Effects of Toilet Training to Personality Development

Effects of Toilet Training to Personality Development

Introduction

“The child was the father to the man”

- Sigmund Freud

The basic premise of Dr. Sigmund Freud’s theory on personality development lies on the above statement. The determinants of one’s behavior and characteristics during adulthood may be derived from one’s childhood –how one was brought up taking into consideration the influence and interaction of values, culture, language, rules, roles, models and morals to the development of one’s personality. As such, much of the burden of honing a child’s character lies on the parents and the latter’s own upbringing may greatly influence how a child will behave upon reaching adulthood.

With this premise in mind, Freud advanced a theory that centered on the effects of sexual satisfaction to the human psyche. To Freud, man is a pleasure-seeking animal who constantly strives to avoid painful experience in order to maintain a pleasant life. He postulated that the foundation of personality is formed between the ages 1-5 wherein an individual goes through a series of developmental stages which were also called psychosexual stages. Man’s search for pleasure commences during these stages, wherein the most basic desire or sexual urge is manifested in a child’s growth and developmental needs. In explaining the four psychosexual stages that he has identified, he introduced the idea of erogenous zones.

Erogenous zones

Also called erotogenic zones, erogenous zones are areas in a man’s body where the inner and outer skins meet and when manipulated, are capable of arousing pleasant and sensu...

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...duce specific character traits associated with the acts of retention and expulsion.

Cited Works

Bischof, Leonard J. Interpreting Personality Theories. New York, N.Y.: Harper and Row, 2nd Ed.,1964.

Fox, Ronald E., Gregory, Ian and Rosen, Ephraim. Abnormal Psychology. London: W.B. Saunders Company, 2nd Ed., 1972.

“Psychodynamic Theories.“ noteaccess.com. 19 June 2005.

Bibliography

“Freud's Psychosexual Stages of Development.” about.com 19 June 2005.

Hall, Calvin S. and Lindzey, Gardner. Theories of Personality. N.Y.: John Wiley & Sons, 3rd Ed., 1978.

Stevenson, David B. “Freud’s Psychosexual Stages of Development”. Victorian Web. 19 June 2005.