Psychoanalytic vs. Social Cognitive Essay

Psychoanalysis created by Sigmund Freud is much like Individual therapy in the sense that it will explore the past and how any past circumstances are effecting the now adult. This therapy will last as long as the client needs the support of the counselor and relies on the client’s full participation. In this form of therapy the counselor will participate in guiding the client thru the unconscious mind to and find how it may be contributing to thoughts and behaviors that are causing the client distress. Like analytical therapy psychoanalysis will cover a variety of issues including psychosexual, compulsive, and depressive disorders. According to Haggerty, J. (2006) “The essence of Freud’s theory is that sexual and aggressive energies originating in the id (or unconscious) are modulated by the ego, which is a set of functions that moderates between the id and external reality. Defense mechanisms are constructions of the ego that operate to minimize pain and to maintain psychic equilibrium. The superego, formed during latency (between age 5 and puberty), operates to control id drives

Psychanalysis is perhaps one of the most individualist lenses to viewing personality, and has to do with understanding one’s hidden, unconscious, and more dark urges as the means to conceptualizing one’s personality. Further, psychoanalysis examines a more abstract look into what factors make us who we are, such as the unconscious, dreams, defense mechanisms, our egos, attachment, and sexual urges

Freud proposed the psychological structure of personality to include three systems called the id, the ego, and the superego. At birth, the id is the original system of personality and is ruled by the pleasure principle. It is driven towards satisfying instinctual needs. The ego can be described as a mediator between ones instincts and their surrounding environment. The ego is ruled by the reality principle, using realistic and logical thinking to formulate action plans for satisfying needs. The superego includes a person’s moral code and strives for perfection, not pleasure. Psychic energy is distributed between these three systems creating dynamics of personality. This psychic energy is what determines behavior (Day, 2008).

Freud’s theory of personality examined the interplay between the primitive, instinctual urges—the ‘id’; the practical and rational ‘ego’; and the morally attuned ‘superego’; ‘object relations’ refer to the "object" of an instinct”, which is “the agent through which the instinctual aim is achieved”—most often a person and, according to Freud, most often the mother (Ainsworth 1969, p. 1). The psychosexual development theory that Freud launched reduces our behaviour to mechanistic responses to an instinctive need for pleasure fueled by the ‘libido’ and barriers or distortions to the gratification of the libido at various delineated stages of development were responsible for later problems in life (Kail & Zolner 2012, p. 5). Erik Erikson later added depth to the approach by including more humanistic elements to Freud’s stages and including more periods of development (p.

Personality and how we behave have been of much interest to psychologists for a long time now and because of this there have been many theories and theorists that have been developed. Personality is defined as consistent behavior patterns and intrapersonal processes originating within and individual (Fritzley, 2012, p. 10). There are six main approaches to personality psychology they include: biological approach, humanistic approach, behaviorist approach, trait approach, psychoanalytic approach and cognitive approach. Each approach shines a little light onto why we behave the way we do and how our personalities are formed, the approaches contain many different theories from

The psychodynamic approach was proposed by Freud. This approach towards personality is based on the notion of underlying forces such as the id, ego and superego which are either present from birth or develop during childhood shape our behaviour and personality as such. Experiences in childhood are proposed to be the basis of human personality, according to Freud and as such Psychodynamic theory proposes that some undesirable unbalances between the id and superego can create the arising of ego defence mechanisms which explain individual differences in behaviour. Freudian theory has been adapted by neo-Freudians, however while psychodynamic

Freud strategized that the personality was composed of three elements; the id, ego, and superego. The id is the component of personality that is present from birth, and is exclusively unconscious. “According to Freud, the id is the source of all psychic energy, making it the primary component of personality” (Cherry,1). On the other hand, the ego is the element of the personality that is responsible with reality. “According to Freud, the ego develops from the id and ensures that the impulses of the id can be expressed in a manner acceptable in the real world” (Cherry, 1). It

The Psychodynamic Approach was first approach by Sigmund Freud; he dealt with the understanding that personality came from our unconscious state of mind. And that unconscious state interacted to determine our thoughts, behaviors, and feelings (Bernstein, 425). Freud also created the psychoanalytical theory stating that personality led the way to handling psychological disorders. He divided personality into three main topics; which are the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is the basis of each human being’s instincts we are all born with. It is the immediate wants I crave; it may show more selfish side. The ego is the part that subdues the id and calms it down. It allows me to think and realize certain actions may upset someone else around me. The superego is

Since adulthood, the structure of the development of personality current is observed under the terms of whether he or she passed with success the different psychosexual stages of childhood, youth and adulthood. Different mental illnesses are the result of a failure in the progression through the early childhood development (for example, - caught up in the “annals “of the stage), which in turn, translate into problems with the balance of the structure of the personality (the ego, the superego and the id). Some of the unconscious reasons for the majority of human behavior are sex and aggression. (Herkov, M. G. (2013, January 30). For example, perhaps the superego is much stronger than it should be and the ego is unable to always counteract its demands for

Freud attempted to explain how the unconscious functions by dividing it into three structures, the id, ego, and superego. The id holds our primitive instincts that demand immediate gratification, because it operates on the pleasure principle (McLeod, 2010). Similarly, the ego also seeks pleasure. However, instead of seeking immediate gratification, the ego acts realistically in order to avoid potentially negative consequences that may arise. On the other hand, our superego represents our conscious. It encompasses the morals and values we learn by society and our parents as we go through the stages of

What makes us who we are? Well, this is a broad question, but a lot of different factors impact us on a way we might not understand until the time is right. The motivation and goals we set for ourselves, who we surround ourselves with whether we have a choice or not, learning from mistakes and making our own and how regrets and guilt play a role, and difficult situations that we are born into or get ourselves into and how our race and gender has an effect on our lives. All of these components are displayed in these four works and connect to one another.

The main aim of this essay is to demonstrate an understanding of Freud’s theory of psychosexual development and how this theory may help us to explain and identify adult neurotic behaviour. I shall be evaluating the pros and cons of psychosexual theory and the extent to which it helps us to understand a client’s presenting issue. I shall also define and consider the relationship between the Id, Ego and Superego and the way in which these constructs of our psyche are in many ways representative of earlier experiences and of those early

Freud theorized that each person has an id, ego, and superego. The id operates on what is referred to as the pleasure principle and seeks instant gratification for basic urges such as sex, hunger, and thirst. The ego operates on the reality principle and attempts to satisfy the id’s urges by rational, safe, and socially acceptable means. The superego requires that these solutions be moral and ethical. However, if this balance were to become skewed, for example, if the id were to become too powerful, its unacceptable urges would rise to the preconscious and cause a great deal of anxiety. In order to get rid of this anxiety, the ego will employ the use of defense mechanisms.

Social cognitive theory, however, views personality as a cognitive–affective system resulting from the determined action of functionally distinct mechanisms, which progressively take form over the course of development mostly under the guidance of experience. Social Cognitive

At the age of 40 in 1896, Sigmund Freud introduced the world to a new term- psychoanalysis (Gay 1). Psychoanalysis is a method of treating patients with different nervous problems by involving them in dialogues which provide the physician with insight into the individual’s psyche. These dialogues provided the basis for Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, which “attempts to explain personality, motivation, and psychological disorders by focusing on the influence of early childhood experiences, on unconscious motives and conflicts, and on the methods people use to cope with their sexual and aggressive urges” (Weiten 363). Part of this theory involves the structure of the mind. This is a concept that touches