Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory

Sigmund Freud

• Influential figure in psychology; his psychoanalytic theory laid groundwork for modern psychodynamic theories.
• Introduced the concept of the unconscious mind and its impact on human behavior.

Three Levels of Consciousness

• Unconscious mind: Always outside of conscious awareness, influencing thoughts and actions.
• Preconscious mind: Contains information not presently in awareness but can be retrieved when needed.
• Conscious mind: The current state of awareness, encompassing thoughts and feelings at a given moment.

Freud's Theory of Personality

• Personality consists of three parts: id, ego, and superego.
• Id: First to develop; represents basic instincts and operates under the pleasure principle.
• Ego: Develops second; decision-maker that operates in preconscious and conscious mind, guided by the reality principle.
• Superego: Last to develop; embodies moral standards and ideals, concerned with social acceptability.

Id

• Represents biological aspects of personality; indulges in primal instincts.
• Functions in the unconscious mind and seeks immediate satisfaction of needs (pleasure principle).

Superego

• Operates across all three levels of consciousness; embodies morals and ideals influencing behavior.
• Acts as a conscience, promoting what is socially acceptable and guiding towards the ego ideal.

Ego

• Mediator between id, superego, and reality; operates in the conscious and preconscious mind.
• Functions under the reality principle, ensuring desires are met in acceptable ways.

Reality Principle

• Balances the desires of the id with social norms and realistic considerations.
• The ego plays a crucial role in negotiating between basic instincts, moral standards, and real-world constraints.

Life Instincts

• Described as a motivational drive for survival, creativity, and personal growth; referred to as libido or sexual energy.
• Encompasses all pleasurable activities aimed at maintaining life and well-being.

Death Instincts

• Reflects the counterpart of life instincts, relating to aggression and destructive tendencies.
• Freud viewed managing these aggressive impulses as a fundamental challenge of human nature.

Freud's Psychosexual Development

• Consists of five stages: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital; begins in infancy.
• The first three stages are critical, occurring before age six, and lay the foundation for personality formation.

Lesson Summary

• Freud's exploration of the unconscious mind significantly influenced psychology.
• Defined three levels of consciousness and identified three components of personality that interact to shape behavior.
• Behavior is driven by instincts, with life and death instincts guiding motivations.
• Proposed psychosexual development that outlines critical stages from infancy onward.