Psychoanalytical Components of Personality
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Explain the three major components of the psychoanalytical aspect. How does it compare and contrast to personality traits?
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This solution explains the three major components of the psychoanalytical aspects of personality and how it compares and contrasts to personality traits.
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1. Explain the three major components of the psychoanalytical aspect.
Briefly, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) developed his ideas about psychoanalytic theory from work with mental patients. He was a medical doctor who specialized in neurology. He spent most of his years in Vienna, though he moved to London near the end of his career because of the Nazis' anti-Semitism.
Freud believed that personality has three structures: the id, the ego, and the superego.
The id is the Freudian structure of personality that consists of instincts, which are an individual's reservoir of psychic energy. In Freud's view, the id is totally unconscious; it has no contact with reality. As children experience the demands and constraints of reality, a new structure of personality emerges- the ego, the Freudian structure of personality that deals with the demands of reality. The ego is called the executive branch of personality because it uses reasoning to make decisions. The id and the ego have no morality. They do not take into account whether something is right or wrong. The superego is the Freudian structure of personality that is the moral branch of personality. The superego takes into account whether something is right or wrong. Think of the superego as what we often refer to as our "conscience." You probably are beginning to sense that both the id and the superego make life rough for the ego. According to Freud, your ego might say, ...
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