Theories of Personality Freud

Theories of Personality
The Psychoanalytic Theory
Freud, et al.
Chapter Ten
According to Freud the unconscious is a collection of thoughts, wishes and feelings of which we are largely unaware.
Freud likened the mind to an iceberg. Larger part underwater. He believed dreams are the royal road to the unconscious.
In suggesting that the mind is like an iceberg, Freud was most clearly emphasizing the importance of the unconscious. He became interested in unconscious personality dynamics when he noticed that certain symptoms could not be explained in terms of neurological impairments.
Everything goes to preconscious first. Your conscious determines right or wrong and where things go to stay. (conscious, preconscious, subconscious)
The fact that certain illnesses can be hypnotically induced led Freud to suspect that these symptoms result from psychological processes.
Freud’s theory of personality involves three mechanisms:
Superego: a part of personality that generates feelings of guilt. It represents our sense of right and wrong and our ideal standards. It is our internalized parents. (conscience) (parents…no fun ever!)
Id: according to psychoanalytic theory the part of personality that strives for immediate gratification of instinctual drives. (Id operates on the pleasure principle. The part that gets you into trouble) (nothing matters but partying!)
Ego: The executive part of the personality that mediates between the demands of biology and the external world. The ego operates on the reality principle. (pg 317) Balances the superego and the id. Do homework, then party or you fail at both.
Freud’s theory of personality has been criticized because it offers few testable predictions that allow one to determine its validity.
Anything that starts with “psycho” refers to Freud.