Psychology : ' Your Super Ego '

According to Weinberg & Gould (1999) personality is “The characteristics or blend of characteristics that make a person unique.”

Psychodynamic theories of psychology focuses on the subconscious self, influencing behaviors of an individual and are used to explain the development of mental illness and abnormalities. The basis of psychodynamics is Sigmund Freud’s theory in which he describes three states of mind vying for their preferred goal: the Id concerned with obtaining pleasure, the Superego concerned with upholding morality, and the Ego which uses reason to balance the desires of the two extremes. Freud describes three levels of consciousness the conscious which is what ideas we always know about, the preconscious which is ideas that we can make conscious, and the unconscious which is the ideas that are underneath our understanding which may include suppressed memories of traumatic events. He sees human motivation coming from a vague notion of instincts which include the life instinct which drives people to stimulate themselves/survive and the death instinct which drives people to be calm, serene, slipping into death. Freud gives great importance to human sexuality in his theories by linking such dilemmas during the childhood stages of development of the “sex instinct” to mental problems in adulthood in the form of subconscious ideas about the past influencing current actions. He sees defense mechanisms in people’s actions as an attempt to protect the person’s view of self or to protect from revealing something they don’t want known, certain cues like forgetting what to say reveal that there is

For us to understand Freud’s perspective, we must look at the structural model and psychosexual stages that he believed to be the driving forces that influences the human behaviour. Freud believed that we have a multilateral mental mechanism that consists of the Id, the Ego, and the Superego. The Id is based on the pleasure principle supplying strength for the development of mental life. The Ego is on the reality principle. It gains control over the primitive demands of the Id while taking in consideration the reality of the situation. The Superego behaves as a moral judge, when the Ego gratifies or tends to gratify the primitive

In chapter two, it is discussed that "Freud believed that lingering conflicts rooted in childhood experiences cause most personality disturbances." (Weiten 34-37) It goes on to say these battles happen in the unconscious mind and that most people are unaware that this is all going on in their minds. From this comes the anxiety that comes tumbling to the forefront. Per Freud, the anxiety is the ego worrying about the id becoming uncontrollable and doing terrible things. We must remember what the ego and the id represent. Now, the id, according to Freud, is the part of you that works based on what he referred to as the "pleasure principle" which means you sleep because your body craves and needs it, you have intimate relations with your boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife because your body craves the intensely good feelings it brings.

“Personality is made up of the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that make a person unique. It arises from within the individual and remains fairly consistent throughout life” (Cherry, 2014). My personality is influenced from my specific circumstances, my upbringing, and it is represented best through the theorists of Erik Erikson and Raymond Cattell.

Sigmund Freud was a well known psychologist whose theories have founded the understanding of the human psyche. Freud’s theory of personality is one of his most known theories. It details that there are three segments of consciousness. The id is desire, immorality and is what drives us to do wrong. The superego exists to counteract and overpower the id, as it is morality, commonly known as our conscious. The ego exists to balance out both extremes and devises a solution to sate each segment. Then there are the defense mechanisms, repression, denial, projection, displacement, regression and sublimation. These are employed by the ego to keep the balance between the id and the superego and to protect the psyche, especially in traumatic times. Last, the Oedipus complex which Freud believed, only exists in children from the ages of 3-5, when they become attracted to

Personality is what makes us who we are. It is what makes us unique sets us apart from other people. Personality helps us identify other peoples and makes it easier to interact. The perspectives of personality are theories on the development of personality about how get their personality. It explains why people have different personalities. The different perspectives shows the view that can be observed when studying psychology and the differences of personality. The biological perspective of personality shows how personality is affected by the physical body. The humanistic perspective of personality shows how personality is affected by conscious thoughts and the desire to be that best you can be.

Personality is “the sum total od the actual or potential behaviour-patterns of the organism, as determined by heredity and environment (Binger, 2014).

Personality is a pattern of relatively permanent traits and unique characteristics that gives both consistency and individuality to a person’s behavior (Feist & Feist, 2008).

Freud also believed that the ego exercises a range of defense mechanisms in order to deal with conflict and problems in life. Defense mechanisms operate at an unconscious level and help relief unpleasant feelings. There are many ego defense mechanisms, but a few examples of these include: regression, denial, projection, displacement, repression, and sublimation. Regression is when a person is so overwhelmed with their current issue that to protect themselves, they retreat to actions from an earlier stage of development. Denial, as the name suggests, involves completely blocking out external events from awareness. If a situation is too much to handle, the person denies that it’s occurring. Projection is the transfer of your own thoughts, motivations, desires, or emotions to another. Displacement is the transfer of energy created by one object to another. Repression is occurs when a person buries traumatic material into the unconscious. Sublimation is to satisfy an impulse with a substitute object in a socially acceptable way. Although these defense mechanisms may seem unethical, they should also sound somewhat familiar because we all partake in these. In fact, ego defenses are not necessarily unhealthy, the lack of these defenses, or the inability to use them effectively can often lead to problems in life. However, employing the defenses at the wrong time or overusing them, can be equally destructive.

Personality psychology is a branch of psychology that focuses on the differences between people’s behaviors in terms of patterns, cognitions, and emotion. Personality psychology has been around for centuries, since Hippocrates’ Four Humors. Personality psychology has taken on many forms and has continued to develop throughout the centuries. Personality psychology is also developed with and from other fields of psychology like child development, behavioral, cognitive, and few others.

Freud believed there were stages in life as a person matures into adult sexuality. Freud was also on to something, he believed before the 1890's that childhood sexual abuse were a cause's for the emotional and mental state of mind, but rejected that theory, but Freud was right. Later in life Freud discussed the psyche of the human mind, and how it can be divided into three parts: Id, ego, and super-ego. Id is the impulsiveness of a person the “pleasure principle”. Ego means from Freud's opinion; the pursuit for an insatiable need for pleasure (Id), which can get you in trouble and, therefore the Id divide’s itself into ego and superego. Sigmund Freud was very famous, because of his psychoanalytic therapy on sexual urges and how that influenced the mental health of a individual. Fred's theories influenced others to launch the sexual revolution, and people realized the breakdown of the family structures and how a person's family can be detrimental to one life. Sigmund Freud's research is still taught today and was revolutionary to understanding the human mind.

Have you ever met a person who was not like you at all? It’s ironic how a person personality is shaped. Personality is included in basically everyday life. Personality defines a person. Personality is like a big stew mixed with emotions, behaviors, and patterns of thought that truly define a person. Personality Psychology is the study of these different patterns among a group of people or culture. The studies of psychology started from Hippocrates’ theory that argues that personality traits are based on four different sections. This heavily influenced modern personality psychology. Three important psychologists helped shape the way humans define the term personality.

“A personality is a unique collection of attitudes, emotions, thoughts, habits, impulses and behaviors that define how a person typically behaves across situations.”

From Freud’s psychoanalysis theories psychologists were given one possible insight as to how the conscious and unconscious mind works. Freud believed that there is a constant unconscious drive in humans to seek pleasure, which he called the libido. He argued that the human personality can be divided into three different parts which are the id, the ego and the superego. Freud established new methods to better understand the psychosexual development. He proposed that psychological development in childhood takes place in a series of five fixed stages, which include oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latent stage and genital state.