REVIEWER-UTS

REVIEWER: The Self from Various Perspectives—WEEK 1

I. Importance of Understanding the Self
 Helps individuals understand who they are.
 Allows self-appraisal and reflection.
 Affects personal development and identity formation.
II. Nature vs. Nurture Debate
 Nature: Traits are inherited and biologically passed down.
 Nurture: The self is shaped by life experiences and environment.
III. Dimensions of the Self
1. Social Factor – Influence of significant people in one’s life.
2. Personality – Individual patterns of thinking, feeling, and behavior.
3. Environmental Factor – Physical and social surroundings that affect self-
development.
4. Person-Volition Factor – A person’s desire to form their own identity.
IV. Key Questions for Reflection
1. What defines your self?
2. Is selfhood the same as identity?
3. Do people have one true self or multiple selves?

WEEK 2:
 Empiricism – the belief that there is no such thing as innate knowledge,
instead, knowledge is derived from sensory experience.

 Rationalism – the belief that there is innate knowledge, and that there are
different sources of knowledge.

 Idealism – objects of knowledge is held to be dependent on the activity of

the mind.

Antiquity/Classical Philosophers:
1. Socrates – Knowledge is the personification of good, and ignorance is that of evil;
self-knowledge is the ultimate virtue. He argued that the ruler of the body is the
soul. For him, the soul pre-existed the body, and it makes the body alive.
“An unexamined life is not worth living.” ; “Know thyself.”

2. Plato – moral virtue is rooted in the intellect, and leads to happiness.

3. Aristotle – the ideal (essence) is found inside the phenomena (matter), and the
universals inside the particulars.

Medieval/Middle Ages Philosopher:

St. Augustine – All knowledge leads to God; only the pure heart can see God;
love of God, faith in Him, and understanding of the Gospel will ultimately lead to
happiness. He also introduced the concept of the self in the past, present, and
future time. He argued that as far as consciousness can be extended backward
to any past action or forward to an actions to come, it determines the identity of
the person.
Enlightenment Philosophers:

1. Rene Descartes – “Cogito ergo sum” – I think therefore I am.

The self is a thinking thing whose whole essence or nature is merely thinking.
The self is different from the body hence, the self and body exist but differ in
existence and reality.
Mind-body dichotomy – through (mind) will always precede action (body).
Only humans have hubris (excessive pride) because of the fact that humans
are the sole rational animals in existence.

2. John Locke – founded on consciousness (the perception of what passes in a

man’s own mind).
According the Locke, consciousness can be transferred from one substance
(body and soul) to another therefore, the soul can change, but consciousness
remains the same.

Tabula Rasa – this concept posits that everyone started as a blank slate, and
the content is provided by one’s experiences over time.
3. David Hume – there is no self as a mental entity for “what we call a mind is
nothing but a heap/collection of different perceptions.
” The self is nothing but a complex set of successive impressions or
perceptions.
4. Immanuel Kant – consciousness is formed by one’s inner and outer sense:
the inner sense (comprised of one’s psychological state and intellect) and
the outer sense (consists one’s senses and the physical world).

Contemporary/ Modern Philosophers:

1. Sigmund Freud – the self is multilayered and is composed of the three
structures of the human mind – the id, ego, and superego.

2. Gilbert Ryle – opposed the Cartesian notion of “Cogito ergo sum.”

The mind is not separate from the body.
Logical/Analytical Behaviorism – a theory of mind which states that mental
concepts can be understood through observable events.
The self is a combination of the mind and body; “I act, therefore I am.”

3. Paul and Patricia Churchland – Eliminative Materialism – ordinary, common

sense
understanding of the mind is deeply wrong and that some or all of the mental
states posited by common sense do not exist.
To understand the self, one must study the brain, not just the mind.

4. Maurice Merleau-Ponty – body has two types: subjective body (as lived and
experienced), and objective body (observed and scientifically investigated),

The self is embodied subjectivity – humans are neither disembodied minds

(existing without body) nor as complex machines, but as living creatures
whose
subjectivity (consciousness) is actualized in the forms of their physical
involvement
with the world. “I am my body.”
WEEK 3:
Lesson 3. The Self from
the Sociological
Perspective

George Mead’s The Social Self – the self is not biological but social. Self is
something that is developed through social interaction.
Self has two parts, self-awareness and self-image.

Role playing – the process in which one takes on the role of another by
putting oneself in the position of the person with whom he or she interacts.
🠶According the Mead, self is not inborn. Babies cannot interpret the meaning
of other people’s behavior.

Three stages of development:

🠶Imitation or preparatory stage – the child imitates the behavior of
h i s / h e r parents,
Play stage – involves the child playing the role of others, and
Game stage – the child comes to see himself from the perspective of other
people.
Phases of the self: the I self and the Me self
I self – the phase of the self that is unsocialized and spontaneous.
Me Self – the self that results from the progressive stages of role playing or role
-taking and the perspective one assumes to view and analyze own’s behaviors.
Generalized Others – an organized community or social group which gives to
the
individual his or her unity of self.
Charles Horton Cooley’s Looking-glass Self
– a social psychological concept providing that the self is developed as a result
of one’s perceptions of other people’s opinions.
Steps:
(1.) people imagine how they must appear to others,
(2.) people imagine the judgment on that appearance, and
(3.) people develop themselves through the judgment of others.

1.Private Self – the cognition that involves traits, states, and behaviors.
2.Public Self – the cognition concerning the generalized other’s view of the
self.
3. Collective Self – cognition concerning a view of the self that
found in memberships in social groups.
Social Identity Theory by Henri Tajfel
– the person’s sense of who he is according to his membership to a certain
group.
In-group – the group where a person belongs.
Out-group – the group where a person do not belong.
Postmodernism – not a philosophy but a report on the mindset of the
western
culture in the latter half of the 20th century.
Andersen (1997) Four Basic Postmodernist Ideas
Multiphrenia – refers to the many voices speaking about who you are, and what
you are.
🠶Protean – the self that is capable of changing constantly to fit the present
conditions.

De-Centered – a belief that there is no self at all.

Self-in-relation – humans do not live their lives in isolation, but in relation to people
and to certain cultural contexts.
Erving Goffman’s Dramaturgical Model of Social Life – social interactions may be
compared to a theater, and people to actors on a stage where each plays a variety
of roles.
Three Regions:
Front Stage – the region where actors perform in conformity with the expectations of
the audience.
Back Stage – the region where actors act/behave differently. Where actors are in their
natural selves.
Off-Stage - the region where actors meet audience independently.
Kenneth Gergen’s Saturated or Multiplicitous Self – the saturated self is constantly
in
connection to others, a self that absorbs a multitude of voices and takes in a
seemingly endless stream of information
WEEK 4:

Cultural Identity and National Identity

Culture – derived from Latin word cultura or cultus, meaning care or cultivation.

Identity – refers to “who the person is,” or the qualities and traits of an individual that
make
him different from others.

Cultural Identity – refers to the identity or feeling of belongingness to certain culture

group.

Cultural Identity Theory – explains why a person act and behaves the way he does.

Nation – a group of people built on the premise of shared customs, traditions, religion,
language,
art, history, etc.

National Identity – refers to the identity or feeling of belongingness to one state or

nation.

Material Culture – a type of culture like national flag, national emblem, or seal
representative
of all the people who are a part of the nation.

Non-material Culture – embodies the shared understanding of a group of people

including
norms, beliefs, and traditions
Brian Morris’s Anthropology of the Self – the self is not an entity but a process that
orchestrates an individual’s personal experience. As a result of this process, a person
become
self-aware and self- reflective about his place in the surrounding world.

Dialogical Self Theory – introduced in 1992 by Hubert Hermans. The theory

regarded the “self” as the “Society of Mind.” The self is considered as extended to
significant
others in the environment that populate the self as monological relationships may
emerge.
Individual Self – reflects the cognitions related to traits, states, and behaviors that are
stored in
memory (e.g. “I am religious).
Relational Self – reflects cognitions that are related to one’s relationships (e.g. “I am the
father).

Collective Self – reflects cognitions that are related to one’s group (e.g. “I am an
Ilocano”).
Identity Struggles – introduced by Anthony Wallace and Raymond Fogelson. It
characterizes the
discrepancy between the identity a person claims to possess and the identity attributed
to that
person by others. When an individual perceives that he or she is assigned a wrong
impression,
he or she will probably always defend his or her identity. The best possible solution is to
this
situation is to talk to the person and establish a mutual understanding regarding one’s
way of
perceiving himself or herself as opposed to how he or she thinks he or she perceived by
others.
It has to be done as soon as possible in order to prevent future conflicts. The
confrontation,
however, must be done in a calm and respectful manner.
WEEK 5:
Lesson 5. The Self from the
Psychological Perspective
The Self from the Psychological Perspective
William James’s Self Theory – divided the self into two categories – Me and I.
A human being has the capacity to be a thinking subject and the object of his
own thinking at the same time. As a thinking subject, an individual is both
conscious of his environment, and conscious of his existence.

I – constituted by the continuous stream of consciousness internal to an

individual.

Me – a person turns into a ‘me’ when he makes himself the object of his own
thinking.

Three Categories of the Self

1. Constituents of the Self – refer to the further subcategories of the self,
including
the material self, social self, spiritual self, and pure ego.

2. Self-feeling – the feelings and emotions aroused in the individual because of

his knowledge and appraisal of his empirical existence in the world.

3. Self-seeking – the actions the self prompts – the effort of every individual to
preserve and improve oneself based on one’s self - knowledge and resulting
self-feelings.

Carl Rogers’ Self Theory – the self does not exist at birth; it is developed
gradually during childhood wherein one differentiates the self from non-self.
By means of free choice and action, one can shape himself based on what
he/she wants to be.

• Real Self – who an individual actually is, intrinsically. How one thinks, feels,
looks, and acts.

• Ideal Self – the perception of what a person would like to be or thinks he or

she would be. Based on the idealized image.
• Congruence – an agreement between the real self and the ideal self.
• Self-Concept – the totality of complex, organized, and dynamic system of
learned beliefs, attitudes, and opinions that each person holds to be true
about his personal experience.
Aspects of Self-concept

1. Existential Self – begins when an individual recognizes his existence as a

separate entity from others and realizes that he will continue to exist over a
period of time and space.

2. Categorical Self – starts after a child recognizes his existence as a separate

entity and becomes aware that he is an object of the world.
Three Components of Self-Concept

1. Self-worth or self-esteem – is what one thinks about oneself.

2. Self-image – how one sees himself, which is important for good
psychological
health.
3. Ideal Self – the person that one wants to be. It consists of one’s dreams and
goals in life, and it is continuously changing.
Donald W. Winnicott’s True Self and False Self
❑ True Self – known as the real self, authentic self, original self, and vulnerable
self. The core of who you are, the original you, unshaped by the upbringing
of society. This is the state one is born in.
❑ False Self – known as the fake self, ideal self, perfect self, and pseudo self.
Composed of the parts of the self, wherein behaviors are altered, feelings
are repressed, and one’s needs are set aside in order to fit in with others.
Also called the adapted self.

➢ Social Mask – one wears when he/she reaches adolescence and helps one
to interact properly in a larger variety of interpersonal contexts.
Global versus Differentiated Models
➢ Global Models look into a human being in his or her totality, as an indivisible
entity that cannot be broken down into parts.
❖ Gestalt Psychology – guided by the principle that “the whole is greater than
the sum of all its parts.”
❖ Humanistic Psychology – guided by the principle that “human beings, as
humans, supersede the sum of their parts.”
➢ Differentiated Models look into a human being through examining its parts
for
it is divisible or can be broken into components.
For Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, the psyche is divided into three – id, ego,
and superego. For Jung, ego, personal unconscious, and collective unconscious
1. Id – exists since birth and pertains to instinct. Driven by libido (sexual
energy).
2. Ego – developed as a product of coping with anxiety brought about by the
id’s
repression of impulses.
3. Superego – operates according to the morality principle.
❖ Albert Bandura’s Agentic Theory of the Self – rejects the notion that
selfhood
is culturally influenced or controlled by urges, rather, it looks upon every
human being as capable of thinking, deciding, foreseeing, and controlling
his or her actions, free to decide for himself. This is called as human agency.
❖ For Bandura, there are four core properties of human agency—
intentionality, forethought, self-reactiveness, and self-reflection.
❖ Intentionality is manifested in how an individual forms intentions with
action plans and strategies to realize them.
❖ Forethought refers to how an individual positions his/her plans in the
future.
❖ Self-reactiveness shows that agents are not only planners and fore
thinkers but also self-regulators
❖ Self-reflection people are capable of self-examining their own functioning