Understanding the Self

 Understanding the Self is a subfield of psychology. As the name

implies, it deals with topics pertaining to both self and identity.
Key areas of investigation include self-concept, self-esteem, and
What does this self-control.

mean?  Do you think this is important to be a part of the curriculum?

 How will it help you as a student and as a person?
 Everyone in the Class will Introduce themselves in front of the class
and tell them:
1. Your name
2. Your motto in life
Sharing 3. The school where you took your senior high school
Oneself 4. Why you chose this school and your course
5. What do you feel about the class and your friends in class
6. Sinong artista, character, or celebrity ang pwedeng itulad sayo
at bakit?
What Philosophy Says
About the Self
Module 2
  Socrates tells Man to “Know
Yourself”, to bring his inner self to
light.
 Virtue and Knowledge.
 “The unexamined life is not worth
living.”
Socrates:  Believes that the real self is not the
Know Yourself Physical Body but the Soul.
 The Soul is Immortal
 The care of the Soul is the task of
philosophy
 Virtue is necessary to attain
happiness
  Man is omniscient or all-knowing before
he came to be born in this world.
 Introduced his ideas in his dialogue:
Phaedrus
Plato: The  “Collection and Division”
Ideal Self, the  The truth can be distinguished in two
Perfect Self forms: the Physical world and
Metaphysical realm.
 Appetitive, Rational, Spirited
  Theory of Forms
 Wrote the foundations of
medieval and Modern
Christian Thought
 Plato’s concept of Forms
St. Augustine were concepts existing
within a perfect God.
 The Soul belonged to God
and held the Truth which is
capable of scientific thinking.
  Thinking is a distinct entity
from the body
 Methodological Skepticism
Rene  The self is constant and is not
Descartes: “I prone to change; it is not
affected by time
think therefore  Only the immaterial soul
I am” remains the same throughout
time
 The immaterial soul is the
source of our identity
 The Soul The Body
It is a conscious thinking It is a material substance that
substance that is unaffected by changes through time.
time.

It is known only to itself It can be doubted; The public

Differences of It is not made up of parts. It
can correct the claims about the
body.
views the entirety of itself with
the Soul and no hidden or separate
compartments. It is both It is made up of physical,
the Body: conscious and aware of itself at quantifiable, divisible parts.
the same time.
  Identity is founded on memory
John Locke:
 Man is built on aspects he
Personal cannot control
Identity  “Tabula Rasa”
  Man has no “clear and
intelligible” idea of the
self

David Hume:  A person can never

observe oneself
The Self is the without some other
perception
Bundle Theory  Bundle Theory
of Mind  Empiricism
 Impressions
 Ideas
  Man is the only creature who
governs and directs himself
and his actions
Immanuel  The human mind creates the
structure of the human
Kant: Respect experience.
for Self  Knowledge bridges the self
to the and the material
together.
 Apperception
  Human personality is made of three
parts (tripartite)
Sigmund  Individual development can be
divided by distinct stages
Freud: The characterized by sexual drives.
Psychoanalytic  Psyche is the totality of the human
mind both conscious and
Theory of Self unconscious.
 Psycho Analytic Theory
  Conscious: awareness of present perceptions, feelings, thoughts,
Structural memories, and fantasies.
division of the  Pre-conscious/subconscious which is related to data that can
readily bought to consciousness
psyche:  Unconscious: data retained but not easily available
  Id

Parts of -Primitive biological drives

 Ego (reality)
Personality
- The rational part of personality
According to  Superego
Freud - The Critical Faculty of
personality
  Conscience: If the Ego gives in to the Id’s demands, the super ego
The super ego may make the person feel bad through guilt.
consists of two  Ideal Self: An imaginary picture of how you ought to be. It
represents career aspiration; how to treat other people; and how
systems: to be a member of society.
  Criticized Rene Descartes
 The relation between mind and body
are not isolated processes.
 Mental processes are intelligent acts,
Gilbert Ryle and are not distinct from each other.
 The operation of the mind is itself an
intelligent act.
 The body and mind are not distinct.
  If something can be seen,
heard, felt, touched or tasted
then it exists.
Paul  The immaterial and
Churchland unchanging self/soul does
not exists.
 Eliminative materialism.
  Subjectivity
 Giving a body to the
Maurice immaterial soul.
 Rejected the Cartesian mind-
Merleau-Ponty body dualism and insited
that mind and body is
intrinsically connected.
The Sociological
Perspective
The Self as a
Product of  Sociologists are concerned with answering the following
questions:
Moderns 1. How does society influence you?
Society 2. How do you affect society?
Among Other 3. Who are you as a person in the community?

Constructions
The Self as a
Product of
Moderns  Sociology posits that socially formed norms, beliefs and values
come to exist within the person to a degree where these become
Society natural and normal.

Among Other
Constructions
  Modernization has changed society drastically and has affected
how an individual builds and develops his/her Identity. While it has
Modernity improved living conditions. Stability brought by Modernization
has decreased traditions and traditional support systems.
 1. Industrialism
Key 2. Capitalism
Characteristics 3. Institutions of Surveillance
of Modernity 4. Dynamism
Social groups
Sociologist George Simmel expressed that people create social
and social networks by joining social groups.
network
Social groups  Social Group: having two or more people interacting with one
and social another.
 Social Network: Connections that link you to your social group.
network
  A social group is either oraganic or rational.
Organic Group: natural occurring and is highly influenced by
Social groups family. George Simmel stated you join groups because your family
is also part of it. This phenomenon is called organic motivation.
and social
network Rational Group: occurs in modern societies. Formed as a
matter of shared interests, people join these group of their own
free will. Simmel called this rational motivation.
Mead and the “ A multiple personality is in a certain sense normal.”

social self - George Herbert Mead

  George Herbert Mead was
sociologist from the late 1800s.
He is well known for his “theory
of the Social Self”
 Mead’s work focused on how the
“self” is developed. His theory is
Mead and the based on the perspective that
the self is a product of social
social self interactions and internalizing the
external.
 He believes that the self is not
present at birth but rather
develops overtime through social
experiences and activities.
 Mead’s three stages of self-development:
 Language: Shared understanding of symbols, gestures, and
sound, language give the individual the capacity to express
himself of herself while at the same time understanding what
others are conveying.
Developing  Play: individual role-play or assume the perspective of others.
the self Role-playing enables the individual to internalize the perspective
of others hence developing and understanding on how people feel
about themselves
 Game: the individual does not only internalize other people’s
perspectives, he or she is also able to take into account the
societal rules that adhere to it.
 According to Mead's theory, the self has two sides or phases: 'me'
and 'I.‘
 The 'me' is considered the socialized aspect of the individual. The
Two sides of 'me' represents learned behaviors, attitudes, and expectations of
the self: “I” and others and of society.
 The 'I', therefore, can be considered the present and future phase
“me” of the self. The 'I' represents the individual's identity based on
response to the 'me.'
 The 'me' and the 'I' have a didactic relationship.
The Anthropological
Perspective
What is  Anthropology is the study of people, past and present. It focuses
on understanding the human condition in its cultural aspect.
Anthropology?
  Anthropologist Katherine Ewing described the self as
encompassing the “physical organism, possessing psychological
A unit but functioning and social attributes”.

unitary  This definition portrays the self as implicitly and explicitly existing
in the mind comprised of psychological, biological and cultural
processes.
 Neuroscientist Joseph LeDoux conceptualized the implicit and
A unit but explicit aspects of the self:

unitary  Explicit: The aspect where you are constantly aware of.
 Implicit: The one that is not immediately available to the consciousness.
  According to Ewing, people from all cultures have been observed
Self as to be able to rapidly project different self-representations,
depending on the context of the situation. The person is unaware
representation of these shifts; however, he/she will still experience wholeness and
continuity despite these shifts.
 Two Ways how the self is constructed according to Cultural
Anthropologists:
 Independent Construct: individualistic culture. Represents the self
The Self as separate, distinct, with an emphasis on internal attributes,
Embedded in traits, skills, and values. (Europe and North America)
 Interdependent Construct: collectivist culture. Stresses the
Culture essential connection between an individual and the people. (East
Asia)
 Developmental Psychologist Catherine Raeff believes that culture
can influence the way you view:
The Self  Relationships
Embedded in  Personality Traits
Culture  Achievement
 Expressing Emotion