The Material

Self
GE 1 - UNDERSTANDING THE
SELF KESSY IVY D.
CRUZ
Objectives
• Determine the factors that contribute
to one’s material / economic self
• Understand the importance of self-value
and self-worth
• Analyze and evaluate one’s material and
economic behavior that contributes to
one’s sense of self.
Activity

Make a
meme
out of
the
picture.
Question

What do
your
possessions
say about
you?
Material things:
Extension of identity
• Many people perceive material things as
the extension of their identities.
• Some people think that acquiring
material things is the key in improving
their identity.
• They assume that their participation in the
consumption of goods and services
represent their material self as their
participation furnishes them a status and
I shop, therefore i
am
• Identities ca n be reflected on the
possessions that people have.
• As Tuan (1998) argues, “our fragile sense of
self needs support, and this we get by
having and possessing things because, to
a large degree, we are what we have and
possess.”
Material
according
S elf to William James
“A man’s self is the sum total of all that he can
call his, not only his body and psychic powers,
but his clothes and his house, his wife and
children, his ancestors and friends, his reputation
and works, his lands, and yacht and bank
account. All these things give him the same
emotions. If they wax and prosper, he feels
triumphant; if they dwindle and die away, he
feels ca st down, - not necessarily in the same
degree for each thing, but in much the same
way for all.”
Two subclasses of Material Self
Bodily Self Extracorporeal Self
• Composed of the • Also known as the
intimate parts of the extended self. It
person which include includes
body’s aspects
• physical (arms, • the people of great
head,etc) significance to us
(family),
• emotional
(feelings, desires • possessions (house,
etc) car, clothes)
• psychological • places that matter to
(intelligence, us,
cognition etc)
• products of our labor
In other
words…
• The material self is constituted by our
bodies, clothes, immediate family and
home.
• It is to these things ,according to James,
that we are most deeply affected because
of our investments of self within these
things.
• The more we invest of ourselves in these
objects, the more attached we inevitably
Body
• The innermost part of our material self
• Intentionally we are investing in our body
to make sure that the body functions well
and good
• We buy food to nourish and sustain it,
vitamins to supplement its
performance, cosmetics that will
enhance, etc.
Did you know…
there are certain • We do have preferential
people who get attachment or intimate
parts of their body closeness to certain body
insured?
parts because of its value
David to us.
Beckham’s legs
– $70M
Cristiano
Ronaldo’s legs –
$144M
Jennifer Lopez’s
butt
Clothes
• Influenced by the “Philosophy of Dress” by
Hermann Lotze, James believed that clothing is
an essential part of the material self.
• “Anytime we bring an object into the surface of our
body, we invest in that object into the consciousness of
our personal existence taking in its contours our own
and making it part of the self” – Lotze (Microcosmus)
• The fabric and style of the clothes we wear
bring sensations to the body, to which we are
directly affected through our attitudes and
behaviors.
Family
• What they do or become affects us.
• When an immediate family member dies, a part
of our self-dies too.
• When their lives are in success, we feel their
victories as is it was our own.
• In their failures, we are also put to shame or guilt.
• When they are in disadvantaged situation, there
is an urge within us to help like a voluntary
instinct of saving one’s self from danger.
• We see our family as the nearest replica of
self
Home
• home is where the heart is.
• Our experience inside the home were
recorded and marked on particular parts and
things in our home.
• As the old cliché goes, “if only walls can
speak,” thus the home is an extension of the
self because, in it we can directly connect our
self.
How much do we
our
valueself?
Self-worth vs Self-value
• Self-worth is defined by Merriam-Webster
as “a feeling that you are a good person
who deserves to be treated with
respect”.
• Self-value is “more behavioral than
emotional, more about how you act
toward what you value, including yourself,
than how you feel about yourself
compared to others” (Stosny, 2014).
Self-worth
• The self-worth theory posits that an individual’s
main priority in life is to find self-acceptance
and that self-acceptance is often found
through achievement (Covington & Beery,
1976).
• In turn, achievement is often found
through competition with others.
• competing with others can help us feel like we
have impressive achievements under our belt,
which then makes us feel proud of ourselves and
enhances our acceptance of ourselves
Five of the top factors
that people use to measure and
compare their own self-worth to the
worth of others:
Appearance
• whether measured
by the number on
the scale, the size of
clothing worn, or the
kind of attention
received by others;
Net worth
• This can mean
income, material
possessions, financial
assets, or all of the
above;
Who you know/your social
circle
Some people judge
•
their own value and
the value of others by
their status and what
important and
influential people they
know;
What you do/your
career
we often judge
•
others by what
they do; for
example, a
stockbroker is
often considered
more successful
and valuable than
a janitor or a
teacher;
What you
achieve
• As noted earlier,
frequently
we
achievements
use to
determine
worth (whether it’s
someone’s
own
our worth or
else’s),
someone such as
in business, scores
success
the
on SATs, or
in a marathon or
placement
athletic
other challenge
(Morin,
2017).
Self-Identity
& Consumer
Culture
Self as
consumer
• Consumer researchers have recognized for
a long time that people consume in ways
that are consistent with their sense of self
(Levy 1959; Sirgy 1982)
• Consumers use possessions and brands to
create their self-identities and
communicate these selves to others and
to themselves
Self as
consumer
• Previous studies have emphasized the
significance of self-concept and
consumer preference, as purchases
made by consumers were directly
influenced by the image individuals had
of themselves (Onkivist& Shaw, 1987).
Self-image congruity
• Sirgy (1982) defined self-image congruity
(also often referred to as product-image
congruity) as the process of consumers
purchasing products/brands that they
perceived as possessing symbolic images
similar to the image they hold of
themselves.
‘I’: consumer’s identity
• ‘I’ is the consumer's self-concept or
self- dentity.
• This ‘I’ includes both ‘sans
possessions' self
and the extended self
Six Components
• Although the • a. their bodies
concept of ‘I’ can • b. their values
include virtually and character
everything a • c . their successes
person ever come
to own and live and competence
with, a systematic • d. their social roles
list would include • e. their traits
six components: • f. their possessions.
• If a person had to invest a lot of resources
(money, time, energy) finding and selecting
a product, then to psychologically justify
that kind of investment, people tend to
view that product as part of their
extended self.
• For this reason, more expensive purchases,
and purchases for which they have saved
for a long time are more likely to become
part of the extended self.
How products relate to
self
• Products thus can relate to one’s self in two
ways:
a. by being instrumental to enhancing their self
sans possessions’ and; b. by becoming a
valued possession.
• As to the second role, product possessions
become part of self by six mechanisms
described above: by self-based choice, by
investment in acquisition, by investment in use,
by bonding during use, as collections, and as
memory markers.
Let’s
How do you see yourself?
reflect:
Are your possessions extensions of your self?
How would your possessions describe you
as a person?
We buy things necessary for our
and development as
survival a person, butwe
also need to guard ourselves so as
not to easily fall into the
consumer culture.
Weshould be more consciousand
critical of the things that we
buy as not to
confuse this with materialism.
Material blessings are fruits of our
and
laborsuccess.

All we possess may change, vanish, and

rotten
be but the authentic self will
remain.
Remember…