Learning Personality, Morality and Emotions

Learning Personality, Morality, and Emotions

id – Freud’s term for our inborn basic drives
ego – Freud’s term for a balancing force between the id and the demands of society
superego – Freud’s term for conscience, the internalized norms and values of our social groups

Freud and the Development of Personality

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) – came up with psychoanalysis (and he was crazy)

psychoanalysis – a technique for treating emotional problems through long-term intensive exploration of the subconscious mind

id – Freud’s term for our inborn basic drives (pleasure-seeking; demands immediate fulfillment of basic needs: attention, safety, food, sex, etc.)
eg0 – Freud’s term for a balancing force between the id and the demands of society
superego – Freud’s term for conscience, the internalized norms and values of our social groups (conscioence; culture within us; the moral component of personality)

Sociologists disagree with Freud in that they object to the view that inborn and subconscious motivations are the primary reasons for human behavior.

Kohlberg, Gilligan, and the Development of Morality

Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg (used only boys in studies)

amoral stage (0-7) – there is no right or wrong, just personal needs to be satisfied
preconventional stage (7-10) – learned rules, follow them to stay out of trouble; right and wrong based on what pleases parents, teachers and friends
conventional stage (10-?) – morality means to follow the norms and values they have learned
postconventional stage (maybe never) – most people don’t reach this stage; reflect on obstract principoles of right and wong and judge a behavior according to these principles

Psychologist Carol Gilligan (opposed Kohlberg) –

Socialization into Emotions

Socialization impacts our emotions.

Anthropologist Paul Ekman – 6 Global Emotions:

The Self and Emotions as Social Control–Society Within Us

Ways Freud was wrong… which he often was…

He wrongly linked physical symptoms to specific feelings. “For example, if you were nauseous, there was something you couldn’t stomach.”
He thought paranoia was always based on someone wanting to have done to them what they claim to fear — not so, Kramer says.
Freud has been pilloried by feminists for dreaming up “penis envy.” But, notes Westen, “if you grow up in a culture where men are so privileged, it’s easy to see how he could arrive at that.”
Freud also mistakenly reduced people to having just two basic motives: sex and aggression. What about love for one’s children or desire for material things? Many forces drive behavior, Westen says.
Freud fell far from the mark in predicting that religion would die out soon, as modern science took hold. Today, 92% of Americans say they believe in God, according to the Barna Group, a Ventura, Calif., market research company that focuses on culture and faith.

Works Cited:

Henslin, James M. Sociology: A Down-to-Earth Approach, 7th ed. (Pearson: Boston 2005), Chapter 3