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Sigmund Freud's Five Aims Of Psychology

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Psychology is the study of the human mind and it functions. There are five main goals to psychology.

• To describe how people and species behave
• To understand the causes of these behaviours
• To predict how people and animals behave under certain conditions
• To influence behaviour through control of it causes
• To apply psychology knowledge in ways that enhances human welfare. (Passer, Smith, 2012)

Sigmund Freud founded psychoanalysis. He believed that people’s abnormal behaviour originated in the unconscious mind. He stated that if people could make the unconscious mind conscious it would give them greater insight into their behaviours and feelings. Psychoanalysis is commonly used for the treatment of depression and anxiety disorders today.
Freud’s theory divided people’s personalities into three parts. The Id, Ego and Superego. The Id is known as the Biological, the Ego is known as the psychological and the Superego is referred to as the social aspect. Freud believed that we are born with the Id and Ego and the Superego is developed over time through experiences in life (Dworetzky, 1994, pg 479).
The Id is said to follow a pleasure principle and it drives the organism toward what they want to make them feel satisfied. It wants an immediate satisfaction of needs, no matter what they are. It is sometimes known as the pleasure principle. The Ego functions towards a reality principle and it works with the outside world. It is part of the personality that controls

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