Psychological Perspectives

 - Is the study of the cognitive or affective

representation of one’s identity.
 - Pertains to how one creates a schema of his
person.
 - Awareness of the self or having proper
conception of the physical self.
 - Specific view of oneself as a result of
observation and understanding of displayed
behavior.
 • WILLIAM JAMES

ME-SELF and I-SELF

• -American philosopher and psychologist, William James

(1842-1910), extensively explained the self and its aspects
on his 1890 publication The Principles of Psychology.
Concept of the SELF

• A man's self is the “sum total of all that he can call

his, not only his body and his psychic powers, but
his clothes and his house, his wife and children, his
ancestors and friends, his reputation and works, his
lands and horses, and yacht and bank-account.”
• This suggests that the self is comprise of everything
the person has.
Two Facets of SELF
• I-Self and the Me-Self.

• I-Self is said to be the self in action or as subject; it

is that aspect of the self that does the acting,
thinking, and feeling. It is also known as the self as
the knower or perceiver
• Me-Self on the other hand refers to the
self as an object; it is that facet of the self
which is the known or the perceived.
• Also termed by James as the Empirical
Self, the me is one’s accumulated
understanding of one’s self.
The Me- Self that is empirical.
• It is based on personal
experiences of a person.
• It does not matter if the
experience is new, exciting,
familiar, or unpleasant– it’s
all simply acceptable, it is all
ok.
 • James suggests that the Me-Self or the Empirical Self has three
components:

• 1. Material Self - which encompasses all of our

important possessions as well as the people we
treasure; the body, family, clothes, money
• 2. Social Self The social self refers to the social
relationship of the self within the society. How she/he
reacts or communicate with her/his surroundings.
According to James’s people have different social selves
depending on the context of social situation.

• Example:
• A person may act in a different way at work when
compared to how that same person may act when they are
out with a group of friends.
• 3. Spiritual Self - all internal thoughts and
introspection about one’s values and moral
standards.It is not dependent on what you
own or with whom you talk.
• Example:
• The essence of who you think you are, your
feelings about yourself apart from external
evaluation.
 CARL ROGERS’S REAL SELF AND IDEAL SELF

• -American psychologist Carl Rogers

(1902 – 1987), posited about self-
concept.

• -Self-concept simply speaks of

how we think and view of
ourselves. It includes the entire
schema and the knowledge that we
have or that we are aware of about
ourselves.
• Carl Rogers says that the self is flexible and
changing perception of personal identity.
- that the self develops from interactions with
significant people and self-awareness that always
strive for self-fulfillment or self-actualization.
• He claims that self-identity continuously
changing and evolving due to the demands of
social contexts, new information,
modernizations and globalization.
• Through time the self is also developing. The
needs and wants for now may not be sufficient
for the next years.
Two Categories of Self
1. Actual/Real self - is the one you actually
see, who we actually care. How we think,
feel, act and look.
• It was built on self-knowledge meaning we
are conscious on ourselves.
• Can be seen by others, the people that
surrounds us.
2. Ideal self- is the one that you aspire to be.
• It is an idealized image that we have developed
over time, based on what we have learned and
experience.
• Maybe what our parents have thought us,
• What we admire in others, what our society
promotes and what we think is in our best
interest.
-The alignment of the two is important. If the actual self is aligned
with the way I want to be (ideal self), then we feel a sense of
mental well-being or peace of mind but if not the incongruence or
lack of alignment it may result mental distress or anxiety because
you did not reach your objective.
Example of Incongruent Behavior.

• When someone says they start working as soon as he

buys a new car. This person buys a new car with the
help of their partner or spouse but does not start
working. This behavior is incongruent because his
statement does not match his actions.
Example of Congruent
Behavior.
• When someone states that he loves dogs.
This person adopts several dogs over the
course of his life and enjoys the
company of dogs. This would be
congruent behavior in psychology
because the person enjoys the company
of dogs.
HOW DOES JAMES’ AND ROGERS’ IDEA OF SELF RELATED?
If you look closely, the I-self and the real self is almost
identical because it mainly speaks of how we are as who
we are. Both concepts are referring on our own
knowledge of ourselves.
The Me-self and the ideal self is related in a sense that
both refers on the subjective side of ourselves. The Me-
self is how we socialize and how others view us, while
the ideal self is how we see ourselves in the future. Both
William James and Carl Rogers believe that the two
components of their own theories must meet one
another in the middle in order to achieve a much broad
self awareness.
ALBERT BANDURA’S
PROACTIVE AND
AGENTIC SELF
• Albert Bandura (1925 –
present) is a renowned
psychologist who advocated
the social cognitive theory of
learning.
• This learning perspective
contends that human behavior
results from vicarious
learning, through the
experiences of other people.
Agency is the capability of a human to influence
one’s functioning and the course of events by
one’s action.
Are perceived as proactive agents of experiences.
• There are four functions;
1. Intentionality. It is when the people make
intentions of their action plans and strategies for
realizing them. Intention means you are aware of
it. Each of us should know our self-interests in
order to achieve unity with our diversity.
Example:
• I saw an old woman
who will cross the street
but unfortunately she
can’t walk fast and
what I did was to help
her and my intention is
to cross her safely.
2. Forethought - Is the ability to anticipate outcomes on
current activities and it is like you are predicting your
future. A forethoughtful perspective provides direction,
coherence, and meaning to one’s life.

Example
• I will clean my room not just because to make it clean
and comfortable but to have a good ambience for me
to study.I’m thinking of a good consequence that
should I do.
3. Self-reactiveness - Involves
making choices and choosing
appropriate courses of action as well
as motivating and regulating them.

Example:
• I chose this course and I must do
my obligations to study, pass and
learn from my subjects. I must be
reactive towards the things and the
circumstances that might happen
and will happen.
4. Self- Reflectiveness – Give the
person the ability to reflect upon
and the adequacy of his or her
thoughts and actions.

Example:
I didn’t study our lesson in calculus
and I got a failing grade. Basically I
will reflect on what happened and
the best thing to do is to do better
and never let your professors or
certain subject bring you down..
Three Forms of Agency
1.Personal/individual Agency – people bring
their influence to bear on what they can control.

Example:
Having a savings account; just knowing that one
has savings for a rainy day helps maintain
calmness. Hyper-agency is when a person
incorrectly believes they have control over
another person's thoughts, feelings, and actions.
 • 2. Proxy agency - they influence others who
have the resources, knowledge, and means to
act on their behalf to secure the outcomes they
desire.

Example :
If I give a power of attorney to someone, her
signing certain documents on my behalf at a
meeting with buyers can count as my closing on
the sale of a home.
• 3. Collective agency - people pool their
knowledge, skills, and resources and act in
concert to shape their future.
• Example:
• Personality traits, it is an agent’s cultural
and social tendencies.
• Our patterns of thoughts
and behavior, example, being open-minded,
hot-tempered, easy-going, confident and
nervous
• Bandura viewed people as
agents or originators of
experience.
• We don’t just merely observe
and imitate behavior; we
have cognitive faculties that
enable us to discern unto
whether or not such behavior
is worth emulating or if such
can help us become better
individuals.
Self-Efficacy
• Is defined as one’s conviction or
belief that he or she can take on a
certain task successfully. With these
emerged the concept of the self as
proactive and agentic.
Proactive Self
• The self as proactive is constructive; it is optimistic
that it can get through whatever adversities it may
encounter.
• Having the capacity to recognize and take
advantage of opportunities that may be beneficial to
our selves and to better our lives in general.

Example:
• Taking responsibility for your life and action rather
watching how things happen
• Making the right decision to achieve your goals.
Bandura views people as being more than
just mere planners and fore thinkers.
• We are agents of change; we can be
actively involved in shaping our own lives
because we are equipped with the cognitive
faculty and capacity to do so.
• We can be highly motivated and not easily
discouraged when he faced with challenges.
• An agentic and proactive self believes that
no matter how big the problem may seem to
be, he or she can overcome it.
 MURRAY BOWEN’S
DIFFERENTIATED
SELF

• -Known for being one of the forerunners of family therapy and

notable for having developed a family systems theory, American
psychiatrist Dr. Murray Bowen (1913 – 1990), posited on the
differentiation of selves.
Differentiation of selves
• - refers to the degree to which one is able to balance:
(a) emotional and intellectual functioning, and (b)
intimacy and autonomy in relationship (Skowron &
Friedlander, 1998).

• Example:
• Ability to separate one’s feelings from thoughts
• Ability to maintain one’s feelings and thoughts in the
presence & pressure of close, intimate relationships.
Poorly differentiated individuals;
• may engage in fusion in their relationships,
this means that they become much attached to
the roles they play in a relationship,
• they have few firmly held beliefs,
• they are more likely to be compliant, and seek
approval from others before making major
decision.
Highly differentiated individuals
• are flexible and are better able to adapt to stressful
situations.
• they can set clear boundaries between their thoughts
and feelings,
• they can shift of being emotional to being rational
(or vice versa) depending on what the situation and
may make impulsive decisions based on their current
emotional states.
• Thus differentiation of self is the capacity to
achieve a clear, coherent sense of self along
with emotional relationships with important
others.
• According to Bowen, differentiation is a
salient trait foe attaining mature development
and psychological well-being (Skowron &
Friedlander, 1998).
 • Donald Woods Winnicott (1896-
1971 was an English
DONALD psychoanalyst who conceptualized
WOODS the true and false selves.
WINNICOTT’S •
TRUE AND According to him, the true self is
FALSE SELVES based on our authentic
experiences as a person. This is
somehow similar to Roger’s
concept of the real self. The
feeling of being alive, doing the
things you want to do, and just
being yourself comprise the true
self.
Example of TRUE SELF:
• A person might work hard at their job and
also spend time with family. They might
believe that their job is just something
they do, but that the importance they
place on family relationships is part of
their true self.
• The false self, which may also referred to as a
fake self or superficial self, is our defense
against the vulnerabilities or imperfections of
our real self.
• It is a defensive façade, behind which the
person can feel empty, it's behaviours being
learned and controlled rather than
spontaneous and genuine.
Example of FALSE SELF:
• Real-life examples of the false self are based
around certain beliefs that we take on in order
to fit into our worlds better. If I am pretty, I
will be more likeable. If I have a lot of
money, I am successful. If I work
hard/achieve more, I will have more value.
• Wearing a social mask protects our authentic selves
from being constantly exposed to the nonstop demands
of our interpersonal environment.

• There is a natural human tendency to protect our

authentic selves from the scrutiny of the outside world.
When we protect our true selves, we are able to avoid
being rejected or hurt. There is a downside to this
protection though – we may miss out on the
opportunity to have genuine connections with other
people.