Conscience- Freud

Question 1

Define super-ego

Answer 1

it is the sense of morality that society impasses on you and gives you an ego ideal (your moral imperative)

Question 2

Define ego

Answer 2

the psychological component in the conscious mind and the outside world sees it through personality

Question 3

Define id

Answer 3

the unconscious self and part of mind containing the basic drives and suppressed memories which have no morals

Question 4

Strengths

Answer 4

• the psychological component is universal which means that everyone can be held morally accountable
• consciences do seem to be a product of our childhood => it’s convincing
• Piaget also believed as well as Freud that the conscience is manufactured from experiences and conditioning

Question 5

Freud’s definition of conscience

Answer 5

• a voice from a ‘father figure’ telling you what to do
• conscience is required from the conditioning of our parents at the anal stage
• it is the “moral policeman” from our childhood during the phallic stage

Question 6

Weaknesses

Answer 6

• Freud’s emphasis on sexual desires seems to overshadow and therefore undermine his theory; Kline: “Freud may have attached too much importance to it”
• can something as complex as conscience derive from sex and the repression of sex?
• he claims to be scientific and yet his findings are often too vague, inaccurate and based upon small samples of data