Developmental Stages

Question 1

Freud’s Psychosexual Developmental Theory

Answer 1

● Personality’s developed through a series of childhood stages in which the pleasure-seeking energies of the id become focused on certain erogenous areas.
● Id - basic, instinctual drives, pleasure seeking
● Ego - mediate between id and reality
● Superego - internalization of cultural rules usually learned from parents

Question 2

Stages of Psychosexual Development

Answer 2

• Oral Stage: (0 -1 yr) primary interaction with the world is through the mouth, pleasure from oral stimulation thru activities, e.g. eating, tasting, sucking.
• Anal Stage: (1-3yo) focus of the libido, e.g. controlling
  bladder, bowel movements, toilet training. Anal retentive - too much pressure can result in excessive need for order or cleanliness. Anal expuslive - too little pressure from parents can lead to messy or destructive behavior.
• Phallic Stage: (3-6 yo) primary focus on genitals, more aware of their gender identity.
• Latent Stage: (6-Puberty) sexual feelings are dormant, develop social skills, values, and relationships w/ peers and adults outside of the family
• Genital Stage: (Puberty-Adult) libido becomes active, develop a strong interest in the opposite sex. If development has been successful, they become well-balanced

Question 3

Piaget’s Developmental Theory

Answer 3

● People actively construct higher levels of knowledge.
● Motivation for cognitive development occurs when there’s ‘disequilibrium’ between the person’s current understanding of the world and reality.
● Equilibrium is achieved thru assimilation (incorporation of new information into existing schemas) and accommodation (modification of existing schemas), which both lead to adaptation.

Question 4

Piaget’s Stages of Development

Answer 4

• Sensorimotor: (0 to 2yo) learn primarily thru sensory input and action. 3 achievements during this stage:
  1. Object Permanence - recognizes objs continue to exist even when out of sight (e.g. searches for toy hidden under a blanket)
  2. Causality - certain events cause others (e.g. realizes they can use their hand to pick up and move a toy somewhere else)
  3. Symbolic Thought - uses lang (symbols) to think about actions before performing them. (e.g. kid understands words represent an object)
• Preoperational: (2 to 7 yo) Symbolic
  function - test really likes this stage, learn thru mental images, lang and other symbols that rep objs that aren’t present, think world revolves around them, e.g. symbolic play, mentally solve probs, mo and Fa break up and kid calls new BF Fa
• Concrete Operational: (7 to 11 yo) logic and abstract thinking, classify and problem-solve in more sophisticated ways
• Formal Operational Stage: (11+ yo) think abstractly, hypothetically, and in a relativistic way. Develop
  competing hypotheses about a problem and strategies for testing the hypotheses. Increase in ‘thinking about thinking’ and some return to egocentrism during this stage.

Question 5

Erikson’s Developmental Theory

Answer 5

● Based on Freud’s emphasis on unconscious motivation.
● Greater emphasis on the ego.
● Assumes people are rational - behavior largely due to ego functioning
● Each stage involves a psychosocial task. If not mastered, person still continues to develop, but ego’s damaged and next stages will be affected.
● We give the person until the very END of the age range to have resolved the conflict. They didn’t fail a stage until they reached the end of that stage and moved on to the next stage (e.g. 38 yo, didn’t fail intimacy vs. isolation stage b/c they’re still in the stage)

Question 6

Eight Stages of Psychosocial Development

Answer 6

1. Trust vs. Mistrust: (0-18mo) Balance between trust
   and mistrust. Trust develops in relationship b/w infant and primary caregiver and forms the foundation for all other stages. Failure to master the task can result in pervasive mistrust of others OR dependent, unthinking, rigid adulation of others.
2. Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt:(18mo to 3yo) Achieve a sense of independence over their own body. If a child experiences autonomy (e.g. walking, exploring), they gain confidence and pride, which becomes ego strengths. If they’re over controlled or prohibited from exploring or becoming autonomous, they may feel doubtful of their abilities and
   experience excessive shame.
3. Initiative vs. Guilt: (3-6 yo) Set goals and carry out plans w/o infringing on the rights of others. Too much control (or taking actions that infringe on others’) results in disapproval from adults, feelings of guilt, and prohibits child (or adult) from effectively making plans or setting future goals.
4. Industry vs. Inferiority: (6-12 yo) Develop competence thru school and learning to do things on their own, which instills a sense of pride and confidence. Peers gain greater significance and contribute to self-esteem. If adults don’t support kids’ initiative, a sense of inferiority develops where child doubts their abilities, making it more difficult to reach their potential.
5. Identity vs. Role Confusion: (12-18 yo) Learn their roles as an adult, while developing a sense of personal identity. Peer relationships help explore various identities. Success in this stage leads to adolescent feeling comfortable with others who have varying values, while remaining true to their own
   identity. If adolescent fails to develop a sense of identity, then they may feel role confusion or weakened sense of self.
6. Intimacy vs. Isolation: (18-40 yo) Form intimate, committed, caring relationships with others. Failure to develop intimacy can lead to isolation, loneliness, and a feeling of exclusion
7. Generativity vs. Stagnation:(40-65 yo) Participate in activities that give purpose (e.g. career, raising kids, creating positive changes). If an adult doesn’t feel purpose, they may feel little connection and a sense of uselessness or rejection.
8. Ego Integrity vs. Despair:(65-death) Look back on life and feel a sense of fulfillment, which allows them to face the end of life and accept successes and failures, aging, and loss. Those who see their lives as unproductive or with many regrets may develop a sense of despair and guilt that can lead to depression and/or hopelessness.

Question 7

Mahler Stages of Development

Answer 7

• Object Relations theory refers to the way a child’s Ego becomes organized over the first 3 1/2 years of life.
• Child struggles b/w self and others, focuses on reciprocal relationship b/w mo and infant and its effect on infant’s development of sense of self that occurs in three stages.
  1. Autistic Stage (newborn-1 mo): focused purely on themself, unresponsive to external stimuli.
  2. Symbiotic Stage (1-5mo): perceive the ‘need-satisfying object,’ mo’s ego functions for the infant. Infant begins to understand mo’s a separate being from themself.
  3. Separation-Individuation Stage (5-24 mo+) Develops understanding of boundaries of self and see mo as a separate individual. Develops a sense of self. Within separation-individuation there are four sub-stages.
  ○ Differentiation Substage (5-9 mo): attention shifts from being inwardly focused to outwardly focused. (i.e. crawling)
  ○ Practicing Substage (9-14 mo): continues to separate from caretaker; autonomous ego functions become more apparent. (i.e. walking, playing)
  ○ Rapprochement Substage (14-24 mo): wants to act independently. Move away from mo, but regularly comes back to ensure she is still there.
  ○ Object Constancy Substage (24+ mo): Internalizes mo and understands mo still exists for them despite her absence.