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1. Summarize Freud's stages of psychosexual development. (Chapter 2) The first stage of Freud's psychosexual development is the Infantile Period.

This encompasses the first 4 or 5 years of a child's life. This stage begins with the Oral Phase the phase where children derive pleasure through their mouths. This pleasure stems from the process of sucking during breastfeeding and continues to sucking on its fingers or toys even if these objects don't contain milk. Later, children may experience anxiety when the breast is denied to them. This can manifest itself in a variety of ways as an adult, such as smoking, nail biting, or gum chewing. The next phase of the Infantile Period is the Anal Phase, where a child derives pleasure through its anus. This phase usually coincides with the time of potty-training. If parents make reasonable demands and praise their children's fecal accomplishments, this can lead to more healthy adulthood. However, if this potty-training is especially traumatizing and the parents reject the children, this can lead to children withholding their feces. This can be a punishment for the parents as well as being erotically stimulating for the child. This eventually can culminate into an anal personality in adult life, where order and control are very important. The last phase is the Phallic Phase. It is at this point that children begin to notice the difference between male and female genitalia. Children will also begin derive pleasure through their genitals in the form of masturbation, but since most parents try to suppress this behavior, these masturbatory actions are usually curbed by the end of this phase. During this time children are also more curious about others' bodies and start to develop the concept of male and female. With male children this leads to the Oedipus Complex, where he wants to rival his father for his mother's affection. This culminates into fear of castration- or the castration complex. Here, a boy fears that through rivalry with his father he will come to lose his penis. After this, the male child represses these incestuous urges, begins building a superego, and usually begins identifying with his father and using him as a role model. With females during this time, they realize that they do not possess a penis. This leads to penis envy and also curbs their sexual desires for their mothers. As a result, female children will look at their father for sexual satisfaction and to give her a penis. This phase ends when the girl discovers that this sexual activity will not occur and from there she begins to identify with her mother. However, since this realization is more gradual, the superego she develops is not as strong as a young males'. The Latency stage lasts from the age of 5 or 6 until puberty. Here most sexual urges are repressed, often by parents, and this allows children to develop their interests and hobbies and make friends. The final phase is the Genital Phase. This begins at the onset of puberty and is a reawakening of sexual urges. Usually these urges are no longer directed towards themselves, but towards other people. The genitals take the primary role in reaching sexual satisfaction here. After the Genital Phase, which lasts an individual's life, Freud alluded to a concept of Sexual Maturity, but never fully realized the idea. This would occur if a person passed through all other stages in an ideal manner. 2. Describe Freud's id, ego and superego (including conscience and ego ideal). Explain how this approach differs from trait theory. (Chapter 2) Freud's model of the mind is divided into 3 hypothetical sections: the id, ego, and superego. The id is the unconscious part of our mind and helps humans in attaining pleasure, for this is the sole purpose of the id. The id can be unrealistic and illogical, unconcerned with consequences or capability. The id serves what is known as the pleasure principle. This pleasure may be good or evil, the id does not discern between the two, thus making the id an amoral component of our brain. To keep the id in check, we have the ego. The ego is the only part of the brain that connects with reality. As opposed to the id's pleasure principle, the ego is ruled by the reality principle. The ego attempts to satisfy the id's unconscious and unrealistic desires in the real world. This is oftentimes

difficult because the id is much bigger and stronger than the ego. When it completely succeeds we are left with an emotionally healthy and competent adult. The third component of the mind is the superego. This is also purely unconscious. The superego serves the moral and idealistic principles, and just as the id is oftentimes unrealistic, so is the superego. The superego strives for perfection without considering happiness or practicality of the request. The superego is divided into 2 parts: conscience and ego-ideal. The conscience tells the brain what it shouldn't do relying on experience and punishments. The ego-ideal deals with rewards and what the brain should do. The superego is also responsible for repression and feelings of guilt. This stems from the superego controlling the ego in feelings of sexuality and aggression. The main difference between Freud's concept of the brain and trait theory is genetics. Trait theory assumes that our personality and actions stem from the genes and hormones that make up our brain. Freud's concept is that people act the way we do because of past events and their continuos unconscious involvement in our lives. In both theories, the individual's actions are accounted for, either through past events or DNA, allowing someone to displace blame, responsibility, or reactions. However, with Freud's theory, the brain is more flexible. Through therapy and psychoanalysis a person can learn to curb or repress certain characteristics. Trait theory reasons that traits and personality are more stable and less flexible. Another difference between personality traits and Freud's theories, is that in Freudian psychology the brain is always striving to put an end to pain or anxiety. These unconscious drives and the way that a person develops through the stages make up the bulk of this philosophy.

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