Manifestations of sexual and aggressive drives in prelatency, latency, and postlatency children

The purpose of this study was to test Freud's proposition that the sexual drive is dormant during the latency stage. The null hypotheses were that there are no differences in the manifestations of sexual and aggressive drives during the prelatency and latency as well as the latency and postlatency stage groups. Subjects consisted of prelatency (3-5 years), latency (7-9 years), and postlatency (14-16 years) children. There were 180 subjects; 30 boys and 30 girls in each stage group. TAT cards 4, 10, 13MF chosen for sexual content; 3BM, 8BM, and 18GF for aggressive content; and 1, 2, 13B chosen for neutral content were used. Subjects rank ordered these nine cards in order of preference. Chi squares and t-values of Ss' preferences supported the Freudian concept of the latency age. In addition, the data also revealed that the older a child becomes, the less likely he is to show interest in aggressive content material. There was only one significant sex difference. This involved the preference for sexual content material among postlatency boys and girls.