1. FREUD’S STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT
ORAL AGES: 0–2
ANAL AGES: 2–3
PHALLIC AGES: 3–6
LATENT AGES: 7–12
GENITAL (PUBER-TY THROUGH ADULTHOOD)
Freud postulated that all humans must pass through several stages of development. Each stage of development focuses on a different part of the body. Psychosocial stages are developmental periods with a characteristic sexual focus that leaves its mark on personality. Freud believed that “the child is father to the man.”

2. THE ORAL STAGE AGES BIRTH THROUGH TWO YEARS
THE INFANT’S FOCUS IS ON THE MOUTH
THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE
Bullet # 1 According to Freud, this stage typically lasts for the first 18–24 months of life.
Bullet # 2 In the oral stage, infants are preoccupied with the life instincts of Eros. Sucking, swallowing—and chewing and biting, once their teeth come in—are the means by which infants satisfy their Eros.
Bullet # 3 The pleasure principle is also very important in the oral stage. Freud theorized that the primary way infants receive pleasure is orally: from the mouth, lips, and tongue.

3. THE ANAL STAGE
THE INFANT’S PLEASURE SEEKING IS CENTERED AROUND THE FUNCTIONS OF ELIMINATION
AGES 18 MONTHS–3 YEARS
TOILET TRAINING
Bullet # 1 At this stage of a child’s life, he/she is beginning to have more control over bodily functions.
Bullet # 2 Typically by age eighteen months to two years a child will be toilet trained. The muscles of his/her body that control elimination have matured. Mastery of these bodily functions creates independence for a child. By age two, he/she is mobile (walking), can talk, and can control elimination. Children at this age also have a strong urge to be independent. All of us have heard about “the terrible twos”; in Freudian thinking, much of this behavior stems from a child’s desire to exercise the newly found independence they’ve gained from toilet training.

4. THE PHALLIC STAGE
THE CHILD’S PLEASURE SEEKING IS FOCUSED ON THE GENITALS
AGES 3–6
AWARENESS OF PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BOYS & GIRLS
Bullet # 1 Freud theorized that a child’s sexual interest does not begin at puberty. It begins in early childhood and focuses on the mother.
Bullet # 2 Freud believed that between the ages of three and six, boys have erotic desires for their mothers and intense jealousy and hatred toward their father. He called this the “Oedipus Complex,” after the legendary Greek king who murdered his father and married his mother. Girls undergo a similar “Electra Complex” in which they want to possess their fathers and murder their mothers.
Special note: Modern psychologists do not believe that this attachment to the mother is erotic but more possessive, and when children learn to identify with the parent of the same sex the Oedipus and Electra complexes go away. According to Freud, the Oedipus complex takes place in the phallic stage of our development and is unconscious. The parent rarely is aware the process is even going on.
Bullet # 3 Between the ages of three and six, boys and girls become aware of physical and anatomical differences between the sexes. This causes children great concern. Freud believed that girls, because they do not possess a penis, feel somehow inferior to males and experience what he called “penis envy.”

5. THE LATENT STAGE SEXUAL THOUGHTS REPRESSED
SOCIAL & INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OUTWEIGHS SEXUAL INTEREST
AGE 6–PUBERTY
SUBLIMATION
Bullet # 1 Freud believed that when we reach grammar school age, sexual feelings and thoughts are repressed and disappear into the unconscious. They will be revived later with the onset of puberty.
Bullet # 2 As a child’s independence grows, intellectual and social development become more powerful than any sexual interest. Children come to view the acquisition of knowledge as a primary goal.
Bullet # 3 Typically, latency begins at about age six and lasts until the onset of puberty. It should be noted, however, that girls and boys develop and mature at different rates. Girls are often one year to eighteen months ahead of boys. This difference may be tied to fertility. Men are capable of being fathers for a much longer period of time than women are capable of becoming mothers, so there may be a need for girls to mature faster.
Bullet # 4 Freud believed that in the latent stage a defense mechanism he called “sublimation” begins to overpower any sexual urges. Sublimation may be defined as channeling unacceptable thoughts and urges into socially approved avenues. One example of sublimation would be using sports as a way to relieve aggression and sexual tension.

6. THE GENITAL STAGE SEXUAL DESIRES ARE REKINDLED
THERE IS A DESIRE FOR RELATIONSHIPS
AGES: PUBERTY THROUGHOUT ADULTHOOD
Bullet # 1 As puberty begins, hormones put powerful physical changes in motion as a girl becomes a woman and a boy becomes a man. This process doesn’t occur overnight. Puberty is a time in a child’s life that is filled with confusion and issues about identity and self worth. It’s also a time when sexual desire reappears.
Bullet # 2 Teens at this stage are experimenting. They begin to form opposite-sex relationships and they test the powers of intimacy. In Freud’s time, such experimentation was much more restrained than it is today.
Bullet # 3 Freud believed that the genital stage began with the onset of puberty and continued throughout a person’s lifetime.

7. FIXATIONS THE FAILURE TO MOVE FORWARD FROM ONE STAGE TO ANOTHER
FIXATIONS AFFECT PERSONALITY
ORAL/GULLIBLE, ANAL/CONTROLLING, PHALLIC/IMMATURE
Bullet # 1 Freud believed that individuals could get stalled or fixated in any one of the stages of development. Fixations prevent an individual from moving from one stage to another.
Bullets # 2 & 3 Freud postulated that fixations affected personality. For example, an oral fixation would produce a person who was gullible (able to “swallow” or believe anything). People with oral fixations probably would be gum chewers or nail bitters or smokers. An anal fixation would produce a controlling, “neat freak” kind of person. Phallic fixations could result in a permanently infantile attitude about sex. For example, a phallic fixation could produce someone who is constantly amazed at sexual differences between boys and girls or someone with an obsessive interest in pornography.