ID EGO Super ego – Behavioral sciences explore the cognitive processes within organisms and the behavioral interactions between organisms in the natural world. It involves the systematic analysis and investigation of human and animal behavior through the study of the past, controlled and naturalistic observation of the present and disciplined scientific experimentation and modeling.
It attempts to accomplish legitimate, objective conclusions through rigorous formulations and observation. Generally, behavior science deals primarily with human action and often seeks to generalize about human behavior as it relates to society.
ID EGO Super ego
Freud thought of personality as being based upon a structure of three parts
1. The id,
2. The ego and
3. The superego.
A. The id
- The id is composed of biological instincts including the drives of sex and aggression.
- Id is self-centered, impulsive but unconscious. All the drives of a person towards pleasure and self-satisfaction are coming from id. This uninhibited demand for self- satisfaction is called the pleasure principle.
- Id does riot bother about the environment, the needs of others or reality but demands complete self-satisfaction. An infant is all id as it demands immediate satisfaction of its basic needs like hunger, thirst, relief from discomfort or pain without concern for how it will be done immediately.
B. The ego
- The ego called self gets energy from the id but serves as a control for the id through its contact with reality.
- Ego directs the behavior of personality through the reality principle.
- Many demands of id are not ‘realistic and hence will be controlled by the ego.
- The ego is primarily determined by the experience of reality and is therefore guided by reality principle. It is predominantly conscious though some parts (like ego defense mechanisms) are unconscious. Ego maintains a balance between the Id and superego on one hand and the reality on the other.
- For example, an individual observes a pleasurable object surrounded by a barker. Id wants immediate gratification by obtaining the object without seeing the reality of a barrier around it. The superego on the other hand, proclaims that it is sinful to derive pleasure from an object surrounded by a barrier. The ego strokes and balance between the two as well as real world and decides to wait and find a way to climb the barrier and derive pleasure. Ego delays gratification in view of the reality. Ego is the seat of conscious, intellectual, self-preservative and defensive functions of the mental apparatus.
C. The superego
- The superego is predominantly unconscious subdivision of mental apparatus that bab develops from ego.
- The superego is made up of the conscience and the ego ideal. It is developed through the cultural environment and learning from social contacts such as parents, family members and authority figures.
- It judges the thoughts and actions of the ego. When a person behaves against the standards of his superego (= conscience) he will feel guilty.
Freud believed that the id, ego and superego were in constant conflict with one another, the ego controlling the demands of the id and the superego checking the behavior of the ego.
Psychosexual Development of Personality According To Freuds
According to Freud, all human beings pass through a series of five psychosexual stages:
- The oral stage from birth to one and half years; pleasure is obtained through stimulation of the mouth as in nursing or thumb sucking.
- The anal stage occurring during 1.5 to 3 years of life when toilet training is attempted- gratification is obtained through holding or expelling feces.
- The phallic or oedipal stage from about age three to six-pleasure is obtained by fondling
to the genitals. - A latency stage 6 to 12 years (onset of puberty) called latency because sexual interests are repressed and lie dormant till puberty. Period of gang formation and fierce gang loyalties. Boys cling together and shun girls and girls despise boys.
- The genital stage (adolescence) begins with puberty. Young people begin experiencing romantic infatuation and emotional upheavals.
Problems encountered at any one stage, either of deprivation or overindulgence, may produce fixation at that stage. A person fixated at the oral stage when the infant is totally dependent upon others for satisfaction of needs may, as an adult, be excessively dependent and overly fond of such oral pleasures as eating, drinking or smoking.
A person fixated at the anal stage may be abnormally concerned with cleanliness and orderliness (obsessive compulsive disorder OCD). Freud’s theory paints a picture of humans filled with irrational and unconscious forces that control our behavior without any free choice.
For Freud, the first six years of childhood are most critical for personality development. What happens to the individual in later life is fashioned during the child’s first six years.
Carl Rogers’ Self Theory
Carl Rogers (1902-1987) rejected the psychodynamic approach because it placed too much emphasis on unconscious, irrational forces. Instead Rogers developed a new humanitarian theory called “Self theory” (1980). Self-theory has two primary assumptions:
- Personality development is guided by each person’s unique self-actualization tendency
- Each of us has a personal need for positive regard.
Rogers said that the self is made up of many self-perceptions, abilities, personality characteristics and behaviors that are organized and consistent with one another. People have a basic need to be loved and respected. If you have an unconditioned positive regard from others, you will develop more realistic self-concepts/self-actualization but if the response is conditional, if may lead to anxiety and frustration.
Social Cognitive Theory
Freud’s psychodynamic theory, developed in the early 1900s, grew out of his work with patients. Humanistic theories were developed in the 1960s by an ex-Freudian (Rogers) and an ex- behaviorist (Maslow) who believed that the previous theories had neglected the positive side of human potential and fulfilment.
In comparison social cognitive theory, developed in the 1960s and 1970s, grew out of a strong research background that emphasized a more experimental approach to developing and testing concepts that could be used to understand and explain personality development.
Social cognitive theory says that personality development is primarily shaped by three factors:
- Environmental conditions
- Cognitive personal factors and
- Behavior.
Behavior includes a variety of actions such as what we do and say. Environmental influences include our social, political and cultural influences as well as our particular learning experiences. Just as our cognitive factors influence how we perceive and interpret our environment, in turn, affects our beliefs, values and social roles.
Cognitive-personal factors include our beliefs, expectations, values, intentions and social roles as well as biological and genetic influences. Thus, what we think, believe and feel affect how we act and behave. Bendura’s social cognitive theory developed in 1970s says that personality development, growth and change are influenced by four distinctively human cognitive processes:
- Highly developed language ability
- Observational learning
- Purposeful behavior, and
- Self-analysis.
Reciprocal interaction between the behavior and environment. Society and individual are interdependent. Bendura’s theory emphasizes cognitive factors such as personal values, goals and beliefs. Three particular beliefs have been shown to influence personality development.
- Locus of control which refers to how much control we think we have over our Kanalinst environment.
- Delay of gratification which involves voluntary postponing an immediate reward for the promise of a future reward.
- Self-efficacy which refers to our personal beliefs of how capable we are ining ina performing specific tasks and behaviors.
Trait Theories
GB Allport (1887-1967) was the first personality theorist who adopted trait approach. According to him, an individual develops a unique set of stable tendencies or traits organized around a few primary traits.
RB Cattell, the British born American research worker, defined trait as a structure of the personality inferred from behavior in different situations. He described four types of traits:
a) Common traits, widely distributed in general population.
b) Unique traits, unique for a person, e.g. temperamental traits, emotional traits.
c) Surface traits, able to be recognized as a manifestation of behavior. Like curiosity, dependability, tactfulness, honesty. For example, a” student showing proficiency in both mathematics and literature has a surface trait, because two different factors influence him to achieve success in these subjects.
d) The inner qualities of human being which find behaviors and act as sources of surface traits and called source traits underline sources or structures that determine ones behavior such as dominance, submission, emotion and motivation.
behavior related to a particular situation can be predicted. Cattell has adopted factor analysis as a technique for his work (The 16 factor personality theory).
Assumptions made
- Traits are common to all individuals
- Traits are relatively stable
- Traits are quantifiable. Human personality development is influenced by some active and forceful traits.
The Five Factor Model or the Five Traits Theory
For over 50 years, a major goal of personality researchers was to find a way to define the structure of personality with the fewest possible traits. The search for a list of traits that could describe personality differences among everyone, began in 1930s with a list of about 4500 traits and ended in 1990s with a list of only five traits.
The five (traits) factor model traits theory organizes personality traits under five categories:
a. Openness
b. Conscientiousness
c. Extraversion,
d. Agreeableness and
e. Neuroticism (OCEAN).
These traits which are referred to as the big five traits raise three major issues.
First, although traits are stable tendencies to behave in certain ways, this ability does not apply across all different situations.
Second, personality traits are both changeable and stable. Most change occurs before age 30, because adolescents and young adults are more willing to adopt new values and attitudes or revise old ones. Most stability occurs after age 30, but adult do continue to grow in their ideas, beliefs and attitudes.
Third, genetic features have a considerable influence on personality traits and behaviors. Genetic factors push and pull the development of certain traits whose development may be helped or hindered by environmental factors.
Traits are useful in that they provide shorthand descriptions of people and predict certain behaviors.
Trait theory says relatively little about the development or growth of personality but instead emphasizes measuring and identifying differences among personalities.
Methods/Techniques of Personality Assessment
The techniques of personality assessment can be divided into five categories:
A. Where one can see how the individual behaves in actual life situations :
a) Observation technique
b) Situation technique.
B. Where one can find out what an individual says about himself :
Subjective
a) Autobiography
b) Questionnaire/personality inventory
c) Interview.
C. Techniques by which one can find out what others say about the individual whose personality is under assessment.
Objective
a) Case history taking, i.e. extracting information
b) Biography
c) Rating scales
d) Sociometry.
D. Techniques by which one can find how an individual reacts to an imaginative situation involving fantasy. For example, projective methods.
E. Techniques by which one can indirectly determine some personality variables in terms of physiological responses by measuring (technical) instruments.
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