Child and Adolescent Component Parts of Personality

Development – • Conscious Mind

Freud’s Theory of • It consists of all the mental processes of
which we are aware.
Psychosexual
• Preconscious Mind
Development • It contains thoughts and feelings that a
Dr Sau Yin LAU person is not currently aware of, but which
The Open University of Hong Kong can easily be brought to consciousness if
EDU E253F he/she wants to.
Spring Term 2020

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Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual

Development Component Parts of Personality
• Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) • Unconscious Mind
was the founder of • It contains all sorts of significant and
psychoanalysis. Some disturbing material which we need to keep
researchers also regard him out of awareness because they are too
as the father of psychiatry. threatening to acknowledge fully.
• Freud believed that • It is the location of unacceptable thoughts.
behaviour is controlled by
powerful unconscious urges.
• He believed that early experiences play a
large role in personality development and
continue to influence behavior later in
life.

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Component Parts of Personality Component Parts of Personality

• Freud contended that there are three • Freud later developed a more structural
levels of mind: model of the mind and proposed three
• Conscious Mind hypothetical parts of mental functions:
• Preconscious Mind • The id
• Unconscious Mind • The ego
• The superego
• He believed that these components work
together to create complex human
behaviours.

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OU C&A Dev p.1

 Component Parts of Personality Component Parts of Personality
• The id • The superego
• It is the only component of personality that • It is responsible for ensuring that moral
is present at birth and the primary standards are followed.
component of personality throughout a • It includes the conscience and
person’s life. incorporates socially approved ‘shoulds’
and ‘should nots’ into the child’s own
• It represents the instinctive and primitive value system.
behaviors of a person. • The superego develops during early
• Life Instinct: It directs life-sustaining childhood.
activities, e.g. eating and sex. • The superego operates on the morality
• Death Instinct: It directs destructive forces, principle. It is highly demanding; if its
e.g. aggression and violence. demands are not met, a child may feel
guilty and anxious.

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Component Parts of Personality Component Parts of Personality

• The id
• The id is entirely unconscious.
• The id operates on pleasure principle.
• It seeks immediate satisfaction. It is the
source of all psychic energy.
• When gratification is delayed, the infant or
the person will become anxious. The id will
then urge the infant or the person to act
immediately so that his/her desire is
satisfied.

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Component Parts of Personality Component Parts of Personality

• The ego • Freud proposed that when there is
• It is the component of personality that is conflict between the goals of the id and
responsible for dealing with reality. superego, the ego will act as a mediator to
• It represents reason or common sense that resolve the conflict.
develops during the first year of life.
• According to Freud, the ego develops from
the id and ensures that the impulses of the
id can be expressed in a manner
acceptable in the real world.
• The ego functions in the conscious,
preconscious, and also unconscious mind.
• The ego operates on the reality principle.

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OU C&A Dev p.2

 Freud’s Five Stages of Psychosexual
Component Parts of Personality Development
• In Freud’s theory, pleasure shifts from the
I want I will I should mouth to the anus and then to the
genitals.
• Of the five stages of psychosexual
development (or personality development),
Freud considered the first three stages
crucial.
• He suggested that a healthy personality is
developed if the psychosexual stages are
gone through successfully. Otherwise,
mental disorder may occur.

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Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual

Component Parts of Personality Development
• Freud believed that there are conflicts
arisen in each stage. The child may
receive too little or too much
gratification.
• If the conflicts are not resolved in a
satisfactory manner, it is possible to
become fixated on the particular stage.
It will result in an abnormal
preoccupation with that stage's source
of pleasure later in life.

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Freud’s Theory of Psychosexual Freud’s Five Stages of Psychosexual

Development Development
• According to Freud’s theory, personality • Oral Stage
develops as a person moves through a • Anal Stage
series of psychosexual stages.
• Phallic Stage
• Freud believed that children are born with
• Latency Stage
a libido. Libido is a psychosexual energy.
It is pleasure seeking and is the driving • Genital Stage
force behind behavior.
• At each psychosexual stage, the libido for
the id become focused on certain
erogenous zones.

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OU C&A Dev p.3

 Freud’s Five Stages of Psychosexual Freud’s Five Stages of Psychosexual
Development Development
• Oral Stage • Anal Stage
• From birth to 12-18 months • Major conflict: Toilet training
• Erogenous zone / Zone of gratification: • Developing bowel and bladder control
Mouth leads to a sense of accomplishment and
independence.
• Baby’s chief source of pleasure involves • If parents are too lenient, children may
mouth-oriented activities, such as feeding develop an anal-expulsive personality that
and sucking. presents to be messy, wasteful or
destructive.
• If parents are too strict or begin toilet
training too early, children may develop an
anal-retentive personality that presents to
be stringent, orderly, rigid and obsessive.

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Freud’s Five Stages of Psychosexual Freud’s Five Stages of Psychosexual

Development Development
• Oral Stage • Phallic Stage
• Major conflict: Weaning • From 3 years to 6 years
• If a child at this age receives either too • Erogenous zone / Zone of gratification:
little gratification or too much gratification Penis
from engaging with mouth-oriented • A boy discovers his penis
activities, he/she might be fixated at the and derives pleasure
oral stage. from contact with it.
• Oral fixation can result in problems with
drinking, eating, smoking, or nail biting.

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Freud’s Five Stages of Psychosexual Freud’s Five Stages of Psychosexual

Development Development
• Anal Stage • Phallic Stage
• From 12-18 months to 3 years • Some boys also fear that they may lose
• Erogenous zone / Zone of gratification: their penises as a punishment. Freud
Anal region called this castration anxiety.
• Child derives sensual pleasure from • Child becomes attached to parent of the
withholding and expelling feces. other sex and later identifies with same-
sex parent.
• Freud suggested the existence of
the Oedipal complex (for boys). Girls may
have Electra complex.

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OU C&A Dev p.4

 Freud’s Five Stages of Psychosexual
Development Defence Mechanism
• Latency Stage • Denial
• From 6 years to puberty • It is an outright refusal to admit or
• Erogenous zone / Zone of gratification: recognize that something has occurred or
Inactive is currently occurring.
• It is the time of relative calm between more • It involves blocking external events from
turbulent stages. awareness. If some situation is too difficult
to handle, the person will just refuse to
• Libido interests are suppressed.
experience it.

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Freud’s Five Stages of Psychosexual

Development Defence Mechanism
• Genital Stage • Repression
• From puberty throughout adulthood • It is an unconscious mechanism employed
• Erogenous zone / Zone of gratification: by the ego to keep disturbing or
Genital region threatening thoughts from becoming
conscious.
• It is the reemergence of sexual impulses of
phallic stage, channelled into mature adult • The thoughts or memories that have been
sexuality. repressed do not just disappear. They
continue to influence the person’s
behavior.
• Vs Suppression

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Defence Mechanism Defence Mechanism

• Freud contended that when conflicts • Projection
between the id and the superego have not • It involves attributing a person’s own
yet been resolved, the person will unacceptable thoughts, feelings and
experience anxiety or guilt. motives to another person.
• He suggested that various types of • Displacement
defence mechanism can be used by the • It involves satisfying an impulse with a
ego to prevent it from becoming substitute object that is less threatening.
overwhelmed by anxiety or guilt feelings.

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OU C&A Dev p.5

 Defence Mechanism Criticisms of Freud’s Theory
• Sublimation • Some aspects of Freud theory are hard to
test scientifically. For example, his ideas
• It involves satisfying an impulse by
converting the behaviours in a socially around the id, the ego and the superego
acceptable way. cannot be measured and tested.
• Regression • Freud’s theory was developed based on
the recollections of his adult patients who
• It is a movement back in psychological
time when one is faced with stress.
have mental problems. His methodology
was criticised. His theory may not be
applicable to explain behaviour of people
in the population, especially of those
without mental health problems.

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Defence Mechanism Criticisms of Freud’s Theory

• Rationalization • Freud’s original theory was focused
• It involves explaining an unacceptable almost entirely on the development of
behavior or feeling in a rational or logical males. That of females was not mentioned
manner so that the true reasons for the much. His original theory was criticised to
behaviour can be avoided. be biased and not be applicable to explain
• Intellectualization females’ behaviour.
• It works to reduce anxiety by thinking
about events in a cold, clinical way.
• By using it, the person can avoid thinking
about the stressful, emotional aspect of
the events and instead focus only on the
intellectual aspect.

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Defence Mechanism
• The defense mechanisms can be adaptive
and allow people to function normally. But
at the same time they can be unhealthy, What are the implications to
especially when they are overused in order education?
to avoid dealing with problems.
• Freud developed an approach to support
people with mental health problems by
helping them to uncover their unconscious
defense mechanisms and find better,
healthier ways of coping with anxiety and
distress.
• Such approach of therapeutic work is
called psychoanalytic therapy.

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OU C&A Dev p.6