GED 101 – UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

MIDTERMS
WEEK 1 opinions and choices.
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
WEEK 2
PERSONALITY THE SELF ACCORDING TO PHILOSOPHY
➢ The etymological derivative of personality comes
from the word “persona”, the theatrical masks worn PHILOSOPHY
by Romans in Greek and Latin drama. ➢ is defined as the study of knowledge or wisdom from
its Latin roots, philo (love) and sophia (wisdom).
➢ Personality also comes from the two Latin words
“per” and “sonare”, which literally means “to sound
through”. SOCRATES

• ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS OF PERSONALITY. are ➢ for him, a human is composed of body and soul, the
the surroundings of an individual including friends, first belongs to the physical realm because it
parents, colleagues, co-workers, and bosses changed, it is imperfect, and it dies, and the latter
wherein everybody plays a role as the determinants belongs to the ideal realm for it survives the death.
of personality.
PLATO
• BIOLOGICAL FACTORS OF PERSONALITY. include
hereditary factors or genetic make-up of the person ➢ is a student of Socrates, who introduced the idea of
that is inherited from their parents, physical a three-part soul/self that is composed of reason,
features include the overall physical structure of a physical appetite, and spirit or passion.
person: height, weight, color, sex, beauty and body
language, and brain. ST. AUGUSTINE
• SITUATIONAL FACTORS OF PERSONALITY. can be
commonly observed when a person behaves ➢ according to him, human nature is composed of two
contrastingly and exhibits different traits and realms: God as the source of all reality and truth.
characteristics. Through mystical experience, man is capable of
knowing eternal truths. The sinfulness of man. The
• CULTURAL FACTORS. are traditionally considered as
cause of sin or evil is an act of man’s freewill.
the major determinants of an individual’s
personality. The culture largely determines what a
RENE DESCARTES
person is and what a person will learn.
➢ a famous principle the “cogito, ergo sum—“I think,
therefore I exist” established his philosophical
PERSONALITY TRAIT views on “true knowledge” and the concept of self.
➢ reflect people’s characteristic patterns of thoughts, He explained that in order to gain true knowledge,
feelings, and behaviors. one must doubt everything even own existence.

FIVE-FACTOR MODEL OF PERSONALITY JOHN LOCKE

1. Openness is the tendency to appreciate new art, ➢ is an English philosopher and physician famous for
ideas, values, feelings, and behaviors. his concept of “Tabula Rasa” or Blank Slate which
2. Conscientiousness is the tendency to be careful, on- assumes the nurture side of human development.
time for appointments, to follow rules, and to be
hard working. DAVID HUME
3. Extraversion is the tendency to be talkative, ➢ his claim about self is quite controversial because he
sociable, and to enjoy others; the tendency to have assumed that there is no self! In his essay entitled,
a dominant style. “On Personal Identity” (1739) he said that, if we
4. Neuroticism is the tendency to frequently carefully examine the contents of [our] experience,
experience negative emotions such as anger, worry, we find that there are only two distinct entities,
and sadness, as well as being interpersonally "impressions" and "ideas".
sensitive.
5. Agreeableness is the tendency to agree and go
along with others rather than to assert one own
GED 101 – UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
MIDTERMS
SIGMUND FREUD WEEK 3
THE SELF ACCORDING TO SOCIOLOGY AND
• The dualistic view of self involves the conscious self
ANTHROPOLOGY
(reality principle) and unconscious self (pleasure
principle). Also, the Subconscious serves as the
repository of past experiences, repressed SOCIOLOGY
memories, fantasies, and urges. The three levels of • is the science that studies the development,
the mind are id (pleasure), ego (reality), and structure, interaction, and collective behavior of
superego (moral). human beings.

GILBERT RYLE ANTHROPOLOGY

• according to him, the self is best understood as a • is the study of humanity.

pattern of behavior, the tendency or disposition for
a person to behave in a certain way in certain GEORGE HERBERT MEAD
circumstances. • claimed that the self is something that undergoes
development because it is not present instantly at
IMMANUEL KANT birth. The self arises in the process of social
• maintained that an individual self makes the experience and activity as a result of their relations
experience of the world comprehensible because it to the said process as a whole and to other
is responsible for synthesizing the discreet data of individuals within that process. In other words, one
sense experience into a meaningful whole. If the self cannot experience their self alone, they need other
failed to do this synthesizing function, there would people to experience their self.
be a chaotic and insignificant collection of
sensations. He proposes the stages of self formation:

1. Preparatory Stage, children’s behaviors are

PATRICIA CHURCHLAND
primarily based on imitation. It was observed
• claimed that man’s brain is responsible for the that children imitate the behaviors of those
identity known as self. around them. At this stage, knowing and
understanding the symbols are important for this
PAUL CHURCHLAND will constitute their way of communicating with
others throughout their lives.
• is one of the many philosophers and psychologists 2. Play Stage, children begin to role-play and pretend
who viewed the self from a materialistic point of to be other people. It is at this stage that the child
view, contending that in the final analysis, mental widens his perspective and realizes that he is not
states are identical with, reducible to, or explainable alone and that there are others around him
in terms of physical brain states. whose presence he has to consider.
3. Game Stage, the child begins to consider several
MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY tasks and various types of relationships
simultaneously.
according to him, the division between the “mind” and
• In the generalized other, the person realizes that
the “body” is a product of confused thinking. The self is
people in society have cultural norms, beliefs, and
experienced as a unity in which the mental and physical values that are incorporated into each self. This
are seamlessly woven together. This unity is the realization forms the basis of how the person
primary experience of selves and one begins to doubt it evaluates themselves.
when an individual uses their minds to concoct abstract
notions of a separate mind and body. GEORG SIMMEL

➢ In contrast to Mead, he proposed that there is

something called human nature that is innate to the
individual. This human nature is intrinsic to the
individual like the natural inclination to religious
impulse or the gender differences. He also added
GED 101 – UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
MIDTERMS
that most of our social interactions are individual WILLIAM JAMES
motivations.
➢ made a clear distinction between ways of
FOUR SUBFIELDS OF ANTHROPOLOGY approaching the self – the knower (the pure or the I
– Self) and the known (the objective or the Me –
• Archeology. Focus on the study of the past and how Self).
it may have contributed to the present ways of how ➢ the function of the knower (I-Self) according to
people conduct their daily lives. James must be the agent of experience. The known
• Biological Anthropology. Focus on how the human (Me-Self) has three different but interrelated
body adapts to the different earth environments. aspects of empirical self (known today as self-
• Linguistic Anthropology. Focused on using language concept): the Me viewed as material, the Me viewed
as a means to discover a group’s manner of social as social, and the Me viewed as spiritual in nature.
interaction and their worldview.
• Cultural Anthropology. Focused on knowing what CARL ROGERS
makes one group’s manner of living forms an
➢ the person achieves a balance between their self-
essential part of the member’s personal and societal
concept (real-self) and ideal self. The ideal self is
identity.
defined as one’s view of self as one wishes to be.
CLIFFORD GEERTZ (1966)
MULTIPLE SELVES THEORY
➢ The analysis in his cultural study about the
➢ there are different aspects of the self that exist in an
description of self in Bali is that the Balinese person
individual. From here, we can say that the self is a
is extremely concerned not to present anything
whole consisting of parts, and these parts manifest
individual (distinguishing him or her from others) in
themselves when the need arises.
social life but to enact exclusively a culturally
prescribed role or mask.
• Unified being is essentially connected to
consciousness, awareness, and agency.
WEEK 4
THE SELF ACCORDING PSYCHOLOGY DONALD WINNICOTT

➢ was a pediatrician in London who studied

PSYCHOLOGY Psychoanalysis with Melanie Klein, a renowned
➢ is a scientific study of mental processes and human personality theorist and one of the pioneers in
behavior. object relations and the development of personality
in childhood.
According to the psychologist Dr. Bruce A. Bracken in
ALBERT BANDURA
1992, there are six specific domains that are related to
self-concept these are: ➢ His personality theory, The Social Cognitive Theory
asserts that a person is both proactive and agentic,
• the social domain or the ability of the person to
which means that we have the capacity to exercise
interact with others;
control over our life. This theory emphasizes that
• the competence domain or the ability to meet human beings are proactive, self-regulating, self-
the basic needs; reflective, and self-organizing.
• the affect domain or the awareness of the ➢ Self as proactive means an individual has control in
emotional states; any situation by making things happen.
• the physical domain or the feelings about looks, ➢ Agents assume some degree of ownership and
health, physical condition, and overall control over things, both internally (I control my
appearance; own thoughts) and externally (I make things
• academic domain or the success or failure in the happen in the environment).
school; and
• family domain or how well one functions within
the family unit.
GED 101 – UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
MIDTERMS
WEEK 5 MATURATION
THE SELF IN THE WESTERN AND ORIENTAL/EASTERN
➢ is known as the completion of growth of a genetic
THOUGHT
character within an organism or the unfolding of an
individual’s inherent traits or potential.
INDIVIDUALISM

➢ is the idea that the fundamental unit of the human

species that thinks, lives, and acts toward goals is • According to Santrock (2014), self-understanding is
the individual. This means that we can form our own the individual’s cognitive representation of self
independent judgments, act on our own thoughts, which consists of substance and the content of self-
and disagree with others. conceptions.
• Erik Erikson believed in the importance of the body
COLLECTIVISM
from early development because the physical, as
➢ is the idea that the fundamental unit of the human well as intellectual skills, will somehow serve as a
species that thinks, lives, and acts toward goals is basis for whether a person has achieved a sense of
not the individual, but some group. competence and is able to manage and face the
demands of life complexities.
CONFUCIUS PHILOSOPHY

➢ is known as humanistic social philosophy which FEMINIST PERSPECTIVE

focusses on human beings and the society in
➢ relies on the social construction in which individuals
general.
can experience their bodies in distorted ways
(especially, women). women’s dissatisfaction with
• Confucianism is centered on ren which can be their bodies is a systematic social phenomenon
manifested through the li (propriety), xiao (filiality), rather than a result of individual pathology
and yi (rightness). (McKinley, 2002).
• For Confucius, ren reflects the person’s own
understanding of humanity. INTROSPECTION
➢ Li the propriety. Rules of propriety should be
➢ is the process is the process by which one observes
followed to guide human actions. These rules
and examines one’s internal state (mental and
are the customs, ceremonies, and traditions
emotional) after behaving in a certain way.
that forms the basis of li.
SELF-PERCEPTION THEORY
➢ Xiao the filiality. This is the virtue of reverence
➢ explains that since one’s internal state is difficult to
and respect for the family. Parents should be
interpret, people can infer their inner states by
revered for the life they and given. Children
observing their own behavior – as if they are an
show respect to their parents by exerting efforts
outside observer.
to take care of themselves.
SELF-CONCEPT
➢ Yi the rightness. The right way of behaving
which is unconditional and absolute ➢ is a cognitive representation of self- knowledge
which includes the sum total of all beliefs that
people have about themselves.
WEEK 6 PERSONAL IDENTITY
THE PHYSICAL SELF: BODY IMAGE AND SELF ESTEEM ➢ is the concept a person has about himself that
develops over the years.
HEREDITY
THE LOOKING-GLASS THEORY
➢ is defined as the transmission of traits from parents
to offspring. ➢ Charles Horton Cooley stated that a person’s self
GENOTYPE grows out of society’s interpersonal interactions
and the perception of others. Therefore, in a
➢ refers to the specific information embedded within
looking- glass self, the self-image is shaped and
one’s genes; not all genotypes translate to an
reflected from the social world.
observed physical characteristic.
GED 101 – UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
MIDTERMS
WEEK 7
PHYSICAL SELF: THE PHYSICAL SELF: BODY IMAGE AND
SELF ESTEEM

BODY IMAGE

➢ is the mental representation one creates, but it

may or may not bear close relation to how others
actually see you.
SELF-ESTEEM

➢ is the overall evaluation that a person has of

himself which can be positive or negative, high or
low.

WEEK 8
THE SEXUAL SELF: BODY IMAGE AND SELF ESTEEM

SEXUAL SELFHOOD

➢ is defined as how one thinks about himself or

herself as a sexual individual. Human sexuality is a
topic that just like beauty is culturally diverse.

PUBERTY

➢ is the stage of physical maturation in which an

individual becomes physiologically capable of
sexual reproduction.