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 "e;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"e; (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).