UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

CHAPTER 1
Lesson 1 THE PARADIGM OF THE OLD

THE SOPHIST

• They were teachers of the Greek era of antiquity.

• They taught rhetoric, music, arithmetic, and physical training.

PROTAGORAS

• supported the sophistic thought.

• “Man is the measure of all things.”
o Man – “Humankind”
▪ When we investigate the world, standards and values are dictated by
humans.
▪ Gold is more valuable than bread because we see shimmering stones
more important than life giving bread. Wealth is seen as an ideal to chase
rather than being contented with what we have.
o Man – “I”
▪ I am the measure of all things; this embodies the selfish and self-centered
desire to be the meter stick of what is good.
▪ Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, I am the standard, what is good for
me may not be good for you.

THRASYMACHUS

• In society, justice is nothing but the advantage of the strong; “Might is right”.
• Society always favors the people with power and influence, despite claiming everyone is
equal.

PLATO

• He believed humankind is composed of a body and a soul, but humans are souls
imprisoned in a body.
o Soul and the body are not equal.
o Perfect soul imprisoned in the imperfect body, slaves to the body’s desires.
o Charioteer is the best image of a human with a black horse and the white horse.
▪ A charioteer is a human’s ability to think and to rationalize our actions. It
is human reason in which without this as guidance will drive us to
endangerment.
▪ Black horse symbolizes appetite and craving.
▪ White horse symbolizes passions.
 ▪ To be successful, the charioteer must be in harmony with the horses.
▪ To survive, we need to feed ourselves and be passionate about what we
pursue.
▪ The body is our need for manifestation of success.
o He believed that the reason was the guiding light but without the energy of the
horses, the chariot can never reach its destination.

ARISTOTLE

• A student of Plato
• Disagreed to perfect soul and imperfect body.
• The body and soul are equals and have function to humanity.
o The body functions as an extension in this world and not everything with a body
has a soul.
• Three types of souls:
o Vegetative soul
▪ Found in plants.
▪ Growth, nutrition, and reproduction as functions
o Sentient soul
▪ Movement
▪ External and internal senses
▪ Memory, imagination, common sense
▪ Best applicable for a child
o Rational Soul
▪ The ability to think and rationalize.

Hierarchy of Souls
Vegetative < Sentient < Rational

EPICURUS

• Threw away the idea of soul and body.

• We focus on the NOW, for which now what we have is a body.
• The body feels pain and pleasure.
o Pursue pleasure for it is good.
o Avoid pain for it is bad.
o Idea of moderation, not hedonism
▪ Fulfill happiness with moderation.
▪ Too much pursuit of pleasure and too much fear of pain give negative
effects to us.
▪ Embrace pain and limit pleasure.
STOICS

• Believe we do not control anything.

o The world is like a river that flows freely. It has its purpose and reason to how it
flows and where it goes.
• Feeling about experience depends on the human.
o We can only control our reaction and perspectives.
• What will happen will happen.
 Lesson 2 THE MODERN SPARK

FRANCIS BACON

• Humans are full of prejudices, but in his philosophy, prejudices are seen through
different spectrums.
• The Idols of the Mind
o Idols of the Cave
▪ Serve as our personal biases,
▪ Such as, likes, dislikes, favorites.
o Idols of the Tribe
▪ Biases from our tribe, community, or family.
▪ Things you like due to your upbringing.
▪ How adobo is done by your preference; dry or has some soup.
o Idols of the Marketplace
▪ Biases acquired through language and interaction.
▪ The meaning of “pangit” to oneself.
▪ The meaning of interactions to oneself.
o Idols of the Theater
▪ Biases from systems such as, education, religions, dogmas, and principles.
▪ Knowledge acquired from these systems or beliefs.
• Values change because of biases, and importance is altered due to prejudices.

SOREN KIERKEGAARD

• Stages of Life
o Aesthetic Stage
▪ Importance is what is good that is pleasurable.
▪ Self-centered
▪ Emphasis of “I”
o Ethical Stage
▪ Responsibility toward others
▪ Importance of the “We”
▪ Reciprocation of feeling of concern
▪ A person who considers social relations
o Religious Stage
▪ Selfless stage
▪ Putting oneself on the line for the sake of others
▪ Instrument to someone else’s success and happiness.

FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

• Types of Humans
o The Sheep
 ▪ Follower
▪ Love conformity, comfort, routines, safety
▪ Their identity is merely a reflection of others.
o The Camel
▪ Follower
▪ Love conformities of society
▪ Does not like comfort
▪ Pushes itself to the limits and its best of abilities to achieve its goal.
▪ These achievements are driven by what it follows and its conformities.
▪ Carrier of burden
▪ Hardworking and excellent
o The Lion
▪ Reactive
▪ Strong commentator of the cage
▪ It challenges conformities offered.
▪ Does not have any principles.
o The Child
▪ Is not blinded by conformities.
▪ Capable of building and owning its own principles in life
▪ Manifestation of independence
▪ It’s driven to make itself accountable for the principles that it makes,
follows, and believes in
▪ Will not conform.
▪ Willing to change principles if they do not help it.

MARTIN HEIDEGGER

• Saw human go through so many things in life.

• When born, humans are thrown into the world for it is unable to choose where or who
we will be born.
• Incapable of choosing a living condition or circumstances
o Do not feel “at home.”
• Being in the world and is geared towards death.
• The difference between each person is how we take our own journeys.
• Uncanny and uncertainty of doing and going.
• Angst or existential anxiety
o Ambiguity
o Loss of grip of identity
o Uneasiness
▪ Dasman
• A person consumed by the ambiguity of life.
▪ Dasein
▪ A person who discovers authenticity of who they are
o The feeling of angst can only be solved by entertaining the feeling of angst.
• “Everydayness” is embodied to everyday routines, activities, work, etc.
 Lesson 3 THE MILLENNIAL TURN

ALBERT CAMUS

• Sees life not beautiful but absurd.

• Life is meaningless and pointless.
• Often solutions to absurdity, or escape absurdity:
o Suicide
▪ Killing oneself means absurdity also ends.
o Belief in a Religion
▪ Belief in afterlife
• Real solution to absurdity
o The road Sisyphus took.
▪ Sisyphus is an absurd hero.
▪ Cursed man to roll a boulder to the top of a mountain and yet was happy
with his circumstance.
o The goal a person must attain.
o The solution is to accept absurdity.
VIKTOR FRANKL

• Life is Suffering
• Find meaning of life.
• Principle
o Do a deed in life.
▪ Life has meaning under any circumstances.
• Seeing people help someone in need reminds us that the world is
not bad after all.
▪ Our main motivation for living is our search for meaning.
• Experience something or encounter someone.
▪ We have the freedom to find meaning in what we do, and wat we
experience.
• Attitude in the search for meaning.
ERICH FROMM

• Love
• If love is art, it requires knowledge and effort.
• People have peculiar attitudes toward love.
o Being loved rather than to love
▪ Results to improve one’s appearance to be lovable.
o Finding someone to love rather than how to love.
o Feeling of falling in love rather than the capability to being in love.
▪ Those “kilig” moments
• Love is an art we can master, in which we need effort and knowledge to do so.
 Lesson 4 THE EASTERN AND WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

EASTERN AND WESTERN SOCIETIES

• Differences in culture, religion, and the way of life

• These differences create clouded judgments in understanding others and us.
MAIN SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

• The tenets of eastern philosophy

o Buddhism
o Confucianism
o Hinduism
o Islam
o Taoism
▪ These are considered as a philosophy rather than religion as they provide
principles to understand oneself and how we live in it.
• The main schools of thought for western philosophy.
o Christianity
o Rationalism
o Scientific revolution
o Logical Thinking
PRECEPTS ABOUT THE WORLD

• Eastern philosophy
o Cosmological unity
▪ Life is a journey towards eternal realities that are beyond the realities that
surround us.
o Eastern thought believed we are purely a member to the tapestry of the world we
live in and not to command nor control the world but be harmonious with it.
o Not an isolated entity
• Western philosophy
o Linear view of the universe and life
▪ Everything has its beginning and end.
▪ Life starts with existence and will end by death.
o The world is an organism where we can learn and master.
o Science is seen as laws and principles we try to maximize and familiarize
ourselves for a better human life.
o Human beings are on a constant journey.
o It is more focused on individual events rather than the role of the person in the
said journey.
PRECEPTS ABOUT THE SELF

• Eastern Philosophy
o This paradigm looks at inner-world independence.
▪ Self-liberation from the false “Me” and finding the true “Me.”
 • The true “Me” is believed to be a state of ‘no-self’, where neither
self-worth nor self-importance has any real meaning where one is
searching inside oneself by becoming a part of the universe.
• It also believed all events in the universe are interconnected; the
future is determined by a person’s deeds today. Hence, human
beings are an integral part of the universe and society where
collectivism and the duty towards all others are very important.
▪ The inner world of humans and their ability to control and develop it are
of the highest value and we undergo constant self-development.
• Western Philosophy
o This paradigm looks at the Outer world dependence.
▪ Self-dedication to the goal that is the life vision, success, and happiness.
▪ The “Me” is the here and now.
o The true “Me” is a part of the Divine that needs to
become apparent.
o It is given and does not have to be cognizable.
o The feeling of oneself as an element of the Divine, and
that life is a service of God, money, business, etc.
▪ Main values are:
• Success
• Achievement
o Have an external nature such as:
▪ Money
▪ Faith
▪ Popularity
▪ Rarely is the development of one’s inner strength.
o Individualistic nature and is an independent part of the universe and the society
where individualism and materialistic nature are stronger.
MATTERS OF CULTURE
• Eastern Paradigm
o Focused more on collective responsibility of everyone in adherence to the
collective norms agreed upon by the society and in return becomes the basis for
collective interest.
o The latter is reflective of the easterners’ living principle that highlights virtue
above all.
▪ E.g., The Golden Rule and Non-violent Communication
o Focused on spirituality and control over emotions through meditation.
• Western Paradigm
o Posits individual self-interest and values competition towards individual growth
that highlights westerners living principles that rely on ethics.
▪ E.g., being career-driven and the principle of self-cultivation.
o Search outside thyself through research and analysis giving importance on the
idea that our future is unknown and that it was predetermined by God and is
much influenced by deeds.
 Lesson 5 THE SELF AS EMBEDDED IN CULTURE

CULTURE
The total way of life of a particular group of people.
SELF
Our identity is our beliefs about ourselves and others, which are influenced by our
culture.

CULTURAL FORCES SHAPING THE SELF

• Language
o It is a system of symbols that allow members of society to communicate with one
another.
o Communication, conversation, collaboration, and co-creation
• Symbols
o Anything that carries a particular meaning recognized by people who share
culture.
• Values
o Culturally defined standards of desirability, goodness, and beauty that serve as
broad guidelines for social living.
o Values are abstract standards of goodness.
o Competence, service, uprightness, honesty, respect, ethics, integrity.
• Beliefs
o Specific statements that people hold to be true.
o Examples:
▪ A belief that family is of fundamental importance.
▪ A belief in maintaining a healthy and well-balanced life.
o Beliefs are matters that individuals consider to be true or false.
• Norms
o They are rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its
members.
▪ Proscriptive
• What we should not do.
▪ Prescriptive
• What we should do.
• Mores
o Refer to a society’s standards of proper moral conduct.
o They tell us what is right or wrong, appropriate, or inappropriate.
o Distinguish right from wrong.
o Example:
▪ Mores say that the husband should not beat, slap, or batter his wife.
▪ Wearing a bikini in the church would not be expected and is socially not
accepted.
• Folkways
o Refer to a society’s customs for routine, and casual interactions.
o Have less moral significance than mores.
o Draw a line between right and rude.
o Example:
▪ Folkways say that it is rude for a couple to fight or quarrel in public.
 Lesson 6 THE SELF AS A PRODUCT OF MODERN SOCIETY AMONG OTHER
CONSTRUCTIONS

GEORGE HERBERT MEAD

Theory: Symbolic Interactionism
I and Me

• Me
o Generalized others.
o Refers to the meanings, roles, and values of others that an individual organizes as
part of their own self.
• I
o It is the immediate response of an individual to others.
o Refers to the part of the self that is identified as having freedom of creativity.
Symbolic Interactionism

• In interaction there are symbols.

• Symbols
o Are the perceived meaning from interactions may it be from words or gestures.
o Examples:
▪ Rules
▪ Authority
▪ Roles
▪ Cate
▪ Love
▪ Functions
▪ Affection
▪ Impose
▪ Implore
▪ Angst
▪ Etc.
o Mead’s discussion that Social Interactions affect the development of the self or what
he calls the “Social Self.”
Premises of Symbolic Interactionism

• Meaning
o Element of the human existence, we live in the symbolic domain. Every symbol
has meaning.
• Socialization
o People identify and shape their symbolic references through this premise.
• Behaviors
o Are learned processes, a cultural dimension exist that connects the symbolic
educational development.
• Man, as capable of having the idea of a self.
 • It converts the human being into a special kind of actor.
• This transforms his relationship to the world and gives his actions a distinct character.
• A human being is an object to himself.
• This means that:
o A human being may perceive himself.
o Communicate with himself; and
o Act toward himself.
As these types of behavior imply, the person may become the object of his own
action.
Significant Symbol

• A vocal or other kind of gesture that arouses in the one using it, the same response as it
arouses to those whom it is directed.
• Human beings interact with one another based on meanings.
Symbolic Interaction and Institutions

• Family
o Symbolic interactionists argue that shared activities help to build emotional
bonds, and that marriage and family relationships are based on negotiated
meanings.
• Religion
o The cross, Star of David, and the crescent and star are symbols of Islam,
Christianity, and Judaism, respectively.
Types of Signs

• Signs - Something that stands for something else.

o Natural Signs
▪ Found only in “natural” connection with the things for which they
stand.
▪ Example:
• Smoke is a sign of fire.
o Conventional signs
▪ Thing or event associated with other thing or event. Produced and
controlled by the very organism that has learned to respond to it.
▪ Example:
• Human language

CHARLES HORTON COOLEY

Theory: The Looking Glass Self

• People who dwell in conformity can barely get rid of the impression that the way we
live in which we are used to is normal.
• Suggests that the self-feeling and social feeling be abreast with each other and be put into
harmony.
 • Comment about harmonizing self-feeling emphasized that people should examine
responsibility of effects of their actions on others.
• “If there’s no communication, there can be no nomenclature and no developed
thought.”
• A social self of this kind might be called the reflected of looking glass self: “Each to each
a looking glass – reflects the other that doth pass.”
Three Principal Elements of Looking Glass Self

• Thus, the looking glass self of Colley emphasize a self-idea have three principal elements:
1. The imagination of our appearance to another person.
2. The imagination of his judgment to that appearance.
3. Some sort of self-feeling such as pride or mortification.
• The thing that dictates us to pride or shame is not the mere mechanical reflection of
ourselves, but an attributed sentiment, the imagined effect of his reflection upon other’s
mind.
o Best examples are:
▪ We are ashamed to seem evasive in the presence of a straightforward
man.
▪ Cowardly in the presence of a brave one; and
▪ Gross in the eyes of a refined one and so on.
• We always imagine and in imagining shares the judgments of “Each to each a looking
glass – reflects the other that doth pass.”

ERVING GOFFMAN
Theory: Dramaturgy

• The general concept that we make a presentation of ourselves to others is hardly a

novel.
• What ought to be emphasized in conclusion is that the very structure of the self can be
seen in terms of how we arrange for such performances in society.
• Goffman presents a theory that likens social interaction to the theater. Individuals can be
seen as performers, audience members, and outsiders that operate within “stages” or
social spaces.
Performer and Character

• Performer
o A harried fabricator of impressions involved in all human task of staging
performance.
• Character
o A figure, typically a fine one, whose spirit, strength, and other sterling qualities
the performers were designed to evoke.
Impression Management
 • Which is a conscious decision on the part of the individual to reveal certain aspects
of the self and to conceal others, as actors do when performing on stage.
Dramatic Realization

• Emphasizes that while in the presence of others, the individual typically infuses his
activity with signs which dramatically highlight and portray confirmatory facts that
might otherwise remain unapparent or obscure.
1. The expressions we give:
a. Primarily the things we say.
b. The intentional poses, facial expressions (smiles, surprise, etc.).
c. Other controlled body language we emit.
2. The expressions we give off, which are:
a. The elements of our expressiveness over which we have less control.
b. The inconsistencies between what we say and what we do.
c. The body language which “gives us away” in some situations.
Self-Presentation Motives
1. Achieve personal goals.
2. Present a consistent and positive view of ourselves to the world.
3. Conform to social norms.
Social Settings

• Front Stage
o The behavior is observed.
o When individuals are aware that others are watching.
o Behavior is reflected with the set norms in each setting.
• Back Stage
o Individuals are free from the expectations and norms that influences
behavior.
o People are more comfortable and often associated with “true self.”
CHAPTER 2
Lesson 7 THE ME AND I SELF

William James

• Born on January 11, 1842, in New York City, New York

• He died on August 27, 1910, at 68 years.
• An American Philosopher and psychologist who first offered psychology courses in the
United States in 1875 at Harvard University, Department of Psychology.
• Father of American Psychology.
• One of the popular proponents of the school functionalism in psychology and
pragmatism in philosophy.
THE ME AND I SELF

• Formulation: Self is that which I can call mine.

• Summary of the theory of the self as:
• “One duality”
o “I” and “Me”
• “Two trichotomies”
o “History of me”
o “Constituents of me”
• Human individuals have the capacity for being a thinking subject and the object of
their thinking at the same time.
Duality of the Self

• The self as the knower or the “I”

o The “I” is the thinking subject.
o Both conscious of their environment and self-conscious of their own existence.
▪ The continuous “stream of consciousness” inside an individual
constitutes the “I”.
▪ The “I”, does the thinking and makes awareness and self-awareness
possible.
o The self as known or the “Me”
▪ Individuals turn themselves into a “Me” when they make themselves the
object of their own thinking.
▪ The “Me” self is divided into three temporal segments according to the
history of its evolvement:
• Constituents of me
• Self-feelings
• Self-seeking
Empirical “Me”

• The Material Self

 o Consists of one’s body, clothes, family, home, and other possessions that one
values and regards as one’s own.
o Among all those things, one’s body is the core of one’s material self, which one
calls “me”, and the rest of it one calls “mine”.
• The Social Self
o Consists of one’s images in the minds of others, which makes up one’s
reputation in society.
o Social self refers to how we are regarded and recognized by others.
o The essence of the “social self” is the recognition we tend to get from friends,
family, workmates, relatives, and others. Hence it is our innate tendency to get
ourselves noticed favorably by others.
• The Spiritual Self
o It includes one’s psychological faculties and dispositions, as well as one’s
thoughts, beliefs, and feelings.
o These psychic dispositions are the most enduring and intimate part of the self.
• Hierarchy of the three subcomponents:
o Spiritual self > social self > material self
Trichotomies
History of “Me”

• (1) Constituents of the “Me”

o It refers to an individual’s empirical existence in the world.
• (2) Self-feelings
o It refers to the feelings and emotions that are aroused in the individual by one’s
knowledge and appraisal of one’s empirical existence in the world.
• (3) Self-seeking
o It refers to an individual’s effort to preserve and better oneself based on one’s
self-knowledge and resulting self-feelings.
 Lesson 8 THE DIFFERENTIATED SELF

MURRAY BOWEN

• Was born on January 31, 1913, in Waverly, Tennessee to a family that had been in
Middle Tennessee since the Revolution.
• Died of lung cancer on October 9, 1990.
• An American psychiatrist and professor in psychiatry at Georgetown University.
• Pioneered on a family work and a noted founder of systemic therapy.
• Developed the family systems theory and the concept of “differentiation of self” as basis
of a systems understanding of maturity.
THE DIFFERENTIATED SELF

• Concept
o Differentiation of self refers to the degree to which one can balance in terms of:
▪ Emotional and intellectual functioning and
▪ Intimacy and autonomy in relationship.
• Intrapsychic Level
o Differentiation refers to the ability to distinguish thoughts from feelings and to
choose between being guided by one’s intellect or one’s emotions.
▪ Greater Differentiation/Highly Differentiated
• Shift to calm, logical reasoning when circumstances dictate.
• Flexible, adaptable, and better able to cope with stress, more
differentiated individuals operate equally well on both emotional
and rational levels.
▪ Poorly Differentiated/Highly Fused
• Emotionally reactive.
• Difficult to remain calm.
• Make decisions based on what “feels” right; in short, they are
trapped in an emotional world.
• Interpersonal Level
o Differentiation refers to the ability to experience intimacy with and independence
from others.
o More differentiated persons are capable of taking an “I position” in
relationships:
▪ Maintaining a clearly defined sense of self and thoughtfully adhering to
personal convictions when pressured by others to do otherwise.
o Differentiation allows for flexible boundaries that permit emotional intimacy and
physical union with another without a fear of merger.
o When overwhelmed by emotionality in their family relationships, poorly
differentiated individuals tend to engage in infusion or emotional cutoff.
▪ If Highly Differentiated
• The individual has an autonomous intellectual system that can
keep control over their emotional system.
• Responds better to life’s stresses.
 • Adequate thinking controls emotionality, but still allows humans
emotions.
• Allows both the intellectual and emotional systems to function
appropriately.
• Self is called solid self.
o Know what your needs and desires are.
o Maintains your individuality and does not merge.
o Have beliefs, opinions, convictions, and life principles.
o May belong to the same groups but is aware of the
contradictions and rationally choose to belong.
• Characteristics
o Reactive emotional distancer.
o Appear aloof and isolated from others.
o Tend to deny the importance of family.
o Often boasts their freedom of family.
o Display an exaggerated façade of independence.
▪ If Highly Fused/Poorly Differentiated
• Referring to people who are undifferentiated.
• The individual functions automatically and responds emotionally
to life situations.
• It lets the emotional system take control of all actions.
• Self is called pseudo self.
o React to those around you.
o In an unhealthy relationship, two pseudo selves come
together and fuse into each other, one person losing and
the other person gaining self.
o Operated by rules, customs, and expectations and does
not know what it truly believes.
o Product of emotional pressure and every group in society
exerts pressure on its members to conform.
o May belong to groups with conflicting ideas but does not
know why it feels uneasy, unaware of its own beliefs.
• Characteristics
o They’re either dogmatic or compliant.
o They have a few firmly held convictions and beliefs.
o They seek acceptance and approval above all other goals.
o They remain emotionally “stuck” in the position they
occupied in their families of origin.
 Lesson 9 THE REAL SELF AND IDEAL SELF

CARL ROGERS (1959)

• People are driven by an innate tendency to actualize, maintain, and enhance the self.
SELF-ACTUALIZE

• It is a basic motive.
• To fulfill one’s potential and achieve the highest level of our ‘human-beingness’.
• Part of a larger actualization tendency.
• Actualization Tendency
o Is the basic human motivation to actualize, maintain, and enhance the self, which
encompasses all physiological and psychological needs.
o Serves to maintain the organism providing sustenance and survival.
o Full human growth and development are neither automatic nor effortless.
Organismic Valuing Process

• An instinct directing you toward the most fulfilling pursuits.

• Experiences in terms of their value for fostering or hindering your actualization and
growth are being judged.
• Life experiences are also evaluated.
Experiential World

• Experiential world enlarges due to agitation by the actualizing tendency.

• Provides you with a frame of reference or context that influences your growth and
behavior.
• Also known as subjective world of the individual.
• This process is known as phenomenology.
• Phenomenal Field

• “Experience is for me, the highest authority. The touchstone of validity is my own
experience.”
Dissociation

• Being disconnected from one’s true self, and when this happens, the actualizing tendency
may deviate into behaviors that do not lead to actualization.
• The “self” that one forms may be at variance with real experience.
THE THREE COMPONENTS OF “SELF-CONCEPT”

• It embodies the answer to the question “Who am I?”

a. Self-Image
b. Self-Esteem
c. Ideal Self
• A wide gap between the ideal self and other components of the self-concept.
o What your parents taught you
o What you admire in others
o What your society promotes
o What you this is in your best interest.
• Congruence
o Self-image and ideal-self overlap greatly.
o Self-actualization will be easy.
• Incongruence
o Self-image and ideal self only overlap slightly.
o Self-actualization will be difficult.
 Lesson 10 THE SELF BASED ON THE HUMAN AGENCY THEORY

Albert Bandura

• An agentic perspective emerges in Bandura’s socio-cognitive view of personality.

• From the traditional behavioral viewpoint, the behavior is shaped by environmental
pressures and principles of reinforcement.
PARADIGM SHIFT
Traditional Perspective New Perspective
Human behaviors are not merely controlled Humans are agents or originators of
automatically and mechanically by experiences.
environmental forces.

Influences on behaviors are simply going in Humans are more than reactive organisms.
one direction.

• Through progress and fruition of experiences:

o Comprehend
o Predict
o Alters the courses of events.
• Through cognitive self-regulation:
o Humans can create visualized futures that act on the present.
o Construct, evaluate, and modify the alternative course of action to secure valued
outcome.
HUMAN AGENCY
o Refers to human capability to influence one’s functioning and the course of its
events in life.
FOUR CORE PROPERTIES OF HUMAN AGENCY
1. Intentionality
➢ As planners
➢ It is a representation of a future course of action.
➢ It also enables people to behave purposefully.
➢ Behavior and response are being carried out purposefully because of intention.
➢ According to Bratman, human agency tends to search and tap other participating
agents, to seek help in order to carry out our intention and/or self-interest.
➢ Collective Endeavors that are guided by collective intentionality.
o Commitment to a shared intention.
o Coordination of interdependent plans of actions to realize it.
2. Forethought
➢ As for forethinkers and anticipators
➢ Forethought anticipates outcomes.
➢ It is the temporal extension of an agency, which includes more than future-
directed plans.
 ➢ A future cannot be a cause of current behavior because it has no material
existence. But through cognitive representation, visualized futures are brought
into the present as current guides and motivators of behavior.
3. Self-Reactiveness
➢ As self-regulators
➢ Allows us to motivate and regulate actions, behaving in ways that give us
satisfaction, and avoiding behaviors that bring self-censure.
➢ Individuals can construct appropriate courses of action and to motivate and
regulate its execution.
4. Self-Reflectiveness
➢ As self-examiners
➢ Gives the ability to reflect on thoughts and behaviors and make changes as
needed.
➢ Metacognition
o The most distinctly human core property of agency.
o To reflect oneself and the adequacy of one’s thoughts and actions.
TRIADIC RECIPROCAL CAUSATION

• This system assumes that human action is a product of a reciprocal interplay of these
three variables:
o Person
▪ Internal Competencies, Cognitive, Emotional & Physical
o Behavior
▪ Actions & Decisions
o Environment
▪ External Spaces, Laws, Objects
PROACTIVE

• Part of our Human Agency

• It means people are not just onlooking hosts of subpersonal networks autonomously
creating and regulating their performances.
• The self on being agentic becomes an agent of experiences.
• Proactive Behaviors
o Identify an anticipatory element involving acting in advance of a future situation.
o Taking control and causing change of the situation.
SOCIOCOGNITIVE VIEWPOINT OF BANDURA

• AGENTIC
• PROACTIVE
SELF

• Self-organizing
• Not just reactive organism merely shaped by its environment.
• Self-regulating