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:

Year	Period name	according to Mr & Mrs Freud	according to Piaget	according to Erikson
	prenatally
< 1 month	neonatal	oral	sensorimotor	trust versus distrust
< 1 year	infant
< 2 years	toddler	anal		autonomy versus doubt
< 3 years		phallic	symbolic
< 4 years	preschool	(Oedipus/Electra complex)		initiative versus guilt
< 5 years			opinionated thinking
< 6 years
< 7 years	early school age	latency stage		diligence versus inferiority
< 8 years			specific operation
< 9 years
< 10 years	middle school age
< 11 years
< 12 years	early adolescence			identity versus confusion
< 13 years		genital	formal operation
< 14 years
< 15 years

Freud, Piaget

• Freud – 5 periods according to sexuality
• Piaget – also five stages, contemporaneous, different criteria

1. sensorimotor stage (0–2 years; oral stage)
   • thinking is tied to the actually performed activity, it creates a specific relationship with the mother
2. symbolic stage (2–4 years; anal stage)
   • develoment of speech, formation of symbolic signs for established ideas
3. opinion thinking stage (4–7 years; phallic stage)
   • the child draws conclusions dependent on the child´s egocentrism and the child´s activity
4. concrete operations stage (7–11 years)
   • creation of thought categories, sense of duty
5. formal operations stage (12–14 years; genital stage)
   • 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

Links

Source

• BENEŠ, Jiří. Studijní materiály [online]. [cit. 2010]. <http://jirben.wz.cz>.