We humans have learnt to become sexual beings where we have let our sexual nature overcome our desires to bond with other humans. ‘Not mere slaves to hormonal changes, but there is no doubt that these changes can have complex emotional and behavioural effects.’ (1) From a young age our hormones have influenced the way we can act with one another. We’re becoming too sexual early on because of our hormones and we are not understanding why we feel the way we do about certain things.
In this essay, I will explore how theorist Seidman believes that ‘We are not born sexual, but learn to be sexual beings.’ By exploring how Sigmund Freud psychosexual development theory proves how Seidman’s statement is correct. I will also be exploring how the
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Sex is a factor of sexuality which has a huge impact on an individual’s life; as it can connect us more with a person you love or someone you hardly know. But sexuality has many factors such as, gender identity which is when we know that we are either female or male, even if it meant we are man knowing that we are a woman; that would make them transgender. Another factor, is gender roles it’s how we should behave because we are either male or female. Our sexual thoughts, ideas and fantasies also have an impact on our …show more content…
In this stage the focus is the genitals. Freud believed that a boy will experience a complex called Oedipal and a girl will experience a complex called Electra; these complexes are when the child has an attraction to the opposite sex parent. Freud believed that children would cope with this by picking up the values and characteristics of the same-sex parents giving the child a superego.
The fourth stage is the Latent effecting individuals between the ages of 6-11. In this stage the superego is developing; the child would start to develop values and relationships with friends and adults outside of there immediate family.
The final factor of Freud’s theory is the Genital effecting individuals between the ages of 11 and 18 years. In this stage our sexual urges once become active again, meaning the individual becomes interested in developing a strong bond with the opposite sex making us to realise that we have become sexual beings.
In our society and culture, we don’t realise that we are constantly being influenced. We have let forms of media influence us without our knowledge; these elements within our culture can have an effect on our sexual desires. ‘There is growing concern about young people’s exposure to sexual content through television and other electronic media and about its potential effects on their sexual attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours.’
“ By the late 1930s, he had outlined four developmental stages-infancy (oral, anal, genital), latency, puberty, and adult heterosexual adjustment.”(Capps, 2004) Erikson wanted to build on Freud's early psychosexual stages by adding psychosocial stages that covered the full life cycle. In Erikson's opinion Shakespeare had risen above Freud in developmental matters because Shakespeare had covered development from infancy till death and he also believed that Shakespeare's stages were represented in social-ethical terms rather than sexual. Erikson wanted to go beyond Freud and Shakespeare in the developmental process. Although without Freuds model of psychosexual stages Erik Erikson believed that he would never have been able to create his own life cycle schema. With the addition of the eighth stage Erik Eriksons original life cycle work was taking on creative new dimensions. Erikson himself thought that he was only beginning to get a sense of the vast complexity of human life and it upset him when people attempted to describe human life in general limited terms. In Eriksons opinion human life was complex and had no limits. In Eriksons life cycle schema he insisted that all stages of development are present from birth and remain thoughout an individuals life time. It was not very clear
This theory spoke about five different elements; the oral phase, the anal stage, the phallic stage, latency, and the genital stage. Psychosexual development is a theory that Freud based solely upon the Greek tragedy by Sophocles Oedipus Rex and is better known as the Oedipus complex. The Oedipus Complex was written for the children who get sexual gratification through their parent from the opposite sex. For example, the desire of a son for wanting to have sexual relations with his own mother which is the most common. This also involves, creates animosity along with hatred between the parents of the same sex as a child. Now the child looks at the parent of the same sex as a rival. Just to make it clear the overall theory is not only limited to males (son and father) relationship. On the other hand, as Freud believed that girls just as much as boys will have and can have a sexual attraction to their very own fathers; this was later known as the Electra complex. According to Freud the oral phase is the first phase that we go through, in it we have the curiosity on knowing what sorting things are and we would try to find an answer by bringing it to our mouth or lips which in turn helps development of the brain. The anal stage is the second stage; in this stage according to Freud the child’s attention change do to the process of elimination. Freud believed that the way of parents potty train their kids could influence on their kids personality, in a good or bad way. He described this personalities as anal-retentive personality, and anal-expulsive personality. Freud stated that children with anal-retentive personality problems could be very obsessive with cleaning, orderly, and stingy; while kids with anal-expulsive personality could be very messy, destructive, and disorganize. Our third stage of development, Freud called the phallic stage, in this particular stage the child
References to Kurt Freund’s studies to “assess sexual arousal in men and women” and Alfred Kinsey’s “sexual orientation” scale are made to further explain how sexuality and asexuality are not solid concepts with strict definitions of their own but rather more multifarious. For
The Phallic Stage =) the child learn to differentiate between the male and the female gender and becomes aware of sexuality. He clarified during that stage a child experience the Oedipus complex, meaning that young boys have very strong feelings toward their mother and as a result, they developed jealousy toward their father. They feeling can be so strong that they want to kill their father. The Elektra complex which reveals girl attraction for the father will result in a feeling of distaste for toward their mother.
Sigmund Freud 's theory of the Oedipus complex describes the ideas and emotions that exist within the unconscious mind of children concerning their desire to possess their mothers sexually and kill their fathers. Freud believed that this complex occurred in both male and female children, with both sexes wishing to possess their mothers and eliminate the threat of their fathers who they competed with for the attention of their mothers. Freud believed that the Oedipus complex occurred during what he referred to as the phallic stage of development, the third of the five stages of a child 's psychosexual development which occurs when a child is between the ages of three and six. According to Freud 's theory, children direct their developing sexual desire toward
Freud emphasized that early childhood experiences are important to the development of the adult personality, proposing that childhood development took place over five stages; oral, anal. Phallic, latent and genital. The phallic stage is the most important stage which contains the Oedipus complex. This is where the child (age 4 - 6 yrs) posses the opposite sex parent and wants rid of the same sex parent. Freud argued that if the conflict is not resolved in childhood then it could cau...
One of Freud’s major research accomplishments was his findings on infant sexuality also known as the Psychosexual Stages. The first stage is the oral stage which is 0-1 years of age. This is the stage where sensual/sexual life begins, in the form of sucking the thumb, biting, and breast suck...
Freud emphasizes on the life history of individuals. As a result, he created 3 parts of human personalities. The first one being Id which is the largest portion of the mind. This portion is unconscious which results in being present at birth. The next one is ego; this portion is conscious and begins to emerge in early infancy. Lastly is superego which is the conscience. This part begins to develop from ages three to six. Freud also explains the five psychosexual stages which are oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. “Psychoanalytic theory suggested that personality is mostly established by the age of five.” (Cherry, n.d.). All five psychosexual stages help establish a personality at a young age.
Erikson’s theory emphasized how both earlier and later experiences are proportionately important in the person’s development and how personality develops beyond puberty. But, Freud would argue that most development occurs during the earlier period of an individual’s life. Freud’s psychosexual stages comprised of five stages that ends in puberty. Erikson’s first few psychosocial stages are somewhat similar to that of Freud’s stages one to three but Erikson further expands his developmental stages to eight, covering old age.
Sigmund Freud developed the psychosexual stages of development to describe the chronological process of development that took place from birth through later adulthood. The stages of psychosexual are oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital. Freud developed that as children grow they progress from self-pleasing sexual activity to reproductive activity. Through this developmental process one will develop adult personality. Freud put much emphasis on sexual context of how ones libido, which is one sexual desires played a role in each stage of development. Freud emphasizes that individuals will strive to obtain pleasures in each stage of development, which becomes the basis of ones personality.
Developmental psychology is an area of research dedicated to the understanding of child-development. Throughout history many theories have been used to attempt to explain the complex process. Two of those theorists, Freud and Erikson, were instrumental in creating a foundation for child-psychology to build on. From a Freudian perspective, human development is centered on psychosexual theory. Psychosexual theory indicates that maturation of the sex drives underlies stages of personality development. Alternatively, Erikson is considered a neo-freudian scholar who developed psychosocial theory. In Erikson models there are eight major conflicts that occur during the course of an individual’s life.
Freud believed that humans develop through stages based on particular erogenous zones. Freud theorized that to gain a healthy personality as an adult, a person would have to successfully complete a certain sequence of five stages. Within the five stages of Freud’s psychosexual development theory, Freud assumed there would be major consequences if any stage was not completed successfully. The stages, in order, were the oral stage, the anal stage, the phallic stage, the latency stage, and the genital stage. In general, Freud believed that an unsuccessful completion of any stage would make a person become fixated on that particular stage. The outcome would lead the person to either over indulge or under indulge the failed stage during adulthood. Freud truly believed that the outcomes of the psychosexual stages played a major part in the development of the human personality. Eventually, these outcomes would become different driving forces in every human being’s personality. The driving forces would determine how a person would interact with the world around them. The results from Freud’s theory about the stages of psychosexual development led Freud to create the concept of the human psyche; Freud’s biggest contribution to
Gender and sexuality can be comprehended through social science. Social science is “the study of human society and of individual relationships in and to society” (Free Dictionary, 2009). The study of social science deals with different aspects of society such as politics, economics, and the social aspects of society. Gender identity is closely interlinked with social science as it is based on the identity of an individual in the society. Sexuality is “the condition of being characterized and distinguished by sex” (Free Dictionary, 2009).
In today’s society things are being expressed and experienced at younger ages, than ever before in our time. Children and teenagers are discovering their sexuality at very early ages. Sexuality is the discovering of who you are and what makes you different from everybody else.
The theory does a good job at delineating the stages of psychosexual development; our childhood has a great influence on our personalities. Referring to Freud’s ‘psychosexual stages’, it is very clear that parents’ role in an infant’s life is the foremost step to structure the personality. Not to forget, the oral and anal stages are focal fundamental to character traits in a person’s behavior. The inner ‘instincts’ of sexuality and aggression meeting with the socially acceptable norms creates a conflict zone, wherein it is decided what we are to do and what we would become.