Levels Of Personality Flashcards
Conscious
(Corresponds to its ordinary everyday meaning)
It includes all the sensations and experiences of which we are aware at any given moment.
Conscious of the feel of your pen, sight of the page, the idea your trying to grasp, cars passing in the distance.
Freud considered the conscious a limited aspect of personality because only a small portion of our thoughts, sensations, and memories exists in the conscious awareness at any time.
Of an iceberg, it is the small tip we see above water
Freud’s original conception divided personality into 3 levels:
C
Pc
UC
The conscious
The preconscious
And the unconscious
Unconscious
More important than the conscious according to Freud
The larger, invisible portion of the iceberg below the surface
This is the focus of psychoanalytic theory
It’s vast, dark depths are the home to instincts, those wishes and desires that direct our behavior
Contains the major driving power behind all behaviors and is the repository of forces we cannot see or control
Preconscious
Between the two levels of conscious and unconscious
The storehouse of memories, Perceptions, and thoughts of which we are not consciously aware at the moment but that we can easily summon into consciousness
Example: if your mind strays from this page, and you begin thinking about a friend or what you did last night, you would be summoning up material from your preconscious into your conscious
We often find our attention shifting back and fourth from experiences of the moment to events and memories in the preconscious
Freud later revised his notion of the three levels of personality and introduced three basic structures in the anatomy of the personality:
id, ego, superego
Id
- Pleasure principle
- Primary-process thought
To Freud, the aspect of personality allied with the instincts; the source of psychic energy, the id operates according to the pleasure principle
Corresponds to Freud’s earlier notion of the unconscious (although the ego and superego have unconscious aspects as well)
Is the reservoir for the instincts and libido (the psychic energy manifested by the instincts) therefore it is vitally and directly related to the satisfaction of bodily needs
Functions to increase pleasure and avoid pain
Strives for immediate satisfaction of needs and does not tolerate delay or postponement of satisfaction for any reason
Knows only instant gratification; it drives us to want what we want when we want it, without regard for what anyone else wants.
Id is a selfish, pleasure seeking structure, primitive, amoral, insistent, and rash
Has no awareness of reality, might compare it to a newborn baby. Cries when it needs aren’t met but doesn’t know how to bring itself satisfaction.
The only way Id can attempt to satisfy its needs are through reflex action and wish-fulfilling hallucinatory or fantasy experience (primary-process thought)
Is a powerful structure of the personality because it supplies all the energy for the other two components
Pleasure principle. Primarily process thinking.
Unconscious is difficult to retrieve material, well below the surface of awareness.
Very bottom of the iceberg
Ego
Secondary thought
Reality principle
To Freud, the rational aspect of the personality, responsible for directing and controlling the instincts according to the reality principle.
Reason or rationality
Purpose is not to thwart the impulses of the id but to help the id obtain the tension reduction it craves
Because it’s aware of reality, the ego decides when & how the id instincts can best be satisfied.
It determines appropriate & socially acceptable times, places, & objects that will satisfy the id (when and where to use the bathroom)
Doesn’t prevent the id satisfaction, it tries to postpone, delay, or redirect it to meet the demands of reality.
Perceives & manipulates the environment in a practical & realistic manner & operates in accordance with the reality principle
Exerts control over id impulses
Compared to the rider of a horse
Serves 2 masters, id & reality, & is constantly mediating & striking compromises between the conflicting demands
Ego is never independent from id. It is always responsive to the id’s demands and derives its power and energy from the id
The ego keeps you working at a job you dislike, if the alternative is the inability to provide food and shelter for your family
-forces you to get along with people you dislike because reality demands such behaviors, satisfying id demands
The controlling & postponing function of the ego must be exercised constantly. If not, the id impulses might come to dominate and overthrow the rational ego
Freud argued that we must protect ourselves from being controlled over the id and proposed various unconscious mechanisms with which to defend the ego
Reality principle, secondary process thinking.
Conscious, contact with the outside world.
Preconscious, material just beneath the surface of awareness
Mostly the top of the iceberg
Superego
To Freud, the moral aspect of personality; the internalization of parental and societal values and standards
Usually learned by age 5-6 and consists initially of the rules of conduct set down by our parents.
Through praise, punishment, and example, children learn which behaviors their parents consider good or bad.
In this way kids learn a set of rules that are “good or bad”
In time kids internalize these teachings, and the rewards/punishments become self-administered
Parental control is replaced by self control
As a result we feel guilt or shame when we do something bad
As the arbiter of morality, superego is relentless, even cruel, in its quest for moral perfection
In terms of intensity, irrationality, and insistence on obedience, it is like the id
Purpose is to inhibit demands completely concerned with sex and aggression
Strives for neither pleasure (as does id) nor for attainment (as does the ego)
Strives for moral perfection.
Id presses for satisfaction, ego tries to delay it, and superego urges morality above it all
Like the id, superego admits no compromise with its demands
The ego is caught in the middle, pressured by these insistent and opposing forces. The ego has a third master, the superego.
When the ego is too severely strained, it creates anxiety.
Moral imperatives
Conscious, contact with the outside world.
Preconscious, material just beneath the surface of awareness
Unconscious is difficult to retrieve material, well below the surface of awareness.
Top, bottom, and middle of the iceberg
Pleasure principle
Part of the id
The principle by which the id functions to avoid pain and maximize pleasure
Primary-process thought
Part of the id
Childlike thinking by which the id attempts to satisfy the instinctual drives
Secondary principle
Ego
Mature thought processes needed to deal rationally with the external world
Reality principle
Ego
The principle by which the ego functions to provide appropriate constraints on the expression of the id instincts
Conscience
Superego
A component of the superego that contains behaviors for which the child had been punished
The behaviors for which children are punished form the conscious
Ego-ideal
Superego
A component of the superego that contains the moral or ideal behaviors for which a person should strive
Consists of good, or correct, behaviors for which children have been praised
