Wize University Psychology Textbook > Personality
Psychodynamic Approach
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Psychodynamic Approach
According to this approach, personality is formed by needs and desires that are largely unconscious/subconscious
Three components to the mind. Personality is determined by the interactions between the three components
- Id
- Bodily needs, wants, desires
- Sexual and aggressive drives
- Pleasure principle - seeking immediate gratification of wants/desires
- Unconscious
- Present at birth
- Ego
- Reality principle - regulating principle that delays gratification to function in the real world
- Mediator between id and superego
- Superego
- Internalized rules, guidelines, standards, codes of conduct
- Learned through exposure to rules and parents' authority
Defense mechanisms - unconscious coping mechanisms that reduce anxiety generated by unacceptable impulses
Freud believed that development proceeds in stages, and interruption at any level results in a fixation on that stage. This fixation shapes personality
Psychodynamic approaches to personality are not well-supported by evidence and are very difficult to test