ID, EGO and

SUPER-EGO.
Psychoanalitic Theorie
By Sigmung Freud
 PERSONALITY DEFINED

Personality is the consistent, enduring, and unique

characteristics of a person

Personality traits are characteristic behaviors and feelings

that are consistent and long lasting

Personality States are temporary patterns of

behavior and feelings that may arise in a specific situation
 Who is Sigmund Freud?

• Neurologist and psychologist

• Psychodynamic Theory
• Vienna, Austria (1856-1939)
• Techniques used: Hypnosis, catharsis,
dream-analisis, free-association,
parapraxes.
• Freudian slips or parapraxes –
everything we do and say, even by
accident, has didden meaning.
• Believed in the importance of the
“unconscious” mind.
 PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES
• Emphasize the unconscious (part of the
mind that contains material we are
unaware of but that strongly influences
behavior)

• Unconscious feelings as children =

impact
adulthood

• Main ideas developed by Sigmund Freud

 FREUD’S ID, EGO, SUPEREGO

Freud used the Id, Ego,

and Superego to try to
explain how the mind
functions and
personality is shaped

These are the

three essential
parts of the human
personality.

Conscious contact with
outside world.
Material just beneath the
surface or awareness
difficult to retrive material;
well below the surface
awareness.
All psychic energy orininates
in the unconscious.
Social Component.
Moral imperatives, ego
ideal.
Psychological
component.
Reallity principle
secondary process
thinking.
Biological Component
The instincts EROS &
THANATOD are
associated with the
unconscious mind and
the ID.
 Id

• instinctual & biological urges

• lustful, impulsive, fun – pleasure principle
• completely unconscious
• Seeks immediate gratification of impulses (what
feels good)
• Ignores consequences

Following the pleasure principle (ID) leads to conflict with

others (parents) and results in the development of the EGO in the
2nd and 3rd year of life.
 Ego
• Rational & thoughtful
• Based on the reality
principle, the awareness
that gratification of impulses
has to be delayed in order to
accommodate the demands
of the real world.
 Superego
• Responsible for society’s rules of behavior
(moral standards). Feels guilty if rules are
disobeyed.

• Based on morality principle, must follow

moral standards and rules and breaking them
causes guilt.
 EGO – What you SUPEREGO – What
ID – What you
CAN DO you SHOULD DO
WANT TO DO

ID & SUPEREGO are frequently in conflict. Ego must satisfy both.

Rather than feel conflict or frustration when the ID’s desires & SUPEREGO’s rules
cannot be satisfied, humans distort reality using DEFENSE MECHANISMS
 PERSONALITY

How would the Id, Ego, and

Super-ego respond to the
following dilemma?

Should you go out with

your friends to a great
party, or should you
stay home and study
for your psychology
exam tomorrow?
 Freud’s techniques for exploring
the Unconscious
• Freud believed that information in the
unconscious emerges in slips of the tongue,
jokes, dreams, illness symptoms, etc. These are
called Freudian Slips.

• Dream interpretation, or analyzing

dreams

• Psychoanalysis
 Freud’s Theory of
Psychosexual Development

Freud believed that all children

are born with powerful sexual
and aggressive urges. In learning
to control these impulses,
children acquire their personality.
Freud divided this development
into stages.
 FREUD’S LEGACY

• 1ST Person to propose unified theory to understand and

explain human behavior

• No theory more complete, complex, or controversial

• Some criticize his theory for being impossible to test

• Freud’s psychoanalytic theory was the predecessor of all later

personality theories