Conscience - Freud

Question 1

What is the Id?

Answer 1

This is made up of the unconscious mind. It is the primitive aspect of the mind which contains our basic desires and needs, wish fulfilment and dreams of gratification. It is irrational and emotional.

Question 2

What is the ego?

Answer 2

This is conscious. This aspect of the mind functions with the rational part of the mind and is the part of the mind which makes decisions. It grows out of realising that we cannot always have our way. The ego must balance the Id and superego when making decisions.

Question 3

What is the superego?

Answer 3

This is unconscious and is the last part of the mind to develop. The superego is the internalised standards of right and wrong that children acquire from their family. It is the internalised voice of authority.

Question 4

Explain how parents develop the superego.

Answer 4

Parents praise their children when they fulfil rules and this leads to a sense of pride, affirmation and approval. They also punish and rebuke when the children fail to live up to the rules which leads to guilt and shame for bad actions.

Question 5

What is the cultural superego?

Answer 5

The superego dominated by society

Question 6

What happens the more a person is dominated by the superego?

Answer 6

The more they will not wish to break rules and the more they will want to please external authorities. If they do act on their wishes and desires they will feel guilty and develop neurosis.

Question 7

What causes shame and neuroses?

Answer 7

Internalisation of an externally imposed authority from society and parents and not from God, although for Freud god/religion is also considered to be an imposed authority.

Question 8

What is the term conscience for Freud?

Answer 8

It is a term used for guilty feelings caused by the superego. These feelings arise from the interplay between the id, ego and superego.

Question 9

How does the example of Paul Gascoigne support Freud?

Answer 9

Child killed in his care when Paul was about 12 years old. After that he developed neurotic symptoms because of repressed guilt - (superego at work) so could support Freud’s idea that we repress guilt and the superego is internalised guilt.

Question 10

When is the Oedipal stage?

Answer 10

Usually from three to five years old

Question 11

What is the Oedipus complex?

Answer 11

When the child experiences an erotic attachment to one parent and hostility toward the other parent. They want to push the other parent away. The desire has to be repressed. This leaves the child feeling guilty and angry. This is all subconscious.

Question 12

Why does the Oedipus Complex make us act morally?

Answer 12

People behave morally to try to overcome the guilt left over from the Oedipus complex.

Question 13

How does the Oedipus Complex relate to religion for Freud?

Answer 13

Freud believed that religion was popular because it helped to alleviate the feelings of guilt left over from the Oedipus complex e.g. confession in the Catholic church helps to alleviate guilt.

Question 14

How is the Oedipus complex connected to the superego?

Answer 14

Because we feel guilt which is repressed in the same way as Oedipus and all of us feel guilt due to erotic attachment to one parent and pushing away the other.

Question 15

What is Darwin’s Primal horde theory?

Answer 15

Jealousy would build towards the alpha male, to the point that the over men kill the alpha, but the guilt from this leads to them erecting a totem to represent the alpha, and asking for forgiveness.

Question 16

What’s the evidence for erotic attachment?

Answer 16

In a study it was found that if a person (male) sees their parents having sex he feels betrayed by the mother and jealous. Later on in life experiences if their partner commits adultery then they feel a sense of betrayal again.

Question 17

Give Freud’s quote about the Id

Answer 17

“it is the dark, inaccessible part of our personality”

Question 18

Give Freud’s quote about a tripartite human personality?

Answer 18

“In discussing the id, the ego and the superego, we must keep in mind that these are not three separate entities with sharply defined boundaries but rather that they represent a variety of different processes and dynamics within a person.”

Question 19

For Freud, how do you develop a healthy conscience?

Answer 19

The ego forms a more mature conscience. It seeks to achieve a form of self-identity based on value and worth. The ego tries to develop a “world view” for the person which informs his direction through life. A person has to work on this very consciously and recognise how the superego is affecting them unconsciously - this has to be done through the use of reason.

Question 20

How do Mackie and Sumner support Freud?

Answer 20

Provide evidence of moral relativism - cultural relativism, supports the idea of a cultural superego.

Question 21

What is strong about Freud’s use of parents in his theories?

Answer 21

He recognised the influence of our environment and indeed of our culture. Evidence for this is the role of our parents in our upbringing which cannot be denied - supports the idea of internalised standards

Question 22

What was the Little Hans case study?

Answer 22

Little Hans had a fear of horses after he saw a horse fall carrying a wagon. Freud explained this by claiming that Little Hans was focused on the genitals of the horse and his fear of these was really a symbolic representation of the fear of his father. The horse also had black around its eyes and blinkers on and the black represented his father’s dark eyes and the blinkers his glasses - parallels to the Oedipus Complex

Question 23

What are some other strengths of Freud?

Answer 23

No need for a God to explain the conscience. We all experience guilt. Has a different role for reason - reason is used to regulate the superego and show that it is being irrational.

Question 24

What is the issue with Freud’s case studies?

Answer 24

He uses a very limited number. His theories were based on limited observations from primarily upper-class Austrian women living in a strict era of the 1900s. Not representative of the majority of humans.

Question 25

What is the weakness of Freud’s superego?

Answer 25

He can’t prove that it comes from society and authority figures, could come from God who directs our moral awareness

Question 26

What is the weakness with Freud’s theory about religion?

Answer 26

He cannot prove conclusively that religion arises from inner childhood conflict. Another psychologist, William James, would argue that religion arises out of religious experience.

Question 27

What does Palmer say?

Answer 27

“almost all the evidence that Freud used has been discredited in one way or another.”

Question 28

What did Malinowski say?

Answer 28

Tribes such as the Trobriand tribe did not have a strong father figure, rather the father plays the role of a weak nurse. Their religion came from elsewhere and therefore the conscience cannot be explained by the Oedipus Complex - weakness of Primal Horde.

Question 29

What does the animal world suggest about Freud’s theories?

Answer 29

Mother and father are supportive in the animal world. They do not do anything to encourage rivalry and hatred. This would mean that males have not felt rivalry feelings to their fathers and then alleviated the feelings of guilt through the rituals of religion - therefore can’t explain the sueprego.