Lecture 29

Freud 2

1. Personality Development
1. Psychosexual Stages
2. Oedipus Complex
3. Superego Development
4. Sex Differences
2. Mechanisms of Defense

Overview

The id is a constant force, but people vary with respect to the power and effectiveness of their ego and superego, with particular traits associated with particular strengths and deficiencies.

In addition to providing a theory of personality structure and functioning, Freud also offered a theory of personality development. This aspect of the theory is highly controversial. Freud believed that people start out capable of deriving sexual (sensory) pleasure from any part of the body and come, through socialization, to derive sexual (sensory) pleasure from intercourse with a member of the opposite sex. According to Freud, this transformation occurs as people move through five psychosexual stages of development.

Specifics

• Describe "ego strength", know how it influences anxiety, and describe different traits that characterize people with exceptionally weak or strong egos and superegos.
• Know what is meant by the term polymorphously perverse and the role it plays in Freud's theory of personality development.
• Describe five stages of psychosexual development, including their approximate ages, erogenous zones, modes of resolution, and fixations.
• Describe the Oedipus Complex and the role it plays in superego development among boys and girls.