Remember the cartoon you used to watch as a child, the main character is confronted with a choice.

On his left shoulder is a little devil pushing him toward a bad choice and on his right shoulder is a little
angel that is encouraging him to make a good choice. He is stuck in the middle and force to make a
decision that will affect him. This scenario is much like Freud’s Theory of personality. There are three
parts of personality according to Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory, these are the ID, Super-
ego and Ego. The ID is the first to develop, the ego is second and the super-ego is the last to
develop. The ID is the biological component of the personality and include your instincts, the ID
operates in our unconscious mind. It is like the little devil sitting on that cartoon character shoulder
that is always selfish and needy. It operates according to the pleasure principle; PLEASURE principle
is the idea that all your needs should be met immediately. Then there is the SUPER EGO, the exists
in all three level of consciousness. The super-ego is like the little angel, it is always concerned with
what is socially acceptable. The super-ego pushes you to obtain the ego ideal or your view of what is
right. It also represents your conscience or your view of what is considered to be wrong. Finally we
have the Ego, The ego operates in your preconscious in conscious mind. The ego is part of your
personality that makes your decisions. The ego is in the middle makes the decision and faces the
consequences. The ego operates according to the Reality Principle. The reality principle is the idea
that the desires of ID must be satisfied in a method that is both socially appropriate and realistic.

The ID or the pleasure principle is your natural impulses such as using the bathroom, sex, eating and
thirst. The super ego or the moral principle is to do what society says is right or what you believe is
morally right given the situation. The ego is the reality principle and compromises between the ID and
the super ego to ultimately determine what you do , so sometime you follow the ID more and
sometime you follow the Super-ego more, and sometime you do compromise. Some people have a
pattern of following their ID more than their super-ego so they may be more likely to express their
impulses whereas other are more likely to control impulses and follow super-ego more that their ID.

For example: this Theresa, she’s been dieting for several months and lost about 50 pounds. She has
not worked out in a few days and is having a craving for unhealthy food. She is wondering what she
should do tonight. According to Freud, Theresa’s Super-ego or the angel on her shoulder would tell
her to do an hour on the treadmill and then eat something healthy. Theresa’s ID on the other hand or
her devil on her shoulder would tell her to just go ahead and eat a bunch of unhealthy food and not
work out. Theresa’s ego will try to find a compromise between ID and the super ego, so for example
Theresa may compromise by instead of doing a 60 minute workout like the super ego suggests
maybe to do 30 minute run on treadmill instead and instead of just eating a salad maybe to eat a
sandwich in a salad that would be good compromise.

Freud came up with the idea of defense mechanisms, which is when the reality principle or ego is
distorted in order to protect itself from anxiety or negative feelings from ID impulses. Defense
mechanisms can be positive or negative ways to deal with negative feelings.

This is Marcus and this is Sally, they are both in high school and have a their JS Prom coming up.
Sally has a crush on Marcus, but she is worried that if she told anyone, it would get out and
Marcus would reject her. If Sally were to use the defense mechanism, DENIAL, she would
deny or not believe her true feelings or hid impulses of having a crush on Marcus to avoid the
anxiety of putting her stuff herself out there and being rejected. If Sally will use the defense
mechanism, REACTION FORMATION, she would say the exact opposite of how she feels or
what her ID impulses are to avoid the anxiety of possibly being rejected. So in this case Sally
 would act like she does not like Marcus or thinks that he is gross to avoid the anxiety of being
rejected by him. Another strategy to protect negative feelings from the ego, or defense
mechanism is PROJECTION. Projection is taking your true feelings and projecting them or
saying that is how someone else feels. For example if Sally tells Marcus that her friend has a
crush on him she would be projecting attraction toward Marcus on her friend Ethel. Another
defense mechanism is DISPLACEMENT where you take your feelings towards someone and
displace them towards someone or something else. So let’s take sally who gets asked out to
the JS Prom by Steve, Sally does not have to worry about getting rejected by Steve because
he asked her out, however, she acts like she has a crush on Steve even though in reality she
thinks he’s gross and really still has a crush on Marcus. Let’s just say since Sally did not
express her true feelings to Marcus who may or may not have reciprocated. Marcus decides to
ask Stacie to be his date in the Prom and she said yes. So let’s just say Sally becomes angry
that Stacy is going to the prom with Marcus and not her, so she ended up cursing her teacher
and then getting into trouble. Acting aggressive and instead expressing your true feelings as a
defense mechanism, we call is ACTING OUT. Let’s just say Sally decides that rather than
expressing anger which is inappropriate she is going to accept the situation and try to have a
fun time in the Prom with Steve, this another defense mechanism which is a mature defense
mechanism, which is the ACCEPTANCE.

Freud is the one who first to discuss the unconscious mind and its role in human behavior. Freud
believed that there are three levels of consciousness first is the unconscious mind, which
exists outside of your awareness at all times. Next is the pre-conscious mind which includes all
information you are not currently aware of but can be recalled. Finally the conscious mind is
your current state of awareness

Ectoderm has to do with a very frail, thin person that does not store fat.

Mesomorph is the muscular person with wide shoulders, thin waist, doesn’t store fat , has a high
metabolism

Endomorph which is kind of a fatty body typer

William Hebert Sheldon and he associated body types with human temperament and it was a
basically a theory that he proposed that had to do with certain layers of development when you
were growing as a fetus. There is something called an endoderm which develops the digestive
tract, mesoderm which develops the muscles to heart blood vessels and the ectoderm forms
the skin and the nervous system.