Theories of Human Development

• Psychosexual (Sigmund Freud) Sigmund Freud (born 6 May 1856, died 23 September 1939) is an Austrian neurologist who became known as the founding father of psychoanalysis. When he was young, Sigmund Freud’s family moved from Frieberg, Moravia to Vienna where he would spend most of his life. His parents taught him at home after entering him in Spurling Gymnasium, where he was first in his class and graduated Summa cum Laude. After studying medicine at University of Vienna, Freud worked and gained respect as a physician. Through his work with respected French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot, Freud became fascinated with the emotional disorder known as hysteria. Freud believed that adult personality problems were the result of early experiences in life. He believed that we go through five stages of psychosexual development and that at each stage of development we experience pleasure in one part of the body than in others. Erogenous zones are parts of the body that have especially strong pleasure-giving qualities at particular stages of development. Freud thought that our adult personality is determined by the way we resolve conflicts between these early sources of pleasure - the mouth, the anus and the genitals - and demands of reality. Fixation is the psychoanalytic defense mechanism that occurs when the individual remains locked in an earlier development stage because needs are under or over gratified.
There are six stages of psychosexual development.
Oral Stage, it occurs during 18 months of life when the infant’s pleasure centers the mouth. Chewing, sucking and biting are chief sources of pleasure and this action reduces tension in the infant.
Anal Stage, it is the second stage of oral development that occurs between 11⁄2 until 3 years of age, in which the child’s greatest pleasure involves the anus or the eliminative functions associated with it.
Phallic Stage, it occurs between the ages of 3-6. The word “phallic” comes from the Latin word “phallus”