This element is innate – it is present from birth. The superego, or the morality principle, is the conscience of the mind- it understands right from wrong. It is in constant conflict with the Id, and develops during the phallic stage of psychosexual development. The third element, the Ego, acts as a mediator between the two and at times uses defence mechanisms to shield the conscious from the Id and its desires. Freud also proposed a theory he understood to be the “structure of the mind”.
He declared that our mind consists of both conscious (ID), and the unconscious (ego). Then he edited it to suggest that there is no thought completely conscious or unconscious. Thus, we have a third part called superego helps us to make a moral judgment. Freud goes on analyzing the psychological mind of a child, into becoming a man or a woman through three stages: Oral, anal and phallic in which he discover the pleasure and other things. Then the child will grow and struggle will grow as well between the ID and Ego which Freud named the neurosis.
There are different theories established by psychologists, which explain where personality originates. The highly important individual who played a role in the psychoanalysis theory was Sigmund Freud. Freud believed an individual’s personality was influenced by the unconscious, which there is no way to control. He based understanding of personality on analysis of patient’s dreams as well as his own dreams. Adler theorized that personality was motivated by the influence of society and fighting for triumph.
Psychoanalytical theories of personality stress the individual’s unconscious motivations which can be identified through dreams, slips of the tongue and fantasies (McCrae & Costa, 2003; 21). “The psychoanalytical theory views personality as biologically based, relatively unchangeable and determined by the need to control sexual and aggressive instincts which are unconscious in nature” (Rust & Golombok, 1989, 131). Sigmund Freud was the founder of the psychoanalytical approach to personality although many academics have expounded on his research since then (Bernstein, 2001; 125). This contrasts with the humanistic theory which was adopted by leading 20th Century psychologists Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow (Nicholas, 2008; 226). Robert Ewen suggests that
Sigmund Freud developed an approach on abnormality that highlighted how human personality and psychosexual development in childhood can cause abnormality. Freud proposed that the human personality is made up of three interacting elements: the id, the ego and the super ego. The id is our unconscious it releases natural pleasure seeking instincts and operates to satisfy these instincts through pleasurable activities. The ego represents our conscious self; it tries to balance the id with moral rules proposed by the superego. The superego is our moral authority this developed through identification of our parent’s moral rules and the social norms of society If the ego fails to balance the id and the superego this can lead to conflict and may result in a psychological disorder.
Another theme with Freud’s work concerned the unconscious mind, the part of our mind we are not aware of. He believed that the unconscious contain unresolved conflicts and has a powerful effect on our behaviour and experience. He argued that these conflicts will show themselves in our dreams and fantasies, and that threatening conflicts can appear in disguised forms, in the shape of symbols. Freud advanced a theory of personality development that centred on the effects of the sexual pleasure drive on the individual psyche. He argued that there are particular points in the development process, arguing that a single body part is particularly sensitive to sexual, erotic stimulation.
In this essay Freud sets out his theory of psychosexual development. He asserts that there is in all humans an innate drive or instinct for pleasure, a sort of psychic energy, which he calls the libido and this energy needs to be discharged. He then goes on to describe how this drive finds outlet at the earliest stages of life, as babies, toddlers and infants and describes the oral, anal and phallic stages and the psychological effects of fixation at these stages. It is important to note that Freud separated sexual aims and objectives. His work on sexuality and perversions led to the wider theory of sexuality whereby he differentiated the sexual aim (the desire for pleasure) and the object (the person or thing used to fulfil the desire).
Introduction The debate of nature v’s nurture has been a long standing argument amongst developmental theorists, debating the question of how biological forces and the environment act and interact to make us the people we are. Studies on development suggest nature consists of the biology and maturation throughout the life-span and nurture consists of the environment and learning. The two developmental theorists chosen for this essay are Sigmund Freud, a revolutionary thinker who challenged the notion of human development and human nature by suggesting humans are driven largely by emotions and motives of the unconscious and Albert Bandura, a social cognitive theorist who believed humans learnt from observation of other people rather than from a pre-disposed notion of biological (nature) influences. Both Bandura and Freud have very different views on human development which will be highlighted throughout this essay. From a psychoanalytical perspective, Freud devoted his research to the nature side of development, learning about the human unconscious mind and presenting a notion of stage development.
Genetic inheritance theory is the inherited factors that shape our development and personality. 4. Explain Freud’s concept of the unconscious and why it is important in counselling. Freud's theory of the unconscious mind is based on his idea that there is a pool of unpleasant memories that we store outside of the conscious mind. According to Freud, even though the unconscious is hidden it still continues to sway our behaviours.
“Evaluate the extent to which Freud’s theory of psychosexual development can help us to understand a client’s presenting issue?” Sigmund Freud’s most vital contribution to the study of psychology and human behaviour was his notion of the “dynamic unconscious”. This view was that the unconscious mind played a precisely important role in determining how an individual behaved. Freud put forward the principle of multiple determinations, which suggests that every psychic event is determined by the simultaneous action of several others. He saw the unconscious mind as the actual source of mental energy, which determined behaviour. He based his belief on the results of trials with hypnosis.