Psychological Development
According to Freud, from the age of three to age five, a shift in the focus of pleasure takes place in a child’s psychological development (Carducci, 2009). During this period, which he called the phallic stage, the genital area becomes the focus of pleasure. Notwithstanding its name, both boys and girls experience a heightened “sense of bodily awareness” that translates into the exploration of body parts and the particular focus on genitals (Carducci, 2009). Freud claims that boys have sexual desire for their mothers that is aided by the desire to kill their father in order to eliminate competition at this point in their development.
According to the scientist, boys are particularly interested in their mothers due to the central role she played in the oral and anal stages (Carducci, 2009). He argues that breastfeeding serves as a major source of pleasure, thus making the child focus on the mother as a chief figure in the process of obtaining positive emotions. Freud believes that the phallic stage manifests differently in every individual. He claims that some of the boys develop castration anxiety, which is linked with the belief that the father might cut off the child’s penis to eliminate external competition for the mother. Furthermore, the feeling of castration anxiety feeds the heightened need for competition in the boy and manifests in the Oedipus complex (Carducci, 2009).
Current psychological research in the area of infant development extended Freud’s work and suggested that infantile sexuality is the source of adult desires and creative endeavors. Moreover, it is suggested that at some point in a child’s psychological development, it undergoes transformation and becomes a supporting vector for all “physical work and treatment” (Marion, 2015). According to Marion (2005), infantile sexual desires become particularly prominent when they first meet mature sexuality. At this point, “the earlier oedipal solutions” start generating new tensions in the child as they meet with the fully-sexualized body (Marion, 2015).
Pre-Operational Reasoning
Piaget defined the period between the age of two and seven as the pre-operational stage of a child’s psychological development (Ashford, LeCroy, & Lortie, 2009). At this point, young children are not capable of performing the mental tasks that older children usually can handle. During the preoperational stage, mental reasoning, stable concepts, egocentrism, and magical beliefs begin to take root in children’s thought processes (Ashford et al., 2009). Moreover, their symbolic use becomes superseded by more sophisticated use. According to Piaget, there are two phases of pre-operational reasoning: symbolic function and intuitive thought. The symbolic function is linked with the faculty of symbolic thinking and is usually present at the age of four (Ashford et al., 2009). This phase is linked with egocentrism, where kids are not able to see the difference between their own perspective and that of another person. The second phase of the pre-operational stage is usually developed between the ages of four and seven. Even though at this point in their psychological development, children are not usually capable of formal logic, they acquire primitive reasoning (Ashford et al., 2009). The phase of intuitive thought is marked by a plethora of questions emerging in a child.
Piaget’s theory of Pre-Operational Reasoning is often being criticized for its narrow applicability and the methods he used for its development (Ashford et al., 2009). I agree with those researchers that criticize Piaget’s work and favor the information-processing approach to mental development. My personal experience has taught me that children could reveal greater emotional maturity when the tasks they engage in are designed to be more interesting. However, I do agree with Piaget in that the symbolic function stage of mental development is marked by egocentrism. I have witnessed many times how the children between two and seven years of age are not able to distinguish between their and other game participant’s vantage point while playing hide and seek.
References
Ashford, J., LeCroy, C., & Lortie, K. (2009). Human behavior in the social environment. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning.
Carducci, B. (2009). The psychology of personality. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Marion, P. (2015). Infantile sexuality and Freud’s legacy. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 97(3), 641-664.