The Self From Various Perspective: Anthropology

The Self From
Various Perspective:
Anthropology
Meaning
 Anthropologist and professor, Katherine Ewing (1990), described the self as
encompassing the ‘physical organism, possessing psychological functioning
and social attributes.’
 Comprised of psychological, biological, and cultural processes.
 Self is illusory.
 People construct a series of self-representations that are based on selected
cultural concepts of person and selected chains of personal memories.
 Self-representation is culturally shaped self-concepts that one applies to
oneself; it is the mental entities that are supposed to represent the self.
 People from all cultures have been observed to be able to rapidly project
different self-representations, depending on the context of the situation.
The Self Embedded in Culture
Cultural anthropologists have argued that the self is culturally shaped
and infinitely variable.
“Cultural traditions and social practices regulate, express and
transform the human psyche, resulting less in psychic unity for
humankind than in ethnic divergences in mind, self and emotion”
(Schweder, 1991, p. 72).
The principles of how the mind works cannot be conceived of as

universal, but that it is as varied as the culture and traditions that
people practice all over the world.
Independent and Inter/dependent Construct
 Construal is an interpretation of the meaning of something.

 The independent construct is characteristics of individualistic culture,
such as in North America and Europe. Individualistic culture
represents the self as separate, distinct with emphasis on internal
attributes or traits, skills and values.
 The interdependent construct is typical of collectivist culture in East
Asia stressing the essential connection between the individual to
other people
The Self Embedded in Culture
Developmental psychologist Catherine Raeff (2010), believed that culture can influence
how you view: relationships, personality traits, achievement and expressing emotions.
 Relationship: Culture influences how you enter into and maintain relationships. For
example, relationship may be seen as voluntary or as duty-based. In Western societies,
it is essential for a person to choose whom to marry while some Eastern societies still
practice arranged marriage.
 Personality: Traits Culture influences whether (and how) you value traits, like humility,
self-esteem, politeness, assertiveness, and so on, as well as how you perceived
hardship or how you feel about relying on others.
 Achievement: Culture influences how you define success and whether you value
certain types of individual and group achievements.
 Expressing Emotions: Culture influences what will affect you emotionally, as well as
how you express yourself, such as showing your feelings in public or keeping it private.
The Self From
Various Perspective:
Psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of how people behave, think, and
feel. It includes topics, such as how the brain works, how our
memory is organized, how people interact in groups, and how
children learn about the world. In fact, everything that concerns
the human being is a concern of Psychology.
Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget
 Swiss Clinical Psychologist
 He pioneered the “Theory of Cognitive
Development,” a comprehensive theory about the
development of human intelligence.
 Cognitive development is a progressive
reorganization of a mental process resulting from
biological maturation and environmental
experience.
3 Basic Components to Piaget’s
Cognitive Theory
1. Schemas/Schemes – These are the building blocks of knowledge.
Schemes are mental organizations that individuals use to understand
their environments and designate action.
2. Adaptation – It involves the child’s learning processes to meet
situational demands.
1. Assimilation
2. Accommodation
3. Stages of Cognitive Development – They reflect the increasing
sophistication of the child’s thought process.
Stages of Cognitive Development

STAGE AGE CHARACTERISTIC OF STAGE

Sensorimotor 0-2 The child learns by doing; looking, touching, sucking. The child also has
a primitive understanding of cause-and-effect relationships. Object
permanence appears around 9 months.

Preoperational 2-7 The child uses language and symbols, including letters and numbers.
Egocentrism is also evident. Conservation marks the end of the
preoperational stage and the beginning of concrete operations.

Concrete Operations 7-11 The child demonstrates conservation, reversibility, serial ordering, and a
mature understanding of cause-and-effect relationship. Thinking at this
stage is still concrete.

Formal Operations 12+ The individual demonstrates abstract thinking at this stage is still
concrete.

Harter’s Self-Development Concept
Psychologist, author, and professor, Dr. Susan Harter (1999) detailed the emergence of self-
concept and asserted that the broad developmental changes observed across early childhood,
later childhood, adolescence could be interpreted within Piagetian framework.
 Early Childhood – The child describes the “self” in terms of concrete, observable
characteristics, such as physical attributes, material possessions, behaviors, and preferences.
 Middle to Later Childhood – The self is described in terms of trait like constructs (e.g.,
smart, honest, friendly, shy) that would require the type of hierarchical organizational skills
characteristics of logical thought development.
 Adolescence – According to Harter, this is the emergence of more abstract self – definitions,
such as inner thoughts, emotions, attitudes, and motives. The use of the abstract words
sensitive, outgoing, cheerful, and anxious as a self-portrait is consistent with Piaget’s findings
on the adolescent’s ability to construct higher-order abstraction and the capacity for
introspection
 Emerging Adults – The marked characteristic of “self” for emerging adults is having a vision
of a “possible self.” It is the “age of possibilities”
William James
• Philosopher, Psychologist, and University
Professor
• The Father of American Psychology
• William James gave one of the earliest self-
theory psychological analyses. According to
James (1950), the “self” has two elements; the I
– Self and the Me – Self.
I-self
I – Self is the pure ego. It is the “self” that is aware of its own actions. The I-Self
characteristically has four features. These are:
1. A sense of being the agent or initiator of behavior. I believe my actions have an
impact; that I cause an effect in my environment.
2. A sense of being unique. This is how I am different from everything in my
environment; I perceive there is only one Me.
3. A sense of continuity. I am the same person from day to day
4. A sense of awareness about being aware. I understand what is going on in me and
around me; and I know I understand it.
Me-self
The Me-Self is the self that is the object. It is the “self” that you can describe, such as your
physical characteristics, personalities, social role, or relationships, thoughts. James called it the
empirical self. Empirical is defined as “based on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation or
experience rather than theory or pure logic.”
The dimensions of the me-self include:
1. Material – physical appearance and extensions of it such as clothing, immediate family, and
home;
2. Social – social skills and significant interpersonal relationships; and
3. Spiritual – personality, character, defining values.
Personality development and the
self-concept
 All behavior is motivated by self-actualizing tendencies and these tendencies drives you to
reach your full potential.
 The constant interaction with the environment and others, an individual forms a structure of the
self or self-concept an organized, fluid, conceptual pattern of concepts and values related to the
self.
 If the person holds a positive self-concept, he or she would tend to feel good about himself or
herself, and would generally see the world as a safe and positive place.
 If the person holds a negative self-concept, the he or she may feel unhappy with who he/she is

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The Self From

The principles of how the mind works cannot be conceived of as

 Construal is an interpretation of the meaning of something.

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