Chapter 2

The second chapter was very interesting to read. The whole time I was reading it I thought about my son especially when it came to Freud's theory of Psychosexual stages. My son is 4 so while I was reading about the stage he is in which is the Phallic stage which focuses basically on the penis being the most important body part. He is at the stage now where he is proud he has one and asks why girls don't have one. My son is a very outspoken little boy so every time the conversation comes up he makes a joke. Relating things to him seem to help me understand the material that I am reading a little bit better because he is the most important person in my life. Seeing how each of these stages are true when it comes to kids is pretty interesting. It makes me nervous though as he gets older because of how some of the stages are described like the genital stage which I basically know is the teen years due to having two brothers. Erikson's theory on Psychosocial stages was interesting especially the Initiative vs. Guilt stage. It states in our books "Children either want to undertake many adult-like activities or internalize the limits and prohibitions set by parents. They feel either adventurous or guilty. I didn't understand how kids can know what guilt is because I know that my son doesn't necessarily understand it. I just find it interesting that I seem him wanting to try adult activities. He asked me if he could try and drive my car and I told him no you are too little. My son lives in two different house holds so I can see him already trying to push limits with his father or myself. I didn't know until this class that it started as early as 3 or 4. Learning these new things about development that I didn't really know was pretty cool to read about.