UNDERSTANDING

THE
SELF LESSON 3

Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy

 CHAPTER I

THE SELF FROM THE VARIOUS PERSPECTIVES

• LESSON 3 – The Self as a Cognitive Construct

 Compare how you look at
yourself against how people
perceive you depending on how
you present yourself to them.
ANALYSIS:

What aspects are SIMILAR and which are NOT?

What aspects are always true, circumstantial and
are not really part of your personality?
ABSTRACTION:

A LOT OF PEOPLE SAY “I AM WHO I AM”…

IF YOU ARE WHO YOU ARE, THEN WHO ARE

YOU THAT MAKES YOU WHO YOU ARE?
CARL JUNG

Jung’s theory is a compendium of opposites.

CARL JUNG
SELF
• The sense of personal identity and of who we are as individuals
(Jhangiani & Tarry, 2014).

• WILLIAM JAMES (1890) – one of the earliest

psychologists to study the self and conceptualized
the self as having two aspects:
– I – thinking, acting, and feeling self
– Me – the physical characteristics as well as
psychological capabilities that makes who you are
SELF
• Me Self: Empirical Self
– Material Self – “mine” example, my bad, my arm
• Tangible objects, people, or places that carry the designation of
“mine”
• Bodily self and extracorporeal self (beyond the body) i.e. emotional
investment
– Social Self – “ours” e.g. our parents, siblings, romantic partners
• How we are regarded and recognized by others
• Relation Self: interpersonal relationships
– Spiritual Self inner psychological self, subjective thinking
• Self-perceived abilities, attitudes, emotions, interests, values, and motives
SELF
•“I” Self
– Individual Self – individual traits, abilities, and possessions
• Spiritual self and aspects of the material self (body, possessions)
• Example: I am shy, I am tall, I am pretty
– Relational Self – other people with whom we have personal relationship
with
• Aspects of the social self
• Example: I am Noah’s dad. I am Gina’s mom.
– Collective Self – Social roles, social categories, and social group
membership
• Aspects of social self
• Example: I am a Filipino
SELF
• CARL ROGERS – Client-centered theory
– I – the one who acts and decides
– Me – what you think or feel about yourself
as an object
• Other concepts similar to self:
• Identity – composed of personal
characteristics, social roles, and
responsibilities, as well as affiliations that
define who one is
• Concept – what basically comes to your
mind when you are asked about who you are
SELF-SCHEMA
• CARL ROGERS
• Self-schema – organized system or collection of knowledge about
who we are
Hobbies

Family
SELF Religion

Nationality
 SELF DEVELOPMENT THEORIES

•FREUD: 5 Psychosexual Theory of Development

•ERIKSON: 8 Psychosocial Theory of Development
•JUNG: 4 Developmental Stages
•PIAGET: 4 Cognitive Development Stages
FREUD’S PSYCHOSEXUAL THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT

• SIGMUND FREUD
– Most influential
– Self – mental processes, and one’s behavior as the results of the
interaction between the id, ego and superego
ERIK ERIKSON’S PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORY OF
DEVELOPMENT

Like Freud and many others, Erik Erikson maintained

that personality develops in a predetermined order, and
builds upon each previous stage. This is called the
epigenetic principle.
During each stage, the person experiences a
psychosocial crisis which could have a positive or
negative outcome for personality development. For
Erikson (1963), these crises are of a psychosocial nature
because they involve psychological needs of the
individual (i.e. psycho) conflicting with the needs of
society (i.e. social).
Stage Psychosocial Crisis Basic Virtue Age
1. Trust vs. Mistrust Hope 0 - 1½

2. Autonomy vs. Will 1½ - 3

Shame
3. Initiative vs. Guilt Purpose 3-5

4. Industry vs. Competency 5 - 12

Inferiority
5. Identity vs. Role Fidelity 12 - 18
Confusion
6. Intimacy vs. Isolation Love 18 - 40

7. Generativity vs. Care 40 - 65

Stagnation
8. Ego Integrity vs. Wisdom 65+
Despair
JUNG’S DEVELOPMENTAL STAGES
Jung who foresaw the development of the human mind
reaching a crescendo in the late middle age, when many
chances in life have been taken or ignored and the person
starts to wonder if their life is truly what it should have been.
Here are the four Jungian Stages of Development:

CHILDHOOD Early morning sun, full of potential

but lacking in brilliance
(consciousness)
YOUTH The morning sun, climbing toward
the zenith, but unaware of the
impending decline
MIDDLE LIFE Early afternoon sun, brilliant like the
late morning sun, but obviously
headed for the sunset
OLD AGE The evening sun, once bright
consciousness now markedly
deemed
PIAGET’S STAGES OF COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

• JEAN PIAGET –
COGNITIVE
DEVELOPMENT
Piaget's (1936) theory of
cognitive development explains
how a child constructs a mental
model of the world. He
disagreed with the idea that
intelligence was a fixed trait, and
regarded cognitive development
as a process which occurs due
to biological maturation and
interaction with the
environment.
SELF CONCEPT (KAREN HORNEY)
• REAL SELF – your existing self
• IDEALIZED SELF IMAGE – extravagantly positive picture of
self

NORMAL NOT NORMAL

If the real self is near the ideal self, therefore you are a normally-functioning
human

If your real self is far from your ideal self but you realize it, you are a
normally-functioning human

But if your real self is far from your ideal self and you don’t realize it,
therefore you are not a normally-functioning human
SELF CONCEPT (CARL ROGERS)
• SELF CONCEPT – what basically comes to your mind when
you are asked about who you are
• IDEAL SELF – what you dream yourself to become

There is a considerable There is little overlap

overlap between the between real self and ideal
real self and the ideal self
self
MISMATCH = ANXIETY
CLOSE MATCH =
HARMONY
SELF
• MEAD
- Theory of Symbolic Interactionism
3 reasons why self and identity are social products:
1. We do not create ourselves out of nothing. Society helped in creating the
foundations of who we are and even if we make our choices, we will still
operate in our social and historical contexts in one way or the other.
2. We actually need others to affirm and reinforce who we think we are. We also
need them as reference points about our identity.
3. What we think is important to us may also have been influenced by what is
important in our social or historical context. (e.g. education, money)

* Social interaction and group affiliation, therefore, are vital factors in creating our
self-concept
 • SELF-AWARENESS – we are aware of our self-concepts

Carver and Scheier (1981) identified two types of self that we can be aware of:
1. PRIVATE SELF – your internal standards and private thoughts and feelings
2. PUBLIC SELF – your public image commonly geared toward having a good
presentation of yourself to others

Self-awareness also presents us with at least three other self-schema:

1. ACTUAL self – who you are at the moment
2. IDEAL self – who you like to be
3. OUGHT self – who you think you should be
• Self-awareness may be positive or negative depending on the circumstances
– e.g. It can keep you from doing something dangerous
– e.g. It can help you remind that there’s an exam the next day when you are about to
spend time playing computer games among others
• Self-awareness can be too much that we are concerned about being observed and
criticized by others – SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS
• At times, we may experience DEINDIVIDUALIZATION – loss of individual
self-awareness and individual accountability in groups (e.g. mass demonstration
erupting into a riot)
• SOCIAL COMPARISON is one of the ways in which
our social relationship affects our self-esteem
• SOCIAL COMPARISON THEORY – we learn
about ourselves, the appropriateness of our
behaviors, as well as our social status by comparing
aspects of ourselves with other people
– Downward social comparison – we create a
positive self-concept by comparing ourselves with
those who are worse off than us
– Upward social comparison – comparing ourselves
with those who are better off than us
 • Social comparison also entails what is called SELF-EVALUATION
MAINTENANCE THEORY – we can feel threatened when someone
out-performs us, esp. when that person is close to us
So we act in three ways:
1. We distance ourselves from that person or redefine our relationship with them
2. Reconsider the importance of aspect or skill in which you were outperformed
3. Strengthen our resolve to improve that certain aspect of ourselves
However, in an attempt to increase or maintain
self-esteem, some people become NARCISSISTIC.

• NARCISSICM – trait characterized by overly high

self-esteem, self-admiration, and self-centeredness
THANK
YOU!
☺☺☺