OCR Psychology Core Studies - Freud - Background (1)

Freud was reporting the findings of a 5 year old who had a phobia of horses. Key themes: First few years of life is important in developing a personality. Freud believed children experience emotional conflicts and their future depends on how they're resolved. Unconscious mind = Part of our mind we're unaware of. This part of our mind contains unresolved conflicts and has a powerful effect on behaviour and experience. These conflicts appear in our fantasies and dreams, but the conflicts are so threatening, they appear in disguised forms e.g. in the shape of symbols. Oedipus Complex: An important concept in Psychoanalysis. Freud believed children pass 5 stages of development aka Psychosexual stages, as Freud's main emphasis was on sexuality as the basic drive in development. These stages are: Oral Stage = 0-2 years = Fixation/pleasure from putting things in the mouth; Anal Stage = 2-3 years = Pleasure from retaining/expelling faeces; Phallic Stage = 3-5 years = Child's sexual identification is established; Latency Period = 5 - Puberty = Pleasure drives quiet; Genital Stage = Puberty + = Know about sexual pleasure (conscious sexual urges). What is the Oedipus Complex? Freud hypothesised a young boy would experience the oedipus complex. Here the child is provided with highly disturbing conflicts which needs to be resolved by identifying with the same-sex parent. Freud thought during the Phallic stage, the young boy develops an intense sexual-love for his mother. Because of this, he sees the father as a rival and wants to get rid of him. The father, however, is big and powerful than the young boy, and the child develops a fear that the father will castrate him. But its not possible to live with this castration anxiety, so the boy develops a way of dealing with it using as a defence mechanism, known as "Identification with the aggressor". He stresses all the ways that he's like his father by adopting his attitudes,actions and mannerisms, feeling that if the father sees him as similar, he won't feel hostile towards him.