Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

inferiority complex 
According to 
Adler, a problem affecting adults who 
have not been able to overcome the 
feelings of inferiority that they devel-
oped as children, when they were 
small and limited in their knowledge 
about the world.
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R E C A P / E V A L U A T E / R E T H I N K 
R E C A P 
How do psychologists defi ne and use the concept of 
personality?
• Personality is the pattern of enduring characteristics that 
produce consistency and individuality in a given person. 
(p. 438) 
What do the theories of Freud and his successors tell us about 
the structure and development of personality?
• According to psychodynamic approaches to personality, 
much behavior is caused by parts of personality that are 
found in the unconscious and of which we are unaware. 
(p. 439)
• Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, one of the psycho-
dynamic approaches, suggests that personality is com-
posed of the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is the 
unorganized, inborn part of personality whose purpose is 
to immediately reduce tensions relating to hunger, sex, 
aggression, and other primitive impulses. The ego re-
strains instinctual energy to maintain the individual’s 
safety and to help the person be a member of society. The 
superego represents society’s rights and wrongs and in-
cludes the conscience. (p. 440)
• Freud’s psychoanalytic theory suggests that personality 
develops through a series of psychosexual stages (oral, 
anal, phallic, latency, and genital), each of which is asso-
ciated with a primary biological function. (p. 441)
• Defense mechanisms, according to Freudian theory, are 
unconscious strategies with which people reduce anxi-
eties relating to impulses from the id. (p. 443)
• Freud’s psychoanalytic theory has provoked a number of 
criticisms, including a lack of supportive scientifi c data, 
the theory’s inadequacy in making predictions, and its 
reliance on a highly restricted population. On the other 
hand, recent neuroscience research has offered some 
support for the concept of the unconscious. (p. 444)
• Neo-Freudian psychoanalytic theorists built on Freud’s 
work, although they placed greater emphasis on the role 
of the ego and paid more attention to the role of social 
factors in determining behavior. (p. 445)