Background: Conscious mind: everything we are aware of. Aspect of our mental processing that we can think & talk rationally.
Preconscious mind: Represents ordinary memory, we are not consciously aware of this information at any given time, can retrieve it & put in conscious mind when needed.
Unconscious Mind: Reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, memories that outside our own awareness. Most content unacceptable or unpleasant, feelings of anxiety, pain, conflict. Influences our behave, experience, even though we unaware of underlying influences
Energy that we possess if focused into life instinct (EROS), instinct for self-preservation. Sexual-preservation/energy (LIBIDO) death instinct (THANATOS).
ID – works on pleasure principle & is driven by biological drives. Present from birth.
EGO – aims to gratify demands of ID by working in constraints of Superego. Aim to protect us from harm (defence mechanisms)
SUPEREGO – Internalised representation of values & morals of society; what is right or wrong. Morality principle
Theory of Aggression:
ID, instructive part of personality, has urges that seeks to satisfy immediately. Job of the EGO to channel these urges within constraints of society & parents. Until Superego develops through Oedipus complex or Electra complex
Oedipus Complex: Father seen as a rival for Mothers affection as boys desire their Mom. Not real sexual feelings, they are unconscious & cause internal conflict/anxiety. Jealousy is replaced with fear when they realise there are ppl who are castrated (girls). They fear their Father will castrate them if continue with this desire (castration fear).
To protect themselves from aggressor, boys go through defensive process called sex-role identity. Represses feelings for his mother & identify with their farther, taking on male role (gender development) & inherits father moral standards (superego)
Electra Complex: Girl notices gender differences for 1st time, which leads to penis envy. Blames mother for loss of penis & sees Father as a potential impregnator, here the affection are transferred from Mother to Father. Cannot experience castration anxiety so instead fears loss of Mothers affection. She represses feelings towards the Father & goes through sex-role identification. She identifies with mother, adopting female role (gender development) & internalises her Mothers moral standards (superego) fear faced by girls is less than boys have so less developed superego.
A bad upbringing can lead to weak super-ego.
Aggression may arise when ID is strong & the superego is weak; individual seeks pleasure & immediate gratification irrespective of possibility of punishment.
Harsh superego – sex can lead to feelings of guilt, unconscious desire to be punished (commit a crime)
Aggression towards themselves & others.
Defence mechanisms: Displacement – can’t show aggression to someone of high social status so deflect it to lower social status.
Ego’s role to strike balance between ID & Superego, uses defence mechanisms allowing ID urges to be channelled in socially acceptable way. (sport)
Catharsis reduces aggression because Freud states watching aggression would reduce it’s urges. Catharsis is to offload or unburden such as sublimation to make you feel better.
Aggression can be considered a drive & it links to Thanatos. Redirected away from person towards others resulting in aggression.
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
| Feshback & Singer – studied 652 boys, split into 2 groups, one watched only violent programmes, other watched non-aggressive shows. Boys who watched non-aggressive shows more aggressive – supports idea of Catharsis by sublimating of watching others aggress.
High V – used in-depth cases to gather data & a range of methods including qualitative data such as dream analysis – rich & in-depth data Application – identifies new ways to explain threat of mental health problems that were unavailable & unique at the time – helped people that would otherwise not be helped & revolutionised previously barbaric treatment |
Low G – studied women in middle class Vienna, using dream analysis. So sample is limited to this group – difficult to generalise to entire population as bias.
Scientific creditability – concepts such as ID, EGO & SUPEREGO are not measurable – rigorous testing cannot be carried out so results lack validity Hoffman – females contribute a very small % of criminal population – refuting idea females have weaker superegos suggesting females show stronger moral obligation. Biological explanation – evolutionary factors show we are aggressive to compete for mates; to protect mates & offspring & pass on our genes. – shows evolutionary factors account for aggression |