We couldn't talk about the theories of personality or psychology without mentioning Freud Sigmund Freud is one of the most famous and
controversial minds of the 20th century his
Psychoanalytic perspective of personality offers a unique way of looking at the body and mind connection to personality
So in order to know Freud we have to know three following terms the it'd the ego and the super-ego
These are the three parts of your personality
Well, according to Freud these three characters are driven by unconscious energy
Now a person may not always hear or talk to these parts of their personality
But they are all silently going through a struggle to influence our decisions and our behavior
The it'd is the bad boy of our subconscious
It is an impulsive part of the psyche that seeks pleasure and avoids pain at all costs
the it wants instant gratification
It is the part of you that grabs for food as a baby or acts to satisfy sexual desires without thinking it through
now the super-ego
Lies on the opposite end of the spectrum this part of the psyche wants to control the it'd if humans acted only based on receiving
Instant gratification and immediate pleasure. We would surely be in a whole lot of trouble the super-ego
Unconsciously and consciously acts to follow the rules of society and tries to keep the it'd from causing some serious damage
Long-term now the ego lies in between the middle of these two entities in between the it'd and the super-ego
The ego is in constant struggle to balance out these two forces and try to make pleasurable decisions without causing too much damage
It's like a well minded adult standing in the middle of two children wanting to overthrow each other
So how do Freud's ideas influence the way that we shape our personality?
Well one of his theories was that as a child grows into an adult
They encounter five psychosexual stages of development during each of these stages of development the it is focused on a specific
Erogenous zone now the ego must struggle to balance out the pleasure seeking it and the moral super-ego during each of these phases
internal conflicts will result in many different types of struggles now Freud said
Personality is formed by the process and the results of each of these struggles. So there are five basic stages
The first one is oral. The second one is anal. The third one is phallic. The fourth one is latency
And the fifth one is genital Freud believes that most of our personality has actually been formed by the time that we reach age
At the age of five a child has gone through the oral the anal and most of the phallic stages now if the child
Continues to struggle with balance during these stages. They will develop something called
Fixations for example stage one is the oral stage
oral
fixations includes smoking or problems with eating if someone fails to master potty training or they still struggle during the anal stage then as they
Grow into an adult they may become a sloppy or a lazy person
this is actually where we get the term anal retentive during the third stage the
Phallic stage Freud believed that boys and girls start to notice the differences in each other and develop either the Oedipus complex
or penis envy the Oedipus complex is the idea that
unconsciously young boys feel possessive of their mother and as a result
They feel very aggressive towards their father Freud also believed that young girls experience
Something called penis envy and due to their lack of a penis developed
Fixations to follow them until they're an adult if Freud's ideas make you uncomfortable either for the fact that he focuses
Explicitly on sex or that he seems to frame women as the lesser sex
You're not alone actually was a little weird talking about these into a microphone Freud has never ceased to face
Criticism for his work unlike many psychologists. He actually did not use empirical research were studies to back up his theories
He worked solely with adults on a case-by-case basis still. However
the psychoanalytic perspective
Remains as one of the top personality theories to date unlike the humanist theory and Freud's focus remains in the unconscious
he explores the idea that in order to develop the root of our
Personality we have to dig deeper than what we experience on the surface
Psychoanalytic therapy grew out of Freud's theories this approach involves a therapist
questioning their patient about their childhood memories
Or possible events in the past that might have led to struggles between the it'd in the super-ego Freud believed that humans repress a lot
Of their emotions now his goal during therapy sessions was to bring those unconscious feelings and emotions into the conscious mind
so this last theory that I'm going to talk about the
Psychoanalytic theory gives us a lot to think about when it comes to the development of our personality
how many events in your life can you point out as
Defining moments that shaped your personality and how many events could have changed your personality without even you thinking about it
So this is kind of the end of the theory section
We went over trait theory behavioral theory humanistic theory biological theory and lastly psychoanalytical theory next
We're going to be talking about different types of psychometric and how personality tests actually work speaking of that if you're curious about your own
personality and want to take a test to maybe learn what kind of
Predictions we can make about you go ahead and click the link in the description and you can take my free three-in-one personality quiz
So if you enjoy this video feel free to watch some of the other videos in the personality series and subscribe
If you haven't already, I hope you guys enjoy this video and learn something. Thank you so much for watching