MCAT Mnemonics: Freud Stages of Psychosexual Development

Ken Tao is the MedSchoolCoach expert on MCAT, and will discuss the five stages of Freud’s theory of psychosexual development, including oral, anal phallic, latent, and genital – and how the fact that old-aged people love grandchildren can help you remember them.

Full Transcription

Welcome back to another MCAT Mnemonic Monday. I’m Ken and I’m an MCAT expert with MedSchoolCoach. Today, we have a mnemonic for you for the MCAT psych-soc section, and it’s on the Freud Stages of Psychosexual Development.

So as you know, Freud came up with his theory of psychosexual development that includes five stages.

The first stage is the Oral stage from about ages 0 to 1. Then we have the Anal stage from ages 1 to 3. Then the Phallic stage from ages 3 to 6. Then the Latent stage from ages 6 to 12. And finally, we have the Genital stage for ages 12 and up.

The mnemonic for memorizing the order of these five stages is: Old Aged People Love Grandchildren.

So if you look at the first letters of the stages in our mnemonic, you can see how Old Aged People Love Grandchildren can help you memorize Freud’s stages of psychosexual development.