Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

Ego 
Id 
Unconscious 
Superego 
Conscious 
FIGURE 1 
In Freud’s personality model, 
there are three major components: the 
id, the ego, and the superego. As the 
iceberg analogy shows, only a small 
portion of personality is conscious. Why 
do you think that only the ego and 
superego have conscious components?
Study Alert
Remember that the three 
parts of personality in 
Freud’s theory—the id, the 
ego, and the superego—
are abstract conceptions 
that don’t exist as physical structures 
in the brain.
Freud suggests that the superego, the part of personality that represents the rights and wrongs 
of society, develops from direct teaching from parents, teachers, and other signifi cant individuals.
id
The raw, unorganized, inborn part 
of personality whose sole purpose is to 
reduce tension created by primitive 
drives related to hunger, sex, aggres-
sion, and irrational impulses.
ego
The part of the personality that 
provides a buffer between the id and 
the outside world.
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Study Alert
The fi ve psychosexual stages 
of personality development 
in Freud’s theory—oral, 
anal, phallic, latency, and 
genital— indicate how 
personality develops as 
people age.
The superego, the fi nal personality structure to develop in childhood, represents 
the rights and wrongs of society as taught and modeled by a person’s parents, teach-
ers, and other signifi cant individuals. The superego includes the conscience, which 
prevents us from behaving in a morally improper way by making us feel guilty if 
we do wrong. The superego helps us control impulses coming from the id, making 
our behavior less selfi sh and more virtuous. 
Both the superego and the id are unrealistic in that they do not consider the 
practical realities imposed by society. The superego, if left to operate without restraint, 
would create perfectionists unable to make the compromises that life requires. An 
unrestrained id would create a primitive, pleasure-seeking, thoughtless individual 
seeking to fulfi ll every desire without delay. As a result, the ego must mediate 
between the demands of the superego and the demands of the id.