though, Freud had some good assumptions that were made. He was right about how people tend to fight and disagree more with their parents in the Genital stage than in any other stage.

Also, he was correct about the boys playing with boys, and the girls playing with girls. With both of them trying to avoid eachother. But, the idea of a woman having penis envy, or the fact that all children are infatuated with the parent of the opposite sex I feel is all a lie. They child simply doesn t know what is going on around them.