3 PARTS OF PERSONALITY
Abstract
The three parts of personality according to Sigmund Freud’s structural model of the psyche include the Id, the super-ego, and the ego. The three personality parts are the theoretical constructs upon which the interaction and activity of the mental life of individuals is described. Prior to the development of the Freud’s models, researchers and faculty psychologists had developed a division of the human mind. The theories they developed used to be modified from time to time until the development of the structural theory of the personality parts by Freud in 1923.This theory has gone on to become the basis of most other modifications that are made today by researchers. The personality of an individual works inside themselves forming what is known as the personality system. The personality system of an individual is then connected to a broader social system that involves family and friends. When applied in our everyday actions, the three personality parts influence our decision-making and behavior on daily basis.
Introduction
The three parts of personality according to Sigmund Freud’s structural model of the psyche include the Id, the super-ego, and the ego. The three personality parts are the theoretical constructs upon which the interaction and activity of the mental life of individuals is described. In accordance to Freud’s psych model, the collection of uncoordinated instinctual trends by an individual constitutes the id part of the personality. The super-ego is involved in the critical function of moral development and decision making in an individual. The ego is the personality part of an individual that is organized and realistic, and mainly balances between the desires of the two other personality parts (the super-ego and the id). This essay will look into the historical perspectives, theoretical concepts, and practical applications of the three parts of personality.
Historical Perspective
Long before the development of the Freud’s models, researchers and faculty psychologist had developed a division of the human mind. According to these faculty psychologists, the human mind had three divisions that included the cognitive, emotional, and motivational areas. The phenomenon where the mind was divided into three parts came to be known as the trilogy of the mind. The purpose of this theory was to develop an explanation for the reasons why an individual might say something. There are three possible reasons why an individual might say something: They might be feeling that it is the true thing to say (emotion), they might be coerced to saying it (motivation), or they might come into a logical conclusion and say it (cognitive). This was the start of philosophical distinction as people started recognizing the three parts of the mind as three different modes of the minds or mental processes. The trilogy of the mind is a theory that has been subjected to both conceptual and historical reviews overtime. The theory has been used as a centerpiece for the development of numerous trait organizational systems.
At first, Freud developed a theory of the primary parts of an individual personality as the topographic model. The model defined the three parts of the human mind as unconscious, preconscious, and the conscious. The unconscious mind was further divided into two parts with one part being primary unconscious and the other one being repressed unconscious. The preconscious was the materials in the mind that were not conscious but had the possibility of becoming conscious at any given moment. The conscious had senses and could see the rest of the mind. Researchers in studying manifestations of the subconscious, unconscious, and the subliminal influences employ the topographic model.
Sigmund Freud dramatically revised his personality theory in 1923. In his new version of the personality theory, Freud described the mind to be made of three large and semi-autonomous parts. The id was the part with animalistic characteristics such as sexual and aggressive urges. The ego was partially conscious and played a role in the individual’s understanding of behavior and the outside world. The super-ego oversaw the ego to ensure that it remained moral while striving for ideals. Introductory textbooks in the description of the personality scope have regularly used this structural model of personality by Freud (Mayer, 2001).
In mid-twentieth century, dozens of new personality theories were developed, some of which included revised analytic theories such as humanistic theories and trait theories. The surprising issue in this period is that, there were few sets of primary parts that were developed despite the huge number of theorists at work. The trilogy of the mind was expanded by Maclean (1973) who developed the suggestion that the structure of the brain could be divided into neo-mammalian, palco-mammalian, and reptilian sections. This theory roughly mapped into the cognitive/emotional/motivational theory of the trilogy. To Freud’s theory of unconscious, preconscious, and conscious, Jung further developed it by adding the idea of the collective unconscious. Jung and Adler also combined to modify the id, ego, and super-ego by adding the complexes (Rennison, 2015).
Theoretical Concepts
The psychology of personality theories involves interweaving of powerful theoretical statements and research areas. Although these theories might employ different terminologies and concepts, they normally address similar topics and it is possible to translate them into a common language. Translating from one psychological theory language to another is a common occurrence. Synthesis of such translations into a unified perspective allows one to arrive at an overall framework that revolves around four questions. These four questions include “What is personality?” ,“What are personality parts?”, “How is personality organized?”, and “How does personality develop?” (Mayer, 1993). Addressing these questions in a pan-theoretical manner allows individuals to develop generic models of personality.
The development of generic models starts with a holistic view concerning where personality is and what the personality must do. Personality is normally viewed as existing inside an individual. Inside the person exists a system of organized psychological processes whose emergence stems from biological roots such as the brain functions and other psychological operations such as perception and sensation. In contrast to psychology, personality centers on broad and overall psychological trends. For instance, personality is more focused on the overall motivation of an individual instead of focusing on the understanding of the specific neural pathways that lead to development of various motives. Apart from interacting with the brain, the personality of an individual is connected to large social systems such as families. A number of people connected together form a family while large groups of people together with their personality systems form even large social groups. This positioning of the personality is an insight to the struggle of personality between the body’s biological impulses on one side and social interactions on other side.
For one to get a clear understanding on how personality is able to mediate between the society and biology, the division of the personality into different parts is required. Individual parts of personality such as the id, ego, and super-ego belong to a broader class of the agencies. In definition, the agencies make up the large conglomerates of personality whose role is carrying broad but in some way, unitary functions. The existence of agencies might be either unitary or in parts but does not cover all of personality.
Practical Applications
The id is the primary part of the personality and involves a feeling of wanting instant gratification to our needs. Failure to meet such needs causes one to become anxious and tensed. Practical application of the id can be noticed in different instances. For instance, Adam was thirsty and instead of waiting for the waiter to refill his glass with water, he reached across the table and drank from Miss Mandy’s water glass much to her surprise. In this instance, the id personality part of Adam wanted to ensure personal gratification in the shortest time possible, hence his failure to wait for the waiter to refill his glass. Another occasion of id application in practical life can be seen where John is stuck in traffic. He felt that he needed his vehicle moving and could not wait for the slow traffic. John was enraged by the situation, decided to pull his car onto the shoulder, and sped forward without worrying about the fact that he was clipping the side mirrors of other people’s vehicles. All he wanted was to get ahead of the cars in front of him.
Ego is the personality part that deals with reality. Normally, the ego is trying to meet the desires of the id in a way that is accepted by the society. Therefore, the ego must at times delay gratification and help in getting rid of the tension that id feels in case a desire cannot be met right away. The ego is responsible for recognition of the fact that even other people have needs as well, and therefore, being selfish is not always good for us. Ego is seen where Adam was thirsty. However, he knew that the waiter would be back in a few minutes, so he waited until then to get his drink even though he really wanted to drink from Miss. Mandy’s glass.
The super-ego deals with morals and judgments on right and wrong. At times, the ego and super-ego might reach the same decision concerning something. However, the super-ego’s reason for such a decision is based more on moral values while the decision made by ego on the same matter is more inclined to what other people will think. For instance, Daniel knew that he could steal supplies from work and no one would discover this act. However, he knew that it is wrong to steal and therefore, decided not to take anything even though he was sure that he would never be caught.
The three parts of personality today
With the current developments in biology and psychology, the three parts of the personality might be facing a challenge of remaining relevant. However, even if the Freud’s structural set of three parts of the personality is revised into something new, its perseverance in all those years is an indicator that it will remain an important theory in the study of human personality. Nowadays, there exist alternative divisions where the main attempt is to remain consistent with the present patterns of psychological thinking. The development of energy lattice, role player, knowledge works, and executive consciousness is a sign of the efforts of the modern psychologists attempt to remain relevant by integrating the theories developed by Freud. However, it is clear that the three personality parts are going to remain relevant for a longer period as these developments are yet to be empirically tested so that they can be quantified and fitted in a precise manner.
Conclusion
Freud developed the three-personality parts theory in 1923. These parts include the id, the ego, and the super-ego. The historical development of the human understanding of individual personality has been progressing for years now. However, most of the developments are modifications to the trilogy of the mind theory and the structural theory by Freud. To develop a clear understanding of how the personality parts work, one must first start by understanding that personality works inside us and then goes on to influence our behavior in the outside world where we become connected to a broader personality system involving our family and friends. The understanding of how the three parts of the personality works is very beneficial as it helps us develop an understanding on how various people behave in our daily interactions.
References
Mayer, J. D. (2001). Primary Divisions of Personality and their Scientific Contributions: From the Trilogy‐of‐Mind to the Systems Set. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 31(4), 449-477.
Macleab,P.D. (1973).A triune concept of the brain and behavior.Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Mayer, J.D. (1993). A system-topics Framework for the study of personality. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 13,99-123.
Rennison, N. (2015). Freud And Psychoanalysis: Everything You Need To Know About Id, Ego, Super-Ego and More. Oldcastle Books.
