THE SELF AND THE FIELD OF PSYCHOLOGY

At the end of this learning module, the student is expected to:

a. demonstrate critical and reflective thought in analyzing the

different psychological theories in the study of the "self"
b. expound the self as a cognitive construction
c. examine the self as proactive and agentic
 Introduction
Most people would say that they do not want to talk about
themselves. But in actuality, most people like hearing life stories of
another person as a chance to talk about themselves or to relate self
to others.

The famous line of "me, myself, and I" is often used in movies,
animation and even in social media - as caption to pictures or as
shout-outs.
 The psychology of self focuses on the representation of an
individual based on his experiences. These experiences are either
from the home, school and other groups, organizations or
affiliation he engaged in. Seemingly, the ‘self’ is one of the most
heavily researched areas in social and personality psychology,
where concepts are introduced that beyond our physical
attributes, lies our psychological identity.

 Questions of 'who am I?' or 'what am I beyond my looks?' are

thoughts of many that continuously search for a deeper sense of
self which can be traced back from some time of human
history.
 “Drawing on caves suggests that sometime during the dawn of history,
human being began to give serious thought to their nonphysical,
psychological selves. With the advent of written history, writers would
describe this awareness of self in terms of spirit, psyche, or soul.” (Pajares
& Schunck, 2002

 From ancient to current times, the concept of the self is always an

interesting subject for many as it is very personal that it talks about
intrapersonal properties. In oxfordbibliographies.com (2-13), it is mentioned
that whatever stance one adopts regarding the self’s ontological status,
there is little doubt that the many phenomena of which the self is a
predicate --self-knowledge, self-awareness, self-esteem, self-
enhancement, self-regulation, self-deception, self-presentation ----to name
just a few, are indispensable research areas.
1. The Self as a Cognitive Construction
 Cognitive Construction is a cognitive approach that focuses on
the mental processes rather than the observable behavior.
This approach will assist individuals in assimilating new information to
their existing knowledge and will enable to make the appropriate
modification to their existing intellectual framework to accommodate their
new information.
 W. James suggested that "the total self of 'Me', being as it
were duplex" is composed of "partly object and partly
subject".
 As a consequence, he differentiated between the self as
knower, or the “I”, and the self as known or “Me”. He
referred to the "I" as pure ego and suggested that this
component of self is consciousness itself.

 The "Me", on the other hand, is one of the many things that
the I may be conscious of, and it consists of three
components, one physical or material, one social, and one
spiritual (Pajares & Schunck, 2002)
Material self
 - consists of things that belong to us or that we belong to. Things
like family, clothes, our body, and money are some of what make up
our material selves.
Social Self
 our social selves are who we are in a given social situation. For
James, people change how they act depending on the social
situation that they are in. James believed that people had as many
social selves as they had social situations they participated in.
Spiritual Self –
 is who we are at our core. The spiritual self is more concrete or
permanent than the other two selves. The spiritual self is our
subjective and most intimate self. Aspects of an individual’s
spiritual self include things like his personality, core values, and
conscience that do not typically change throughout a lifetime.
1.2 Global versus Differentiated Models
 There had been postulation that one's self may be
fragmented into different parts and different selves which
may be in conflict or needs regulation from each other.
Although W. James gave a very interesting perspective on the
self, and was even among the first writers to coin the term
'Self-Esteem', other theories emerged to study on the
selfhood as an integrated part of one's psyche. In the past 30
years, self-esteem has become deeply embedded in
popular culture (Brown & Marchall, 2006). It is a person's
overall self evaluation or sense of self-worth.
 Global Self-esteem (a.k.a. Trait self-esteem)
 is a personality variable that represents the way people generally
feel about themselves. It is relatively enduring across time and
situations. According to researchers (e.g Crocker & Park, 2004;
Crocker & Wolfe, 2001)
 Global self-esteem is a decision people make about their worth as a
person.
 State Self-Esteem (a.k.a. Feelings of Self-worth), refers to
temporary feelings or momentary emotional reactions to positive and
negative events where we feel good or bad about ourselves during
these situations or experiences.
 Domain Specific Self-Esteem (a.k.a. Self-evaluations), is focused
on how people evaluate their various abilities and attitudes. This is
making distinctions or differentiation on how good or bad people are
in specific physical attributes, abilities and personal characteristics.
1.3 Real and Ideal Self Concepts
 The self as the regulating center of an individual's personality and self-
processes under the guise of id, ego and superego functioning
(Pajares & Schunck, 2002), rocked Psychology as the biggest
breakthrough in understanding the psychological self. From this
milestone, prominent psychologists followed with their own
perspectives of the self to contest the roles and functions of ego as
the self. These were the landmarks of Contemporary Psychology
and the understanding of the internal processes of man. A group of
psychologists called for renewed attention to inner experience,
internal processes, and self-constructs. These perspectives assert the
overall dignity and worth of human beings and their capacity for
self-realization (Hall, Lindzey, Loehlin & Manosevitz, 1997).
Karen Horney with her Feminine Psychology, established
that a person has an ‘ideal self’, `actual self’ and
the `real self’.
 She believed that everyone experiences basic anxiety through which
we experience conflict and strive to cope and employ tension reduction
approaches. Hall, et al. (1997) mentioned that Horney believed
people develop a number of strategies to cope with basic anxiety.
Because people feel inferior, an idealized self-image - an imaginary
picture of the self as the possessor of unlimited powers and superlative
qualities, is developed. On the other hand, the actual self, the person
one is in everyday life, is often despised because it fails to fulfill the
requirement of the idealized image. Underlying both the idealized self
and the actual self is the real self, which is revealed only as a person
begins to shed the various techniques developed to deal with basic
anxiety and to find ways of resolving conflicts. The real self is not an
entity but a `force` that impels growth and self-realization.
 Carl Rogers with his Person-Centered Theory
He establish a conception of self, involving the Real Self (a.k.a. Self-
concept) and Ideal Self.
➢ The Real Self includes all those aspects of one`s being and one`s
experiences that are perceived in awareness (though not always
accurately) by the individual (Feist, Feist& Roberts, 2013). It is the
part of ourselves where we feel, think, look, and act involving our
self-image.
➢ the Ideal Self revolves around goals and ambitions in life, is dynamic, the
idealized image that we have developed over time.
This is what our parents have taught us considering:
what we admire in others, what our society promotes,
what we think are in our best interest.
A wide gap between the ideal self and the real self
indicates incongruence and an unhealthy personality
(Feist et al., 2013).
 If the way that I am (the real self) is aligned with the
way that I want to be (the ideal self), then I will feel a
sense of mental well-being or peace of mind.

 If the way that I am is not aligned with how I want to

be, the incongruence, or lack of alignment, will
result in mental distress or anxiety. The greater the
level of incongruence between the ideal self and real
self, the greater is the level of resulting distress.
 1.4 Multiple versus Unified Selves
 Postmodern psychology contends that man has an
identity that shifts and morphs in different
social situations and in response to different
stimuli, as Kenneth Gergen argues that having a
flexible sense of self in different context is more
socially adaptable than force oneself to stick
to one self-concept (ctlsites.uga.edu, 2016,
danielew).
 Theorists believed that there is no one answer to the question, “Who am
I?” as one person can undergo several transitions in his life and create
multiple versions of himself.
 However, there is still the contention of the importance of mental well-
being, of maintaining a unified, centralized, coherent self.
 Multiple Selves, according to K. Gergen, are the capacities we carry
within us from multiple relationships. These are not ‘discovered’ but
‘created’ in our relationship with other people.
 Unified Selves, as strongly pointed out in Traditional Psychology
emphasizes that well-being comes when our personality dynamics are
congruent, cohesive and consistent. It is understood that a person is
essentially connected with selfhood and identity. In a healthy person the
ego remains at the helm of the mind, coherent and organized, staying at
the center (ctlsites.uga.edu, 2016, danielcw).
1.5 True versus False Selves
 Donald W. Winnicott distinguished what he called the ‘true self’ from the ‘false
self’ in the human personality, considering the true self as based on a sense of being
in the experiencing body and the false self as a necessary defensive organization, a
survival kit, a caretaker self, the means by which a threatened person has managed
to survive (Klein, 1994).
 True Self has a sense of integrity, of connected wholeness that harks to the early
stage.
 False Self is used when the person has to comply with external rules, such as
being polite or otherwise following social codes. The false self constantly
seeks to anticipate demands of others in order to maintain the relationship.
 The Healthy False Self is functional, can be compliant but without the feeling that
it has betrayed its true self. The Unhealthy False Self fits in but through a feeling
of forced compliance rather than loving adaptation (changingminds.org 2016).
False Selves, as investigated by Heinz Kohut (1971), can lead towards narcissistic
personality, which identifies with external factors at the cost of one’s own
autonomous creativity.
2. The Self as Proactive and Agentic
 Social Cognitive Theory takes an agentic view of personality,
meaning that humans have the capacity to exercise control over
their own lives. People are self-regulating, proactive, self-
reflective, and self-organizing and that they have
 the power to influence their own actions to produce desired
consequences. People consciously act on their environment in a
manner that permits growth toward psychological health. An
adequate theory of personality, according to G. Allport must allow
for proactive behavior (Feist et al., 2013).
 Agent Self-
The agent self is known as the executive function that
allows for actions. This is how we, as individuals, make
choices and utilize our control in situations and actions.
The agent self, resides over everything that involves
decision making, self-control, taking charge in situations,
and actively responding. A person might desire to eat
unhealthy foods, however, it is his agent self that allows
that person to choose to avoid eating them and make a
healthier food choice (Baumeister, & Bushman, 2011).
 Human agency is not a thing but an active process of exploring,
manipulating and influencing the environment in order to attain
desired outcomes.
 According to Albert Bandura, the core features of human agency are
intentionality (acts a person performs intentionally) forethought (setting
goals, anticipation of outcomes of actions, selection of behaviors to
produce desired outcomes and avoiding undesirable ones), self-
reactiveness (monitoring progress toward fulfilling choices), and self-
reflectiveness (examination of own functioning, evaluation of the
effect of other people’s action on them). These lead to self-efficacy,
the belief that they are capable of performing actions that will produce a
desired effect (Feist, et.al.,2013).
Self-Efficacy
 lies in the center of Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory.
 It is the measure of one’s ability to complete goals. People
with high self-efficacy often are eager to accept
challenges because they believe they can overcome
them, while people with low self-efficacy may avoid
challenges, or believe experiences are more challenging
than they actually are (appsychtextbk.wikispaces.com,
2014).
Reference

 PROF. EDUARDO L. DOYAOEN