8 structure is known as the ego and the last one is known as the superego. These
structure of personality are working together to create human behavior p. 472.
a. The Id
The id refers to unconscious level of human personality, and it has the savage quality at the root of humans’ personality. People are born with two
instinctual drives that serve as the basic motivation for all behavior. The first drive is Eros and the second one is Thanatos.
Eros is the drive for survival. The activities that are included in Eros are eating and drinking that engages with sexual activity. The energy force that
propels the person to satisfy these drives is called as libido Thonatos is a destructive drive. The aim of this drive 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 in the harmful excesses in which so many people engage, such as smoking. It is the unconscious desire for self-destruction that leads us to drive
smoke cigarettes. The id, like the savages, leads human beings to satisfy these primitive drives in the most direct and immediate way. It is not concerned with
reality, logic, or manners. It functions on the pleasure principle, which dictates the immediate satisfaction of drives.
b. The Ego
Each of us may have primitive desires. It is clear that we could not function long in our social world if we gave free expressions to the savage within
ourselves. The ego works on the reality principle. In other words the ego is the
9 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. For example, you are very thirsty and you see a nice cold beer sitting on
the table in a restaurant. Your id impulses would tell you to grab the beer and drink it. However, the ego would calculate the possible results on this action and
the worst thing that may happen. Therefore, the ego would drive you to order and pay for the beer.
c. The Superego
We can view the id as an operator of the signal “I want it now.” The ego answers this demand by saying, “Let’s be realistic and get it in a way that won’t
cause trouble.” These two forces, however must also deal with the superego, which says, “Think. Is it right to want it?”. The superego represents our
conscience. It includes the moral values of right or wrong that are largely instilled in us by our parents. The superego makes us feel guilty when we have done the
wrong thing. Freud as cited in Hjelle, 1981 divided the superego into two subsystems,
the conscience and ego-ideal. The conscience is acquired through the use of punishment by the parents. It is concerned about what parents say as “naughty”
behaviour. The ego-ideal is derived from whatever the parents approve and reward. It leads the individual to set up goals and aspirations and, if it is achieved,
generate a sense of self-esteem and pride p. 36 In addition, psychological approach will also be used to define the theory
of motivation, leadership and conflicts. Those three theories will be used to
