The Period Of Infantile Sexuality

Unlike sex, the history of sexuality is dependant upon society and limited by its language in order to be defined and understood.

Another stage in human growth and development is called the phallic stage. Sigmund Freud believed this stage took place from the age of three to six years old. This is the stage that children become more aware of the sexual regions of their bodies. Not only do they become more self aware but also start to notice their parents and kids around them. This helps them learn the difference in “boy” or “girl” male or female. During this stage it is not uncommon for a child to hook them self onto the parent of opposite sex and start a rivalry with the parent of the same sex (Garcia, 1995). “Individuals who show higher levels in phallic stage of psychosexual development fixation are more likely to develop sexually” (“ Sexual Compulsivity, Promiscuity and Phallic Stage of Psychosexual Development Fixation. ,” 2012, para. 3).

Human sexuality is a common phrase for all, and anything, pertaining to the feelings and behaviors of sex for the human race. Sexuality has been a topic that has been discussed and studied for as far back as 1000 years B.C. and is still being studied today. As the discussion of sexuality has progressed through history, theories have been created based on research and experiments that scholars have implemented, based on their own perceptions of human behavior. Out of the many theories that pose to explain sexual behavior, Sexuality Now explained ten that are seemed to be the most overlapped, and built off of theories. Of these theories, two that were discussed in the text were the behavioral and sociological theory. These two theories cover some of the basic ideas of what could possibly influence a person’s sexuality.

The first two years after birth, through the developing person has to do with three domains biosocial, cognitive and psychosocial. There are many different theories regarding the first two years. The three most influential works on growth and development was done by Piaget, Freud and Erikson. Piaget’s theory was called cognitive development or the sensorimotor stage. This is when the child interacts with his surroundings through physical action such as pushing, sucking, grabbing, etc. Freud’s theory of development is psychosexual. He proposed three stages in psychosexual development: oral, anal, phallic. Erikson’s theory is psychosocial. From birth until about one and a

Behaviour determined by irrational forces, unconscious motivations 0biological/instinctual drives, evolve through key psycho sexual stages in first 6 years of life

Puberty refers to the adolescent physiological development and psychological development period of rapid change, the transition from childhood period to adulthood; a critical period of life and worldview is gradually formed. Usually is after the child 10 years old. In the transition to adult sexual development, performance, body, and an important period of heart full development characterize sexual maturity. Sexual maturity is the core of puberty.

Apart from the features mentioned above, the core assumption of the psychoanalytic perspective is that a person’s personality depends on childhood experiences. In this psychosexual development theory, Freud assumed that all children go through five stages. These are the oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latency stage and genital stage. He believed that a fixation would occur if a child experienced extreme problems or pleasure. (Eysenck, 1994)

Sexual behaviors and experimentation are very much a part of childhood development. Normative sexual behaviors of children consists of preschool children poking others bodies, and being interested in bathroom functions, while children ages 5 to 7 years are telling dirty jokes, kissing, and holding hands, and children ages 8 to 12 years, are mooning and exhibitionism, kissing, and touching others’ genitals (Caldwell, 2007). However when children are not supervised appropriately they are capable of sexually harming other children. Adolescents are accountable for perpetrating 20% of all sexual assaults, along with 50% of all child sexual abuse cases (Keelan & Fremouw, 2013). However in considering that statistic some sexual harming behaviors can be within the parameters of normal child behavior, and sometimes rarely signal predatory inclinations (Caldwell, 2007). The vast majority of youth harmful sexual acts are manifestations of non-sexual feelings. In fact, many mental health care professionals have found that much of the behavior classified as sex offenses should not necessarily be considered predatory. Therapists point out that many sexual offenses are carried out by naïve experimenters who are overly impulsive and/or immature adolescents that sometimes engage in sexual experimentation (Smith, Wampler, Jones, & Reifman, 2005). Examining the sexual behavior along with the age of the perpetrator and victim helps classify whether or not those behaviors fall

When a toddler is expelling the bowels, for example, while wearing diapers, this would be characterized as “anal expulsion”, but when the toddler starting the potting training process this is called the “anal retention”. Third, the phallic phase, whereas young boys encounter an Oedipus phase, much like the Oedipus complex, they fear the father and castration and has sexual fantasies about the mother. For a young girl she would enter the Electra phase, where she could acquire penis envy, which often can cause one to turn away from sexual life all together. After the phallic phase there is a pause of latency in the sexual development, though finally in the Genital phase sexual functions are organized and coordination of sexual urges involving pleasure is completed. “These investigations led him to conclude that childhood fears and experiences, often sexual in nature, accounted for neuroses-hysteria, anxiety, depression, often obsessions and so on” (Freud). Freud also claims that if there is an error that occurred in the sexual development it can result in homosexuality or sexual perversions in a person. Freud continues to explain that the child would get the appropriate gender-related behaviors enforced though indentifying with a same-sex parent, which would need to take place naturally.

Freud suggests five stages of psychosexual development that occur during childhood include the oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latency stage, and the genital stage. He believes that these stages could predict whether a child becomes a well-adjusted adult in the

During the oral stage, the infant enjoys eating and sucking objects, during the anal stage, it develops an interest in the anal region, and during the phallic stage it gains satisfaction from the genital region. Afterwards, there is a latency stage and a genital stage. During the Phallic stage, it was proposed that boys developed the Oedipus complex. This involved a

The oral stage is associated with the mouth area as the infant gains pleasure from sucking, swallowing, biting and chewing. The psychological theme to the oral stage is dependency as a baby can do little for itself. Too much or too little fulfilment can result in Oral Fixation. This fixation will be carried onto later life, where this type of personality may have a stronger tendency to smoke, drink, over eat and bite their nails. The anal stage is associated with the anal cavity and sphincter muscles of the bowel, which are now the main sources of pleasure. The child learns to control anal stimulation. Anal fixation can result in obsession with cleanliness and perfection. On the opposite side they may become disorganised and/or untidy. The phallic stage is associated with the genital area where this becomes the primary area pleasure. The child at this stage becomes aware of the sex differences; both boys and girls experience emotional feelings in relation to the opposite sex parent. The latency stage is the

During this stage pleasure arises from genital stimulation. This is also the stage where children experience the Oedipus or Electra complex (Barlow, Durand, Stewart, 2009; Shaffer et al., 2010). Freud alleged that young boys would have sexual fantasies that included their mothers with accompanying feelings of anger toward their fathers. This was coupled with fears that their fathers would castrate them led to the Oedipus complex (Barlow, Durand, Stewart, 2009). Alternatively, girls may suffer from what is known as the Electra complex. Freud supposed that girls wanted to replace their mother’s place and assume a relationship with their father. This was coupled with penis envy of a brother or father as girl’s wished they could be more like the male figures in their life (Barlow, Durand, Stewart, 2009). If this stage was not resolved in childhood, Freud believed that anxiety from unresolved conflicts with same-sex parent lead to neuroses (Shaffer et al, 2010).

In the old days, regarding sex education, parents had different reasons as to why they wanted to avoid talking to their children about sex education. Reasons being, some parents did not want to corrupt the minds of their children. They did not want their child to be open-minded into the varieties of sexual intercourse of experiencing this act with their friends or random people at school or any other places. They think it 's just not the right time, their kids are not ready, or they are too young to learn about sex. They tend to hide the term “sex” in front of their kids because of that particular reason and some parents may

“As infants grows older, they form close and enduring emotional attachments with the important people in their lives”. Reference 1. This essay will discuss the developmental period of infancy. Infancy is categorised as the development stage of a human from birth to 2 years of age. Infancy is a time in the human life that involves rapid growth and extraordinary changes in the first two years of life. Infants not only grow dramatically physically, their brains develop, and there is the start of locomotor skill development as well as the start of reflexes and sensory growth. The essay will also discuss anxiety and the role it plays with infants in regards to physical, cognitive and psychosocial stages an infant experiences. This essay will argue that the attachment of an infant to its mother is highly important. It will discuss the different way in which attachment affects an infant. This essay will discuss typical development milsetones in the first year years of human life. It will then go to analysis the relationship between infants being in day care or at home with their mother. T The typical physical development of a babys starts at borth. When a Baby is born on average it will weigh 3.4 kilograms and measure to be around 51 centimeters. A baby is typically 25 percent of its final adult weight when it is born but by its