The Self as Cognitive Construct - Page 1 of 9

The Self as Cognitive Construct

MODULE 3
OVERVIEW
As discussed in the previous lessons, every field of study, at least in the social sciences,
have their own research, definition, and conceptualization of self and identity. Some are similar while some
specific only in their field. Each field also has thousands of research on self and identity as well as related
or synonymous terms. The trend of the lessons also seems to define the concept of the "self' from a larger
context (i.e., culture and society) down to the individual. However, it must be pointed out that modern
researches acknowledge the contributions of each field and this is not some sort of a nurture vs. nature,
society/culture vs. individual/brain, and other social sciences vs. psychology debate. Psychology may focus
on the individual and the cognitive functions, but it does not discount the context and other possible factors
that affect the individual. For students who take up psychology, discussions on theories, and development,
among others actually take at least one semester and there are still more to be learned about the concept of
"self." This lesson provides an overview of the themes of psychology regarding the said concept.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• identify the different ideas in psychology about the "self';

• create your own definition of the "self' based on the definitions from psychology; and
• analyze the effects of various factors identified in psychology in the formation of the "self."

LEARNING EXPERIENCES & SELF-ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIES (SAA)

ACTIVITY
"You" Through Others' Eyes
This activity has two parts that try to compare how we look at ourselves against how people perceive us
depending on how we present ourselves to them. For the first part, list ten to fifteen (10—15) qualities or
things that you think define who you are.
Part 2.
For the second part, in the box provided on the SAA sheet, write "l am (your name). Who do you
think I am based on what you see me do or hear me say?" Send your captured photo of your paper on the
group chat provided for this subject without looking who writes on it. As you fill out the paper of your
classmates, write briefly and only those that you observe about the person. Do not use any bad words and
do not write your name. After the allotted period, send all your received photo of your classmate’s paper to
your instructor (I will send instructions on the group chat and also the format of sending) who will distribute
them to the respective owners.

ANALYSIS
Compare what you wrote about yourself to those written by your classmates (ask them through our
messenger group chat/personal message or in our fb group). What aspects are similar and which are not?
What aspects are always true to you? What aspects are sometimes true or circumstantial? What aspects do
you think are not really part of your personality? Write your answers on the SAA sheets provided.

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ABSTRACTION
In confidence or in an attempt to avoid further analytical discussions, a lot of people say, "l am
who I am." Yet, this statement still begs the question "if you are who you are, then who are you that
makes you who you are?"
As mentioned earlier, there are various definitions of the "self' and other similar or
interchangeable concepts in psychology. Simply put, "self' is "the sense of personal identity and of who
we are as individuals (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014)."
William James (1890) was one of the earliest psychologists to study the self and conceptualized the self as
having two aspects—the "l" and the "me." The "l" is the thinking, acting, and feeling self (Gleitman, Gross,
and Reisberg 2011; Hogg and Vaughan 2010). The "me" on the other hand, is the physical characteristics
as well as psychological capabilities that makes who you are (Gleitman, Gross, and Reisberg 2011;
Hogg and Vaughan 2010). Carl Rogers’s (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 fell about yourself as an object (Gleitman,
Gross, and Reisberg 2011)
Other concepts similar to self are identity and self-concept. Identity is composed of personal
characteristics, social roles, and responsibilities, as well as affiliations that define who one is (Oyserman,
Elmore, and Smith 2012), Self. concept is what basically comes to your mind when you are asked about
who you are (Oyserman, Elmore, and Smith 2012).
Self, identity, and self-concept are not fixed in one time frame. For example, when you are asked
about who you are, you can say "l was a varsity player in 5th Grade" which pertains to the past, "a college
student" which may be the present, a nd "a future politician" which is the future. They are not also fixed for
life nor are they ever-changing at every moment. Think of a malleable metal, strong and hard but can be
bent and molded in other shapes. Think about water. It can take any shape of the container, but at its core,
it is still the same element.
Carl Rogers captured this idea in his concept of self-schema or our organized system or collection
of knowledge about who we are (Gleitman, Gross, and Reisberg 2011; Jhangiani and Tarry 2014). Imagine
an organized list or a diagram similar below:
The schema is not limited to the example
above. It may also include your interests, Work,
hobbies
course, age, name, and physical characteristics, among
others. 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 (Gleitman, Gross, and
Reisberg 2011; Jhangiani and Tarry 2014).
For example, when someone states your first
family
Self religion

name even if they are not talking about you, your

attention is drawn to them. 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 all the other nationality
stores in a mall.
Theories generally see the self and identity as
mental constructs, created and recreated in memory (Oyserman, Elmore, and Smith 2012). Current
researches point to the frontal lobe of the brain as the specific area in the brain associated with the processes
concerning the self (Oyserman, Elmore, and Smith 2012).
Several psychologists, especially during the field's earlier development, followed this trend of
thought, looking deeper into the mind of the person to theorize about the self, identity, self-concept, and

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 The Self as Cognitive Construct - Page 3 of 9

in turn, one's personality. The most influential of them is Sigmund Freud. Basically, Freud saw the self,
its mental processes, and one's behavior as the results of the interaction between the Id, the Ego, and the
Superego.
However, as mentioned earlier, one cannot fully discount the effects of society and culture on the
formation of the self, identity, and self-concept. Even as Freud and other theories and researchers try to
understand the person by digging deeper into the mind, they cannot fully discount the huge and important
effects of the environment. As in the abovementioned definitions of the self, social interaction always has
a part to play in who we think 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 (Hogg and Vaughan 2010). Basically, there are three reasons why
self and identity are social products (Oyserman, Elmore, and Smith 2012):
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. You may, of course, transfer from one culture to another, but
parts of who you were will still affect you and you will also have to adapt to the new social
context. Try looking at your definition of who you are and see where society had affected you.
2. Whether we like to admit it or not, we actually need others to affirm and reinforce who we
think we are. We also need them as reference points about our identity. One interesting example
is the social media interactions we have. In the case of Faceb00k' there are those who will
consciously or unconsciously try to garner more "likes" and/or positive "reactions" and that can
and will reinforce their self- concept. It is almost like a battle between who got more friends,
more views, and trending topics. If one says he is a good singer but his performance and the
evaluation of his audience says otherwise, that will have an effect on that person's idea of
himself, one way or another.
3. What we think is important to us may also have been influenced by what is important in
our social or historical context. Education might be an important thing to your self-concept
because you grew up in a family that valued education. Money might be important to some
because they may have grown in a low-income family and realized how important money
is in addressing certain needs like medical emergencies. Being a nurse or a lawyer can be
priority in your self-schema because it is the in-demand course during your time.
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 (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014). It is also inevitable that we can have
several social identities, that those identities can overlap, and that we automatically play the roles as
we interact with our groups. For example, you are a student who is also part of a certain group of
friends. You study because it is your role as a student but you prefer to study with your friends and
your study pattern changes when you are with your friends than when you do it alone.
There are times, however, when we are aware of our self-concepts; this is also called 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, and (2) the public self or your
public image commonly geared toward having a good presentation of yourself to others (Hogg and
Vaughan 2010).
Self-awareness also presents us with at least three other self-schema: the actual, ideal, and
ought self. 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 Vaughn 2010), An example
is that you are a student interested in basketball but is also academically challenged in most of your
subject. your ideal self might be to practice more and play with the varsity team but ought to pass your
subjects as a responsible student. One has to find a solution to such discrepancies to avoid agitation,

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dejection, or other negative emotions. In some instances, however, all three may be in line with one
another.
Self-awareness may be positive or negative depending on the circumstances and our next
course of action. Self-awareness can keep you from doing something dangerous; it can help remind
you that there is an exam tomorrow in one of your subjects when you are about to spend time playing
computer games with your cousins among others. In other instances, self-awareness can be too much
that we are concerned about being observed and criticized by others, also known as self-consciousness
(Jhangiani and Tarry 2014). At other times, especially with large crowds, we may experience
deindividuation or "the loss of individual self-awareness and individual accountability in groups"
(Festinger, Pepitone, and Newcomb 1952; Zimbardo 1969 in 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. A common example is a mass demonstration erupting into a riot.
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 (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014; Gleitman, Gross, and Reisberg 2011).
One of the ways in which our social relationship affects our self-esteem is through social
comparison. According to the 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
(Jhangiani and Tarry 2014; Hogg and Vaughan 2010).
The downward social comparison is the more common type of comparing ourselves with
others. As the name implies, we create a positive self-concept by comparing ourselves with those who
are worse off than us (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014). By having the advantage, we can raise our self-
esteem. Another comparison is the upward social comparison which is comparing ourselves with those
who are better off than us (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014). While it can be a form of motivation for some,
a lot of those who do this actually felt lower self-esteem as they highlight more of their weakness or
inequities.
Take note that this occurs not only between individuals but also among groups. Thus, if a
person's group is performing better and is acknowledged more than the other group, then his self-esteem
may also be heightened.
Social comparison also entails what is called self-evaluation maintenance theory, which states
that we can feel threatened when someone out-performs us, especially when that person is close to us
(i.e., a friend or family) (Tesser 1988 in Jhangiani and Tarry 2014). In this case, we usually react in
three ways. First, we distance ourselves from that person or redefine our relationship with them
(Jhangiani and Tarry 2014). Some will resort to the silent treatment, change of friends, while some may
also redefine by being closer to that person, hoping that some association may give him a certain kind
of acknowledgment also. Second, we may also reconsider the importance of the aspect or skill in which
you were outperformed (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014). If you got beaten in a drawing competition, you
might think that drawing is not really for you and you will find a hobby where you could excel, thus
preserving your self-esteem. Lastly, we may also strengthen our resolve to improve that certain aspect
of ourselves (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014). Instead of quitting drawing, you might join seminars, practice
more often, read books about it, and add some elements in your drawing that makes it unique, among
others. Achieving your goal through hard work may increase your self-esteem, too.
However, in the attempt to increase or maintain self-esteem, some people become narcissistic.
Narcissism is a "trait characterized by overly high self-esteem, self-admiration, and self-centeredness"
(Jhangiani 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 for better
partners, better acquaintances, as well as people who will appreciate them a lot. This makes them a

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bad romantic partner or friend since they engage in relationships only to serve themselves (Jhangiani
and Tarry 2014).
Sometimes, there is a thin line between high self-esteem and narcissism and there are a lot of
tests and measurements for self-esteem like the Rosenberg scale but the issue is that the result can be
affected by the desire of the person to portray herself in a positive or advantageous way (Jhangiani and
Tarry 2014). In case you want to take a test and find a numerical value or level of your self-esteem, try
to be honest and objective about what You feel and see about yourself. And though self-esteem is a
very important concept related to the self, studies have shown that it only has a 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 is not, and should not be, the only source of a person’s healthy
perspective of herself.
People with high 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.
This duality in the behavior and attitudes only proves the above-mentioned correlation.
Beumeister, Smart, and Boden (1996) in their research on self-esteem concluded that programs,
activities, and parenting styles boost self-esteem should only be for rewarding good behavior and other
achievements and not for the purpose of merely trying to make children feel better about themselves or
to appease them when they get angry or sad.

APPLICATION
List ten things to boost your self-esteem or improve your self-concept. Cite your sources. Analyze which
of those tips are more likely to backfire and make someone conceited or narcissistic and revise them to
make the statements both helpful to the individual as well as society in general.

SELF-ASSESSMENT ACTIVITIES (SAA) SHEET

ACTIVITY

Part 1

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Part 2
I am
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________

ANALYSIS

APPLICATION
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

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 The Self as Cognitive Construct - Page 7 of 9

KEY POINTS

✓ " The "l" is the thinking, acting, and feeling self (Gleitman, Gross, and Reisberg 2011; Hogg and
Vaughan 2010).
✓ The "me" on the other hand, is the physical characteristics as well as psychological capabilities that
makes who you are (Gleitman, Gross, and Reisberg 2011; Hogg and Vaughan 2010). Carl Rogers’s
(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 fell about yourself as an object (Gleitman, Gross, and Reisberg 2011)
✓ Identity is composed of personal characteristics, social roles, and responsibilities, as well as affiliations
that define who one is (Oyserman, Elmore, and Smith 2012).
✓ Self. concept is what basically comes to your mind when you are asked about who you are (Oyserman,
Elmore, and Smith 2012).

END OF MODULE ASSESSMENT

Now that you have finished the review of the various concepts outlined above, it is now time for an
assessment to see how far you have improved. On every module’s “End of Module Assessment” (this
part), write your answers on separate sheet/s provided. (See separate sheets for the questions.)

LOOKING AHEAD
Congratulations for making it till the end of this module! If you aced the assessments, I am happy for you.
If you have not reached your desired level of competence, just keep going! Remember that an expert was
once a beginner. The next topic will deal on The Self in Western and Eastern Thoughts. Happy learning!
.

REFERENCES

Beilharz, Peter, and Trevor Hogan. 2002. Social Self, Global Culture:An Introduction to
Sociological Ideas. New York: Oxford University Press •
Chaffee, John. 2015. The Philosopher's Way: Thinking Critically About Pr0f0und Ideas. 5th Ed.
Boston: Pearson.
David, Randolph. 2002. Nation, Self, and Citizenship: An Invitation to Philippine
Sociology. Dept. of Sociology, College of Social ScienceS and Philosophy, University of the
Philippines,
Ganeri, Jonardon. 2012. The Self: Naturalism, Consciousness, and the First_ Person Stance. New
York: Oxford University Press.
Marsella, Anthony J., George A. De Vos, and Francis L. K. Hsu. 1985. Culture and Self: Asian
and Western Perspectives. Tavistock Publications.
Mead, George Herbert. 1934. Mind, Self, and Society: From the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

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 The Self as Cognitive Construct - Page 8 of 9

SELF AND MODULE EVALUATION

This part requires you to rate the quality of the module to help you continuously improve the development
of this learning module. This also asks you to rate your learning experience for each of the modules.
Rate the module using the following:
1- Strongly disagree
2- Disagree
3- Agree
4- Strongly agree

The learning module: 1 2 3 4

Please check appropriate column

was engaging
allowed for self-checking (SAAs)
developed in gradual, manageable steps
provided independent, self-paced learning
contained relevant information I needed

SELF-EVALUATION
Rate the extent of your learning in this module using the scale below. Check the column corresponding to
your rating in the space provided. Do not hesitate to contact me if you need further assistance.
4- I’m an expert. I understand and can teach a friend about it.
3-I’m a Practioner. I understand and can cite examples on the topics given.
2- I’m an apprentice. I understand if I get help or look at more examples.
1- I’m a novice. I do not understand the topic.

My learning: 1 2 3 4
I can now

Please check appropriate column

identify the different ideas in psychology about the "self';

create your own definition of the "self' based on the definitions from psychology;
and

analyze the effects of various factors identified in psychology in the formation of

the "self."

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 The Self as Cognitive Construct - Page 9 of 9

END OF MODULE ASSESSMENT (Answer Sheet)

sheeeSHeShShe
(Please do not forget to provide information on this part)
Name: _____________________________________________ Course& Year:_____________
Module Number and Title: ______________________________________________________
Contact number & email (if any):_______________________________
Date accomplished: ________________________

List 5 things to boost your self-esteem or improve your self-concept. Cite your sources. Analyze which of
those tips are more likely to backfire and make someone conceited or narcissistic and revise them to make
the statements both helpful to the individual as well as society in general.

1. ______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

2. ______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

3. ______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

4. ______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

5. ______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________

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