PSY 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Latency Stage, Anal Stage, Phallic Stage
29 Apr 2018
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Chapter 13 Notes: Personality
-Levels of Focus:
●Societal level:
○Focus on trends in social behavior such as crimes rates, unemployment, marriage
○=Sociology
●Individual level:
○Focus on a person’s unique life history and psychological characteristics
○=Clinical and personality psychologists
●Interpersonal level:
○Focus on a person’s social situation (their environment, attitudes, behaviors,
relationships
○=Social psychologists
-Personality:
●An individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting
●“An individual’s unique variation on the general evolutionary design for human nature”
which gets expressed in one’s traits and cultural situation
●Several perspectives:
○Freud’s psychodynamic
○Neo-Freudians
○Trait perspective (most popular today)
-Freud: The Psychoanalytic Perspective
●Psychoanalysis: attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts
○Unconscious: portion of the mind not accessible to conscious thought
○Accessed through free association, dream analysis, and parapraxis (Freudian
slips)
●Personality arises from a conflict between our aggressive, pleasure-seeking impulses and
the internalized social restraints against them
-The mind is composed of three parts: the id, the ego, and the superego
-The Id:
●“It”: basic drives
●Most primitive part of the mind; innate
●Contains impulses of aggression, lust, sexuality, death
●Primarily unconscious
●Operates according to the pleasure principle
●Primary process thinking=wish fulfillment
●Strives to satisfy basic drives to survive, reproduce, and aggress in order to reduce inner
tension
-The Ego:
●“I”: reality check
●Part of the mind that constrains id to reality
●Develops around 2-3 years of age
●Exists at all levels of consciousness
●Reality principle
●Secondary process thinking
●Mediator between id and superego, id and reality
-The Superego:
●“Over-I”: morality
●The part of the mind that internalizes the values, morals, norms, and ideals of society
●Develops around age 5
●All levels of consciousness
●Perfection principle
○Ego ideal
●Conscience
○Introjection
-Conscious: part of the mind that holds what one is currently aware of
-Preconscious: ordinary memory that can easily be brought into awareness
-Unconscious: part of the mind not directly accessible to awareness
-Psychosexual stages of Development:
●We pass through a fixed sequence of psychosexual stages of development
●Stages focus on different erogenous zones from which we experience sensual pleasure
○Not necessarily sexual, more like what feels good
●Confront conflict at each stage; if not resolved, fixation
●fixation= “emotionally stuck” at a given stage, leaves less energy to confront conflicts at
later stages
●Oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latency stage, genital stage
●The first 3 stages are crucial in Freud’s mind. By age 5 all the major personality-shaping
dramas have been played out. These stages involve the major sources of physical
stimulation.
-Oral Stage:
●Occurs during initial 18 months after birth
○Pleasure and tension reduction are the mouth, lips, and tongue
○Primary conflict is weaning; secondary conflict is associated with biting
●Key aspect: the idea of dependency
●Fixation if we are overindulged and reluctant to leave the stage or if we are
under-gratified (can’t move on until the needs are met)
○Fixation in oral receptive=dependent, orally preoccupied (talkative, nail biting,
overeating, smoking), gullibility
○Fixation in oral aggressive=pleasure from biting/chewing so fixation results in
verbal aggression and biting sarcasm
-Anal Stage:
●Occurs between 18 months and 3 years old; child feels pleasure from anal stimulation
during defecation
●Key aspect: self-control
●Conflicts arise around self-control and toilet training by parents
○Praised by parents=kids grow up to like productivity and creativity
○Shamed by parents=fixation
■Anal expulsive: messy, cruel, destructive, bathroom humor
■Anal retentive: anxious, obstinate, neat, orderly, stingy
-Phallic Stage:
●Occurs between 3 and 5 years of age
●Child gains pleasure from exploration/stimulation of genitals
●Key aspect: children want a close, personal relationship with their parents=self-worth
○Oedipal conflict for boys and castration anxiety
○Electra complex for girls and penis envy
●Identification: reduces guilt-laden hostility and ambivalence for same-sex parent
○Represents the beginning of internalization of the superego
●Fixation at this stage
○Men: macho aggressive sexuality, excessive striving for career power or sexual
and occupational potency
○Women: flirtatious, seductive behavior that doesn’t lead to sexual interaction
-Latency Stage:
●Occurs from about 6 until puberty
●Termed latency because of the lack of specific sexual conflicts
○Child consolidates superego, focuses on intellectual and social development
-Genital Stage:
●Begins at puberty, lasts throughout life
●Stage is reached only by resolving conflicts at the prior stages
●Focus is on mutual sexual gratification with others as opposed to selfish interests of the
younger child
-Anxiety and Defense Mechanisms:
●Ego battles against id, superego, and outside world
●This creates conflict, experienced by the person as anxiety
●The person activates defense mechanisms in order to fight off this anxiety
○Unconscious cognitive operation that functions to protect individual from
disruptive effects of excessive anxiety and unacceptable unconscious thoughts
○Things you do to feel better, without realizing you are doing them
Document Summary
Focus on trends in social behavior such as crimes rates, unemployment, marriage. Focus on a person"s unique life history and psychological characteristics. Focus on a person"s social situation (their environment, attitudes, behaviors, relationships. An individual"s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting. An individual"s unique variation on the general evolutionary design for human nature which gets expressed in one"s traits and cultural situation. Psychoanalysis: attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts. Nconscious: portion of the mind not accessible to conscious thought. Accessed through free association, dream analysis, and parapraxis (freudian slips) Personality arises from a conflict between our aggressive, pleasure-seeking impulses and the internalized social restraints against them. The mind is composed of three parts: the id, the ego, and the superego. Most primitive part of the mind; innate. Contains impulses of aggression, lust, sexuality, death. Strives to satisfy basic drives to survive, reproduce, and aggress in order to reduce inner tension.
