Freud's Psychoosexual Development Stage

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Freud’s Psychosexual Development Stage Psychosexual development stage is one of Freud’s major contribution to the Psychology field. Some of the concepts were based on his earlier study- the division of mental life into id, ego, and superego. In Freud’s psychosexual theory, each stage represents the fixation of libido (Instinct energy contain in Id). A particular conflict is existed in each stage of the psychosexual theory. One may have to resolve the conflict in order to pass on to another stage. Ego and superego are as well developing when people are passing through the psychosexual stages in order to control the Id and solve the conflict in each stage. Freud’s idea of psychosexual theory is a great contribution to the developments of …show more content…

First of all, lack of empirical evidence is one of the major flaw in his psychosexual theory. The proposals of the stages were mainly based on his personal experiences, and even though his theory was focusing on childhood development, he did not really experiment on children. Secondly, cultural difference is a big consideration that he did not notice. There is no evidence to show that his theory applies to every ethnic group. Lastly, Freud’s psychosexual theory was strongly criticized by opposite gender- female. In the phallic stage of psychosexual theory, Freud’s believe that girls will desire their fathers and develop penis envy (this is not initially Freud’s idea, he believe it at first, but then reject it). However, females claimed that Freud would not understand their life progression due to gender difference. These criticisms and controversies all make Freud’s proposal less valid and …show more content…

For improvements, case study of children’s development process can be performed to find out what they are thinking, their behaviors, and the impacts of negative experiences on their life progression and adulthood. Also, race and gender variation should be considered in any experiment. Concepts proposed by different people with similar ideas can be combined. This can enhance the validity and new ideas can be formed by comparing and contrasting two concepts. This can make Freud’s psychosexual theory less controversial and more