11 Moreover, Worchel and Shebilske 1989 in their book Psychology:
Principles and applications explain:
Personality as the unique set of behaviours including thoughts and emotions and enduring qualities that influence the way a person adjusts to his or her
environment. Personality is seen as influencing, guiding, and motivating behaviour.
‖ Personality is what someone really is toward his or her own life want to be. Personality is what makes people unique and causes them to act or see
situations different from anyone else. p. 461
Furthermore, Worchel and Shebilske 1989 describe Sigmund Freud‘s
Psychological theory. They explain that in the structure of personality,
Freud believes that the individual‘s personality is the scene of a never-ending
battle. On one hand, there are primitive and unacceptable drives striving for expression, while on the other hand there are forces trying to deny or disguise
these impulses. Freud not only viewed the personality as a battlefield, but he also identified the participants in this battle: the id, the ego, and the superego. p. 471
Sigmund Freud defines these three elements of personality. The first element of personality is known as the id. The second element is known as the ego
and for the third element is called the superego. These three elements of personality are working together to create complex human behaviours.
a. The Id
Id operates at the unconscious level of our personality. Each of us has a savage quality at the root of our personality. According to Freud, people are born
with two instinctual drives which serve as the basic motivation for all behaviour. One called eros and another one is called thanatos.
12 Eros
is the drive for survival. Included in this drive are the needs to eat and drink, to be warm, and above all to engage in sexual activity. The energy
force that propels the person to satisfy these drives is called libido. Thanatos, is a destructive drive. The aim is to destroy others, but there is
also a self-destructive aspect to it. In fact, Freud took the grim position that ―the
aim of all life is death. ‖ This self-destructive impulse is seen not only in suicide,
but also in the harmful excesses in which so many people engage, such as drinking alcohol, smoking, and overacting. It is the unconscious desire for self-
destruction. The id, like savage, wants to satisfy these primitive drives in the most direct and immediate way. It is not concerned with logic, reality, or manners. It
functions on pleasure principle, which dictates the immediate satisfaction of drives.
b. The Ego
The ego is a person‘s view of physical and social reality. It tries to satisfy the id impulses by taking into account the possibilities of reward and punishment
that exist in a situation. In other words, it works on the reality principle. Although each of us may have the primitive desires, it is clear that we could not function
long in our social world if we give free expression to the savage within ourselves. For example, suppose you are very thirsty and see a nice cold beer in a restaurant.
Your Id impulses would tell you to grab the beer and drink it. The Ego, however,
13 would calculate the possible result of this action; the worst thing may happen.
Thus, the Ego would direct you to order and pay for your own beer.
c. The Superego
