Study Material for Class XII CBSE Psychology students for Chapter-2

1. SELF & PERSONALITY
PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH OF PERSONALITY
(CHAPTER-II : PART- 2)
MRS. NAVARATHINA DEVAKUMAR, M.SC., M.PHIL
(PSYCHOLOGY)

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PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH
• Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was a famous physician from
Vienna who popularised and founded the psychodynamic
theory during his clinical practise
• Early in his career he used to treat patients with physical
and emotional problems through hypnosis
• Psychodynamic theory proposes that our behaviour is
motivated by the unconscious mind
• In Psychodynamic Approach the following concepts are
discussed
 Levels of consciousness
 Structure of personality
 Ego defence mechanism
 Stages of personality development

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LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
1. The first level is conscious : thoughts, feelings, and action
of which people are aware
2. The second level is preconscious : mental activity that
people may become aware only if they attend to it closely
3. The third level is unconscious : mental activity that people
are unaware of
According to Freud, the unconscious is a reservoir of
instinctive or animal drives.
It stores all ideas and wishes that are concealed from
conscious awareness which may lead to psychological
conflicts.
People constantly struggle to find some socially
acceptable ways to express these unconscious
impulses. Unsuccessful resolution of conflicts results in

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APPROACHES TO THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND
 Free association: A method in which a person
is asked to openly share all the thoughts,
feelings and ideas that come to his/her mind
Dream analysis
Analysis of errors: Mispronunciations,
forgetting
Psychoanalysis: It is a therapeutic therapy
developed by Freud to bring the repressed
unconscious materials to the consciousness,
thereby helping people to live in a more self
aware and integrated manner

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STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY
• According to Freud’s theory the primary structural elements of
personality are three:
Id , Ego and Superego
• They reside in the unconscious as forces and can be inferred from the
ways people behave
• In terms of individual functioning in some people, id is stronger than the
superego, in others it might be superego
• The relative strength of id, ego and superego determines each persons
stability

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STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY - ID
ID
• It is the source of a persons instinctual energy
• It deals with immediate gratification of primitive
needs (sexual and aggressive impulses)
• It works on pleasure principle, which assumes
that people seek pleasure and try to avoid pain
• It is demanding, unrealistic and does not care for
the moral values ,society or other individuals
• Ex: ID of a boy or girl , who wants an ice-cream ,
tell him to grab the cone
I am ID
I operate on
PLEASURE
PRINCIPLE
I need immediate
gratification of my
need

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STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY- EGO
EGO
• It grows out of id, seeks and satisfy an individual’s
instinctive needs in accordance with reality
• It works by the reality principle and often directs
the id towards more appropriate ways of behaving
• Ego is patient and reasonable
• Ex :the id of a boy, who wants a chocolate tells him
to grab and eat. But his ego tells him that if he
grabs without asking ,he may be punished. Working
on the reality principle , the boy knows that the best
way to achieve gratification is ask for permission to
eat the chocolate
I am EGO
I operate on
REALITY
PRINCIPLE
I satisfy id
based on reality

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STRUCTURE OF PERSONALITY- SUPEREGO
Superego
• Superego is the moral branch of mental
functioning
• The superego tells the id and the ego whether
gratification in a particular instance is ethical
• It helps to control the id by internalising the
parental authority through the process of
socialisation
• Ex: if a boy sees and wants a chocolate and asks
his mother for it, his superego will indicate that
his behaviour is morally correct and hence the boy
will not develop guilt, fear or anxiety for
satisfying id
I am SUPEREGO
I tell id and ego
whether
gratification of
needs is morally
right or wrong

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EGO DEFENCE MECHANISM
• A defence mechanism is a way of
reducing anxiety by distorting reality
unconsciously
• Freud believed that people avoid
anxiety mainly by developing defence
mechanisms that try to defend the ego
against the instinctual needs
• Use of defence mechanism are normal
and adaptive but when people use to
an extent which distorts the reality
resulting in different forms of
maladjustment.

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DIFFERENT KINDS OF DEFENCE MECHANISM
1.Repression : Anxiety provoking situations that are
totally dismissed by the unconscious
when people repress a feeling or desire ,they
become totally unaware of that wish
ex: when a person says “ I don not know why I did
that” but these repressed feelings or desires are
expressed unconsciously
2. Projection: people attribute their own traits to others
ex: a person who has strong aggressive tendencies
may see other person as acting in an excessively
aggressive way towards him
3. Denial : a person totally refuses to accept reality
ex: someone suffering from HIV/AIDS may
altogether deny his/her illness
PROJECTION
DENIAL

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3. Reaction formation: when a person defends
against anxiety by adopting behaviours opposite to
her/his true feelings
Ex. A person with strong sexual urges ,who
channels his/her energy into religious fervour,
presents a classical example of reaction
formation
A person might inappropriately laugh whereas
he might be sad within
4. Rationalisation : a person tries to make
unreasonable feelings or behaviour seem
reasonable and acceptable
Ex. When a student fails in the exam blames that
RATIONALISATION
DIFFERENT KINDS OF DEFENCE MECHANISM

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STAGES OF PERSONALITY DEVEVELOPMENT
• Freud proposed a Five- stage theory of personality or Psychosexual
stages of personality development
• The core aspects of personality are established early and remain stable
throughout the life
• Problems encountered at any stage may arrest development, and have
long term effects on a persons life
• The different stages of development are
1
Oral
Stage
2
Anal
Stage
3
Phalli
c
Stage
4
Laten
cy
Stage
5
Genit
al
Stage

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• Pleasure seeking centre- mouth
• The infant achieves oral gratification
through feeding, thumb sucking ,biting and
babbling.
• It is during these early months that peoples
basic feelings about the world are
established
• According to Freud, an adult who considers
the world a bitter place probably had
difficulty during the oral stage of
development
ORAL STAGE (BIRTH TO 1 YEAR)

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ANAL STAGE ( 2- 3 YEARS )
• Pleasure seeking centre- anus ( experience
pleasure in moving their bowels)
• During this period the child learns to respond
some of the demands of the society
• One of the principal demands made by the
parents is that the child learns to control the
bodily functions of urination and defecation
• This stage establishes the basis for conflict
between the id and the ego and between the
desire for babyish pleasure and demand for
adult, controlled behaviour

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PHALLIC STAGE ( 4- 5 YEARS)
• Pleasure seeking area- ( genitals)
• During this stage the children begin to realise the
difference between males and females. They become
aware of sexuality between their parents .
• Oedipus complex
• The male child experiences the Oedipus complex ,
which involves love for the mother , hostility towards
the father and the consequent fear of punishment or
castration by the father
• The major developmental achievement of this stage is
the resolution of the Oedipus complex. It takes place
by accepting his fathers relationship with his mother ,
Oedipus complex
Boys develop love
for mother and
hostility towards
father

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• Electra complex
• Girls attach their love to the father and tries to
symbolically marry him and raise a family. when
she realises that it is unlikely, she begins to
identify with her mother and imitate her
behaviour as a means of getting her fathers
affection
• The critical component in resolving the Oedipus
complex is the development of identification
with the same sex parents.
• Resolution of complex:
• Boys give up sexual feelings for their mothers
and begin to identify with their fathers
• Girls give up their sexual desires for their father
Electra complex
Girls develop love for
fathers and tries to
symbolically marry and
raise a family
PHALLIC STAGE ( 4- 5 YEARS)

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• During this period ,the child continues to grow
physically, but sexual urges are relatively
inactive.
• The child's energy is channelled into social or
achievement related activities
Latency stage
LATENCY STAGE ( 7 YEARS TO PUBERTY)

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• Pleasure seeking area- genitals
• During this stage ,the person attains maturity in
psychosexual development
• Sexuality, fears and repressed feelings of earlier
stages are once again exhibited.
• People learn to deal with the members in a
socially mature way.
Genital stage
GENITAL STAGE ( PUBERTY)

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• Five -stage theory postulates that as children proceed from
one stage to another stage of personality development, they
seem to adjust their view of the world.
• Fixation :
• Failure of a child to pass successfully through a stage leads to
fixation to that stage. In this situation, the child’s development
gets arrested at an earlier stage
• Ex. A child who does not pass successfully through the phallic
stage fails to resolve the Oedipus complex and still feel hostile
towards the parent of the same sex. when this boy grows older
,he may consider and men are generally hostile and may wish
to relate to females in a dependable relationship.
• Regression :
• Regression occurs when a persons resolution of problems at
any stage of development is less than adequate. In this
situation, people display behaviours typical of a less mature
CONCLUSION OF FIVE STAGE THEORY

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CRITICISMS OF PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY
1. The theories are largely based on case studies, they lack a
rigorous scientific basis
2. They use small and atypical individuals as samples for advancing
generalisations
3. The concepts are not properly defined and it is difficult to
submit them to scientific testing.
4. Freud has used males as prototype of all human personality
development. He overlooked female experiences and
perspectives.

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