3 Levels of awareness

According to Freud the id, ego, and superego all operate across three levels of awareness in the human mind. They are the conscious, unconscious, and preconscious.

The conscious: The conscious consists of what someone is aware of at any particular point in time. It includes what you are thinking about right now, whether it is in the front of you mind or the back. If you are aware of it then it is in the conscious mind.

Example: Right now as you are reading about Freud you could be thinking about what is being said in the text and that your eyes are tired from staring at this screen. In the back of your mind, however, you might be thinking "wow this website is really cool, if I was a psychology teacher I would give whoever made it an A". Both of these thoughts occur in the conscious mind.

The Preconscious: The preconscious contains information that is just below the surface of awareness. It can be retrieved with relative ease and usually can be thought of as memory or recollection.

Example: Right now think of your middle name. That is an example of preconscious memory. Similar example could be what is your mom's birthday, when did it last rain, and how long does it take to drive to the mall.

The Unconscious: The unconscious contains thoughts, memories, and desires that are buried deep in ourselves, well below our conscious awareness. Even though we are not aware of their existence, they exert great influence on our behavior.

Example: Things in your unconscious would be forgotten negative experiences in your past, extreme dislike for a parent, or a terrible event that you pushed out of your preconscious.

The Id, Ego, and Superego

Freud separated personality into 3 major components. The Id, the Ego, and the Superego. Freud believed that these forces worked to create a person's behavior. They interact with each other and eventually determined personality.

The Id: The id is the very immature component of personality. It operates only on the pleasure principal with no regard for anything else. One could say that it is completely instinctual. Freud referred to the id as the reservoir of psychic energy. It only consists of our basic biological needs. To eat, sleep, defecate, etc... The id is only a primary process thinker, so it is primitive, irrational, and illogical.

Example: Jack is walking down the street and he is very hungry. He only has an id so when he sees an apple pie cooling in a window, he takes it for himself.

The Superego: The superego is our morals, principals, and ethics. It considers the social standards for social behavior and guides us on what is right and wrong. The superego begins to develop between 3 and 5 years of age. It is mostly shaped by what we learn as young children from adults. Eventually we accept this training as a part of who we are. We put pressure on ourselves to live up to how we think we should behave.

Example: Jack is walking down the street and he is very hungry. He only has a superego so when he sees an apple pie cooling in a window, he does nothing. His superego tells him that it is someone's pie and that it is not acceptable to trespass on someones property and take their pie.

The Ego: The ego is the moderator between the ego and the superego. It operates on the reality principal. It makes the decisions that dictate behavior. The ego also considers social realities, norms, ediquette, rules, and customs when it makes a decision on how to behave. It seeks to delay gratification of the id's urges until appropriate outlets can be found. It uses secondary process thinking to avoid negative consequences from society.

Example: Using the examples from above, Jack's ego would tell him that he should not take the pie from the windowsill, but instead he can buy some pie right up the street at the local grocery store.