Moral Conscience or Superego

• According to Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, we conform to society's expectations and obey its rules because our superego tells us to
• Along with the id and the ego, the superego forms part of our personality
• Our superego tells us what is right and wrong and inflicts guilt feelings on us if we fail to do as it urges
• Our superego develops through early socialisation within the family, as a sort of internalised ‘nagging parent’ telling us how we ought to behave
• It’s functional is to restrain the selfish animalistic urges of the id, if we acted on these urges, they would often lead us into anti-social and criminal behaviour
• The superego allows us to exercise self-control and behave in socially acceptable ways