Psychological Theories

Of the psychological theories of sexuality, the most influential has been Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. Freud felt that the sex drive was one of the most important forces in life, and he spent a considerable amount of time studying sexuality.

Psychoanalytic Theory

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) spent most of his life in Vienna, Austria. In the early 1900s, Sigmund Freud gathered a group of psychologists together to further his ideas, and he became the founder of the psychoanalytic school. He is also indirectly responsible for many concepts that form the foundation of other theories that followed psychoanalytic theory. Some of these theories will be presented in the following sections. For now, we explore two of Freud’s most controversial concepts—personality formation and psycho­sexual development.

Personality Formation According to Freud, human behavior is motivated by in­stincts and drives. The two most powerful drives are libido (la-BEED-oh), which is the sexual motivation, and thanatos (THAN-uh-toes), which is the aggressiveness motiva­tion. Of these two, the libido is the more powerful.

Freud believed that there were two divisions to the personality. In the first division, he identified three levels in which the personality operates. These included the con­scious, preconscious, and unconscious. The conscious level contains information that we are aware of—for instance, right now as you are reading this page you are aware of the fact that you are doing so, and you might also be aware of other things going on around you. You are consciously aware of all of this information. However, there are some things that you might not be aware of, but you could recall them if you wanted to or someone asked you to. For instance, what did you have for dinner two nights ago? This information is stored in your preconscious level. The third level of the personality, the unconscious, Freud believed, was the most important part. The unconscious level con­tains information that we have no conscious access to, such as conflicts or anxiety- producing memories. However, even though we have no access to the unconscious, it is responsible for much of our behavior. For example, perhaps there are unconscious rea­sons why we choose the partners we do.

The second division of the personality contains the id, ego, and superego. At birth, a child has only the id portion of the personality, which functions as the pleasure cen­ter. A child is interested only in things that bring immediate satisfaction; for example, when a child is hungry, he or she cries. The id operates totally within the unconscious part of the mind. If the id were the only part of the personality that developed, we would always be seeking pleasure and fulfillment with little concern for others; in other words, the way most animals operate. As humans get older, however, the id balances its desires with other parts of the personality.

By the 2nd year of life, the ego develops as the child begins to interact with his or her environment. The ego constitutes the reality part of the personality, and it keeps the id in check by being realistic about what the child can and cannot have. Because the majority of the id’s desires may be socially unacceptable, the ego works to restrain it. The ego can move among the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.

By 5 years of age, the last portion of the personality, the superego, develops. It con­tains both societal and parental values and puts more restrictions on what we can and cannot do. It acts as our conscience, and its most effective weapon is guilt. For example, let’s say that a woman was raised in a very religious family and learned that premarital sexual activity was wrong. One night she becomes passionate with her long-term boyfriend (an id action). This activity feels pleasurable, and the id is being fulfilled. Suddenly, reality kicks in (the ego), and she realizes that she is engaging in sexual ac­tivity with her boyfriend in the back seat of a car, which is parked at a busy convenience store—she could be discovered at any moment! This causes her to evaluate the situa­tion, because she has been taught that premarital sexual activity is wrong. As a result, she begins to feel guilty (a superego action). Throughout our lives, the id, ego, and super­ego are in a constant struggle with each other, but it is the ego, or the realistic portion of our personality, that keeps the other two parts balanced.

Two things can occur if the ego does not keep things in balance. First, if the super­ego takes over, the person might be paralyzed by guilt. If, on the other hand, the id takes over, the person might constantly search for pleasure with little concern for others. Freud believed that the only way to bring these conditions into balance was for the per­son to undergo psychoanalysis, which allows the individual to bring unconscious thoughts into consciousness.

taliate by cutting off their penis, and they may lose it (as girls “obviously” did). The Oedipus complex is resolved when the child realizes he cannot have his mother, and he renounces his desire for her.

Freud was less clear about what happened to girls. He believed that girls go through an Electra complex, in which they love their father and want to be impregnated by him. However, they realize they cannot have this, and eventually come to identify with the mother. During this time, Freud believed that women develop penis envy. When a girl sees a boy’s penis, she realizes that she is lacking one and feels inferior. Freud believed that the Electra stage for girls is never fully resolved and that women are less psycho­logically mature than men.

Question: Why did Freud call it "penis envy" when guys are always trying to hook up? Shouldn’t we call it "vagina envy"?

Karen Horney, a follower of Freud, believed that it could be argued that men have "womb envy" rather than women having "penis envy." Many modern feminists—some who are psychoanalysts—have reframed psychoanalytic theory to be less biased against women and women’s experiences. Freud chose the penis because it fit with his theory—and perhaps because he had one.

The resolution of the phallic stage is important for both boys and girls because by iden­tifying with the same-sex parent, they learn to adopt masculine or feminine characteris­tics. The superego begins to develop during this time as well, and most children adopt their parents’ values. Keep in mind, however, that the conflicts associated with the Oedipus and Electra complexes are repressed, and how they are resolved affects future behavior.

Prior to puberty, the child passes through the latency stage, in which all libido and sexual interest go underground. The fear and strength of the previous stage makes all sexual urges and interests disappear. In fact, during this stage, little boys often think lit­tle girls have “cooties” (and vice versa), and childhood play primarily exists in same-sex groups. Puberty marks the genital stage, which is the final stage of psychosexual devel­opment. The erogenous zone once again becomes the genitals. During this stage, sexu­ality becomes less internally directed and more directed at others as erotic objects.

Freud believed that if there were no trauma or fixation in any of the above-mentioned stages, a child would be heterosexual. To Freud, homosexuality and bisexuality were the result of atypical psychosexual development (we’ll discuss this more in Chapter 11).

Freud’s ideas were controversial in the Victorian time period in which he lived. His claims that children were sexual from birth and that children lusted for the other-sex parent caused tremendous shock in the conservative community of Vienna. Among modern psychologists, Freud and the psychoanalytic theory have received a considerable amount of criticism. The predominant criticism is that his theory is unscientific and does not lend itself to testing. How could a researcher study the existence of the phallic stage? If it is indeed unconscious, then it would be impossible to hand out surveys to see when a child was in each stage. Because Freud based his theories on his patients, he has been accused of creating his theories around people who were sick; consequently, they may not apply to healthy people (we will discuss this more in the section on research methodology). Finally, Freud has also been heavily criticized because of his unflattering psychological portrait of women.