UNDERSTADING THE SELF MODULE 1: THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVES

UNIT 4: THE SELF ACCORDING TO PSYCHOLOGY

(The Self as Cognitive Construct)

LEARNING COMPASS
- Identify the different ideas in psychology about the “self”;
- Create their own definition of the “self” based on the definitions from
psychology;
- Analyze the effects of various factors identified in psychology in the formation of
the “self”.

INTRODUCTION

As seen from the previous lessons, every field of study, at least in the social sciences,
have their own research, definition, and conceptualization of self and identity. Some are
similar while some specific only in their field. Each field also has thousands of research on
self and identity as well as related or synonymous terms. The trend of the lessons also
seems to define the concept of the “self” from a larger context (example: culture and
society) down to the individual. However, it must be pointed out that modern researches
acknowledge the contributions of each field and this is not some sort of a nurture vs.
nature, society/culture vs. individual/brain, other social sciences vs. psychology debate.
Psychology may focus on the individual and the cognitive functions but it does not
discount the context and other possible factors that affect the individual. For students
who take up psychology, discussions on theories, development, etc. actually takes at
least one semester and still there are more to be known about the concept of “self”. The
following lesson provides an overview of the themes of psychology regarding the said
concept.

Let’s begin!
ACTIVITY III
This activity has two parts that try to compare how we look at ourselves against how
people perceived us depending on how we present ourselves to them. For the first part,
list ten to fifteen (10-15) qualities or things around the left circle representing you that
you think defines who you are.
 UNDERSTADING THE SELF MODULE 1: THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVES

For the second part, go around and ask the people around you like family, your friends
or classmates to write on the right circle things that they see you do or hear you say.

We’re on our way!

ANALYSIS
Compare what you wrote about your self to those written by other people. What
aspects are similar and which are not? What aspects are always true to you? What
aspects are sometimes true or circumstantial? What aspects do you think are not really
part of your personality? Write your answers below.
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Let’s dig deeper

ABSTRACTION
In confidence or in an attempt to avoid further analytical discussions, a lot of people
say “I am who I am.” Yet this statement still begs the question “If you are who you are,
then who are you that makes you who you are?”
As mentioned earlier there are various definitions of the “self” and other similar or
interchangeable concepts in psychology. Simply put, “self” is “the sense of personal
identity and of who we are as individuals.
William James was one of the earliest psychologists to study the self and he
conceptualized the self as having two aspects – the “I” and the “me”. The I is the
thinking, acting, and feeling self. The “me” on the other hand is the physical
characteristics as well as psychological capabilities that makes who you are. Carl Rogers
theory of personality also used the same terms, the “I” as the one who acts and decides
while the “me” is what you think or feel about yourself as an object.
Other concepts similar to self is identity and self-concept. Identity is composed of
one’s personal characteristics, social roles and responsibilities, as well as affiliations that
defines who one is. Self-concept is basically what comes to your mind when you are
asked about who you are.
Self, identity, and self-concept are not fixed in one time frame. For example, when
asked about who you are, you can say “I was a varsity player in Grade 5 which pertains to
the past, “ a college student” which maybe the present, and “a future politician” which is
the future. They are not also fixed for life nor are they ever-changing at every moment.
Think of a malleable metal, strong and hard but can be bent and molded in other shapes.
Think about water, it can take any shape of the container, it can be solid, liquid, or gas
form, but at its core, it is still the same elements.
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Carl Rogers captured this idea in his concept of self-schema or our own organized
system or collection of knowledge about who we are. Imagine an organized list or a
diagram similar to the one below:

Self

Family
Self Religion

Self

The schema is not limited to the example above. It may also include your interests,
your work, your course, your age, your name, your physical characteristics, etc. as you
grow and adapt to the changes around you, they also change. But they are not passive
receivers, they actively shape and affect how you see, think, and feel about things object.
Theories generally see the self and identity as mental constructs, created and re-
created in memory. Current researches point the frontal lobe of the brain as the specific
area in the brain associated with processes concerning the self.
Several psychologists, especially during the field’s earlier development, followed this
trend of thought, looking deeper into the mind of the person to theorize about the self,
identity, self-concept, and in turn, one’s personality. The most influential of them is
Sigmund Freud. Basically Freud saw the self, its mental processes, and one’s behavior as
the results of the interaction between the id, the Ego, and the Superego.
However, as mentioned earlier, one cannot fully discount the effects of society and
culture to the formation of the self, identity, and self-concept. Even as Freud and other
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theories and researches try to understand the person by digging deeper into the mind,
they cannot fully discount the huge and important effects of the environment. As in the
abovementioned definitions of the self, social interaction always has a part to play in who
we think we are. This is not nature vs. nurture but instead a nature-and-nurture
perspective.
Under the theory of symbolic interactionism, G.H. Mead (1934) argued that the self is
created and developed through human interaction (Hogg and Vaughan 2010, 66)
Basically, there are at least three reasons why self and identity are social products
(Elmore, Oyserman, and Smith 2012, 76):
1. We do not create ourselves out of nothing. Society helped in creating the
foundations of who we are and even if we make our choices, we still operate
in our social and historical contexts in one way or the other. Of course, you
may transfer from one culture to another, but parts of who you were still
affect you and you will also have to adapt to the new social context. Try
looking at your definition of who you are and see where society and affected
you;
2. Whether we like to admit it or not, we actually need other to affirm and
reinforce who we think we are. We also need them as reference points about
our identity. One interesting example is the social media interactions we have.
In the case of Facebook, there are those who consciously or unconsciously try
to garner more Likes and/or positive Reactions and that can and will reinforce
their self-concept. It is almost like a battle between who got more friends,
more views, and trending topics. If one says s/he is a good singer but his/her
performance and the evaluation of his/her audience says otherwise, one way
or another.
3. What we think as important to us may also have been influenced by what is
important in our social historical context. Education might be an important
thing to your self-concept because you grew up in family that valued
education. Money might be important to some because they may have grown
in a poor family and realize how important money is addressing certain needs
like medical emergencies. Being a nurse or a lawyer can be priority in your self-
schema because it is the in-demand course during your time.

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 or our perception
of who we are based on our membership to certain groups (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014,
110). It is also inevitable then that we can have several social identity, that those identities
 UNDERSTADING THE SELF MODULE 1: THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVES

can overlap, and that we automatically play the roles as we interact with our groups. For
example, you are a student yet you are also a member of a certain group of friends. You
study because it is your role as a student but you prefer to study with your friends and
your study pattern changes when you are with your friends than when you do it alone.
However, there are times when we are aware of our self-concepts, also called self-
awareness. Carver and Scheier (1981) identified two types of self that we can be aware
of: 1) the private self of your internal standards and private thoughts and feelings, and 2)
the public self of your public image commonly geared towards having a good
presentation of yourself to others (Hogg and Vaughan 2010, 69).
Self-awareness also present us with at least three other self-schema: the actual, ideal,
and ought self. The “actual” self is who you are at the moment, the “ideal” self is who
you like to be, and the “ought” self is who we think we should be (Higgins 1997 in Hogg
and Vaughn 2010, 74). Example is that you are a student interested in basketball but is
also academically challenged in most of your subject. Your ideal self might be to practice
more and play with the varsity team but ought to pass your subjects as a responsible
student. One has to find solution to such discrepancies in order to avoid agitation,
dejection, or other negative emotions. In some instances, however, all there may be in
line with one another.
Self-awareness may be positive or negative depending on the circumstances and our
next course of action. Self-awareness can keep you from doing something dangerous, it
can help remind you that there is an exam tomorrow in one of your subjects when you
are about to spend time playing computer games with your cousins, among others. In
other instances, self-awareness can be too much that we can concerned about being
observed and criticized by others, also known as self-consciousness (Jhangiani and Tarry
2014, 112). At other times, especially with large cowards, we may experience
deindividuation or “the loss of individual self-awareness and individual accountability in
groups” (Festinger, Pepitone, & Newcomb, 1952; Zimbardo, 1969, all in Jhangiani and
Tarry 2014, 114). A lot of people will attune themselves with the emotions of their group
and because the large crowd also provides some kind of anonymity, we may lesson our
self-control and act in ways that we will not do when we are alone. A common example is
a mass demonstration erupting into a riot.
Our group identity and self-awareness also has a great impact on our self-esteem, one
of the common concepts associated with the “self.” It is defined as our own positive or
negative perception or evaluation of ourselves (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 125; Gleitman,
Gross, and Reisberg 2011, 617).
One of the ways in which our social relationship affects our self-esteem is through
social comparison. According to the social comparison theory, we learn about ourselves,
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the appropriateness of our behaviors, as well as our social statues by comparing aspects
of ourselves with other people (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 139; Hogg and Vaughan 2010,
72).
The downward social comparison is the more common type of comparing ourselves
with others. As the name implies, we create a positive self-concept by comparing
ourselves with those who are worse off than us (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 139). By having
the advantage, we are able to raise our self-esteem. Another comparison is the upward
social comparison which is comparing ourselves with those who are better off than us
(Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, p. 139). While it can be a form of motivation for some, a lot of
those who do this actually felt lower self-esteem as we highlight more of our weakness
or inequities.
Take not that this occurs not only between individuals but also among groups. Thus,
if a person’s group is performing better and is acknowledge more than the other group,
then his/her self-esteem may also be heightened.
Social comparison also entails what is called self-evaluation maintenance theory
which states that we can feel threatened when someone out-perform us, especially
when that person is close to us i.e. a friend or family (Tesser 1988 in Jhangiani and Tarry
2014, 144). In this case, we usually react in three ways. First, we distance ourselves from
that person or redefine our relationship with them (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 144). Some
will resort to silent treatment, change of friends, while some may also redefine by being
closer with that person, hoping that some association may give him/her a certain kind of
acknowledgement also. Second, we may also reconsider the importance of the aspect or
skill in which you were out-perfomed (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 144). If you got beaten in
drawing, you might think that drawing is not really for you and you’ll find a hobby that
where you could excel, thus preserving your self-esteem. Lastly, we may also strengthen
our resolve to improve that certain aspect of ourselves (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 144).
Instead of quitting drawing, you might join seminars, practice more often, read books
about it, add some elements in your drawing that makes it unique, etc. Achieving your
goal through hard work may increase your self-esteem too.
However, in the attempt to increase or maintain self-esteem, some people
become narcissistic. Narcissism is a “trait characterized by characterized by overly high
self-esteem, self-admiration, and self-centeredness” (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 128). They
are often charismatic because of how they take care of their image. Taking care of that
image includes their interpersonal relationships thus they will appreciate them a lot. This
makes them a bad romantic partner or friend since they engage in relationship only to
serve themselves (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 128).
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Sometimes there is a thin line between high self-esteem and narcissism and there
a lot of test and measurement for self-esteem like the Rosenberg scale but the issue is
that the result can be affected by the desire of the person to portray him/her in a positive
or advantageous way (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 126). In case you really want to take a
test and find a numerical value or level for your self-esteem, try to be honest and
objective about what you feel and see about yourself.
Though self-esteem is a very important concept related to the self, studies have
shown that it only has a correlation, not causality, to positive outputs and outlook
(Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 131). It can be argued that high or healthy self-esteem may
result to an overall good personality but it is not, and should not be, the only source of a
person’s healthy perspective of him/herself.
People with high self-esteem are commonly described as outgoing, adventurous,
and adaptable in a lot of situations. They also initiate activities and building relationship
with people. However, they may also dismiss other activities that does to conform to
their self-concept or boost their self-esteem. They may be also bullies and experiment on
abusive behaviors with drugs, alcohol, and sex (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 131).
This duality in the behavior and attitudes only proves the abovementioned
correlation. Baumeister, Smart, and Boden (1996) in their researched o self-esteem
concluded that programs, activities, and parenting styles to boost self-esteem should
only be for rewarding good behavior and other achievements and not for the purpose of
merely trying to make children feel better about themselves or to appease them when
they get angry or sad (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 132).

How far have we gone?

APPLICATION AND ASSESSMENT
Do a research and list (10) things to do in order to boost self-esteem of improve your
self-concept. Cite your source. Analyze which of those tips are more likely to backfire and
make someone conceited or narcissistic and revise them in order to make the statements
both helpful to the individual as well as society in general.

Walk the extra mile

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Keep a journal. Write a minimum of 20 sentences in a short bond paper, what is your
insight about this particular topic. This will be your third entry in your journal about the
self.

REFERENCES:
Alaba, et. al (2018) Understanding the Self. First Edition. Rex Book Store, Inc.
Sampaloc, Metro Manila. ISBN: 978-971-23-8670-1
Otig, et. al (2018) A Holistic Approach in Understanding THE SELF. Mutya Publishing
House, Inc. Malabon City, Metro Manila. ISBN: 978-971-821-744-3