Freud’s Theories of the Consciousness

Using your Psychology textbook (pp.450-453) find the answers to the questions below.
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1. What is Psychodynamic Theory? A psychodynamic theory is a theory put forward

by Sigmund Freud in which psychic energy moves among the compartments of
personality: id, ego, and superego.

2. Explain what the ID, EGO and SUPEREGO represent according to Freud’s
Psychodynamic Theory:
ID: The component of Sigmund Freud’s personality theory containing
primitive drives present at birth.

EGO: The component of Sigmund Freud;s personality theory that is the self
that others see.

SUPEREGO: The component of Sigmund Freud’s personality theory that

internalizes society’s rules for right and wrong, or the conscience.

How do the 3 interact together and impact human consciousness? The

three interact with each other and impact human consciousness because they
help to create the different personality traits someone has at a young age and
continue to develop personality traits at a later age.

3. What were Freud’s beliefs about and examples of:

● Defense Mechanisms: Freud believed each of these defense mechanisms
help us channel potentially self-destructive or painful psychic energy into
more constructive or manageable behavior. An example of a defense
mechanism is sublimation, which is when we redirect negative energy. This
could be taking up martials arts rather than taking up fights at school.
 ● Psychosexual Stages of Development: Freud believed that the origins of
problems could be found in his patients' developmental pasts, not their
present circumstances. He called these psychosexual stages of
development. There are 5 different psychosexul stages of developmental:
oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. An example of the oral stage is
children having the need to put everything in their mouth. An example of
anal is when children are beginning to potty train. An example of phallic is
the discovery that boys and girls have different genitals. An example of the
latency stage is when a child starts to favor the parent of the same sex. An
example of the genital stage is in the stage of puberty.

4. What are contemporary assessments of Sigmund Freud’s psychodynamic Theory?

A contemporary assessment of Sigmund Freud’s psychodynamic Theory is that his
approach to development contrasts sharply with the scientific theory of
development.

5. Who are neo-Freudians and what was their goal(s)? Neo-Freudians are people
who followed Freud’s theories who then began to diverge from his approach to
construct their own psychodynamic theories. Neo-freudians goals are to create
their own psychodynamic theories but make them closer to contemporary views
of humans as social animals.

Provide information about what these people believed/focused on:

❏ Alfred Adler, Inferiority Complex: Alfred Adler believed that
overwhelming feelings can lead to over compensation. He was
focused on the effects of feeling overwhelmed and the effects it can
have on a person.

❏ Carl Jung, Unconscious Mind: Carl Jung believed that generations of

experience with the concepts such as darkness, power, death, and
parents would lead to characteristic ways of unconsciously thinking
about related topics. Jung focused on differences in individual
personality.
 ❏ Karen Horney, Male Dominated Society: Karen Horneye believed
that men envied women’s ability to become pregnant and be
mothers. Horneye emphasized on the impact of a male dominated
society on women who helped set the stage for many subsequent
feminist scholars.

6. Freud’s theories have been used for a number of years by people working in the
Psychology field, especially when implementing Psychoanalysis. Why do you think
people found merit in his theories? I believe people found merit in Freud’s
Theories because they can be backed by evidence that he conducted and there
were no other theories that supported the same ideas Freud had at the time.