Freud
And the ego defense mechansisms
ID Superego and Ego
The id is the unconscious part of our minds, it includes our inherited parts of who we are. It is our impulsive part of our minds as well. The superego controls the impulses of the id. It is also the values you learn from your parents when you were young. It also makes you feel feelings of guilt. The ego is what makes up our decision making skills. Also it is in charge of making rational decisions based on what the id wants.
Ego Defense Mechanisms
Denial is a ego defense mechanism in this defense mechanism we tend to deny what is true. For example when something happens in our lives that we don't approve of such as a death we tend to deny that it happened. Another ego defense mechanism is acting out. In this defense mechanism we do extreme things such as punch a wall to show how we truly feel at that point in time. We also have a defense mechanism called rationalization. In this ego defense mechanism we make up a new explanation to help us with certain situations. Undoing is a defense mechanism in which we try to make better what we messed up basically. An example is if I yelled at my mom how much I hated her I might tell her how much I love her afterwards to try to make up and balance the two. The last ego defense mechanism I looked up was assertiveness. Assertiveness is saying what a person needs but in a respectful manner. We have an assertive way of talking in our lives. If you say something assertively we are respectful but we are direct and say what we need or expect. We have ego defense mechanisms for when our id or superego becomes too demanding and when we feel guilt or other strong feelings.
Sources
McLeod, S. A. (2008). Id, Ego and Superego. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html
Grohol, J. (2007). 15 Common Defense Mechanisms. Psych Central. Retrieved on January 17, 2015, from http://psychcentral.com/lib/15-common-defense-mechanisms/0001251