Psychodynamic Theories Affect Individual Personality

Essay by shampoo0000University, Bachelor'sA+, October 2010

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Psychodynamic Theories Affect Individual Personality

University of Phoenix

Psychodynamic Theories Affect Individual Personality

Individuals differ from one another and each personality is unique. Be it physically, emotionally, intellectually or psychologically, each person portrays distinct characteristics that are exclusive. Many psychodynamic theorists have theorized the origins and contributions that cultivate personality. Highlights of this paper will include contents of Freuds psychoanalytic theory to include the id, ego, superego, child experience, and the infantile stage, and Sullivans interpersonal theory to include the importance of interpersonal relationships defined early in age through needs and anxiety that contribute to the individual and interpersonal relationships.

Psychodynamics and Individual Personality

Psychodynamic theories, according to psychodynamic theory (2005), go a long way back throughout history. Psychodynamic theories of personality represent behavior and personality development. Dr. Sigmund Freud, recognized as propagating psychodynamic theories through his theory of psychoanalysis, depicts how the combination of the presence of unconscious and conscious mind, id, ego, super ego, and childhood experience create individual personality (Psychodynamic Theory, 2005).

Freud describes that the unconscious mind is divided. These divisions include the id, which represents the amoral unconscious need to fulfill pleasure through any means (good or evil); the ego, which recognizes reality and delivers needs of the id based on social norms; and the superego, which recognizes morality (good and evil) and delivers emotion such as guilt (Feist & Feist, 2009). Key factors that control the id, ego, and superego are childhood experiences with drives of sex and aggression.

Oftentimes anxiety arises because sexual and aggressive acts are punished during childhood. The ego keeps emotions of anxiety repressed in the id, which contributes to individual behavior, emotions, and attitudes throughout a lifetime (Feist & Feist, 2009). The...