Understanding The Self

(Gen Ed 1)
 CHAPTER 1:
DEFINING THE SELF:
PERSONAL AND
DEVELOPMENTAL
PERSPECTIVE ON SELF
AND IDENTITY
MS. JOY CANIETE BERMUDEZ, LPT, MAED-GC,RGC
Instructor
 𖤓 The first philosopher who ever engaged in
the systematic questioning about the self.

𖤓 To Socrates, and this has become his life-

long mission, the true task of philosopher
is to know oneself.

𖤓 The goal of philosophy is to KNOW

THYSELF.

SOCRATES “An unexamined life is not worth living.” 3

 𖤓 Affirmed that the dialogs of Socrates
is true.

𖤓 In his magnum opus, “The Republic”

Plato added that there are three
components of soul:
 Rational Soul
 Spirited Soul

PLATO  Appetitive Soul

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 𖤓 For St. Augustine, it is only possible
to understand who a person is when
they have understood how they
stand in relation to God.

𖤓 The body is bound to die on earth

and the soul is to anticipate living
eternally in a realm of spiritual bliss
ST. AUGUSTINE
in communion with God.
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 𖤓 According to St. Thomas Aquinas,
our self knowledge is dependent on
our experience of the world around
us.

𖤓 What makes a human person a

human person is his SOUL.

ST. THOMAS
AQUINAS 6
 𖤓 “Cogito ergo sum”

𖤓 Known for his Methodic doubt

𖤓 The only thing that one cannot doubt

is the existence of self

RENE
DESCARTES 7
 𖤓 The SELF is not just what gives one
his personality.

𖤓 Self is the seat of knowledge

acquisition for all human person.

IMMANUEL KANT 8
 𖤓 For Ryle, what truly matters is the
behavior that a person manifests in
his day-to-day life.

𖤓 For Ryle, looking for and trying to

understand a self as it really exists is
like visiting your friend’s university
and looking for the “university”.
GILBERT
RYLE 9
 Lesson 2:
The Self, Society and Culture

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 What is SELF ?
Self is commonly defined by the
following characteristics:

 UNITARY- it is the center of all experiences and

thoughts that run through a certain person.

 PRIVATE-Each person sorts out information,

feelings and emotions, and thought process
within the self.
 SEPARATE- self is distinct from other selves.
The self is always unique and has its own
identity.

 SELF- CONTAIN and INDEPENDENT- because

in it self it can exist. Its distinctness allows it to
be self-contained with its own thought,
characteristic and volition.

 CONSISTENT- it has personality that is enduring

and therefore can be persistent for quite some
time.
The SELF is always in participation with
social life and its identity is subjected
to influences here and there. Having
these perspectives considered should
draw one into concluding that the self
is truly MULTIFACETED.
 The Self and Culture
According to Marcel Mauss,
every self has two faces: Personne and Moi.

MOI
- refers to a person’s sense of who he is, his body, his identity and
biological givenness.

PERSONNE
- composed of the social concepts of what it means to be who he is.
Has much to do with what it means to live in a particular religion,
nationality and how to behave given expectations and influences from
others.
 *G.H.MEAD
- Based on the perspective that the self
emerges from social interactions. There is no
self at birth, it just developed over the social
experiences.

*LEV VYGOTSKY
- Self internalizes real life dialogs that he had
with others, with his family, caregiver and
playmate.
 The Self and Family
The kind of family that we are born in, the resources available to us
(Spiritual, economic) and the kind of development that we will have
will certainly affects us as we go through life.

 Respectful environment
 Table manners
 Ways of speaking
 Basic conduct

Without a family, biologically and sociologically, a person may

not even survive or become a human person. One is who he is
because of his family for the most part.
 Gender and Self
 Gender is one of those loci of the self that is subject to
alteration, change and development.

 We have seen in the past years how people fought hard

for the right to express, validate and assert their gender
expression.
 Gender has to be personally
discovered and
asserted and not dictated by culture
and the society.

 Sex (Male or Female); Gender (Femininity or Masculinity)

 Lesson 3:
The Self as Cognitive Construct

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 William James
For him, Self has two aspects- the “I” and the “Me”
𖤓I
Acting, feeling self, thinking
𖤓 ME
Physical characteristics as well as psychological capabilities that makes you
who you are.

𖤓 *Identity- composed of your personal characteristics, social roles

responsibilities as well as affiliations that define who he is.
𖤓 *Self-concept- What basically comes to your mind when you are asked
about who you are. 19
 Carl Rogers
He is responsible in the development of the concept of Self-
schema or our organized system or collection of knowledge
about who we are. As you go and adapt to the changes around
you, they also change.

SELF

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 Sigmund Freud
The most popular psychologist who have studied the
development of personality and also the most controversial.

5 STAGES PSYCHOSEXUAL DEVELOPMENT

 Oral Stage
 Anal Stage
 Phallic Stage
 Latency Stage
 Genital Stage 21
 5 Stages Psychosexual
Development
1. Oral Stage (birth to 18. Mos.)

𖤓 *Oral receptive- have a strong tendency to smoke,

drink alcohol and overeat.

𖤓 *Oral aggressive- tendency to bite his/her nails,

curse words or even gossip. As a result, these may
become on others, easily fooled and lack of
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leadership traits.
 2. Anal Stage (18 mos.-3 years)
𖤓 *Anal Retentive- obsession with cleanliness,
perfection and control.
𖤓 *Anal Expulsive- become messy and disorganized.

3. Phallic Stage (3 to 6 years old)

Children become more curious on what makes boys
and girls different. They are also making fond of their
genitals
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 4. Latency Stage (ages 6 to puberty)
During this stage the sexual urges become
repressed. The child’s focus is on the
acquisition of physical and academic skill.

5. Genital Stage (3 to 6 years old)

Sexual urges are again awakened. Pleasure
centered on genitals towards opposite sex.
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Freud’s Personality Component
𖤓 *Id (Pleasure principle)
- child is born with it. Nothing else matters to the id except the
satisfaction of its needs.
𖤓 *Ego (Reality principle)
- it is the deciding agent of personality. Its functions is to help
the id meet its needs but it always takes into account the reality
of situation.
𖤓 *Superego
- It embodies person’s moral aspect. This develops from what
the parents, teachers, and persons who exert influence on the
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child.
 Theory of Symbolic Interactionism
According To G.H. Mead
There are 3 reasons why self and identity are social products:

 We don’t create ourselves out of nothing. Society help in creating the

foundation of who we are.
 Whether we like to admit it, we actually need others to affirm and reinforce
who we think we are.
 What we think is important to us may also have been influenced by what is
important in our social or historical context.

*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.
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There are 2 Types of Self that we can be aware
of according to Carver and Scheier:
𖤓PRIVATE SELF
-private thoughts and feelings.

𖤓PUBLIC SELF
- public image. Good presentation of yourself to
others.
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Self-awareness also presents us with at least 3
other Self-schema:
𖤓 ACTUAL SELF
(who you are at the moment.)

𖤓 IDEAL SELF
𖤓 ( who you like to be.)

𖤓 OUGHT SELF
(who you think you should be. )
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One of the ways in which our social relationship
affects our self-esteem is through social
comparison
𖤓 *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.
𖤓 *Downward Social Comparison
More common type of comparing ourselves, we create a positive
self- concept by comparing ourselves with those who are worse off
than us. By having this advantage, we can raise our self-esteem.
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 *Upward Social Comparison
Comparing ourselves with those who are better off
than us. 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 weaknesses or
inequities.

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 𖤓Self-Evaluation Maintenance Theory
-states that we can feel threatened when someone out-performed
us especially when that person is close to us.

In this case we usually react in 3 ways:

𖤓 *We distance ourselves from that person or redefine our

relationship with them.
𖤓 *We may consider the importance of the aspect or skill in
which you were outperformed.
𖤓 *We may also strengthen or resolve to improve that certain
aspect of ourselves. 31
𖤓*In an attempt to increase or maintain
self-esteem, some people become
narcissistic. Narcissism is a trait
characterized by over high self-esteem,
self-admiration and self-centeredness.

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Thank you
for
listening!
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