Freud's Psychoanalytic Model of Personality
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This paper offers a discussion of Freud's psychoanalytic model of the human personality. According to Freud, the personality comprises three key forces—the id, the ego and the superego. The id—the most primitive component of the personality—refers to the instinctual drives and impulses that move individuals to strive for gratification. While the ego is also governed by the need for gratification, it acknowledges the limits of reality. Unlike the id, the ego is tempered by acquired knowledge and previous experience. Finally, the superego represents the standards and values of one's parents and the social culture. The developmental stages and their impact on the formation of the personality from the Freudian perspective are also discussed. Over the last decades, various personality theorists have constructed their unique concepts of personality. From a broad perspective, personality theory is focused on the thoughts feelings and behavior of human beings, including their interactions with their social environment (Funder, 1994). More than just an emphasis on the differences between the attributes of individuals, personality theory addresses "the basic processes of adaptation through which people interact with the conditions of their lives" (Mischel, 1993, p. 6). With his psychoanalytic approach, Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) also created a dynamic personality theory that incorporated the unconscious conflicts of human beings and the personality changes that
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hree-way relationship is also shaped by one's development at different developmental stages. During each development stage, individuals are confronted with environmental pressures and events that compel them to modify the relationship among the id, the ego and the superego. When individuals are able to make the necessary modifications and adapt successfully to these situations, they will be able to achieve personal growth. On the other hand, when individuals are overwhelmed by the environmental pressures, they can be traumatized by these experiences. As a result, some individuals, during their childhood, may not be able to develop their ego, thus resulting in their response of fixation in which their development is momentarily arrested. This occurrence may also exert a negative impact on their subsequent development and even their adulthood (Comer, 1995).
In order to understand how the personality is shaped by the developmental stages within Freud's psychoanalytical model, it is important to describe each of the stages briefly and consider their implications for personality development. Freud referred to the first 18 months of an infant's life as the oral stage because an infant is fixated on body parts such as the
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Sigmund Freud, Oedipus Electra, According Freud, comer 1995, Ed Standard, Brace Murphy, , Press Stern, Research Personality, Pollock Eds, Murphy Eds, ego superego, miller 1996, developmental stages, id ego, id ego superego, york ny, personality theory, 1995 freud, freud 1955, comer 1995 freud, adulthood comer 1995, adulthood comer, 1955 miller 1996, freud 1955 miller,
Approximate Word count = 1876
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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