ELEMENTS OF PERSONALITY

It is useful to know some good information about the personality elements according to the psychology .

Freud proposed that the personality was constructed of three systems that are interrelated to form the whole personality: the id, the ego and the superego.

1- The id

constitutes the most primitive part of the personality. It motivates our basic pleasure seeking drives such as hunger, thirst and sexual desire. It operates solely according to the pleasure principle -seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, without moral or social restraint. Imagine what chaos and anarchy would prevail if we lived our lives governed only by the id, each destroying whatever is necessary for our own gain, and seeking pleasure any time and place. This does not happen though, as at some stage in the child’s development, the ego is constructed.

2- The ego

constitutes the practical aspect of the human personality. It operates according to the reality principle, directing the individual regarding to what behaviour is appropriate at different times. In other words, it keeps the reckless id impulses in check so that we can get on with our lives, and behave appropriately according to the demands of the situation or environment. This is not to say that the ego does not allow the id expression. Rather the ego mediates between the demands of the id, the realities of the world, and the demands of the superego.

3- The superego

constitutes the conscience of the personality. It is involved in the person’s moral evaluations of what kind of behaviour is right and wrong. The value system it constitutes is largely internalisation of society’s conventional moral standards. Because of the role of the parents as the spokesman for society, the superego develops as a response to parental moral guidance. The value system of the individual is determined according to punishment/reward system provided by parents for certain behaviour. The superego is often responsible for the emotion of guilt.

According to Freudian theorists, the child is at first at the mercy of the id and has no ability to delay gratification or to tolerate discomfort. For the very young child, ‘good’ is what is pleasurable; and ‘bad’ is what is painful. It is only once the child has developed the superego component of the personality that he/she becomes capable of moral evaluation. The development of the superego occurs through an ‘internalization’ of the values held by parents and other important people in the child’s life. As the superego develops it comes to represent not only basic moral values, but a striving for moral perfection. It is important to note that there is a limited amount of energy in the system and that at any point in time, one system can gain control at the expense of the other two.