How a child's life is formed determines how our future is shaped. Sigmund Freud laid down the basic foundation of a person's personality. He said that person 's personality is formed by the time they reach the age of five. Freud said that a child's early experiences determines their adult personalities. .
He then defined each stage that a child goes through. Freud called it the psychosexual development stages. These are the stages that are " successive, instinctive patterns of associating pleasure with stimulation of specific bodily areas at different times in life." ( Zimbardo Pg. 386) These five stages deal with how children deal with their sexual urges. The stages change and become more intense as a child gets older.
If a child doesn't fully satisfy his needs a any stage they can become fixated to the needs of that stage. Fixation occurs when a child faces a problem growing from stage to stage. Fixation can greatly affect our personalities when we become adults. When a child become fixated they become dependent to the emotional urges of the stage. Each stage has different effects.
The first stage children go through is the oral stage. This represents the stage of the mouth. In this stage children go through the change from breast to bottle. It involves sucking, biting, eating and crying. Children go through this stage in their first year . "Children learn to overcome dependency in this stage." ( Zimabrdo Pg.387) Fixation at this stage creates adult personality problems like smoking, nail biting or obesity. These are all problems that deal with the mouth. Fixation at the oral stage causes a " a common theme of using the mouth as a way to connect to what one needs." ( Zimbardo Pg.387).
The anal stage is the second stage that usually occurs between the first and third years as a child. The biggest obstacle at this stage is toilet training. Freud said that at this stage children get their pleasure from their bowel movements.