Psychosexual Stages

by Saul McLeod published 2008

Freud (1905) proposed that psychological development in childhood takes
place in a series of fixed stages.
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.
Freud believed that life was built round tension and pleasure. Freud also
believed that all tension was due to the build up of libido (sexual energy)
and that all pleasure came from its discharge.
In describing human personality development as psychosexual Freud
meant to convey that what develops is the way in which sexual energy
accumulates and is discharged as we mature biologically. (NB Freud used
the term 'sexual' in a very general way to mean all pleasurable actions and
thoughts).
Freud stressed that the first five years of life are crucial to the formation of
adult personality. The id must be controlled in order to satisfy social
demands; this sets up a conflict between frustrated wishes and social
norms.
The ego and superego develop in order to exercise this control and direct
the need for gratification into socially acceptable channels. Gratification
centers in different areas of the body at different stages of growth, making
the conflict at each stage psychosexual.

The Role of Conflict

Each of the psychosexual stages is associated with a particular conflict that
must be resolved before the individual can successfully advance to the next
stage. The resolution of each of these conflicts requires the expenditure of
sexual energy and the more energy that is expended at a particular stage

the more the important characteristics of that stage remain with the
individual as he/she matures psychologically.
To explain this Freud suggested the analogy of military troops on the
march. As the troops advance, they are met by opposition or conflict. If
they are highly successful in winning the battle (resolving the conflict) then
most of the troops (libido) will be able to move on to the next battle (stage).
But the greater the difficulty encountered at any particular point the greater
the need for troops to remain behind to fight and thus the fewer that will be
able to go on to the next confrontation.

Frustration,
Overindulgence and
Fixation
Some people do not seem to be able to leave one stage and proceed on to
the next. One reason for this may be that the needs of the developing
individual at any particular stage may not have been adequately met in
which case there is frustration. Or possibly the person's needs may have
been so well satisfied that he/she is reluctant to leave the psychological
benefits of a particular stage in which there is overindulgence.
Both frustration and overindulgence (or any combination of the two) may
lead to what psychoanalysts callfixation at a particular psychosexual
stage.
Fixation refers to the theoretical notion that a portion of the individual's
libido has been permanently 'invested' in a particular stage of his
development. It is assumed that some libido is permanently invested in
each psychosexual stage and thus each person will behave in some ways
that are characteristic of infancy, or early childhood.

Psychosexual Stages of
Development

You can remember the order of these stages by using the mnemonic: old
(oral) age (anal) pensioners (phallic) love (latent) grapes (genital).

Oral Stage (0-1 year)

In the first stage of personality development the libido is centered in a
baby's mouth. It gets much satisfaction from putting all sorts of things in its
mouth to satisfy the libido, and thus its id demands. Which at this stage in
life are oral, or mouth orientated, such as sucking, biting, and
breastfeeding.
Freud said oral stimulation could lead to an oral fixation in later life. We see
oral personalities all around us such as smokers, nail-biters, fingerchewers, and thumb suckers. Oral personalities engage in such oral
behaviors, particularly when under stress.

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).
Freud believed that this type of conflict tends to come to a head in potty
training, in which adults impose restrictions on when and where the child
can defecate. The nature of this first conflict with authority can determine
the child's future relationship with all forms of authority.
Early or harsh potty training can lead to the child becoming an analretentive personality who hates mess, is obsessively tidy, punctual and
respectful of authority. They can be stubborn and tight-fisted with their cash
and possessions. This is all related to pleasure got from holding on to their
faeces when toddlers, and their mum's then insisting that they get rid of it
by placing them on the potty until they perform!
Not as daft as it sounds. The anal expulsive, on the other hand, underwent
a liberal toilet-training regime during the anal stage. In adulthood the anal
expulsive is the person who wants to share things with you. They like
giving things away. In essence, they are 'sharing their s**t'!' An analexpulsive personality is also messy, disorganized and rebellious.

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). This is
resolved through the process of identification, which involves the child
adopting the characteristics of the same sex parent.

Oedipus Complex
The most important aspect of the phallic stage is the Oedipus
complex. This is one of Freud's most controversial ideas and one that
many people reject outright.
The name of the Oedipus complex derives from the Greek myth where
Oedipus, a young man, kills his father and marries his mother. Upon

discovering this he pokes his eyes out and becomes blind. This Oedipal
is the generic (i.e. general) term for both Oedipus and Electra
complexes.
In the young boy, the Oedipus complex or more correctly, conflict, arises
because the boy develops sexual (pleasurable) desires for his mother.
He wants to possess his mother exclusively and get rid of his father to
enable him to do so. Irrationally, the boy thinks that if his father were to
find out about all this, his father would take away what he loves the
most. During the phallic stage what the boy loves most is his penis.
Hence the boy develops castration anxiety.
The little boy then sets out to resolve this problem by imitating, copying
and joining in masculine dad-type behaviors. This is
called identification, and is how the three-to-five year old boy resolves
his Oedipus complex. Identification means internally adopting the
values, attitudes and behaviors of another person. The consequence of
this is that the boy takes on the male gender role, and adopts an ego
ideal and values that become the superego.
Freud (1909) offered the Little Hans case study as evidence of the
Oedipus complex.

Electra Complex
For girls, the Oedipus or Electra complex is less than satisfactory.
Briefly, the girl desires the father, but realizes that she does not have a
penis. This leads to the development of penis envy and the wish to be
a boy.
The girl resolves this by repressing her desire for her father and
substituting the wish for a penis with the wish for a baby. The girl
blames her mother for her 'castrated state' and this creates great
tension. The girl then represses her feelings (to remove the tension)
and identifies with the mother to take on the female gender role.

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. Much of the child's energy is channeled into developing new
skills and acquiring new knowledge and play becomes largely confined to
other children of the same gender.

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.
For Freud, the proper outlet of the sexual instinct in adults was through
heterosexual intercourse. Fixation and conflict may prevent this with the
consequence that sexual perversions may develop. For example, fixation
at the oral stage may result in a person gaining sexual pleasure primarily
from kissing and oral sex, rather than sexual intercourse.

. Trust vs. Mistrust

Is the world a safe place or is it full of unpredictable events and accidents
waiting to happen?
Erikson's first psychosocial crisis occurs during the first year or so of life
(like Freud's oral stage of psychosexual development). The crisis is one of
trust vs. mistrust.

During this stage the infant is uncertain about the world in which they live.
To resolve these feelings of uncertainty the infant looks towards their
primary caregiver for stability and consistency of care.
If the care the infant receives is consistent, predictable and reliable, they
will develop a sense of trust which will carry with them to other
relationships, and they will be able to feel secure even when threatened.
Success in this stage will lead to the virtue of hope. By developing a sense
of trust, the infant can have hope that as new crises arise, there is a real
possibility that other people will be there are a source of support. Failing to
acquire the virtue of hope will lead to the development of fear.
For example, if the care has been harsh or inconsistent, unpredictable and
unreliable, then the infant will develop a sense of mistrust and will not have
confidence in the world around them or in their abilities to influence events.
This infant will carry the basic sense of mistrust with them to other
relationships. It may result in anxiety, heightened insecurities, and an over
feeling of mistrust in the world around them.
Consistent with Erikson's views on the importance of trust, research
by Bowlby and Ainsworth has outlined how the quality of the early
experience of attachment can affect relationships with others in later life.

2. Autonomy vs. Shame and

Doubt

The child is developing physically and becoming more mobile. Between the
ages of 18 months and three, children begin to assert their independence,
by walking away from their mother, picking which toy to play with, and
making choices about what they like to wear, to eat, etc.
The child is discovering that he or she has many skills and abilities, such as
putting on clothes and shoes, playing with toys, etc. Such skills illustrate the
child's growing sense of independence and autonomy. Erikson states it is
critical that parents allow their children to explore the limits of their abilities
within an encouraging environment which is tolerant of failure.

For example, rather than put on a child's clothes a supportive parent should
have the patience to allow the child to try until they succeed or ask for
assistance.
So, the parents need to encourage the child to becoming more independent whilst at the same
time protecting the child so that constant failure is avoided.

A delicate balance is required from the parent. They must try not to do
everything for the child but if the child fails at a particular task they must not
criticize the child for failures and accidents (particularly when toilet training).
The aim has to be self control without a loss of self-esteem (Gross, 1992).
Success in this stage will lead to the virtue of will.
If children in this stage are encouraged and supported in their increased
independence, they become more confident and secure in their own ability
to survive in the world.
If children are criticized, overly controlled, or not given the opportunity to
assert themselves, they begin to feel inadequate in their ability to survive,
and may then become overly dependent upon others, lack self-esteem, and
feel a sense of shame or doubt in their own abilities.

3. Initiative vs. Guilt

Around age three and continuing to age five, children assert themselves
more frequently. These are particularly lively, rapid-developing years in a
childs life. According to Bee (1992) it is a time of vigor of action and of
behaviors that the parents may see as aggressive".
During this period the primary feature involves the child regularly interacting
with other children at school. Central to this stage is play, as it provides
children with the opportunity to explore their interpersonal skills through
initiating activities.
Children begin to plan activities, make up games, and initiate activities with
others. If given this opportunity, children develop a sense of initiative, and
feel secure in their ability to lead others and make decisions.
Conversely, if this tendency is squelched, either through criticism or control,
children develop a sense of guilt. They may feel like a nuisance to others
and will therefore remain followers, lacking in self-initiative.

The child takes initiatives which the parents will often try to stop in order to
protect the child. The child will often overstep the mark in his forcefulness
and the danger is that the parents will tend to punish the child and restrict
his initiatives too much.
It is at this stage that the child will begin to ask many questions as his thirst
for knowledge grows. If the parents treat the childs questions as trivial, a
nuisance or embarrassing or other aspects of their behavior as threatening
then the child may have feelings of guilt for being a nuisance.
Too much guilt can make the child slow to interact with others and may
inhibit their creativity. Some guilt is, of course, necessary, otherwise the
child would not know how to exercise self control or have a conscience.
A healthy balance between initiative and guilt is important. Success in this
stage will lead to the virtue ofpurpose.

4. Industry (competence) vs.

Inferiority
Children are at the stage (aged 5 to 12 yrs) where they will be learning to
read and write, to do sums, to do things on their own. Teachers begin to
take an important role in the childs life as they teach the child specific
skills.
It is at this stage that the childs peer group will gain greater significance
and will become a major source of the childs self esteem. The child now
feels the need to win approval by demonstrating specific competencies that
are valued by society, and begin to develop a sense of pride in their
accomplishments.
If children are encouraged and reinforced for their initiative, they begin to
feel industrious and feel confident in their ability to achieve goals. If this
initiative is not encouraged, if it is restricted by parents or teacher, then the
child begins to feel inferior, doubting his own abilities and therefore may not
reach his or her potential.
If the child cannot develop the specific skill they feel society is demanding
(e.g. being athletic) then they may develop a sense of inferiority. Some

failure may be necessary so that the child can develop some modesty. Yet
again, a balance between competence and modesty is necessary. Success
in this stage will lead to the virtue of competence.

5. Identity vs. Role Confusion

During adolescence (age 12 to 18 yrs), the transition from childhood to
adulthood is most important. Children are becoming more independent,
and begin to look at the future in terms of career, relationships, families,
housing, etc. The individual wants to belong to a society and fit in.
This is a major stage in development where the child has to learn
the roles he will occupy as an adult. It is during this stage that the
adolescent will re-examine his identity and try to find out exactly who he or
she is. Erikson suggests that two identities are involved: the sexual and the
occupational.
According to Bee (1992), what should happen at the end of this stage is a
reintegrated sense of self, of what one wants to do or be, and of ones
appropriate sex role. During this stage the body image of the adolescent
changes.
Erikson claims that the adolescent may feel uncomfortable about their body
for a while until they can adapt and grow into the changes. Success in this
stage will lead to the virtue of fidelity.
Fidelity involves being able to commit one's self to others on the basis of
accepting others, even when there may be ideological differences.
During this period, they explore possibilities and begin to form their own
identity based upon the outcome of their explorations. Failure to establish a
sense of identity within society ("I dont know what I want to be when I grow
up") can lead to role confusion. Role confusion involves the individual not
being sure about themselves or their place in society.
In response to role confusion or identity crisis an adolescent may begin to
experiment with different lifestyles (e.g. work, education or political
activities). Also pressuring someone into an identity can result in rebellion

in the form of establishing a negative identity, and in addition to this feeling

of unhappiness.

6. Intimacy vs. Isolation

Occurring in young adulthood (ages 18 to 40 yrs), we begin to share

ourselves more intimately with others. We explore relationships leading
toward longer term commitments with someone other than a family
member.
Successful completion of this stage can lead to comfortable relationships
and a sense of commitment, safety, and care within a relationship. Avoiding
intimacy, fearing commitment and relationships can lead to isolation,
loneliness, and sometimes depression. Success in this stage will lead to
the virtue of love.

7. Generativity vs. Stagnation

During middle adulthood (ages 40 to 65 yrs), we establish our careers,
settle down within a relationship, begin our own families and develop a
sense of being a part of the bigger picture.
We give back to society through raising our children, being productive at
work, and becoming involved in community activities and organizations.
By failing to achieve these objectives, we become stagnant and feel
unproductive. Success in this stage will lead to the virtue of care.

8. Ego Integrity vs. Despair

As we grow older (65+ yrs) and become senior citizens, we tend to slow
down our productivity, and explore life as a retired person. It is during this
time that we contemplate our accomplishments and are able to develop
integrity if we see ourselves as leading a successful life.
Erik Erikson believed if we see our lives as unproductive, feel guilt about
our past, or feel that we did not accomplish our life goals, we become
dissatisfied with life and develop despair, often leading to depression and
hopelessness.

Success in this stage will lead to the virtue of wisdom. Wisdom enables a
person to look back on their life with a sense of closure and completeness,
and also accept death without fear.
One of the strengths of Erikson's theory is its ability to tie together
important psychosocial development across the entire lifespan.
Although support for Erikson's stages of personality development exists
(McAdams, 1999), critics of his theory provide evidence suggesting a lack
of discrete stages of personality development (McCrae & Costa, 1997).

Piaget's Stages of
Cognitive Development
Piaget concluded that there were four different stages in the cognitive
development of children. The first was the Sensory Motor Stage, which occurs
in children from birth to approximately two years. The Pre-operational Stage is
next, and this occurs in children aged around two to seven years old. Children
aged around seven to eleven or twelve go through the Concrete Operational
stage, and adolescents go through the Formal Operations Stage, from the age
of around eleven to sixteen or more.
The following discussion outlines these four stages:
Sensory Motor Stage

(Birth - 2yrs)

Pre-operational Stage

(2yrs-7yrs)

Concrete Operational Stage

(7yrs-11yrs)

Formal Operations Stage

(11yrs-16yrs)

Sensory Motor Stage (Birth - 2yrs)

Piaget's ideas surrounding the Sensory Motor Stage are centred on the basis
of a 'schema'. Schemas are mental representations or ideas about what things
are and how we deal with them. Piaget deduced that the first schemas of an

infant are to do with movement. Piaget believed that much of a baby's

behaviour is triggered by certain stimuli, in that they are reflexive. A few weeks
after birth, the baby begins to understand some of the information it is
receiving from it's senses, and learns to use some muscles and limbs for
movement. These developments are known as 'action schemas'.
Babies are unable to consider anyone else's needs, wants or interests, and
are therefore considered to be 'ego centric'.
During the Sensory Motor Stage, knowledge about objects and the ways that
they can be manipulated is acquired. Through the acquisition of information
about self and the world, and the people in it, the baby begins to understand
how one thing can cause or affect another, and begins to develop simple ideas
about time and space.
Babies have the ability to build up mental pictures of objects around them,
from the knowledge that they have developed on what can be done with the
object. Large amounts of an infant's experience is surrounding objects. What
the objects are is irrelevant, more importance is placed on the baby being able
to explore the object to see what can be done with it. At around the age of
eight or nine months, infants are more interested in an object for the object's
own sake.
A discovery by Piaget surrounding this stage of development, was that when
an object is taken from their sight, babies act as though the object has ceased
to exist. By around eight to twelve months, infants begin to look for objects
hidden, this is what is defined as 'Object Permanence'. This view has been
challenged however, by Tom Bower, who showed that babies from one to four
months have an idea of Object Permanence.

Pre-Operations Stage (2yrs-7yrs)

Piaget's second stage of development, was the Pre-Operations Stage.
Children usually go through this stage between the age of two to seven years
old.

During this stage, children's thought processes are developing, although they
are still considered to be far from 'logical thought', in the adult sense of the
word. The vocabulary of a child is also expanded and developed during this
stage, as they change from babies and toddlers into 'little people'.
Pre-operational children are usually 'ego centric', meaning that they are only
able to consider things from their own point of view, and imagine that everyone
shares this view, because it is the only one possible. Gradually during this
stage, a certain amount of 'decentering' occurs. This is when someone stops
believing that they are the centre of the world, and they are more able to
imagine that something or someone else could be the centre of attention.
'Animism' is also a characteristic of the Pre-operational stage. This is when a
person has the belief that everything that exists has some kind of
consciousness. An example of this is that children often believe that a car
won't start because it is tired or sick, or they punish a piece of furniture when
they run into it, because it must have been naughty to hurt them. A reason for
this characteristic of the stage, is that the Pre-operational child often assumes
that everyone and everything is like them. Therefore since the child can feel
pain, and has emotions, so must everything else.
Another aspect of the Pre-operational stage in a child, is that of 'symbolism'.
This is when something is allowed to stand for or symbolise something else.
'Moral realism' is a fourth aspect of this stage, this is the belief that the child's
way of thinking about the difference between right and wrong, is shared by
everyone else around them. One aspect of a situation, at one time, is all that
they are able to focus on, and it is beyond them to consider that anything else
could be possible. Due to this aspect of the stage, children begin to respect
and insist on obedience of rules at all times, and they are not able to take
anything such as motives into account.

Concrete Operations Stage (7yrs-11yrs)

The Concrete Operations Stage, was Piaget's third stage of cognitive
development in children. This stage was believed to have affected children
aged between seven and eleven to twelve years old.

During this stage, the thought process becomes more rational, mature and
'adult like', or more 'operational', Although this process most often continues
well into the teenage years. The process is divided by Piaget into two stages,
the Concrete Operations, and the Formal Operations stage, which is normally
undergone by adolescents.
In the Concrete Operational stage, the child has the ability to develop logical
thought about an object, if they are able to manipulate it. By comparison,
however, in the Formal Operations stage, the thoughts are able to be
manipulated and the presence of the object is not necessary for the thought to
take place.
Belief in animism and ego centric thought tends to decline during the Concrete
Operational stage, although, remnants of this way of thinking are often found
in adults.
Piaget claims that before the beginning of this stage, children's ideas about
different objects, are formed and dominated by the appearance of the object.
For example, there appears to be more blocks when they are spread out, than
when they are in a small pile. During the Concrete Operational Stage, children
gradually develop the ability to 'conserve', or learn that objects are not always
the way that they appear to be. This occurs when children are able to take in
many different aspects of an object, simply through looking at it. Children are
able to begin to imagine different scenarios, or 'what if' something were to
happen. This is because they now have more 'operational' thought. Children
are generally first able to conserve ideas about objects with which they are
most comfortable.
Once children have learnt to conserve, they learn about 'reversibility'. This
means that they learn that if things are changed, they will still be the same as
they used to be. For example, they learn that if they spread out the pile of
blocks, there are still as many there as before, even though it looks different!

Formal Operations Stage (11yrs-16yrs)

Finally, in the formal operational stage of adolescence, the structures of

development become the abstract, logically organized system of adult

intelligence. When faced with a complex problem, the adolescent speculates

about all possible solutions before trying them out in the real world.
The formal operational stage begins around age 11 and is fully achieved by
age 15, bringing with it the capacity for abstraction. This permits adolescents
to reason beyound a world of concrete reality to a world of possibilities and to
operate logically on symbols and information that do not necessarily refer to
objects and events in the real world.
There are 2 major characteristics of formal operational thought.
The first is 'hypothetic-deductive reasoning'. When faced with a problem,
adolescents come up with a general theory of all possible factors that might
affect the outcome and deduce from it specific hypothese that might occur.
They then systematically treat these hypothese to see which ones do in fact
occur in the real world. Thus, adolescent problem solving begins with
possibilty and proceeds to reality.
The second important characteristic of this stage is that it is 'propositional' in
nature. Adolescents can focus on verbal assertions and evaluate their logical
validity without making refence to real-world circumstances. In contrast,
concrete operational children can evaluate the logic of statements by
considering them against concrete evidence only.

Theory of Moral Development

The Theory of Moral Development is a very interesting
subject that stemmed from Jean Piagets theory of moral
reasoning. Developed by psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg,
this theory made us understand that morality starts from the
early childhood years and can be affected by several factors.
Morality can be developed either negatively or positively, depending on how an
individual accomplishes the tasks before him during each stage of moral
development across his lifespan.

History of the Theory

How did Kohlberg come up with the theory of moral development? All his ideas
started from the research he performed with very young children as his subjects.
He found out that children are faced with different moral issues, and their
judgments on whether they are to act positively or negatively over each dilemma
are heavily influenced by several factors. In each scenario that Kohlberg related
to the children, he was not really asking whether or not the person in the situation
is morally right or wrong, but he wanted to find out the reasons why these
children think that the character is morally right or not.

Levels and Stages of Moral Development

Level 1: Preconventional Morality
The first level of morality, preconventional morality, can be further divided into two
stages: obedience and punishment, and individualism and exchange.
Stage 1: Punishment- Obedience Orientation
Related to Skinners Operational Conditioning, this stage includes the use of
punishment so that the person refrains from doing the action and continues to
obey the rules. For example, we follow the law because we do not want to go to
jail.
Stage 2: Instrumental Relativist Orientation
In this stage, the person is said to judge the morality of an action based on how it
satisfies the individual needs of the doer. For instance, a person steals money
from another person because he needs that money to buy food for his hungry
children. In Kohlbergs theory, the children tend to say that this action is morally
right because of the serious need of the doer.

Level 2: Conventional Morality

The second level of morality involves the stages 3 and 4 of moral development.
Conventional morality includes the society and societal roles in judging the
morality of an action.
Stage 3: Good Boy-Nice Girl Orientation
In this stage, a person judges an action based on the societal roles and social
expectations before him. This is also known as the interpersonal relationships
phase. For example, a child gives away her lunch to a street peasant because
she thinks doing so means being nice.
Stage 4: Law and Order Orientation
This stage includes respecting the authorities and following the rules, as well as
doing a persons duty. The society is the main consideration of a person at this
stage. For instance, a policeman refuses the money offered to him under the
table and arrests the offender because he believes this is his duty as an officer of
peace and order.

Level 3: Postconventional Morality

The post-conventional morality includes stage 5 and stage 6. This is mainly
concerned with the universal principles that relation to the action done.
Stage 5 : Social Contract Orientation

In this stage, the person is look at various opinions and values of different people
before coming up with the decision on the morality of the action.
Stage 6 : Universal Ethical Principles Orientation
The final stage of moral reasoning, this orientation is when a person considers
universally accepted ethical principles. The judgment may become innate and
may even violate the laws and rules as the person becomes attached to his own
principles of justice.