Confirmation of the Freudian Psychosexual Stages Utilizing Sexual Symbolism

Abstract

2,336 Ss between the ages of 3 and 17 chose one member of each of 12 pairs of Freudian-inspired shapes representing masculinity or femininity. Choices supported the psychoanalytic hypotheses that: (1) the phallic, latency, and genital stages would be revealed in shape preferences; and (2) both males and females aged 13 or older would prefer masculine shapes due to the male-orientation of our culture while the choices of children in the phallic stage, who were assumed ignorant of our culture's male-orientation, would be determined by opposite-sex attraction.