Understanding the Self

GE 9

CHAPTER I
DEFINING THE SELF: PERSONAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL PERSPECTIVE
ON SELF AND IDENTITY

LESSON III: THE SELF AS A COGNITIVE CONSTRUCT

Lesson Objectives:

1. Identify the different ideas in psychology about the “self”

2. Analyze the effects of various factors identified in psychology in the formation of the “self”
3. Create own definition of the “self” based on the definitions from psychology.

INTRODUCTION
There have been different definitions of self in the past lessons. Just like how various philosophers defined self, this
lesson will focus on how psychology sees self focusing, but is not limited to its cognitive functions.

Who do you think you are? How do you think others see you? We often say that, “I am who I am”. If so, then who
you are that makes you who you are? In psychology, self is defined as the sense of personal identity and who we
are as individuals (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 106). What then does cognitive construct has to do with this?
According to Jean Piaget, cognitive construct is when people construct their own understanding and
knowledge of the world through their experience and their reflections upon their experiences. In other words, our
sense of personal identity, can be achieve from constructing our own understanding of our experiences.

WILLIAM JAMES (1890)

 One of the earliest psychologist to study the self and conceptualized the self as having two aspects:
1. I – the thinking, acting, and feeling self.
2. Me – physical self or self characteristics as well as psychological capabilities that makes who you
are.

CARL ROGERS
 Also used the terms I and Me to define self.
1. I – the one who acts and decides
2. Me – what you think or feel about yourself as an object

Other concept similar to self:

1. IDENTITY – composed of personal characteristics, social roles, and responsibilities, as well as affiliations that
define who one is.
2. SELF-CONCEPT – it is what comes to your mind when asked who you are. It is your perception of who you are.
Example is believing you are a nice person because it what you are mentally picturing about
your “self”.

It is important to note that self, identity and self-concept are not fixed in a single time frame. But, they are not also
ever-changing at every moment. They change at a specific point in our lives depending on our perception.
Consider a malleable object, it can be bend and be reshape. The same with water which changes depending
on its container. The self, identity and self-concept can be compare to that.

Rogers captured this idea in his concept of self-schema or our organized system
Hobbies Family or collection of knowledge of who we are. It reflects how we expect ourselves to
think, feel and act in particular settings or situations.
Self
Schema is not limited to hobbies, family, nationality and religion. As a person grow
Nationality Religion and adapt to the changes around him/her, they also change. But, they actively
help and affect how you see, think and feel about things.

Theories generally, see self and identity as mental constructs, created and recreated in memory. Several
psychologists, followed this trend of thought, looking deeper into the mind of the person to theorize one’s
personality. The most influential of them is Sigmund Freud.

SIGMUND FREUD
 Human personality is complex and has more than a single component.
 Proposed the psychoanalytic theory of personality where he said that personality is composed of three
elements which are working systematically with each other.
1. Id
- the only component present at birth. It is the primitive and instinctive component of personality.
- It is impulsive which directly responds to basic urges, needs and desires.
 Understanding the Self
GE 9

- It operates on the pleasure principle, which is the idea that every wishful impulse should be
satisfied immediately regardless of the consequences.
- When it achieves its demands, we experience pleasure but when it is denied, we experience
‘unpleasure’ or tension.
Example: A hungry baby will cry until the need is satisfied.

2. Ego
- Responsible for dealing with reality.
- Operates based on reality principle, which strives to satisfy the id’s desires in realistic and socially
appropriate ways.
- In many cases, the id’s desires can be satisfied through delayed gratification – the ego will
eventually meet the desire but only in appropriate time and place.
- It also discharges tension brought by id’s unmet needs through secondary process thinking, in
which the ego tries to find object in the real world that matches the mental image created by
the id.
Example: Imagine sitting in your GE 9 class and feeling hungry at the same time. Your id, will
want you to excuse yourself and say you’ll go to the C.R. but then eventually go to
the canteen to satisfy your hunger. But instead of doing so, you remain in class
imagining eating siomai and hotdog. Once the class is over, you can eat the food
you were imagining, satisfying the need of your id in an appropriate and realistic
manner.

3. Superego
- Incorporates the values and morals of society which are learned from one’s parents and others.
- Control the id’s impulses which society forbids (sex and aggression)
- Persuades the ego to turn to moralistic goals rather than simply realistic to strive for perfection.
- Consists of two systems: conscience and ideal-self.

Another way of defining self is through social interaction. According to G. H. MEAD (1934), in his Theory of Symbolic
Interactionism, self is created and developed through human interaction. Here are the reasons why self and
identity are social products.
1. We do not create ourselves out of nothing. Society helps the foundation of who we are, even if we
make our own choices.
2. Whether we like to admit or not, we actually need others to affirm and reinforce who we think we
are. They serve 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.
Therefore, social interaction and group affiliation are vital factors in creating our self-concept. And when we are
aware of our self-concept, it is called self-awareness.

SELF-AWARENESS
 having a clear perspective of your personality, including strengths, weaknesses, thoughts, beliefs,
motivation and emotions
 allows you to understand other people, how they look at you, your attitude and your responses to them in
the moment
 Carver and Scheier identified two types of self that we can be aware of:
1. Private Self - internal standards and private thoughts and feelings
2. Public Self – public image commonly geared toward having good presentation of yourself to
others.
 Presents us with at least three other self schemas.
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
 Can be positive or negative depending on the circumstances and can even keep you from doing
something dangerous.
 Can lead to self-consciousness, where we are too much aware and concerned about being observed
and criticized by others.

There can also be times when we may experience DEINDIVUATION, or the loss of individual self-awareness and
individual accountability in groups. Example, when you are in a large crowd, or when you have a wide range of
social relationship you may lose your self-awareness. This can affect our self-esteem, or our own positive or
negative perception or evaluation of ourselves.
As said, social relationship can affect our self-esteem because comparison may exist. This is better explained in
the Social Comparison Theory

SOCIAL COMPARISON THEORY

 We learn about ourselves, the appropriateness of our behavior as well as our social status by comparing
aspects of ourselves with other people.
 Understanding the Self
GE 9

1. Downward Social Comparison – comparing ourselves with others who are worse off than us to
create a positive self-concept and raise self-esteem.
2. Upward Social Comparison – comparing ourselves with those who are better off than us.

SELF EVALUATION MAINTENANCE THEORY

 States that we can feel threatened when someone outperforms us especially when that person is close to
us.
 Reaction is usually in three ways:
1. We distance ourselves from that person or redefine our relationship with them
2. We may also reconsider the importance of the aspect or skill in which you were outperformed.
3. We may strengthen our resolve to improve that certain aspect of ourselves.

However, in an attempt to increase or maintain self-esteem, narcissism may result to some people.

NARCISSIM
 a trait characterized by overly high self-esteem, self-admiration, and self-centeredness.

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 Understanding the Self
GE 9

Name: __________________________________________ Date: _______________________

RN/Section: ______________________________________ Chapter: ____ Lesson: _______

ACTIVITY NO 3
The Self as a Cognitive Construct

General Directions
 Answer the following comprehensively based from what you understood. DO NOT COPY PASTE from
the lecture. Copy paste answers will only be given 1 point.
 Be mindful of spellings.
 You can have your answer in a form of picture or screenshot just make sure that it is readable but if
you can pass it in pdf form, please do so with your name and section as file name.
 The deadline will always be at 11:59 pm of the set date. For circumstances where you can’t pass it on
the given date, please coordinate with your leaders.
 For other questions regarding the course, please coordinate with me.
 Leaders can send me the compiled answers of their members through my g-mail,
[email protected], my facebook account or our private facebook group.

I. ME THROUGH MY EYES. Examined yourself. List 15 qualities that you think define who you are. (15pts)

II. ME THROUGH OTHERS’ EYES. Look for two (2) people that are not your family. Let them answer the question

Hello, I am (your name). Who do you think I am based on what you see me do or hear me say?

______________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________.

below.

III. ANALYSIS (15pts)

Who is your . . .

Actual Self Ought Self Ideal Self

IV. ABSTRACTION
1. What is the importance of society in developing our self-concept? (5pts)
2. What can the Social Comparison Theory benefit you positively?
3. How can too much self-awareness affect you negatively?

Note: Please submit on or before 11:59 pm of April 15, Wednesday.