Unresolved Anal stage conflict leads to which outcome?

• A. Anal retentive or anal expulsive
• B. Oral fixation
• C. Phallic personality
• D. Genital maturity

Answer: (A)

Unresolved conflicts during the anal stage, which centers on toilet training and a child’s push for control versus parental demands, can lead to fixation. Freud suggested that if this stage isn’t adequately resolved, the person may develop one of two related personality styles in adulthood: anal-retentive, characterized by orderliness, stinginess, and rigidity, or anal-expulsive, marked by messiness, rebelliousness, and a lack of self-control. This dual possibility fits the described outcome best because it directly reflects how fixation at this stage can surface in very different but specific ways. By contrast, fixation at the oral stage relates to feeding and dependency issues, the phallic stage to conflicts around gender and sexuality, and genital maturity represents a healthy, integrated endpoint rather than a fixation.