THE SELF AS A

COGNITIVE
CONSTRUCT
LESSON OBJECTIVES
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Identify the different ideas in psychology about the

“self”;

2. Create your own definition of the “self” based on the

definitions from psychology; and

3. Analyze the effects of various factors identified in

psychology in the formation of the “self.”
WILLIAM JAMES AND
THE DEFINITION OF
“SELF” William James – one of the earliest psychologists to
study the self and conceptualized the self as having two
aspects – the “I” and the “me.”

“I” – the thinking, acting and feeling self.

“me” – the physical characteristics as well as

psychological capabilities that makes who you are.

Identity – composed of personal characteristics, social

roles and responsibilities as well as affiliations that
define who one is.

Self-schema – captured by Carl Rogers; an organized

system or collection of knowledge about ho we are.
 SELF-SCHEMA
Hobbies Religion

SELF
Family Nationality
SCHEMA
• It includes your interests, work, course, age,
name and physical characteristics among others.

• 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.
ICEBERG PRINCIPLE: ID, EGO,
SUPEREGO
SOCIAL INTERACTION AND
GROUP AFFILIATION
• 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.

Self - awareness – presents us with at least three other

self-schema – the actual, ideal and ought self.

Actual self – who you are at the moment

Ideal self – who you like to be
Ought self – who you think you should be
SELF-AWARENESS
• It could be positive or negative depending on the
circumstances and our next course of action.
• It can keep you from doing something dangerous.
• It can be too much that an individual is concerned about
being observed and criticized by others, also known as self-
consciousness.

Group Identity and Self-Awareness

• Has a great impact on our self-esteem
• One of the common components associated with the self
• Defined as our positive or negative perception or evaluation
of ourselves.
SELF-ESTEEM
• In psychology, the term self-esteem is used to describe a person's
overall sense of self-worth or personal value. In other words, how
much you appreciate and like yourself.
Self-esteem is often seen as a personality trait, which means that it
tends to be stable and enduring.
Self-esteem can involve a variety of beliefs about yourself, such as
the appraisal of your own appearance, beliefs, emotions, and
behaviors.

Social comparison – one of the factors that affect the self-esteem; we

learn about ourselves, the appropriateness of our behaviors, as well as
our social status by comparing aspects of ourselves with other people.
SOCIAL COMPARISON AND
NARCISSISM
• Downward Social Comparison – creates a positive self-concept by
comparing ourselves with those who are worse off than us.
• Upward Social Comparison – comparing ourselves with those who
are better off than us.

Self-evaluation maintenance theory – entailed by social comparison;

states that we can feel threatened when someone out-performs us,
especially when that person is close to us.

Narcissism – a trait characterized by overly high self-esteem, self-

admiration and self-centeredness.
SELF-ESTEEM
• 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 oneself.

• People with high self-esteem are commonly

described as outgoing, adventurous and
adaptable. In a lot of situations, they also initiate
activities and building relationships with people.
However, they can also be bullies and experiment
on abusive behaviors with drugs, alcohol and sex.