Assignment

Name : Muhammad Saad Qamar

Submit to : Tauqeer Aslam
Subject : Introduction to pysocology

PERSONALITY
The Structural Model of Personality: According to Sigmund
Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality, personality is composed of three

elements. These three elements of personality--known as the id, the ego and the

superego--work together to create complex human behaviors.

The Id

The id is the only component of personality that is present from birth. This aspect

of personality is entirely unconscious and includes of the instinctive and primitive

behaviors. According to Freud, the id is the source of all psychic energy, making it

the primary component of personality.

The id is driven by the pleasure principle, which strives for immediate gratification

of all desires, wants, and needs. If these needs are not satisfied immediately, the

result is a state anxiety or tension. For example, an increase in hunger or thirst

should produce an immediate attempt to eat or drink. The id is very important early

in life, because it ensures that an infant's needs are met. If the infant is hungry or

uncomfortable, he or she will cry until the demands of the id are met.

However, immediately satisfying these needs is not always realistic or even

possible. If we were ruled entirely by the pleasure principle, we might find

ourselves grabbing things we want out of other people's hands to satisfy our own

cravings. This sort of behavior would be both disruptive and socially unacceptable.

According to Freud, the id tries to resolve the tension created by the pleasure

principle through the primary process, which involves forming a mental image of

the desired object as a way of satisfying the need.

The Ego

The ego is the component of personality that is responsible for dealing with reality.

According to Freud, the ego develops from the id and ensures that the impulses of

the id can be expressed in a manner acceptable in the real world. The ego functions

in both the conscious,preconscious, and unconscious mind.

The ego operates based on the reality principle, which strives to satisfy the id's

desires in realistic and socially appropriate ways. The reality principle weighs the

costs and benefits of an action before deciding to act upon or abandon impulses. In

many cases, the id's impulses can be satisfied through a process of delayed

gratification--the ego will eventually allow the behavior, but only in the

appropriate time and place.

The ego also discharges tension created by unmet impulses through the secondary

process, in which the ego tries to find an object in the real world that matches the

mental image created by the id's primary process.

The Superego

The last component of personality to develop is the superego. The superego is the

aspect of personality that holds all of our internalized moral standards and ideals

that we acquire from both parents and society--our sense of right and wrong. The

superego provides guidelines for making judgments. According to Freud, the

superego begins to emerge at around age five.

There are two parts of the superego:

1. The ego ideal includes the rules and standards for good behaviors. These

behaviors include those which are approved of by parental and other authority

figures. Obeying these rules leads to feelings of pride, value and

accomplishment.

2. The conscience includes information about things that are viewed as bad by

parents and society. These behaviors are often forbidden and lead to bad

consequences, punishments or feelings of guilt and remorse.

The superego acts to perfect and civilize our behavior. It works to suppress all

unacceptable urges of the id and struggles to make the ego act upon idealistic

standards rather that upon realistic principles. The superego is present in the

conscious, preconscious and unconscious.

The Interaction of the Id, Ego and Superego

With so many competing forces, it is easy to see how conflict might arise between

the id, ego and superego. Freud used the term ego strength to refer to the ego's

ability to function despite these dueling forces. A person with good ego strength is

able to effectively manage these pressures, while those with too much or too little

ego strength can become too unyielding or too disrupting.

According to Freud, the key to a healthy personality is a balance between the id,

the ego, and the superego.

DEFENSE MECHANISMS: Most notably used by Sigmund Freud in his

psychoanalytic theory, a defense mechanism is a tactic developed by the ego to

protect against anxiety. Defense mechanisms are thought to safeguard the mind

against feelings and thoughts that are too difficult for the conscious mind to cope

with. In some instances, defense mechanisms are thought to keep inappropriate or

unwanted thoughts and impulses from entering the conscious mind.

For example, if you are faced with a particularly unpleasant task, your mind may

choose to forget your responsibility in order to avoid the dreaded assignment. In

addition to forgetting, other defense mechanisms include rationalization, denial,

repression, projection, rejection and reaction formation.

Because of anxiety provoking demands created by the id, superego, and reality, the

ego has developed a number of defense mechanisms to cope with anxiety.

Researchers have described a wide variety of different defense mechanisms.

Sigmund Freud's daughter, Anna Freud described ten different defense

mechanisms used by the ego.

Denial is probably one of the best known defense mechanisms, used often to

describe situations in which people seem unable to face reality or admit an obvious

truth (i.e. "He's in denial."). Denial is an outright refusal to admit or recognize that

something has occurred or is currently occurring. Drug addicts or alcoholics often

deny that they have a problem, while victims of traumatic events may deny that the

event ever occurred.

Denial functions to protect the ego from things that the individual cannot cope

with. While this may save us from anxiety or pain, denial also requires a

substantial investment of energy. Because of this, other defenses are also used to

keep these unacceptable feelings from consciousness.

In many cases, there might be overwhelming evidence that something is true, yet

the person will continue to deny its existence or truth because it is too

uncomfortable to face.

Addiction is one of the best-known examples of denial. People who are suffering

from a substance abuse problem will often flat-out deny that their behavior is
problematic.

Repression is another well-known defense mechanism. Repression acts to keep

information out of conscious awareness. However, these memories don't just

disappear; they continue to influence our behavior. For example, a person who has

repressed memories of abuse suffered as a child may later have difficulty forming

relationships.

Sometimes we do this consciously by forcing the unwanted information out of our

awareness, which is known as suppression. In most cases, however, this removal

of anxiety-provoking memories from our awareness is believed to occur

unconsciously.

Displacement Have ever had a really bad day at work and then gone home and

taken out your frustration on family and friends? Then you have experienced the

ego defense mechanism of displacement. Displacement involves taking out our

frustrations, feelings, and impulses on people or objects that are less threatening.

Displaced aggression is a common example of this defense mechanism. Rather

than express our anger in ways that could lead to negative consequences (like

arguing with our boss), we instead express our anger towards a person or object

that poses no threat (such as our spouse, children, or pets).

Sublimation is a defense mechanism that allows us to act out unacceptable

impulses by converting these behaviors into a more acceptable form. For example,

a person experiencing extreme anger might take up kick-boxing as a means of

venting frustration. Freud believed that sublimation was a sign of maturity that

allows people to function normally in socially acceptable ways.

Projection is a defense mechanism that involves taking our own unacceptable

qualities or feelings and ascribing them to other people. For example, if you have a
strong dislike for someone, you might instead believe that he or she does not like

you. Projection works by allowing the expression of the desire or impulse, but in a

way that the ego cannot recognize, therefore reducing anxiety.

Intellectualization works to reduce anxiety by thinking about events in a cold,

clinical way. This defense mechanism allows us to avoid thinking about the

stressful, emotional aspect of the situation and instead focus only on the

intellectual component. For example, a person who has just been diagnosed with a

terminal illness might focus on learning everything about the disease in order to

avoid distress and remain distant from the reality of the situation.

Rationalization is a defense mechanism that involves explaining an unacceptable

behavior or feeling in a rational or logical manner, avoiding the true reasons for the

behavior. For example, a person who is turned down for a date might rationalize

the situation by saying they were not attracted to the other person anyway, or a

student might blame a poor exam score on the instructor rather than his or her lack

of preparation.

Rationalization not only prevents anxiety, it may also protect self-esteem and selfconcept. When
confronted by success or failure, people tend to attribute

achievement to their own qualities and skills while failures are blamed on other

people or outside forces.

Regression When confronted by stressful events, people sometimes abandon

coping strategies and revert to patterns of behavior used earlier in development.

Anna Freud called this defense mechanism regression, suggesting that people act

out behaviors from the stage of psychosexual development in which they are

fixated. For example, an individual fixated at an earlier developmental stage might

cry or sulk upon hearing unpleasant news.

Behaviors associated with regression can vary greatly depending upon which stage
the person is fixated at:

 An individual fixated at the oral stage might begin eating or smoking

excessively, or might become very verbally aggressive.

 A fixation at the anal stage might result in excessive tidiness or messiness.

Reaction formation reduces anxiety by taking up the opposite feeling, impulse or

behavior. An example of reaction formation would be treating someone you

strongly dislike in an excessively friendly manner in order to hide your true

feelings. Why do people behave this way? According to Freud, they are using

reaction formation as a defense mechanism to hide their true feelings by behaving

in the exact opposite manner.

You've probably heard people talk about "defense mechanisms," or ways that we

protect ourselves from things that we don't want to think about or deal with. The

term got its start in psychoanalytic therapy, but it has slowly worked its way into

everyday language. Think of the last time you referred to someone as being "in

denial" or accused someone of "rationalizing." Both of these examples refer to a

type of defense mechanism.

In Sigmund Freud's topographical model of personality, the ego is the aspect of

personality that deals with reality. While doing this, the ego also has to cope with

the conflicting demands of the id and the superego. The id seeks to fulfill all wants,

needs, and impulses while the superego tries to get the ego to act in an idealistic

and moral manner.

What happens when the ego cannot deal with the demands of our desires, the

constraints of reality, and our own moral standards? According to Freud, anxiety is

an unpleasant inner state that people seek to avoid. Anxiety acts as a signal to the

ego that things are not going right. As a result, the ego then employs a defense
mechanism to help reduce these feelings of anxiety.

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