Give a brief explanation of Freud's model of personality, including the id, ego, and superego, as well as the relationship among these components.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

According to Freud, the three components of personality are the id, the ego, and the superego. The id consists of unconscious drives and is the individual's reservoir of sexual energy. In Freud's view, the id has no contact with reality. The id works according to the pleasure principle, the Freudian concept that the id always seeks pleasure. The ego is the Freudian structure of personality that deals with the demands of reality. The ego abides by the reality principle. That is, it tries to bring the individual pleasure within the norms of society. The ego helps us to test reality, to see how far we can go without getting into trouble and hurting ourselves. Whereas the id is completely unconscious, the ego is partly conscious. It houses our higher mental functions-reasoning, problem solving, and decision making, for example. The id and the ego do not consider whether something is right or wrong. Rather, the superego is the harsh internal judge of our behavior. The superego is reflected in what we often call conscience and evaluates the morality of our behavior. Like the id, the superego does not consider reality; it considers only whether the id's impulses can be satisfied in acceptable moral terms.