Personality is a characteristic of an individual that makes him or her unique. It is an organization within a person that define the psychological systems which determine the thoughts and personal behavior. The personality blends the views and characteristics hence make the person unique. There are times when it proves too difficult to compare two people due to their uniqueness. Some considerations are considered to affect the development of personality, and they include environment and nature. In that effect, several theories explain the development of traits.
One of them is Sigmund Feud’s psychodynamic theory. Its basis is that there is an interaction between innate instincts and upbringing influences. During the first five years of a person’s life, the interplay of abilities and the environmental influences play a crucial role in the determination of the mental status of the individual in future. Parental control is necessary during this period. As a result, the problems with mental health in adulthood can be assessed back to the first five childhood years. Feuds theory suggests that the personality of an individual is divided into three parts, hence known as tripartite. These parts are the superego (psyche), the ego, and the id. The three develop at different stages of life. They are not parts of the brain, nor are they physical.
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The id is a wishful and a primitive part of the personality. It consists of all the genetic components of nature, which are inclusive of sex instinct and aggressive instinct. The basis of id is the pleasure principle, which makes it demand pleasure impulsively and with an immediate wish for satisfaction. It requests the pleasure anytime, with no regard for the consequences. The ego acts as the referee between the real external world and the unrealistic id. It makes the decisions that the id wants to be satisfied. It operates on the principles of reality and considers the most realistic ways of satisfying the demands of the wishful id. The ego can compromise or postpone the satisfaction to protect the person from negative results of the society. Thus, it has to play along with the norms, realities, rules, and etiquette in making the decision of how to behave. The superego acts as the checker of morals gathered from the society. It incorporates what the individual learned from the parents and the people around and use it to moderate the life of the individual. Superego has a similar effect on the conscience and can cause a feeling of guilt and anxiety to punish the ego.
As an individual, how I have come to know myself is through reading books on psychology and reflecting them back to my life experiences. As a child, my parents, especially my mother, had a great impact on the behavior that I developed. My mom always brought us up by upholding the morals of the society and telling us that every mistake we commit in our lives, we will be accountable. She often said that the mind is divided into two, the evil and the good advisors. This changed my perspective as a child and thus grew up knowing that if I do something wrong, it the will of the evil counsel that has prevailed, and vice versa. As an adult, I have come to rely on scientific research on personality. The problem with my way of knowing is that it is only considered general knowledge. It is something that was passed to me through nurture. It was supposed to guide me while it did not scientifically prove the presence of the evil and good sides. However, my way of knowing is compatible with professional work as seen in the theory above, where there are three components of personality. A third one is added to mediate over the two I knew.
References
Ewen, R. (2014). An introduction to theories of personality . Psychology Press.
