Personality Development and Approaches

Flashcards covering stages of personality development, psychological fixations, and post-Freudian approaches.

Psychosexual Stages

Freud's five-stage theory of personality development, where unresolved conflicts can lead to fixations.

Fixation

A persistent focus on an earlier psychosexual stage due to unresolved conflict.

Oral Stage

The first stage of psychosexual development (birth to 1 year) where the infant's primary pleasure-seeking center is the mouth.

Anal Stage

The second stage of psychosexual development (1 to 3 years) focused on controlling bladder and bowel movements.

Anal-Expulsive Personality

A messy, wasteful, or destructive personality that may develop from lenient toilet training.

Anal-Retentive Personality

A stringent, orderly, rigid, and obsessive personality that may develop from strict or early toilet training.

Phallic Stage

The third stage of psychosexual development (3 to 6 years) focused on genitals and awareness of sexual differences.

Oedipus Complex

A boy's feelings of wanting to possess his mother and the desire to replace his father.

Castration Anxiety

A boy's fear of being punished by his father for his feelings towards his mother.

Electra Complex

A girl's experience of feelings similar to the Oedipus complex, potentially involving penis envy.

Latency Stage

The fourth stage of psychosexual development (6 to puberty) where sexual urges are relatively inactive and energy is focused on social and achievement-related activities.

Genital Stage

The final stage of psychosexual development (puberty to death) where a person attains maturity and learns to deal with members of the opposite sex in a socially and sexually mature way.

Carl Jung

A post-Freudian theorist who developed analytic psychology, emphasizing aims and aspirations.

Collective Unconscious

Jung's concept of inherited archetypes or primordial images.

Karen Horney

A post-Freudian theorist who adopted a more optimistic view of human life.

Alfred Adler

A post-Freudian theorist known for individual psychology, emphasizing purposeful and goal-directed behavior.

Individual Psychology

Adler's theory that basic human behavior is purposeful and goal-directed.

Inferiority Complex

Adler's concept that every individual suffers from feelings of inadequacy and guilt.

Erich Fromm

A post-Freudian theorist who viewed human beings as social beings understood in terms of their relationship with others.

Erik Erikson

A post-Freudian theorist who stressed rational conscious ego processes in personality development.

Identity Crisis

Erikson's concept describing a period where young people must generate a central perspective and direction.

Behavioural Approach

Focuses on learning stimulus-response connections and reinforcements