Ego

    As the infant grows however, particularly as he learns to discriminate between himself and the outside world, the second structure of the personality, referred to as ego develops. The ego is the only rational element of the personality. It will soon exhaust itself and so it has to be policed. The ego obeys the reality principle which requires it to test image for their reality and to delay discharge of tension until the appropriate environment conditions are found. Ego is the locus of defense mechanism and as such it works out to compromise between the demands of pressure of environment and that of superego. The ego acts with intelligence and determines what demands will be satisfied and how they will be satisfied. The ego delays gratification so as to find out the reason behind the action. There is however no disparity between the goals of ego and superego.
    The superego emerges during the period of four to six years. If the ego represents the executive branch of personality, the superego represents a combination of the legislative and the judiciary. The superego is roughly equivalent to conscience or the moral arm of personality in the sense that it contains all the teaching of the person's family and culture regarding ethics. It's preoccupation is the moral justification of an individuals behaviour. It represents the ideal rather the real and it strives for perfection than pleasure. It is the moral arbiter and sees to the rightness and wrongness of an action so that it can conform to the moral standard authorised by the agents of society.
    The ego and superego are hardly fully complete. There is some gap which allows some infantile behavior and destructive impulses to reappear. In the neurotic and psychotic, the ego and superego have a wider gap and they are inadequately developed and for this reason, their thoughts, actions and perceptions are not in accordance with reality.