PSYCHOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE OF THE SELF
• A lot of people say “ I AM
WHO I AM.”
• If you are who you are, then
who you are that makes you
who you are?
ABSTRACTION
William James (1890) was one of the earliest psychologists
to study the self and he conceptualized the self as having
two aspects– the “I” and the “me”;
The self according to
psychologists
• Carl Rogers (1959) theory of personality also used the
same terms, the “I” as the one who acts and decides while
the “me” is what you think or feel about yourself as an
object (Gleitmann, Gross, and Reisberg, 2011)
• Self-concept is basically what comes to your mind when
you are asked about you are. (Elmore, Oyserman, and
Smith, 2012)
The self according to
psychologists
• Self, identity, and self-concept are NOT FIXED in one
time frame.
• Your description in the past, present, and future about
yourself varies.
• They are ever changing at every moment;
• Think of malleable metal, strong and hard
• Think about water; but
• at its core, it is still the same elements.
The self according to
psychologists
• Carl Rogers captured this idea in his concept of self-
schema, or our own organized system or collection of
knowledge about who we are (Gleitman, Gross, and
Reisberg, 2011)
HOBBIES
FAMILY
SELF RELIGION
NATIONALITY
• The schema is not limited to the example above. It may
include your interests, your work, your course, your age,
your physical characteristics, etc.
• As you grow and adapt to the changes around you,
THEY ALSO CHANGE;
• But they are not passive receivers, they actively shape
and affect how you see, think, and feel about things,
(Jhangians and Tarry, 2014)
•
The self according to
psychologists
• When someone states your name, even he is not
talking about you, your attention is drawn to him;
• if you have a provincial language and you hear
someone using it, it catches your attention;
• If you consider yourself a book-lover, a
bookstore may always entice you out of other
stores in a mall.
The self according to
psychologists
• Theories generally see the self and identity as
mental constructs created and re-created in
memory.
• Current researches point to the frontal lobe of the
brain as the specific area in the brain associated
with processes concerning the self
(Elmore, Oyserman, and Smith, 2012)
The self according to
psychologists
• The self, its mental processes, and one’s
behavior as the results of the interaction between
the Id, the Ego, and Superego;
EGO
CONSCIOUS
PRECONSCIOUS
SUPEREGO
Id
UNCONSCIOUS
SIGMUND FREUD
• Id: Unconscious, instinctual drives, wants desire fulfilled,
exist for pleasure not realistic, not logical, pressure the
mind to satisfy release, collection of urges, sexuality and
aggression
• Ego: Totally Id, think about things, experiences of the
outside world, how much urges are expressed, what is
rational and realistic, will, balance the Id, and Supergo,
use defense to avoid anxiety
• Superego: Conscience, collection of moral lessons we
learn from the parents, society and organized religion,
moral perfection, too much freedom that can be
perfectionist, sense of guilt
THREE PARTS OF THE MIND
• The definitions of the self, social interaction always has a
part to play in who we are;
• This is not nature vs. nurture but instead a nature-and-
nurture perspective;
• Under the THEORY OF SYMBOLIC
INTERACTIONISM, G.H. Mead (1934) argued that the
SELF is CREATED and DEVELOPED through HUMAN
INTERACTION.
IMPORTANT EFFECTS OF THE
ENVIRONMENT TO THE SELF
1. WE DO NOT CREATE OURSELVES OUT OF
NOTHING.
2. WE NEED OTHER OTHERS TO AFFIRM AND
REINFORCE WHO WE THINK WE ARE;
3. WHAT WE THINK AS IMPORTANT TO US MAY
ALSO HAVE BEEN INFLUENCED BY WHAT IS
IMPORTANT IN OUR SOCIAL OR HISTORICAL
CONTEXT.
3 REASONS AS
SELF AND IDENTITY
AS SOCIAL PRODUCTS
• Social interaction and group affiliation, therefore, are
vital factors in creating our self-concept especially in the
aspect of providing us with our social identity or our
perception of who we are based on our membership to
certain groups; Think of studying with friends and
studying on your own.
• Self-awareness: Carver and Scheier (1981) identified
two types of self that we can be aware of:
1. the private self or your internal standards and private
thoughts and feelings
2. the public self or your public image commonly geared
towards having a good representation of yourself to others.
self-awareness
• The “actual” self is who you are at the
moment
• The “ideal” self is who you like to be, and
• The “ought” self is who you think you
should be.
(Higgins 1997 in Hogg and Vaughnn 2010)
Think about an athlete with academic
difficulty.
SELF-AWARENESS AS SELF-SCHEMA
• Self-awareness may be positive or negative
depending on the circumstances and your
next course of action.
• Think about spending time playing
computer games with your cousins and
having exam tomorrow.
• self-awareness can be too much that you
are concerned about being observed and
criticized by others also known as self-
consciousness. (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014)
• Deindividuation or “the loss of individual
self-awareness and individual
accountability in groups” (Jhangiani and
Tarry, 2014)
• A lot of people will attune themselves with
the emotions of their group and because
the large crowd also provides some kind of
anonymity, we may lessen our self-control
and act in ways that we will not do when
we are alone.
• Our group identity and self-awareness
also has a great impact on our self-
esteem, one of the common concepts
associated with the “self”
• It is defined as our own positive or
negative perception or evaluation of
ourselves.
• We learn about ourselves, the appropriateness of our
behaviors, as well as our social statures by comparing
aspects of ourselves with other people. (Jhangani and
Tarry 2014)
• The downward social comparison is the more common
type of comparing ourselves with others;
• We create a positive self-concept by comparing ourselves
with those who are worse off than us;
• By having the advantage, we are able to raise our self-
esteem.
• Upward comparison is comparing ourselves with those
who are better off than us.
• A lot of those who do this actually felt lower self-esteem
as we highlight more of our weakness or inequities.
SOCIAL COMPARISON THEORY
• It states that we can feel threatened when someone out-
performs us, especially when a person is close to us, a
friend or a family;
• In this case, we usually react in three ways:
1. We distance ourselves from that person or redefine our
relationship with them like resort to silent treatment,
change of friends, while some may also redefine by
being closer with that person, hoping to give him/her
acknowledgment;
2. Reconsider the importance of the aspect or skill in
which you were out-performed like being told that
drawing is not really for you and you will find a hobby
which you could excel, thus preserving your self-
esteem.
SELF-EVALUATION MAINTENANCE THEORY
• 3. Strengthen our resolve to improve that certain aspect of
ourselves like after quitting drawing, you might join
seminars, practice more often, read books about it, add
some elements in your drawing that makes it unique.
• ACHIEVING YOUR GOAL THROUGH HARD
WORK MAY INCREASE YOUR SELF-ESTEEM TOO.
SELF-EVALUATION MAINTENANCE THEORY
• In attempt to increase or maintain self-esteem, some
people become narcissistic;
• “Trait characterized by characterized by overly high
self-esteem, self-admiration, and self-centeredness.”
(Jhiangiani and Tarry 2014)
• They are often charismatic because of how they take care
of their image;
• Taking care of that image includes their interpersonal
relationships thus they will try to look better partners,
better acquaintances, as well as people who will
appreciate them a lot.
NARCISSISM
• Self-esteem is very important concept related to the self,
studies have shown that it only has correlation, not
causality, to positive outputs and outlook.
• It can be argued that high or healthy self-esteem may
result to an overall good personality but IT IS NOT, AND
SHOULD NOT BE, the ONLY SOURCE of a person’s
HEALTHY PERSPECTIVES OF HIMSELF OR
HERSELF.
• People with self-esteem are commonly described as
outgoing, adventurous, and adaptable in a lot of
situations.
• They also initiate activities and building relationship with
people;
• However, they may also dismiss other activities that do
not conform to their self-concept or boost their self-
esteem;
• They may also be bullies and experiment on abusive
behaviors with drugs, alcohol, and sex (Jhiangani and
Tarry 2014).
