Freuds Psychosexual Stages of Development

Freud's Psychosexual Stages of Development Freud advanced a theory of personality development that centred on the effects of the sexual pleasure drive on the individual consciousness. The following five stages are based around the notion that with each stage, the child's libido becomes centred around certain erogenous zones. The Oral Stage The oral stage begins at birth, when the oral cavity is the primary focus of libidal energy. The child, of course, preoccupies himself with nursing, with the pleasure of sucking and accepting things into the mouth. The oral character who is frustrated at this stage, whose mother refused to nurse him on demand or who truncated nursing sessions early, is characterized by pessimism, envy, suspicion and sarcasm. The overindulged oral character, whose nursing urges were always and often excessively satisfied, is optimistic, gullible, and is full of admiration for others around him. The stage finishes at the weaning stage. The stage lasts approximately one and one-half years. The Anal Stage At one and one-half years, the child enters the anal stage. With the advent of toilet training comes the child's obsession with the erogenous zone of the anus and with the retention or expulsion of the faeces. This represents a classic conflict between the id, which derives pleasure from expulsion of bodily wastes, and the ego and superego, which

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Outline the development of attachments

Developmental Psychology - Key Assessment Task a) Outline the development of attachments An attachment is a powerful bond between an infant and its caregiver. Infants form attachments because they are helpless at birth and so need caregivers to provide for and protect them. There are many long term effects of attachments, for example an attachment gives a foundation for emotional relationships e.g. the infant is learning how to form an emotional or "love" relationship. Schaffer and Emerson believed that infants form attachments by three stages, this argument was based on a large scale study of 60 infants in a working class area of Glasgow over 2 years. The first stage of attachment Schaffer and Emerson believed a child to go through happens when they are 0-6 weeks old, this is known as the Asocial Stage and involves the infant smiling and crying but not directing these emotions at individuals. The second stage of attachment is known as Indiscriminate Attachment and happens when the infant is 6 weeks to 7 months old; this involves the child seeking attention from different individuals. The last stage of attachment is Specific Attachments and happens when the infant is 7-11 months old, this stage shows a strong attachment to one individual, with good attachment to others following afterwards. b) Describe the procedures and findings of one study of individual difference in

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Outline and evaluate one Social Learning Theory explanation of personality development

Outline and evaluate one Social Learning Theory explanation of personality development Bandura believed that an individual's personality was developed as a result of interaction between the individual and their environment. He called this interaction reciprocal determinism, and suggested that people play an active role in determining their behaviour in an environment: they will behave in a certain way that is appropriate for the setting that they are in, but their behaviour may also change that setting. This, according to Bandura's social-cognitive theory, occurs by means of a process of observation and imitation, known as modelling. Modelling is spontaneous and requires no deliberate effort on the part of the learner or the model (the person whose behaviour is to be observed and imitated), and reinforcement is not necessary for such learning to occur. This means that the study explains what the Behaviourist explanation of behaviour could not: the ability to produce or reproduce behaviour without reinforcement. However, although unnecessary, reinforcement will affect the performance of the behaviour; this is known as vicarious reinforcement. Bandura's theory incorporates cognitive factors into its explanation, and for a model's behaviour to be imitated, there must be some internal mental representation of the model. There are five steps to the modelling process. The first

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OCR G543 - Evaluate the use of a longitudinal research design when considering upbringing as an explanation for criminal behaviour.

Forensic Psychology Q) Evaluate the use of a longitudinal research design when considering upbringing as an explanation for criminal behaviour. (15) A) Longitudinal studies are psychological investigations carried out over a long period of time, or at various intervals over a long period of time. They allow psychologists to study changes in behaviour and, for instance, partiality to crime, and how this behaviour and the attitudes of those partaking in such behaviour change over time and why. But there is a flaw in the fact that longitudinal studies like Farrington, et al.’s, have many extraneous variables that can affect the validity of the results. This is not an issue for studies like Wikstrom & Täfel’s Peterborough Youth Study, which was a snapshot study – a study conducted at just one point in time – and consists of a singular analysis of the school reports of 2,000 14/15 year olds and one interview, thus making the practicality of psychological research far easier than the 40 year-long longitudinal study Farrington conducted. On top of this, the most commonly used approach to collecting data from longitudinal research is self report; both Farrington and Wikstrom & Täfel used them. Self report techniques are a good indicator of partiality to criminal behaviour because you can ask personal questions and learn about smaller crimes that unreliable criminal

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OCR G544 - Using examples of research that you have studied, discuss the strengths and limitations of using the nurture debate to explain human behaviour (12 marks)

Nature vs. Nurture Q1) Using examples of research that you have studied, discuss the strengths and limitations of using the nurture debate to explain human behaviour. (12) The nurture debate in psychology aligns itself with explaining all human behaviour as a product of the environment that an individual lives in. It suggests that the people we interact with, the homes we grow up in and even the school experiences we have as we grow up are all influential on our behaviour later in life. In the longitudinal study by Farrington, et al. into delinquent development of boys in East London, he found that there are environmental factors that directly influence why young offenders become adult criminals. Negative school experiences, weak family bonds and growing up in an impoverished area where life prosperity is low were all contributing risk factors, but even so, this study does not attribute any behaviour to the nature side of the debate and therefore ignores important genetic factors that may also predetermine behaviour from birth (such as explored in a study by Raine where he observed brain dysfunction as a reason the crimes committed by serial murderers). Another weakness of the nurture debate is shown in Meichenbaum’s study, whereby a comparison group of students suffering exam anxiety enrolled on a course of systematic desensitisation – a behavioural method of treating

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Stages of Development. Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development, Freud's Stages of Psychosexual Development, and Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development. These three theories all approach this topic in very different ways, yet they all may be correc

Piaget/Erikson/Freud Stages of Development November 2, 2008 Period 4 Up to this present day and age, there have been many different theories and approaches on how the common man develops. Of these, the most reasonable and recognized ones seem to be Piaget's Stages of Cognitive Development, Freud's Stages of Psychosexual Development, and Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development. These three theories all approach this topic in very different ways, yet they all may be correct. Firstly, we have look at how these approaches are similar. The most obvious one is that they all show how the common human being develops, but not in the same way. Also, Freud's theory and Erikson's theory are similar in several ways. Both stress and show the emotional dynamics of social development. Basically, this is saying that they both believe that learning the rules of society are different than learning how to walk or how to swim. Also, they both present four similar stages in he beginning, oral, anal, phallic/genital, and latency. Furthermore, they both talk about anxiety, clinical behavior, emotional behavior, abnormal behavior, and neurosis/psychosis behavior. For an specific reason, which will be explained later on, Piaget's stages are very different, hence the miniscule similarity, if there are any. Secondly, we look at how these models differ. Piaget's is clearly the most different.

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Outline and evaluate the evolutionary theory of attachment.

AS Psychology Essay The Evolutionary Theory of Attachment The evolutionary theory of attachment as proposed by John Bowlby (1907-1990) suggests that attachment, in terms of adaptation, is essential for survival. In order to progress healthily, children are born with an innate tendency to form attachments. This means that infants are pre-programmed to become attached to their caregiver. Bowlby's evolutionary theory consists of a number of essential factors. The first is monotropy which refers to his suggestion that infants form one social bond with the person who is most sensitive to their social releases (i.e. their caregiver). This bond or attachment is a two-way process which is referred to as reciprocal. Furthermore, Bowlby proposed that infants develop an Internal Working Model which acts as a template for future relationships. This is based on the relationships between the infant and the primary caregiver. Finally, Bowlby also suggested that there is a critical period of 21/2 years where an attachment has to be formed. If not, the infant will experience social and emotional problems in late life. This theory can be both criticised and supported through studies carried out by several researchers. For instance; Konrad Lorenz (1952) was an ethologist who found that a group of goslings became attached to the first living thing they encountered. This immediate attachment

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Bowlby's Attachment Theory

Bowlby's Attachment Theory Findings form animal studies were a powerful influence on Bowlby's thoughts. He suggested too that there was a critical period for the development of attachments between infant and care giver. According to Bowlby infants display an innate tendency to become attached to one particular individual. He called this monotropy. He suggested this tendency was qualitatively different from any subsequent attachment a child might form. However, he did not suggest monotropy was absolute but that the child has a hierarchy of attachments. Bowlby thought that if a child was deprived of their mother between 6 months and five years of age then this would lead to difficulties in later life. They would be unable to form attachments with others and would be likely to turn to crime. He termed this as his maternal deprivation hypothesis. Bowlby suggested that separation experiences in early childhood caused affectionless psychopathy. This is the inability to have deep feelings for other people and, therefore, the lack of meaningful personal relationships. In his hypothesis, Bowlby believed that an infant's failure to attach to a primary caregirt hypothesis. Firstly, the terms 'attachment' and 'deprivation' will be defined. Following that, a full definition of the hypothesis will be made, and then an attempt will be made to describe and understand the studies and period

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Outline and Evaluate 2 Cognitive Developmental Explanations of Gender Development

Outline and Evaluate 2 Cognitive Developmental Explanations of Gender Development There are two cognitive explanations of gender development. These theories share the view that the child's thinking and understanding of their gender identity as boys or girls is what leads to the adoption of gender role behaviours. Kohlberg's cognitive developmental theory (1966) argued that the child develops an understanding of gender in three stages and it is only after the child has fully understood that gender is constant, at around age 5, that they show gender role behaviour. Martin and Halverson's gender schema theory (1981) agrees with the cognitive nature of gender development, but argues that children develop schemas about gender and gender role behaviours earlier than Kohlberg suggested. According to Kohlberg (1966), the child's understanding of their own gender identity forms the basis of their enactment of gender role behaviours. Kohlberg argued that the child's understanding of gender develops gradually through three stages which are loosely linked to age across early childhood. In each of these stages, the child grasps increasingly more complex concepts about the nature of gender. Gender Identity: the first and most simple concept the child has to gasp relates to their own sex - that of a girl or boy. Between the age of about two and three-and-a-half, the young child starts to

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Strange Situation

Strange Situation - Ainsworth et al. (1970) Attachment: Attachment is a mutual and intense emotional relationship between two people, in this instance child and caregiver. Compared to other animals. humans are extremely helpless in infancy. relying less on their instincts. Thus unless the infant is highly motivated to stay near the caregiver, and the caregiver is in tune to the infant's needs, we would not be around today. Aims: To establish a universal method of assessing the strength of attachment, and to study individual differences in separation and stranger anxiety in infants aged 12 - 18 months. Procedure: This was a longitudinal study. Meaning it was conducted over a long period of time, where Ainsworth visited 26 mother - child couples at home every month of the child's first year of life. Every aspect of the mother and babies behaviour was recorded, but Ainsworth was primarily interested in the reunion behaviour of both the child and mother. The study was broken down into seven stages, each three minutes long: Stage 1: Mother and child enter room; child is free to play with toys while mother is passive. Stage 2: Stranger enters and talks with mother, gradually approaching child Stage 3: Mother leaves, stranger is passive Stage 4: Stranger leaves and mother returns. This is where she greets and / or comforts child back into play Stage 5: Mother leaves

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