ERIK ERIKSON

1. Infancy: Birth to 18 Months Ego Development Outcome: Trust vs. Mistrust Basic strength: Drive and Hope Erikson also referred to infancy as the Oral Sensory Stage (as anyone might who watches a baby put everything in her mouth) where the major emphasis is on the mother's positive and loving care for the child, with a big emphasis on visual contact and touch. If we pass successfully through this period of life, we will learn to trust that life is basically okay and have basic confidence in the future. If we fail to experience trust and are constantly frustrated because our needs are not met, we may end up with a deep-seated feeling of worthlessness and a mistrust of the world in general. Incidentally, many studies of suicides and suicide attempts point to the importance of the early years in developing the basic belief that the world is trustworthy and that every individual has a right to be here. Not surprisingly, the most significant relationship is with the maternal parent, or whoever is our most significant and constant caregiver. 2. Early Childhood: 18 Months to 3 Years Ego Development Outcome: Autonomy vs. Shame Basic Strengths: Self-control, Courage, and Will During this stage we learn to master skills for ourselves. Not only do we learn to walk, talk and feed ourselves, we are learning finer motor development as well as the much appreciated toilet training. Here we have the opportunity to build self-esteem and autonomy as we gain more control over our bodies and acquire new skills, learning right from wrong. And one of our skills during the "Terrible Two's" is our ability to use the powerful word "NO!" It may be pain for parents, but it develops important skills of the will. (See Use of the Will from He Hit Me Back First!) It is also during this stage, however, that we can be very vulnerable. If we're shamed in the process of toilet training or in learning other important skills, we may feel great shame and doubt of our capabilities and suffer low self-esteem as a result. The most significant relationships are with parents. 3. Play Age: 3 to 5 Years Ego Development Outcome: Initiative vs. Guilt Basic Strength: Purpose

During this period we experience a desire to copy the adults around us and take initiative in creating play situations. We make up stories with Barbie's and Ken's, toy phones and miniature cars, playing out roles in a trial universe, experimenting with the blueprint for what we believe it means to be an adult. We also begin to use that wonderful word for exploring the world"WHY?" While Erikson was influenced by Freud, he downplays biological sexuality in favor of the psychosocial features of conflict between child and parents. Nevertheless, he said that at this stage we usually become involved in the classic "Oedipal struggle" and resolve this struggle through "social role identification." If we're frustrated over natural desires and goals, we may easily experience guilt. The most significant relationship is with the basic family. 4. School Age: 6 to 12 Years Ego Development Outcome: Industry vs. Inferiority Basic Strengths: Method and Competence During this stage, often called the Latency, we are capable of learning, creating and accomplishing numerous new skills and knowledge, thus developing a sense of industry. This is also a very social stage of development and if we experience unresolved feelings of inadequacy and inferiority among our peers, we can have serious problems in terms of competence and self-esteem. As the world expands a bit, our most significant relationship is with the school and neighborhood. Parents are no longer the complete authorities they once were, although they are still important. 5. Adolescence: 12 to 18 Years Ego Development Outcome: Identity vs. Role Confusion Basic Strengths: Devotion and Fidelity Up to this stage, according to Erikson, development mostly depends upon what is done to us. From here on out, development depends primarily upon what we do. And while adolescence is a stage at which we are neither a child nor an adult, life is definitely getting more complex as we attempt to find our own identity, struggle with social interactions, and grapple with moral issues. Our task is to discover who we are as individuals separate from our family of origin and as members of a wider society. Unfortunately for those around us, in this process many of us go into a period of withdrawing from responsibilities, which Erikson called a "moratorium." And if we are unsuccessful in navigating this stage, we will experience role confusion and upheaval.

A significant task for us is to establish a philosophy of life and in this process we tend to think in terms of ideals, which are conflict free, rather than reality, which is not. The problem is that we don't have much experience and find it easy to substitute ideals for experience. However, we can also develop strong devotion to friends and causes. It is no surprise that our most significant relationships are with peer groups. 6. Young adulthood: 18 to 35 Ego Development Outcome: Intimacy and Solidarity vs. Isolation Basic Strengths: Affiliation and Love In the initial stage of being an adult we seek one or more companions and love. As we try to find mutually satisfying relationships, primarily through marriage and friends, we generally also begin to start a family, though this age has been pushed back for many couples who today don't start their families until their late thirties. If negotiating this stage is successful, we can experience intimacy on a deep level. If we're not successful, isolation and distance from others may occur. And when we don't find it easy to create satisfying relationships, our world can begin to shrink as, in defense, we can feel superior to others. Our significant relationships are with marital partners and friends. 7. Middle Adulthood: 35 to 55 or 65 Ego Development Outcome: Generativity vs. Self absorption or Stagnation Basic Strengths: Production and Care Now work is most crucial. Erikson observed that middle-age is when we tend to be occupied with creative and meaningful work and with issues surrounding our family. Also, middle adulthood is when we can expect to "be in charge," the role we've longer envied. The significant task is to perpetuate culture and transmit values of the culture through the family (taming the kids) and working to establish a stable environment. Strength comes through care of others and production of something that contributes to the betterment of society, which Erikson calls generativity, so when we're in this stage we often fear inactivity and meaninglessness. As our children leave home, or our relationships or goals change, we may be faced with major life changesthe mid-life crisisand struggle with finding new meanings and purposes. If we don't get through this stage successfully, we can become self-absorbed and stagnate.

Significant relationships are within the workplace, the community and the family. 8. Late Adulthood: 55 or 65 to Death Ego Development Outcome: Integrity vs. Despair Basic Strengths: Wisdom Erikson felt that much of life is preparing for the middle adulthood stage and the last stage is recovering from it. Perhaps that is because as older adults we can often look back on our lives with happiness and are content, feeling fulfilled with a deep sense that life has meaning and we've made a contribution to life, a feeling Erikson calls integrity. Our strengt h comes from a wisdom that the world is very large and we now have a detached concern for the whole of life, accepting death as the completion of life. On the other hand, some adults may reach this stage and despair at their experiences and perceived failures. They may fear death as they struggle to find a purpose to their lives, wondering "Was the trip worth it?" Alternatively, they may feel they have all the answers (not unlike going back to adolescence) and end with a strong dogmatism that only their view has been correct. The significant relationship is with all of mankind"my-kind."

JEAN PIAGET
Sensorimotor period According to Piaget, this child is in the sensorimotor period and primarily explores the world with senses rather than through mental operations. Infants are born with a set of congenital reflexes, according to Piaget, in addition to a drive to explore their world. Their initial schemas are formed through differentiation of the congenital reflexes The sensorimotor period is the first of the four periods. According to Piaget, this stage marks the development of essential spatial abilities and understanding of the world in six sub-stages: 1. The first sub-stage, known as the reflex schema stage, occurs from birth to six weeks and is associated primarily with the development of reflexes. 2. The second sub-stage, primary circular reaction phase, occurs from six weeks to four months and is associated primarily with the development of habits.

3. The third sub-stage, the secondary circular reactions phase, occurs from four to nine months and is associated primarily with the development of coordination between vision and prehension. 4. The fourth sub-stage, called the co-ordination of secondary circular reactions stage, which occurs from nine to twelve months, is when Piaget (1954) thought that object permanence developed. 5. The fifth sub-stage, the tertiary circular reactions phase, occurs from twelve to eighteen months and is associated primarily with the discovery of new means to meet goals. 6. The sixth sub-stage, considered "beginnings of symbolic representation", is associated primarily with the beginnings of insight, or true creativity. [edit] Preoperational stage The Preoperational stage is the second of four stages of cognitive development. By observing sequences of play, Piaget was able to demonstrate that towards the end of the second year a qualitatively new kind of psychological functioning occurs. (Pre)Operatory Thought in Piagetian theory is any procedure for mentally acting on objects. The hallmark of the preoperational stage is sparse and logically inadequate mental operations. During this stage the child learns to use and to represent objects by images and words, in other words they learn to use symbolic thinking. Thinking is still egocentric: The child has difficulty taking the viewpoint of others. The child can classify objects by a single feature: e.g. groups together all the red blocks regardless of shape or all the square blocks regardless of color. According to Piaget, the Pre-Operational stage of development follows the Sensorimotor stage and occurs between 27 years of age. In this stage, children develop their language skills. They begin representing things with words and images. However, they still use intuitive rather than logical reasoning. At the beginning of this stage, they tend to be egocentric, that is, they are not aware that other people do not think, know and perceive the same as them. Children have highly imaginative minds at this time and actually assign emotions to inanimate objects. The theory of mind is also critical to this stage. (Psychology 8th Edition, David Myers) [1]

The Preoperational Stage can be further broken down into the Preconceptual Stage and the Intuitive Stage

The Preconceptual stage (2-4 years) is marked by egocentric thinking and animistic thought. A child who displays animistic thought tends to assign living attributes to inanimate objects, for example that a glass would feel pain if it were broken. The Intuitive(4-7 years) stage is when children start employing mental activities to solve problems and obtain goals but they are unaware of how they came to their conclusions. For example a child is shown 7 dogs and 3 cats and asked if there are more dogs then cats. The child would respond positively. However when asked if there are more dogs then animals the child would once again respond positively. Such fundamental errors in logic show the transition between intuitiveness in solving problems and true logical reasoning acquired in later years. (Child Psychology, 1st Canadian Edition, Hetherington, Parke & Schmuckler) [edit] Concrete operational stage The Concrete operational stage is the third of four stages of cognitive development in Piaget's theory. This stage, which follows the Preoperational stage, occurs between the ages of 6 and 12 years and is characterized by the appropriate use of logic. Important processes during this stage are: Seriationthe ability to sort objects in an order according to size, shape, or any other characteristic. For example, if given differentshaded objects they may make a color gradient. Classificationthe ability to name and identify sets of objects according to appearance, size or other characteristic, including the idea that one set of objects can include another. A child is no longer subject to the illogical limitations of animism (the belief that all objects are alive and therefore have feelings). Decenteringwhere the child takes into account multiple aspects of a problem to solve it. For example, the child will no longer perceive an exceptionally wide but short cup to contain less than a normally-wide, taller cup. Reversibilitywhere the child understands that numbers or objects can be changed, then returned to their original state. For this reason, a

child will be able to rapidly determine that if 4+4 equals 8, 84 will equal 4, the original quantity. Conservationunderstanding that quantity, length or number of items is unrelated to the arrangement or appearance of the object or items. For instance, when a child is presented with two equally-sized, full cups they will be able to discern that if water is transferred to a pitcher it will conserve the quantity and be equal to the other filled cup. Elimination of Egocentrismthe ability to view things from another's perspective (even if they think incorrectly). For instance, show a child a comic in which Jane puts a doll under a box, leaves the room, and then Melissa moves the doll to a drawer, and Jane comes back. A child in the concrete operations stage will say that Jane will still think it's under the box even though the child knows it is in the drawer. [edit] Formal operational stage The formal operational period is the fourth and final of the periods of cognitive development in Piaget's theory. This stage, which follows the Concrete Operational stage, commences at around 11 years of age (puberty) and continues into adulthood. It is characterized by acquisition of the ability to think abstractly, reason logically and draw conclusions from the information available. During this stage the young adult is able to understand such things as love, "shades of gray", logical proofs, and values. Lucidly, biological factors may be traced to this stage as it occurs during puberty (the time at which another period of neural pruning occurs), marking the entry to adulthood in Physiology, cognition, moral judgement (Kohlberg), Psychosexual development (Freud), and social development (Erikson). Some two-thirds of people do not develop this form of reasoning fully enough that it becomes their normal mode for cognition, and so they remain, even as adults, concrete operational thinkers .[2]

JAMES FOWLER
Stages of Faith An Interview with James Fowler by Harold Kent Straughn Straughn: Dr. Fowler, I'd like to begin by asking you to unfold in summary form the six stages of faith as your research has developed them.

Fowler: All right. Inevitably this will be sketchy. If we start with infancy the time from birth to two yearswe have what we call undifferentiated faith. It's a time before language and conceptual thought are possible. The infant is forming a basic sense of trust, of being at home in the world. The infant is also forming what I call preimages of God or the Holy, and of the kind of world we live in. On this foundation of basic trust or mistrust is built all that comes later in terms of faith. Future religious experience will either have to confirm or reground that basic trust. Stage One: Intuitive/Projective Faith The first stage we call intuitive/projective faith. It characterizes the child of two to six or seven. It's a changing and growing and dynamic faith. It's marked by the rise of imagination. The child doesn't have the kind of logic that makes possible or necessary the questioning of perceptions or fantasies. Therefore the child's mind is "religiously pregnant," one might say. It is striking how many times in our interviews we find that experiences and images that occur and take form before the child is six have powerful and long-lasting effects on the life of faith both positive and negative. Stctge Two: Mythic/Literal Faith The second stage we call mythic/literal faith. Here the child develops a way of dealing with the world and making meaning that now criticizes and evaluates the previous stage of imagination and fantasy. The gift of this stage is narrative. The child now can really form and re-tell powerful stories that grasp his or her experiences of meaning. There is a quality of literalness about this. The child is not ytet ready to step outside the stories and reflect upon their meanings. The child takes symbols and myths at pretty much face value, though they may touch or move him or her at a deeper level. StageThree: Synthetic/Conventional Faith There is a third stage we call synthetic/conventional faith which typically has its rise beginning around age 12 or 13. It's marked by the beginning of what Piaget calls formal operational thinking. That simply means that we now can think about our own thinking. It's a time when a person is typically concerned about forming an identity, and is deeply concernedl about the evaluations and feedback from significant other people in his or her life. We call this a synthetic/conventional stage; synthetic, not in the sense that it's artificial, but in the sense that it's a pulling together of one's valued images and values, the pulling together of a sense of self or identity.

One of the hallmarks of this stage is that it tends to compose its images of God as extensions of interpersonal relationships. God is often experienced as Friend, Companion, and and Personal Reality, in relationship to which I'm known deeply and valued. I think the true religious hunger of adolescence is to have a God who knows me and values me deeply, and can be a kind of guarantor of my identity and worth in a world where I'm struggling to find who I can be. At any of the stages from two on you can find adults who are best described by these stages. Stage Three, thus, can be an adult stage. We do find many persons, in churches and out, who are best described by faith that essentially took form when they were adolescents. Stage Four: Individuative/Projective Faith Stage Four, for those who develop it, is a time in which the person is pushed out of, or steps out of, the circle of interpersonal relationships that have sustained his life to that point. Now comes the burden of reflecting upon the self as separate from the groups and the shared world that defines one's life. I sometimes quote Santayana who said that we don't know who discovered water but we know it wasn't fish. The person in Stage Three is like the fish sustained by the water. To enter Stage Four means to spring out of the fish tank and to begin to reflect upon the water. Many people don't complete this transition, but get caught between three and four. The transition to Stage Four can begin as early as 17, but it's usually not completed until the mid-20s, and often doesn't even begin until around 20. It comes most naturally in young adulthood. Some people, however, don't make the transition until their late 30s. It becomes a more traumatic thing then, because they have already built an adult life. Their relationships have to be reworked in light of the stage change. Stage Four is concerned about boundaries: where I stop and you begin; where the group that I can belong to with conviction and authenticity ends and other groups begin. It's very much concerned about authenticity and a fit between the self I feel myself to be in a group and the ideological commitments that I'm attached to. Stage Five: Conjunctive Faith Sometime around 35 or 40 or beyond some people undergo a change to what we call conjunctive faith, which is a kind of midlife way of being in faith. What Stage Four works so hard to get clear and clean in terms of boundaries and identity, Stage Five makes more permeable and more porous. As one moves into Stage Five one begins to recognize that the conscious self is not all there is of me. I have an

unconscious. Much of my behavior and response to things is shaped by dimensions of self that I'm not fully aware of. There is a deepened readiness for a relationship to God that includes God's mystery and unavailability and strangeness as well as God's closeness and clarity. Stage Five is a time when a person is also ready to look deeply into the social unconsciousthoe myths and taboos and standards that we took in with our mother's milk and that powerfully shape our behavior and responses. We really do examine those, which means we're ready for a new kind of intimacy with persons and groups that are different from ourselves. We are ready for allegiances beyond our tribal gods and our tribal taboos. Stage Five is a period when one is alive to paradox. One understands that truth has many dimensions which have to be held together in paradoxical tension. Stage Six: Universalizing Faith Some few persons we find move into Stage Six, which we call universalizing faith. In a sense I think we can describe this stage as one in which persons begin radically to live as though what Christians and Jews call the "kingdom of God" were already a fact. I don't want to confine it to Christian and Jewish images of the kingdom. It's more than that. I'm saying these people experience a shift from the self as the center of experience. Now their center becomes a participation in God or ultimate reality. There's a reversal of figure and ground. They're at home with what I call a commonwealth of being. We experience these people on the one hand as being more lucid and simple than we are, and on the other hand as intensely liberating people, sometimes even subversive in their liberating qualities. I think of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the last years of his life. I think of Thomas Merton. I think of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. I think of Dag Hammerskjold and Dietrich Bonhoeffer in the last years of his imprisonment. These are persons who in a sense have negated the self for the sake of affirming God. And yet in affirming God they became vibrant and powerful selves in our experience. They have a quality of what I call relevant irrelevance. Their "subversiveness" makes our compromises show up as what they are.

LAWRENCE KOHLBERG
Stages Kohlberg's six stages were grouped into three levels: pre-conventional, conventional, and post-conventional.[7][8][9] Following Piaget's constructivist requirements for a stage model (see his theory of cognitive development), it is extremely rare to regress backward in

stages - to lose functionality of higher stage abilities.[10][11] Even so, no one functions at their highest stage at all times.[citation needed] It is also not possible to 'jump' forward stages; each stage provides a new yet necessary perspective, and is more comprehensive, differentiated, and integrated than its predecessors.[10][11] Level 1 (Pre-Conventional) 1. Obedience and punishment orientation (How can I avoid punishment?) 2. Self-interest orientation (What's in it for me?) Level 2 (Conventional) 3. Interpersonal accord and conformity (The good boy/good girl attitude) 4. Authority and social-order maintaining orientation (Law and order morality) Level 3 (Post-Conventional) 5. Social contract orientation 6. Universal ethical principles (Principled conscience) [edit] Pre-Conventional The pre-conventional level of moral reasoning is especially common in children, although adults can also exhibit this level of reasoning. Reasoners in the pre-conventional level judge the morality of an action by its direct consequences. The pre-conventional level consists of the first and second stages of moral development, and are purely concerned with the self in an egocentric manner. In Stage one (obedience and punishment driven), individuals focus on the direct consequences that their actions will have for themselves. For example, an action is perceived as morally wrong if the person who commits it gets punished. The worse the punishment for the act is, the more 'bad' the act is perceived to be.[12] In addition, there is no recognition that others' points of view are any different from one's own view.[citation needed] This stage may be viewed as a kind of authoritarianism.[citation needed] Stage two (self-interest driven) espouses the what's in it for me position, right behavior being defined by what is in one's own best interest. Stage two reasoning shows a limited interest in the needs of others, but only to a point where it might further one's own interests, such as you scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours.[3] In stage two concern for others is not based on loyalty or intrinsic respect. Lacking a perspective of society in the pre-conventional level, this should not be

confused with social contract (stage five), as all actions are performed to serve one's own needs or interests. For the stage two theorist, the perspective of the world is often seen as morally relative. [edit] Conventional The conventional level of moral reasoning is typical of adolescents and adults. Persons who reason in a conventional way judge the morality of actions by comparing these actions to societal views and expectations. The conventional level consists of the third and fourth stages of moral development. In Stage three (interpersonal accord and conformity driven), the self enters society by filling social roles. Individuals are receptive of approval or disapproval from other people as it reflects society's accordance with the perceived role. They try to be a good boy or good girl to live up to these expectations,[3] having learned that there is inherent value in doing so. Stage three reasoning may judge the morality of an action by evaluating its consequences in terms of a person's relationships, which now begin to include things like respect, gratitude and the 'golden rule'. Desire to maintain rules and authority exists only to further support these stereotypical social roles. The intentions of actions play a more significant role in reasoning at this stage; 'they mean well...'[3] In Stage four (authority and social order obedience driven), it is important to obey laws, dictums and social conventions because of their importance in maintaining a functioning society. Moral reasoning in stage four is thus beyond the need for individual approval exhibited in stage three; society must learn to transcend individual needs. A central ideal or ideals often prescribe what is right and wrong, such as in the case of fundamentalism. If one person violates a law, perhaps everyone would - thus there is an obligation and a duty to uphold laws and rules. When someone does violate a law, it is morally wrong; culpability is thus a significant factor in this stage as it separates the bad domains from the good ones. [edit] Post-Conventional The post-conventional level, also known as the principled level, consists of stages five and six of moral development. Realization that individuals are separate entities from society now becomes salient. One's own perspective should be viewed before the society's. It is due to this 'nature of self before others' that the post-conventional level, especially stage six, is sometimes mistaken for pre-conventional behaviors.

In Stage five (social contract driven), individuals are viewed as holding different opinions and values. Along a similar vein, laws are regarded as social contracts rather than rigid dictums. Those that do not promote the general welfare should be changed when necessary to meet the greatest good for the greatest number of people.[8] This is attained through majority decision, and inevitably compromise. In this way democratic government is ostensibly based on stage five reasoning. In Stage six (universal ethical principles driven), moral reasoning is based on abstract reasoning using universal ethical principles. Laws are valid only insofar as they are grounded in justice, and that a commitment to justice carries with it an obligation to disobey unjust laws. Rights are unnecessary as social contracts are not essential for deontic moral action. Decisions are not met hypothetically in a conditional way but rather categorically in an absolute way (see Immanuel Kant's 'categorical imperative'[13]). This can be done by imagining what one would do being in anyone's shoes, who imagined what anyone would do thinking the same (see John Rawls's 'veil of ignorance'[14]). The resulting consensus is the action taken. In this way action is never a means but always an end in itself; one acts because it is right, and not because it is instrumental, expected, legal or previously agreed upon. While Kohlberg insisted that stage six exists, he had difficulty finding participants who consistently used it. It appears that people rarely if ever reach stage six of Kohlberg's model.
[11]

Psychosexual Stages Freud

THE ORAL STAGE OF PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT (0-1 YEAR OLD) THE NERVE ENDINGS IN THE MOUTH AND LIPS ARE HIGHLY SENSITIVE, AND THE BABY DERIVES PLEASURE FROM SUCKING FOR ITS OWN SAKE (NON-NUTRITIVE SUCKING). IT DOES THIS TO EXPLORE AND RECOGNISE TASTES, TO LEARN ABOUT ITS ENVIRONMENT. NUTRITIVE SUCKING ON THE OTHER HAND IS FOR THE BABY TO OBTAIN FOOD FOR SURVIVAL. IN THE EARLIER INCORPORATE SUB-STAGE, THE MAJOR ORAL ACTIVITIES ARE SUCKING SWALLOWING AND MOUTHING. IN THE LATER BITING/AGGRESSIVE SUB-STAGE, HARDENING GUMS AND ERUPTING TEETH MAKE BITING AND CHEWING SOURCES OF PLEASURE. THE ANAL STAGE OF PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT (1-3 YEARS OLD)

THE ANAL CAVITY AND SPHINCTER MUSCLES OF THE BOWEL ARE NOW THE MAIN SOURCE OF PLEASURE. IN THE EARLIER EXPULSION SUBSTAGE, THE CHILD HAS ITS FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH EXTERNAL RESTRICTIONS ON ITS WISH TO DEFECATE WHERE AND WHEN IT PLEASES, IN THE FORM OF PARENTS TRYING TO POTTY TRAIN IT. PARENTAL LOVE IS NO LONGER UNCONDITIONAL, BUT NOW DEPENDS ON WHAT THE CHILD DOES. IN THE LATER RETENTION SUB-STAGE, PARENTS COME TO BE SEEN FOR THE FIRST TIME AS AUTHORITY FIGURES. THE PHALLIC STAGE OF PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT (3-5/6 YEARS OLD) SENSITIVITY IS NOW CONCENTRATED IN THE GENITALS, AND MASTURBATION (IN BOTH SEXES) BECOMES A NEW SOURCE OF PLEASURE. THE CHILD BECOMES AWARE OF ANATOMICAL SEX DIFFERENCES (PHALLIC COMES FROM THE GREEK WORD MEANING PENIS), WHICH MARKS THE BEGINNING OF THE OEDIPUS COMPLEX IN MALES AND THE ELECTRA COMPLEX IN FEMALES. BOTH BOYS AND GIRLS EXPERIENCE CONFLICTING EMOTIONS RELATION TO THERE SAME, AND OPPOSITE SEX PARENTS. HOW SUCCESSFULLY THESE ARE RESOLVED IS CRUCIAL FOR FUTURE PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT. IT IS THROUGH THE RESOLUTION OF THE OEDIPUS COMPLEX THAT A CHILDS SUPEREGO AND SEX ROLE ARE ACQUIRED. THE LATENCY STAGE OF PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT (5/6 YEARS OLD - PUBERTY) THE SEXUAL PREOCCUPATIONS OF THE EARLIER YEARS ARE REPRESSED. THIS ALLOWS THE CHILDS ENERGY TO BE CHANNELLED INTO DEVELOPING NEW SKILLS AND ACQUIRING NEW KNOWLEDGE. IN RELATIVE TERMS, THE BALANCE BETWEEN THE ID, EGO AND SUPEREGO IS GREATER THAN AT ANY OTHER TIME IN THE CHILDS LIFE. THE GENITAL STAGE OF PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT (PUBERTY ONWARDS) LATENCY REPRESENTS THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM OF PUBERTY, WHICH MARKS THE BEGINNING OF ADOLESCENCE. THE RELATIVE HARMONY WITHIN THE CHILDS PERSONALITY IS DISRUPTED BY THE IDS POWERFUL NEW DEMANDS IN THE FORM OF HETEROSEXUAL DESIRES.