Psychosexual Development in Childhood

        According to Freud’s psychosexual development in childhood, learning takes place in a series of 5 fixed stages (Simplypsychology, 2015). These stages are represent the fixation of libido, or a sexual drive or instincts on different areas of the body. As a child develops, certain parts of their body becomes important as sources of potential frustrations for pleasure. According to Freud, life was built around tension and pleasure and all tension was due to the buildup of libido or sexual energy. (Simplypsyhology, 2015).  According to Freud, a person’s id must be controlled in order to satisfy social demands.

        The first stage in the 5 stages of psychosexual development is the oral stage. This stage lasts from 0-18 months. Children get all sorts of satisfying sensations from putting things in their mouths at this time.  Sucking, biting and breast-feeding fulfil this urge to put thing in their mouths. According to Freud, “oral stimulation could lead to an oral fixation in later life” (Psychology.com, 2015). There are many different oral personalities in the world, such as smokers, nail biters, fingers chewers and thumb suckers. People seems to have these fixations when they are under a lot of stress. Freud believes if an individual has an oral fixation, an individual would probably have a dependency or aggression later in life.

        A learning activity that we could do is put a baby on the floor with objects such as pacifiers, toys for baby ages 0-24 months and see what they do with them. Observe with objects they seem to like the most. Another activity would be to take these objects away and see how these babies react without any toys for them to put into their mouths. Finally, we could hide the objects under things and see if the babies can find them. Babies always want to sick things in their mouths so they should move things around in order to get to these objects.

        I think groups that target this age level would be companies that sell baby products such as toys and pacifiers. They know that babies love these things and are easy to sell. Parents give their children these products because they keep them quite and occupied. They are in high demand and sell easy because they are pretty much needed by all babies. If you think about it, we put a pacifier in a baby’s mouth as soon as they are born. It stops them from crying and makes life easier for the parents.

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