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Unit 8: Foundations of Organisational Behaviour
The ego is concerned with consequences, with reward and punishment: "If I hit my little Notes
brother, mother will be angry and punish me". The superego is concerned with social
rules, that is, with doing the right thing: "It is wrong to hit my little brother".
The superego aids the person by assisting the ego to combat the impulses of the id.
However, in some situations the superego can also be in conflict with the ego. In their own
way, the demands of the superego are just as insatiable as the id's blind drives. Its standards
of right and wrong and its rules for punishment are far more rigid, relentless, and vengeful
than anything in our conscious minds. The inevitable struggle between the id, ego, and
superego causes this to be considered a conflict framework for human behaviour.
Defence Mechanisms
When inner conflict is acute and anxiety threatens, the ego often tries to reduce the anxiety by
means of irrational techniques known as defence mechanisms. Table 8.1 shows the various
defence mechanisms.
Table 8.1: Defence Mechanisms
The Defence The Reality Examples
Repression Keeps threatening thoughts and Traumatic memories of childhood are
memories buried in the unconscious. concealed from conscious awareness and
kept in the unconscious by strong forces.
Rationaliza- Provides plausible, socially We may justify ignoring the beggar on the
tion acceptable explanations for street who asks for money by telling
behaviour that is motivated by ourselves that he would only spend it on
unconscious or unacceptable reasons. liquor.
Sublimation A positive defence mechanism in Leonardo da Vinci’s urge to paint Madonnas
which erotic energy is channelled was a sublimated expression of his longing to
into a socially constructive activity. be reunited with his mother, from whom he
had been separated at an early age.
Denial Refusal to recognize a threatening A high school boy with a poor academic
source of anxiety. record wants to become a doctor, denying
the importance of good grades and asserting
that “somehow” it will all work out.
Regression Return to an earlier, less threatening People often distract themselves from their
stage of development in response to anxieties by eating too much- a return to
some perceived threat. comforting behaviour that gave them
pleasure in childhood. A frightened child on
the first day of school may begin sucking his
or her thumb, a habit given up years before.
Projection Turning an inward threat into a A woman who feels an impulse to shoplift
threat from the external world. may begin to fear that her purse will be
stolen or that salesclerks will short change
her. A man who frets about the sexual
promiscuity of the younger generation may
be projecting onto younger people his fear
about his own sexual impulses.
Displacement Transferring emotions that a person A woman who has been angry at her boss
is afraid to feel or express to a non- may come home and yell at the babysitter.
threatening situation.
Reaction Replacement of an anxiety-producing A mother who resents her child may shower
formation impulse or feeling by its opposite. him or her with expressions of love. A man
who wants to start fires may become a fire
fighter and spend his time putting them out.
Source: Adapted from Richard R. Bootzin, Gordon H. Bower, Jennifer Crocker and Elizabeth Hall,
"Psychology Today – An Introduction", 7th edition, McGraw-Hill Inc, New York, (1991) page 507.
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