Approaches in Psychology AQA Practice Test 2026 – Complete All-in-One Guide for Exam Success

Freud’s theory divides the mind into id, ego, and superego. The superego is the moral part that internalizes society’s rules and parental standards. It contains the conscience and the ego-ideal—the image of how we ought to be, the ideal self. When you consider “how we ought to be” and the sense of duty and guilt that comes from not living up to those standards, that’s the function of the superego. The ego, by contrast, mediates between the id’s desires and reality; the id is about instinctive pleasure, and the conscious is simply what we’re aware of at a given moment. So the moralistic voice pointing toward the ideal self is the superego.