Personality Structure

Personality Structure

• Three major systems that interact to govern human behavior: the id, the ego, and the superego.

• The Id. According to Freud, the id is the most primitive part of the personality and part from which the ego and the superego later develop. It is present in the newborn infant and consists of the basic biological impulses or drives: the need to eat, drink, to eliminate wastes, to avoid pain, to gain sexual (sensual) pleasure.

• Freud believed that aggression is also a basic biological drive. In fact, he believed that sexual and aggressive drives were the most important instinctual determinants of personality throughout life. Like a child, the id operates on the pleasure principle: It continually strives to obtain pleasure and to avoid pain, regardless of the external consequences.

• The Ego. Children soon learn that their impulses cannot always be gratified immediately. Hunger will not be lessened until someone provides food. Relief of bladder or bowel pressure must be delayed until the bathroom is reached.

• A new part of personality, the ego, develops as the young child learns to consider the demands of reality. The ego obeys the reality principle: The gratification of impulses must be delayed until the situation is appropriate. The ego, thus s essentially the executive of the personality: It decides which id impulses will be satisfied and in what manner.

• The Superego. The third part of the personality is the superego, which judges whether actions are right or wrong. More generally, the superego is the internalized representation of the values and morals of society. It comprises the individual’s conscience as well as his or her image of the morally ideal person (called the ego ideal).

• The superego develops in response to parental rewards and punishments. Initially, parents control children’s behavior directly through reward and punishment.

• By incorporating parental standards into the superego, a child brings behavior under his or her control. Children no longer need anyone to tell them it is wrong to steal; their superego tells them. Violating the superego’s standards, or even the impulse to do so, produces anxiety – beginning with anxiety over loss of parental love.