Republic of the Philippines

Camarines Norte School of Law

COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE EDUCATION
Talisay, Camarines Norte

Psychological Perspective of the Self

Lesson 4

Objectives:
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
1. Enumerate the various psychological perspective and concepts about the
“self”:
2. Analyze the effects of various psychological factors in the formation of
the “self”; and
3. Examine’ one’s “self” against the different psychological perspective.

Discussion

Psychology
Psychology has various ways of understanding a person and the therapist way of helping
people understand themselves. Self by definition is a reference by an individual to the
same individual person. Having its own or single character as a person, referring to the
person as same individual.
The psychology of studying self is about either the cognitive and affective representation of
one's identity or the subject of experience. The earliest formulation of the self in modern
psychology forms the distinction between the self as I, the person knower, and the self as
Me, the person that is known.

“The Self and It Selves”

William James, a psychologist, has introduced in his document The Principles of Psychology
(1890) a numerous concepts and distinction of self. For James, his main concepts of self are
the “me-self” and the “I-self”. The “me-self” is the phenomenal self, the experienced self
or the self as known. It is the self that has experience the phenomena and who had known
the situation. The “I-self” is the self-thought or the self-knower. James had claimed that the
understanding of Self can be separated into three categories: “1. Its constituents; 2. The
feeling and emotions they arouse – Self-feelings; 3. The actions to which they prompt –
Self-seeking and self-preservation (James, 1890, p162)
Also, James wrote sub-categories of self, 1. the material self; 2. the social self; and 3. the
spiritual self.
The Material Self is constituted by our bodies, clothes, immediate family and home. It is
in this that we attached more deeply into and therefore we are most affected by because of the
investment we give to these things.
 Republic of the Philippines
Camarines Norte School of Law
COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE EDUCATION
Talisay, Camarines Norte

The Social Self is based on our interactions with society and the reaction of people
towards us. It is our social self that thought to have multiple divergence or different version
of ourselves. It varies as to how we present ourselves to a particular social group.
The most intimate self, the spiritual self. It is the most intimate because it is more
satisfying for the person that they have the ability to argue and discriminate one’s
moral sensibility, conscience and indomitable will.

Conception of Self
Carl Rogers, had come up with his conception of self through the intervention he used for his
client, the Person-centered therapy. It is a non-directive intervention because it believes
that all people have the potential to solve their own problems. Rogers believe that people
must be fully honest with themselves in order to have personal discovery on oneself. In this
concept of self, he had come up with three sides of a triangle.
The Perceived Self (self-worth - how the person sees self & others sees them)
The Real Self (self-image - how the person really is)
The Ideal Self (how the person would like to be)

Concept of Unified and Multiple Self

As DanielCW (2016) wrote in his article “Psychoanalysis vs Postmodern Psychology” he has
emphasized how Freud percieved person as a unified beings and Gergens concept of multiple
“selves”
In Freud’s concept, he argued that mind is divided into three connected but distinct parts.
The Id, Ego and Super Ego.
Id as the center of primitive, animalistic impulses (sex, food & comfort) following the
pleasure principle.
Superego as the center for ethical imperative. The one that reminds the self of what is
right of wrong following morality principle.
Ego as the moderator between these two which was driven by rationality principle.
And then also, Freud has stated two important division of mind, the conscious and
unconscious. Conscious are the thoughts that we are aware of. And Unconscious as
thoughts that we are not aware of. (DanielCW, 2016)
Although, Freud has argued that self has a multiple parts, he still believed that ultimately we
are a Unified beings (atleast, when we are healthy). Ego remains at the helm of mind,
guiding the Id and Superego and staying at the center. Thus Gergen argued that having
a flexible sense of self allows for multiple “selves”. That it is up to the the self to define
himself as warm or cold, dominant or submissive, sexy or plain.
 Republic of the Philippines
Camarines Norte School of Law
COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE EDUCATION
Talisay, Camarines Norte

According to Kenneth Gergen, proponent of Post modern Psychology, The individual has
many potential selves. He carries within him the capacity to identify himself, whether warm
or cold, dominant or submissive, sexy or plain. How we bring ourselves in every situation
will held him get through for a day. Therefore, maybe it is healthy to have many mask.
Multiple selfhood is part of what it means to be human, and forcing oneself to stick to
one self-concept maybe unhealthy.

True Self and Fake Self

True Self, as rooted from early infancy is called the simple being. The sense of self based on
spontaneous authentic experience and feeling of being alive, having “real self”. Example, as
a baby we react base on our sense of reality. The baby reacted spontaneously based on our
instinctual sense.
Fake Self, is our defense facade. Overlaying or contradicting the original sense of self.
Problem would be we might build false set of relationship through concealing a barren
emptiness behind an independent-seeming facade.

THE SELF AS PROACTIVE AND AGENTIC BY ALBERT BANDURA

Humans have this “Agency” which embodies natural ability, belief system & self-regulatory
capabilities and functions through which personal influence is exercised, rather than reside
as discrete entity. (Albert Bandura)
Bandura believes that through our agency we humans are perceived as proactive agents of
experiences. Through this agents or agency we humans play a big role in our self
development, adaptation and self renewal. It is said that the human agency have four features.
This features are intentionally, forethought, self – reactiveness and self – relflectiveness.
He views people as agents (originators) of experience; not just reactive
HUMAN AGENCY:

 Intentionality – enables us to behave with purpose

 Forethought – allows us to anticipate outcomes
 Self-reactiveness – we can be motivated to regulate our actions
 Self-reflectiveness – we can reflect on our thoughts and behaviors and make needed
modifications
We humans plan things intentionally or we do things intentionally, with doing this we wait
for possible outcomes. We make our plans, actions and decision with the basis of our
intention in life. We as humans are interested in different things, we make our self-interested
in the things we do therefore acting with our intentions. Forethought, on the other hand
enables us to anticipate the consequences of the things we do. We expect different
expectations therefore we likely think better before we do or make decisions in the future.
Self-reactiveness involves making choices. We make different choices, and we make choices
 Republic of the Philippines
Camarines Norte School of Law
COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE EDUCATION
Talisay, Camarines Norte

after thinking about the consequences. Self-reflectiveness gives us the ability to reflect on our
decisions, choices, and consequences.

Evaluation
Answer the following questions: (see assessment 4 attached)

References:
Alata, Eden Joy, et. al. 2021. A Course Module for Understanding the Self. Manila: Rex
Bookstore Inc.

Alata, Eden Joy, et. al. 2018. Understanding the Self. Manila: Rex Bookstore Inc.

Hater, S. (1996). Historical roots of contemporary issues involving the self-concept. In

Bracken (Ed.), Handbook of self-concept: Developmental, social and clinical considerations
(pp. 1 – 37). John Wiley & Sons Inc.