Psychosexual stages of development

Freud's stages of human development, referred to as the psychosexual stages of development, describe how the libido develops through childhood, guiding behavior.

This post looks at Freudian psychoanalytic theory, including the id/ego/superego, libido, and the stages of psychosexual development.

Freud's Psychosexual Theory posits that human development occurs in five stages—oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital—each associated with a specific erogenous zone. As individuals progress through these stages, unresolved conflicts can lead to fixations, influencing adult personality and behavior. This theory emphasizes the role of unconscious desires and childhood experiences in shaping personality.

Erik Erikson's theory of psychosocial development describes 8 stages that play a role in the development of personality and psychological skills.

psychosexual stages, crash course psychology

Erik Erikson was a psychologist who developed one of the most popular and influential developmental theories. Although his theory was influenced by the work of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud/s, Erikson's theory focused on psychosocial rather than psychosexual development. His theory consists of the following stages:

Freud (1961) Believed that the mechanism for right and wrong within the individual is the superego, or conscience. He hypnotized that a child internalizes and adopts the moral standards and character or character traits of the model parent through the process of identification. The strength of the superego depends on the intensity of the child’s feeling of aggression or attachment toward the model parent rather than on the actual standards of the parent. Erikson (1964) Erikson’s theory on…

Sigmund Freud Development Theory & Task