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Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Essay # 2 Explain Freudian theories concerning the structure and functioning of personality. Use an empirical study to illustrate your explanation.

Freud introduced many theories concerning the structure and functioning of personality which caused him to become the most prominent figure in the psychodynamic perspective of psychology. The psychodynamic model of personality consisting of the id, ego, and superego explains the three part structure composing the elements of the human psyche. The theory of consciousness explores that awareness is divided into levels of consciousness. The psychosexual stages of development explore the transformation of the expression of energy drives throughout our lives. The two basic drives, sexuality and aggression are the main causes of human behavior. The case of little Hans, analyzing the phobia of a 6 year old boy, Freud’s theories can be applied as a means of understanding the subtle behaviors of the boy. Freud’s different theories on the structure and functioning of personality enable us to understand causes of our behaviors, as shown in his theory of basic human drives, and how we become who we are, as shown in the psychosexual stages of development.
Freud’s Psychodynamic Model of Personality consists of a three part structure, the id, ego and superego, which can be represented through the iceberg analogy. The id is an element of the psyche that is the source of our basic drives and is oriented towards immediate gratification of our needs. For example, when a baby is hungry or wet, it would cry until its demands are met. Primary process thinking is a thinking characteristic of the id that lacks a conception of reality; it cannot distinguish between a wish and its fulfillment. The id is our childish self; it is motivated by the desire to maximize pleasure. The opposing demand of the id is the superego, the portion of the psyche that represents the moral demands of family and society and is governed by moral constraints. The superego opposes the desire for immediate gratification; hence, the id and superego are always in conflict because of their attempt to direct behavior in opposite ways. The ego is therefore always mediating between the id and ego, and mediating the links with reality and the outside world. It must cope with the demands of the id, ego as well as the outside world, which is a difficult task since the id and ego are irreconcilable. The ego is governed by the reality principle, the recognition of the constraints of environment and is capable of rational thought called secondary process thinking; which is available to conscious awareness, unlike primary process thinking. Little Hans is a case study of a phobia in a 5 year old boy, who represents a demanding id through the desire for his mother and wishing for the death of his sister. His ego is not fully developed causing him to fail in distinguishing reality, or the fact that he cannot kill his father to be with his mother, from fantasy, which is uniting with his mother.
Freud’s theory of consciousness is a concept that awareness is divided into different levels of consciousness. The conscious is an aspect of the mind that contains thoughts and feelings that we are aware of at a given moment. Contents of the mind in the subconscious are below the level of awareness. The subconscious is divided into the preconscious, contains thoughts, memories, emotions which we are not aware of but can be brought up by deliberate choice, and the unconscious which contains ideas, experiences and feelings that are blocked by repression from conscious awareness. Since the unconscious cannot be accessed by the conscious mind, some of its contents “leak” in either direct or symbolic form such as random thoughts or images in dreams. Little Hans is unaware of the reason he desires his mother because it is deep in his unconscious. He is not aware of the motivations behind his fantasies, behavior, and phobia. The unconscious fear of horses is symbolic for the unconscious fear of his father.
The theory of psychosexual stages of development plays a prominent role in the development of personality. Behavior is motivated by the need to satisfy our basic drives, and in this theory Freud explained that the expression of drives changes as the mode of gratification, the area of the body that is the center of gratification, known as erogenous zones, changes. At particular stages in development, the drive energy is focused on specific places of the human body. The first stage is the oral stage (birth to 1 ½ years), in which the mouth is the focus of gratification and a primary source of pleasure. The key issues in the oral stage include beginnings of ego formation, learning to delay gratification, and developing body image or a sense of self. Weaning also occurs, and becomes the first loss in a child’s life, resulting in an awareness of self versus the external world. The anal stage (from 15 months to 3 years) marks the shift of drive energy from the mouth to the anus, in which pleasure comes from the process of elimination (excretion). The major challenge becomes toilet training, which causes the child to further develop a sense of ego, heeding the demands of the id which is to play with the faeces, or heeding the demands of the parents, which is to obey rules and not make a mess. For the parents, being harsh can result in the child’s weakened sense of self, while giving in to the child can hamper the child’s development of ego. In the next stage, the phallic stage (3-5 years), gratification is shifted to the genitals. The challenge is the Oedipus conflict, whose central focus is the attachment to the child’s parents. For a boy, his wishes would be to unite with his mother and eliminate his father, his feelings for the father would be ambivalent, a combination of affection and hostility. Because the father is more powerful, castration fear (fear of father cutting off his genitals) is provoked. This conflict is difficult for the ego to resolve, so it utilizes two defense mechanisms, identification, or wanting to be like dad, and repression, pushing the conflict into the unconscious to become unaware of the attractions and fears. In girls, however, penis envy is apparent; because she thinks that her genitals have already been cut off, resulting in feelings of guilt and loss. The next stage is the latency stage (5 years until puberty), in which the drives appears to be inactive, the change being caused by repression of the Oedipal conflict. Impulses are then redirected into hobbies, school and friends. The last stage (from puberty to adulthood) is marked by sexual maturation as drive energy resurfaces. Freud explained it as a phase where we come in terms with “residues of our childhood” and separating ourselves from parents. An empirical study illustrating the phallic stage is the case of little Hans, whose obsession with his “widdler” represents the gratification found through his genitals. The affection he felt towards his mother and the wish of eliminating his father marks his Oedipal conflict, and his castration fear leads him to have a phobia of horses, which are symbolic of his father.
Influences of Darwin’s ideas and his theory of evolution led Freud to believe that there are basic forces that drive humans, including survival needs such as those of food and shelter, as well as the powerful force of procreation. At first, Freud described the pleasure principle, the desire to maximize pleasure and avoid the unpleasant, as a main motivation, but later he argued that there were two basic drives, sexuality and aggression that are held accountable for human behavior. He referred to Eros (Greek god of love) as a positive force resulting in creative activities like procreation, and Thanatos, the destructive energy causing aggression towards others and self destruction. These two drives are in constant conflict with each other because of their opposite nature. The sexual drive apparent in little Hans is the desire for his father, while his aggression drive is his want to kill his father. Since the sexual and aggression drive both seek pleasure, the conflict between the two arise.
Freud’s theories on the structure and functioning of personality include the psychodynamic model of personality, which is a three part structure including the id, ego, and superego, composing elements of the psyche. The theory of consciousness is relevant in explaining how awareness is divided into two levels: the conscious and the subconscious. The psychosexual stages of development show the changes in expression of energy drive and mode of gratification as the child develops and matures. The two basic human drive, sexuality and aggression, are the causes of our behaviors, ranging from the desire to procreate to destructive behaviors towards yourself and others. The case of little Hans relate to these four significant theories, along with the case study Freud has explained the functioning and structure of personality.

poi [ 7:24 AM ]

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