Id, Ego and Superego. The avoidance of anxiety

Essay from the year 2013 in the subject Social Work, grade: 2, , course: Human Growth and Development, language: English, abstract: What makes a person different from every other? What makes a person unique? What is per- sonality? Over the course of the last centuries those questions led scientists to conduct re- search and develop partially contrary answers. Personality is a concept that is familiar to eve- ryone but difficult do define. Henry Murray once said that ¿all of us are in some ways like all other people, in some ways like some other people and in some ways like no other person¿ (Murrey in King 2008: p. 407). Fingerprints or irises of eyes are perfect examples of physical features, which makes a person unique. Not even twins with identical DNA have the same fingerprint, because a fingerprint is determined not simply by genes but also by prenatal envi- ronmental factors such as the health condition of the mother or other individual influences (King 2008: p. 407). According to that, personality could be seen as the fingerprint of mind, a collection of psychological attributes such as traits, abilities, beliefs or experiences that make us who we are. Personality is a pattern of emotions, behaviours and enduring, distinctive thoughts that form an individual ¿s unique character and accounts for its existence as the same person throughout its life (King 2008: p. 408; Oxford Dictionary 2013).