Structures of PersonalityThe ID, EGO, SUPEREGO

Structures of Personality

Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, personality is composed of three elements. These three elements of personality are known as the id, the ego and the superego. They work together to create complex human behaviors.

Structures of Personality

 1. THE ID: functions in the irrational and emotional part of the mind. At birth a baby’s mind is all ID – want, want, and want. The Id is the primitive mind. It contains all the basic needs and feelings. It is the source for libido (psychic energy).

Structures of Personality

And it has only one rule, the pleasure principle: I want it and I want it all now. In transactional analysis, Id equates to "Child".

Structures of Personality

2. THE EGO: functions with the rational part of the mind. The Ego develops out of growing awareness that you can’t always get what you want. The Ego relates to the real world and operates via the reality principle.

Structures of Personality

The Ego realizes the need for compromise and negotiates between the Id and the Superego. The Ego's job is to get the Id's pleasures but to be reasonable and bear the long-term consequences in mind. The Ego denies both instant gratification and pious delaying of gratification.

Structures of Personality

The term ego-strength is the term used to refer to how well the ego copes with these conflicting forces. To undertake its work of planning, thinking and controlling the Id, the Ego uses some of the Id's libidinal energy. In transactional analysis, Ego equates to "Adult".

Structures of Personality

3. THE SUPEREGO: The Superego is the last part of the mind to develop. It might be called the moral part of the mind. The Superego becomes an embodiment of parental and societal values. It stores and enforces rules.

Structures of Personality

It constantly strives for perfection, even though this perfection ideal may be quite far from reality or possibility. Its power to enforce rules comes from its ability to create anxiety. The Superego has two subsystems: Ego Ideal and Conscience.

Structures of Personality

The Ego Ideal provides rules for good behavior, and standards of excellence towards which the Ego must strive. The Ego ideal is basically what the child’s parents approve of or value.

The Conscience is the rules about what constitute bad behavior. The Conscience is basically all those things that the child feels mum or dad will disapprove of or punish.

Structures of Personality

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive

DevelopmentJean Piaget was a developmental psychologist best known for his theory of cognitive development. His four stages of cognitive development deal with the nature of knowledge (epistemology - branch of philosophy dealing with the origins nature and extent of human knowledge) and how humans come to gradually acquire it.

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive

Development

1. Sensorimotor Stage. This stage occurs between the ages of birth and two years of age, as infants begin to understand the information entering their sense and their ability to interact with the world.

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive

Development

During this stage, the child learns to manipulate objects although they fail to understand the permanency of these objects if they are not within their current sensory perception.

In other words, once an object is removed from the child’s view, he or she is unable to understand that the object still exists.

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive

Development

2. Preoperational Stage. The second stage begins after Object Permanency is achieved and occurs between the ages of two to seven years of age.

During this stage, the development of language occurs at a rapid pace. Children learn how to interact with their environment in a more complex manner through the use of words and images.

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive

Development

3. Concrete Operations Stage. Occurring between ages 7 and about 12, the third stage of cognitive development is marked by a gradual decrease in centristic thought and the increased ability to focus on more than one aspect of a stimulus.

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive

Development

They can understand the concept of grouping, knowing that a small dog and a large dog are still both dogs, or that pennies, quarters, and dollar bills are part of the bigger concept of money.

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive

Development

4. Formal Operations Stage. In the final stage of cognitive development (from age 12 and beyond), children begin to develop a more abstract view of the world. They are able to apply reversibility and conservation to both real and imagined situations.

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive

Development

They also develop an increased understanding of the world and the idea of cause and effect. By the teenage years, they are able to develop their own theories about the world. This stage is achieved by most children, although failure to do so has been associated with lower intelligence.

Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive

Development

 Development as a Life Long Process

 Development as a Life Long Process

Basic Trust vs. Mistrust

When the parents present consistent, adequate, and nurturing care, the child develops basic trust and realizes that people are dependable and the world can be a safe place. The child develops a sense of hope and confidence; this is a belief that things will work out well in the end.

 Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt

If parents guide children gradually and firmly, praise and accept attempts to be independent, autonomy develops. The result will be a sense of will which helps us accomplish and build self-esteem as children and adults

 Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt

If parents are too permissive, harsh, or demanding, the child can feel defeated, and experience extreme shame and doubt, and grow up to engage in neurotic attempts to regain feelings of control, power, and competency.

 Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt

If the child is given no limits or guidance, the child can fail to gain any shame or doubt and be impulsive. Some is good, as it causes us to question the outcomes of our actions, and consider others' well-being. This may also result in Avoidance; if you never allow yourself to be close to others, they can never make you feel ashamed.

Initiative vs. Guilt

• The child becomes curious about people and models adults.

• If parents are understanding and supportive of a child's efforts to show initiative, the child develops purpose, and sets goals and acts in ways to reach them.

Initiative vs. Guilt

If children are punished for attempts to show initiative, they are likely to develop a sense of guilt, which in excess can lead to inhibition. Too much purpose and no guilt can lead to ruthlessness; the person may achieve their goals without caring who they step on in the process.

Industry vs. Inferiority

Occurs during Latency, but Erickson did not think this was a rest period; the child begins school and must tame imagination and impulses, and please others. If adults support the child's efforts, a sense of competence develops.

Industry vs. Inferiority

If caretakers do not support the child, feelings of inferiority are likely to develop.

Too much inferiority, and inertia or helplessness occurs (underachievers). Too much competency and the child becomes an adult too fast, and develops either into a Histrionic or Shallow person.

Identity vs. Role Confusion

Young adults attempt to develop identity and ideas about strengths, weaknesses, goals, occupations, sexual identity, and gender roles. Teens "try on" different identities, going through an identity crisis, and use their friends to reflect back to them.

Identity vs. Role Confusion

If they resolve this crisis, they develop fidelity, "the ability to sustain loyalties freely pledged in spite of the inevitable contradictions of value systems" (can be friends with very different people).

Identity vs. Role Confusion

If they fail to resolve the crisis, they develop identity diffusion; their sense of self is unstable and threatened; too little identity and they may join cults or hate groups, too much identity and they may show fanaticism

Intimacy vs. Isolation

Intimacy is the ability to be close, loving, and vulnerable with romances and friends. It is based in part upon identity development, in that you have to know yourself to share it. The virtue gained here is love.

Intimacy vs. Isolation

Failure to develop intimacy can lead to promiscuity (getting too close too quick and not sustaining it), or exclusion (rejecting relationships and those who have them)

Generativity vs. Stagnation

If you have a strong sense of creativity, success, and of having "made a mark" you develop generativity, and are concerned with the next generation; the virtue is called care, and represents connection to generations to come, and a love given without expectations of a specific return

Generativity vs. Stagnation

Adults that do not feel this develop a sense of stagnation, are self-absorbed, feel little connection to others, and generally offer little to society; too much stagnation can lead to rejectivity and a failure to feel any sense of meaning (the unresolved mid-life crises), and too much generativity leads to overextension (someone who has no time for themselves because they are so busy)

Ego Integrity v. Despair

This entails facing the ending of life, and accepting successes and failures, ageing, and loss. People develop ego integrity and accept their lives if they succeed, and develop a sense of wisdom a "detached concern with life itself in the face of death itself"

Ego Integrity v. Despair

Those who do not feel a sense of despair and dread their death; it's too late to change their lives .Too much wisdom leads to presumption, too much despair to a disdain for life

Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development