influence on all functioning. The parts of the core personality were called by Freud id, ego, and superego. (Maddi, 1968) Freud found that the foundations of adult personality are laid in childhood. The course of normal personality development is considered a continuous one across ages and stages, and the origins of adult fears and neuroses can be traced back to traumatic events in early life. Personality development in Freud's psychoanalytic theory is divided into psychosexual stages, and each stage is dominated by instinctual, unlearned biological urgings which are hedonistic in nature. During each successive period, sensual satisfaction comes through stimulation of various "erogenous" zones of the body--the mouth, the anus, and the genitals. These broadly termed sexual forces are called libido and comprise all the ways in which an individual derives sexual gratification from bodily stimulation. The extent to which such gratification is achieved or frustrated at each stage of development provides the occasion for intrapsychic conflict. The most primitive stage is the oral stage followed by the anal stage. The final period of erotic satisfaction centers around the exploration and excitation of one's own body (Zimbardo and Ruch, 1971).
Psychic determinism is one of the major aspects of Freudian theory, particularly as this relates to the development of personality. This principle says basically that there is no such thing as accidental or meaningless behavior, and all behavior,is assumed to be caused or motivated by psychological factors which operate unconsciously. Freud reasoned that since behavior is determined by psychological processes, then it must be motivated unconsciously. The personality is seen as consisting of the three elements noted above--the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is the seat of all drives and instincts and is concerned with the alleviation of hunger, self-preservation, love, and preservat...