Ontogeny of the human psyche

Ontogeny of the human psyche is the science of changes in the psyche that occur during life.
 * subcategories: pedopsychology, adult psychology, gerontopsychology
 * the main area of interest is childhood, where the most changes take place

Period overview
According to various authors, the individual stages of development can be described as :

Freud, Piaget

 * Freud – 5 periods according to sexuality
 * Piaget – also five stages, contemporaneous, different criteria
 * 1) sensorimotor stage (0–2 years; oral stage)
 * 2) * thinking is tied to the actually performed activity, it creates a specific relationship with the mother
 * 3) symbolic stage (2–4 years; anal stage)
 * 4) * develoment of speech, formation of symbolic signs for established ideas
 * 5) opinion thinking stage (4–7 years; phallic stage)
 * 6) * the child draws conclusions dependent on the child´s egocentrism and the child´s activity
 * 7) concrete operations stage (7–11 years)
 * 8) * creation of thought categories, sense of duty
 * 9) formal operations stage (12–14 years; genital stage)
 * 10) * creates general judgments, criticisms, abstract thinking

Erik Erikson

 * a more pronounced socio-cultural aspect - a person goes through stages that follow one another when the individual copes with the psychosocial conflict of the previous period, the pivotal work - The Eight Ages of Man
 * 1) in the first year of life – basic security, feeling of trust, dependent on the stability and quality of maternal care, children without this possibility – disposition to paranoid reactions later
 * 2) in toddlerhood – a sense of autonomy, separation from the mother, training in the regulation of excretion
 * 3) preschool period – development of locomotor skills and initiative, conflict with the norms of the surrounding world, emotional attachment to mother still strong
 * 4) school age – ties to peer groups, skill, feelings of inferiority in the event of failure, also role models other than parents (teachers,...), boys and girls separate groups
 * 5) the period of adolescence – the search for one´s own identity
 * 6) young adulthood – only a person who is sure of himself is capable of a close relationship with others - intimacy
 * 7) maturity – fertility, creativity
 * 8) maturity – maturity fo the ego, a balanced individual, able to face the end of life
 * periods – fetal, newborn, infant, toddler, preschool, school, puberty, adolescence (up to 20 years), adulthood (20–45 years), involution (45–65 years), old age