Personality Theories/Behavior pattern

PSYCHOLOGY
Student`s Name
Name of Lecturer
Name of institution
PSYCHOLOGY
Presentation of the problem
After observing James Smirt for a period of one month, I noticed some unusual behavior in him. I noticed that whenever he was stressed, he would smoke, eat or drink to relieve stress. His method of managing stress fits in Freud`s oral theory which states that when a person is under stress or is experiencing a psychological problem, the person resorts to oral methods in order to get relief. According to Freud, the three components of personality were the id, the ego and the superego. He states that the id is responsible for all the needs and urges while the superego is responsible for the ideals and moral. The ego on the other hand moderates between the demands of the id, the superego and reality.
Identification of the problem
James Smirt could be suffering from oral fixation. His behavior of seeking oral methods to relieve himself from stress is similar to the signs presented by Freud`s oral theory which involves using oral methods to help solve a particular psychological problem. James could eat, drink or smoke to get rid of the stress. According to Freud, personality is best established at the age of five. A person`s early experiences play very important role in the development of personality and also continue to influence the person`s behavior later on in life. This theory is one of the best known but is also very controversial. According to the proponent of the theory, personality develops through a number of childhood stages whereby the pleasure seeking energies of the id become focused on certain erogenous areas. It was also described that the psychosexual energy was the driving force behind a given kind of behavior. However, if all the initial stages are successfully completed, then the result will be a healthy personality. However, if the issues are not resolved at the appropriate stage, then fixation can occur. Fixation refers to a persistent focus on an earlier psychosexual stage. Until the conflict is adequately resolved, then the individual will tend to remain stuck at that particular stage. An example of a person who is fixated at the oral stage may be over-dependent on others and may in some cases seek oral stimulation so as to get rid of stress whenever he/she is confronted with a similar situation.
Justification of the above assumption
According to Freud`s oral theory, there are two possible outcomes that may come out as a result of oral fixation. They include: oral receptive personality and the oral aggressive personality. Oral receptive personality is mainly preoccupied with eating, drinking and smoking and the individual often depicts some oral methods such as eating, drinking, smoking, biting nails to solve a problem. Individuals with such a behavior are generally passive, needy and sensitive to rejection. They usually take in other people`s ideas. This makes them very approachable especially when a person wants to offer some form of advice on how they can overcome their problems. The Oral aggressive personality on the other hand is hostile and verbally abusive to others, using mouth-based aggression. James depicted the first type of oral fixation whereby he resorted to drinking, smoking and eating whenever he had stress.
Causes of the condition
In Freud`s theory, there are five distinct stages that an individual has to go through in order to have a healthy mind. The stages include: oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latent period and genital stage. If a person does no successfully pass any of these stages, then he is likely to depict some characters in future that may not be desirable /unusual. Such individuals tend to resort to oral means in order to get rid of the conditions that they are going through. James must have had awful experience passing through the oral stage hence the usage of oral methods to solve his problems and help him release stress. According to Freud`s theory, this stage involves using the mouth for interaction. The rooting and sucking reflex is therefore very important at this stage. T...