superego

Meaning: In Freud's psychoanalytic theory, personality has three structures: id, ego and superego. The superego is the set of moral standards and ideals absorbed from parents and society during childhood. It has two parts: the conscience, which punishes rule-breaking with guilt, and the ego ideal, which rewards meeting standards with pride. Much of it operates outside awareness. It presses for morality and perfection, so it often opposes the id, which seeks immediate gratification (pleasure principle), while the ego tries to satisfy both within the demands of reality (reality principle).

On the MCAT: Expect a vignette in which a person feels an urge, then guilt or a rigid rule, and you must name the structure. Urge = id; compromise or planning = ego; guilt, "should" and moral judgment = superego. Questions may link ego defense mechanisms to anxiety produced by conflict among the three structures. An overly strong superego is associated with excessive guilt and rigidity, a weak one with impulsive, rule-ignoring behavior.

Common confusion: Students treat the superego as the same thing as the ego because both restrain the id. The ego is the mediator that judges what is practical; the superego judges right and wrong and does not weigh practicality. Also, it is separate from Kohlberg's stages of moral reasoning, which come from a cognitive-development theory, not psychoanalysis.