Freud's Theory
1) You fail to study for your final examination stating that "all work and no play make Jack a dull person." According to Freud's theory, how will you explain your behaviour?
Sigmund Freud developed a theory about adult personality. Throughout the stages of childhood, the first part of personality, which we are all born with, is called the id. According to Freud id contains a reservoir of unconscious instincts, impulses that strives to satisfy basic sexual, and aggressive drives that operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification. He said that adults never lost this part of their personality, as they grew older; they just developed ways of coping with it a bit better. As the child grew older, a second part of the personality developed, which was more in touch with outside reality. This he called the ego. The ego (largely conscious) operates on the reality principle, which mediates among the demands of the id, superego and reality. It satisfies the id's desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain. For example, if you got very angry with someone, then the demands from your id might be to attack them but that is not very realistic, or socially acceptable. So the ego would take over, and find a way that the id's demand could be satisfied, but in a better sort of way, perhaps by making a very sarcastic remark, or something similar. As the child grows older, another part of its personality develops. According to Freud, for a small child, its parents are representations of absolute authority. They represent society and society's demand on the child. They tell it what it ought to be doing and how it should behave. This function is called the superego. In a way, the superego is kind of internal 'parents' but a very authoritarian one. The superego represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscious) and for future aspirations.
Freud saw personality in adults as being about a dynamic
Sigmund Freud developed a theory about adult personality. Throughout the stages of childhood, the first part of personality, which we are all born with, is called the id. According to Freud id contains a reservoir of unconscious instincts, impulses that strives to satisfy basic sexual, and aggressive drives that operates on the pleasure principle, demanding immediate gratification. He said that adults never lost this part of their personality, as they grew older; they just developed ways of coping with it a bit better. As the child grew older, a second part of the personality developed, which was more in touch with outside reality. This he called the ego. The ego (largely conscious) operates on the reality principle, which mediates among the demands of the id, superego and reality. It satisfies the id's desires in ways that will realistically bring pleasure rather than pain. For example, if you got very angry with someone, then the demands from your id might be to attack them but that is not very realistic, or socially acceptable. So the ego would take over, and find a way that the id's demand could be satisfied, but in a better sort of way, perhaps by making a very sarcastic remark, or something similar. As the child grows older, another part of its personality develops. According to Freud, for a small child, its parents are representations of absolute authority. They represent society and society's demand on the child. They tell it what it ought to be doing and how it should behave. This function is called the superego. In a way, the superego is kind of internal 'parents' but a very authoritarian one. The superego represents internalized ideals and provides standards for judgment (the conscious) and for future aspirations.
Freud saw personality in adults as being about a dynamic