GE 1 – Understanding the Self

April 1, 2022
Self in the Psychological View
The I Self vs the Me Self
William James said the self has 2 aspects:
1. I Self  refers to what people see or perceive themselves doing in the physical world (walking, eating, writing)
 Part of self that knows who they are and what they accomplished in life
 The I is the pure ego – it is what provides continuity between past, present, and future, allowing us to view
ourselves to have a consistent, individual identity, one brought about by the stream of consciousness
2. Me Self  more subjective and psychological; refers to individual’s reflections about themselves
(characterizing oneself as athletic, smart, cooperative); self-referent, self-image, self-schema, self-concept are
other words for this
 This aspect is a separate individual a person refers to when talking about personal experiences
The Me Self is further divided into 3 components:
a. The material self  tangible objects or possessions we collect for us
b. The social self  how we interact and portray ourselves within different groups, situations, or persons
c. The spiritual self  internal dispositions

William James
 Born in New York City, oldest of Henry James and Mary Walsh’s five kids
 Travelled to Europe with parents several times resulting in proficiency in both German and French
 Abandoned artistic route and entered Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard College. After 3 years, he joined
the Harvard School of Medicine to study chemistry and anatomy.
 Was tone deaf and suffered a lot of medical conditions like neurasthenia
 Studied physiology in Harvard and his knowledge in this field aided and molded his ultimate psychological
framework
The Social Self
 Marks who you are in a specific social situation
 We change our actions, thoughts, emotions, words, and mannerisms based on the current social situation or
people with whom we are interacting
 We act differently around friends, family, co-workers

The Spiritual Self

 Who we are at our core, including our personality, values, conscience.
 Typically remains relatively stable throughout our lifetime
Self – the conscious entity capable of experiencing physiological responses, emotions, and thoughts
Difference Between the I and the Me Self
 Me Self – accumulated understanding of the “generalized other” (how one thinks one’s group perceives oneself;
it is the object
 I Self – individual’s impulses; it is the subject

Real Self Vs Ideal Self

Real Self  how we actually are, how we see ourselves, how we might perceive ourselves as a beautiful or ugly, good
or bad person. Self-image has directly an effect on how a person feels, thinks, and acts in the world
Ideal Self  Represents our strivings to achieve our goals or ideals. In other words, it is our dynamic ambitions and
goals; it is the self we wish to be
Carl Rogers
 American psychologist
 January 8, 1902 – February 4, 1987
 Known for his person-to-person approach to psychotherapy

Roger’s Self Theory

Roger’s Self Theory Congruence Incongruent Behaviors

Real Self Actualizing tendencies; positive Actualizing tendencies; positive Lacking in self-worth; bad
regard; self-regard regard; self-regard self-image; low self-esteem
Ideal Self Striving; ambitious; self-worth Striving; ambitious; self-worth

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True Self Vs False Self

Donald Winnicott (1896-1971)
 We must experience immense life sustaining luxury of period where we don’t have to bother with the
feelings and opinions of those who are tasked of looking after us
 Thus, we can wholly, and without guilt, our true selves
 British psychoanalyst, pediatrician, child psychiatrist whose interest and field of study is in child
psychoanalysis
 Formulated the True and False Self concept  the idea that people may develop a false self to protect their
true self
True Self
 A persona that is based on spontaneous, authentic experience, as well as feeling of being alive and having
a real self
- Amoral
- Asocial
- Unrealized
- Hidden
- Instinctive sense
 Needing help and reassurance is the essential stuff of our true self; our vulnerable self
 From an infant  asocial and immoral; not interested in other’s feelings, not socialized
 Full self – capacity to behave according to demands of external reality
 When we are given a chance to be our true self, we don’t need to be in any occasion, rebel and insist on our
needs.

False Self
 A persona that is outwardly compliant but suppressing its vital instincts
 Hides self through compliance of environmental demands
- Fake
- Idealized
- Superficial
- pseudo
 Becoming obedient at the expense of our ability in an early age, and not feel authentically ourselves
 Can be remedied by psychotherapy
 We have to be true before we have to become productively fake
 Always seeks approval and validation
Unhealthy False Self Healthy False Self
If I achieve this (high grades), I will have more value to the Aware and imposes healthy boundaries
family
If I earn a high salary, I will be more successful Functional to the society (politeness and social
courtesy)

Unified Self Vs Multiple Self

Rita Carter
 From Essex, England
 Trained as a journalist in London
 Award-winning medical and science writer, lecturer, broadcaster, English medical journalist
 Author of “Mapping the Mind” published in 1998
Carter’s Principle of Multiplicity – new science of personality; producing a joyful household of personalities,
demonstrating how to distinguish various versions of oneself enabling our personalities to participate in functioning to
be successful in life

Multiple Self Vs Unified Self

Multiple Self – a spectrum; it is not limited to a specific set of characteristics, thus, it varies; different personalities in
different situations and interaction of different people
Unified self – refers to the self that includes all of the other personalities that exist within a person’s interactional manner;
end goal is to have a unified self and identify who we really are

Divisions of Multiple Selves

1. Major selves – personality with thoughts, desires, intention, emotions, ambitions and beliefs
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- Single Major
- Double Major
2. Minor selves – merely enough to deal with a particular condition such as a necessity to argue with certain people
or smoking in certain circumstances
- Multiple Minors
3. Micro – the building blocks of personality; individual responses, thought, habits, ideas as small as a physical or
vocal contraction or a renewed interfering thought or emotion
- A major plus a minor
- Several majors and minors

Assessments of Our Multiple Selves

Part 1: The Big 5 Ocean Personality Dimension
1. Openness
2. Conscientiousness
3. Extroversion
4. Agreeableness
5. Neuroticism

Part 2: The Typology of Selves

1. Defenders – protects and guards against threats
2. Controllers – drives and steers one’s behavior
3. Punishers – defenders or controllers whose energy has become misdirected
4. Role players – personalities created for a particular situation or purpose
5. Relics – old minors that no longer have a useful function
6. Creatives – originates new ideas that aims and vision

Assessment of the Unified Self

For the impression of a unified self, every individual has a group of personalities who are all working together. The
unified self is the integration of the sub selves into one, however, integration is a task for the later part of life.