Freud &

his theory of theId, Ego and Superego

Nature Theorists Nurture Theorists

believe that personality traits, mannerisms, peculiar behaviours are the result of your genes or DNA having a more prominent role

believe that personality traits,

mannerisms, peculiar behaviours

are the result of your environment

having a more prominent role

Freud believes that ourpersonalities are formed not because of our DNA

but becauseof our environment, that thereare external things outside of

genetics that shape ourpersonalities

Is Freud a nature theorist

or a nurture theorist?

But how does he prove that the nurture theory of personality is

more convincing than the nature theory of personality?

To understand that we must look at his theory of the

Id,

Ego &

Superego

Freud thinksthat personality is formed

by these 3 parts all working together.

Freud says that the first part of personality is the

id

For Freud when we are born -•we do not have a personality the way an adult has a personality.

• all we have is only the first or primary part of personality. It is a very basic or simple part of personality.

• this part of personality is the same for everyone.

•He calls this part the “id”

idHunger

Power

Thirst

Anger

Immediatesatisfaction

Immediaterelease oftension

contains our most primitive or basic impluses

Joy

the id works according to

the

pleasure principle

+ PLEASURE-TENSION

THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE - There is an urge or an impulse – a desire for

something- The “something” is what will give it pleasure.

- The “not having the something” gives it tension.- The id always wants to increase its pleasure and

decrease its tension

•It seeks INSTANT GRATIFICATION – that means getting what it wants or satisfying what it wants immediately

•it doesn’t consider anything else except what it wants

•it will want to gratify it at that time, with no consideration for the other circumstances of the situation.

•it always tries to relieve its tension and increase its pleasure.

I want what I want, and I want it now!!!

How do we know the id is really there as the first part of our personality? We can catch a glipmse of it when children have temper tantrums!

If this baby is hungry what

does it do?

It wants to decrease the tension of being hungry and increase the pleasure of being fed. Feeding the baby makes the baby experience pleasure. The baby’s personality right now only has the id part – so it will only seek to gratify its desire for

pleasure.

the idis made up of 2 drives

ThanatosAlso known as the death drive or the destructive drive.

•this is the drive that makes us feel like we want to destroy, hurt, kill or die. It is the part that makes us want to self-destruct as well.

•it is the part of the id that gets gratification from increasing the pleasure we get from destruction and decreasing the tension we get from not destroying.

•When you are angry you might want to kick something or hit something. You get pleasure from “taking out your anger” on something

ErosAlso known as the life

instinct or libido.

• This is the drive that makes us want to survive.

It is the part that makes us want to ensure that our

species and families survive.

• It is the part that gives us the desire for sex,

• It is the part that makes us want to create, and be

creative

When you are hungry you might want to make a

delicious sandwich. You get pleasure from creating and

eating something

Eros -the drive for life

Thanatos :the drive for destruction

-

The id doesn’t care about time, place, who it

is with or what is appropriate. It just

basically DEMANDS that its desires are gratified. It works according to the Pleasure Principle and is made up of the Thanatos (destructive drive) and Eros (life drive) drives.

Recap:

What happens if our personality is left at

the id part – what would life for us be like?

Probably a little like this:

•As we start to grow from babies to toddlers to young children, we start to notice the world around us, how things work, what things are socially acceptable and what is appropriate conduct in terms of our social construct or upbringing. In other words we start to develop our value system.•We start to have an idea of what is right and what is wrong. We start to understand moral values.•We start to form opinions of what we believe in like religion, codes of conduct, how we treat animals and our environment.•We start to understand and know what is socially appropriate and what is not.All these ideas and opinions are shaped by our parents, our communities and our peers.These ideas are internalised and come together to form what Freud calls the SUPEREGO

The SUPEREG

O

The SUPEREG

O

is our conscience•It is our internal “father-figure” that scolds us and makes feel guilty when we do something that goes against our ideas of right and wrong.

•It is the part of personality that makes us feel great, achieved and successful when we do things that socially commendable

The SUPEREG

O& the

id are always in a

kind of fight with each other!Why do you

think this would be so?

Stay tuned for tomorrow’sgreat battle between

the id and the superego -•who wins the battle?•Is there a cease-fire?•How does the

whole thing go down?