According to Sigmund Freud, the psychological development of a person is dependent on some fixed stages of development which are also known as psychosexual stages. The personality of a person is developed as a child develops through the different stages of childhood. During this time, the pleasure seeking energies of the id needs immediate satisfaction and gratification, and this is what Freud calls the force behind behavior (Engler 2013). When these facts are put into perspective then I get to understand the reason I behave like I do because of the personality I developed through the years. The first stages of my life have influenced who I am today because of a number of reasons.
My room was the most tidy young girl’s bedroom in the whole world or so I thought. My mother had made a routine for me every day, and I had to follow it no matter what. Every day I woke up; I had to make my bed, tidy the floor and clean the windows every two days in a week. Nothing was supposed to lie idle on the floor. After playing, I would ensure that my toys were properly arranged and put in their designated places. Every time I would leave the room I had to ensure that it was clean, my bed well made and windows opened throughout the day for aeration. This routine did not change even when I had a friend or relative coming over to play with me. For a very long time I thought she was punishing me but then all through life I have come to know better, she is a very tidy and organized person and perhaps that is the reason I am like that to this day. I believe that I always have all my work well organized, arranged and tidy all the time.
Today, I am very keen on tidiness, cleanliness and well planning and organization of everything that I do. In case I want to do anything, at school, class, home or even when am attending an event with my friends, I always find myself planning adequately and even keeping records of the events and most of the happenings in my life. It happens consciously and unconsciously and at the end of the day I just realized that everything has to happen after careful thought. In case I don’t plan for that then I consider it a failure. It matters to me how I appear whether in public or in private. The major influence that my upbringing has had in my life is that of always wanting to do the right thing at all times not because it is right, but because I need approval and appreciation. Above all, I always want everything in order regardless of the price I have to pay.
When I put my personality into the context of the psychosexual stages of development, it becomes apparent that my life is built around tension and pleasure. The first developmental years play a crucial role in the eventual personality of every individual. Freud proposes that all the psychosexual stages of development are associated with various forms of conflict that have to be resolved before the child moves on to the next stage of development (Plotnik & Kouyoumdjian 2013). Perhaps this is true because I believe I got some of the attributes that I possess from a very tender age, and I have become very conscious of them throughout life. As far as I can remember my personality may have come to place at the phallic stage of development because it is at this time when I learned to differentiate between right and wrong and all that is expected of me as a girl.
References
Engler, B. (2013). Personality Theories. Belmont: Cengage Learning.
Plotnik, R. & Kouyoumdjian, H. (2013). Introduction to Psychology. Belmont: Cengage Learning
