Understanding The Self

Psychological Perspective Understanding the Self

What is Psychology? • Psychology is the study of human behavior and mental processes • What about the psychology of the self? And its cognitive construction?

Psychology of the Self • It focuses on the representation of an individual based on his or her experiences. • This experiences are either from

The self as a cognitive construct • 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

William James and the Me, Self, and I-Self

• William James (1890) conceptualized the self as the integration of everything a person can call his/her own. • Consisted of the following: the “I” and “me”

Stream of consciousness • Through it the Or the persons Cognitive capacity Of external world awareness and selffor • The duality of the self consciousness depends on the stream one’s internal states of consciousness, or the become possible mind continues flow of thoughts and internal reactions to certain

Stream of consciousness

• Is further divided into parts: constituents of • When we direct our the self, self feeling, awareness to our own self seeking and selfexistence like being preservation conscious, it is said to be that we are using “me”

Constituents of the me-self • The combination of the material, social and spiritual selves is called the empirical self. • Arrange in hierarchical manner in which the spiritual self is at the top, social self in between and material self at the bottom

M a t

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e - Manifest in what we have or l anything tangible we value such as

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our bodies, immediate family, and properties. James construed that the body is the most cherished among the material self, which we refer as “me” and the rest is called

Social Self

- Manifest in who we are relative to social situations. Involves all of the mental images constructed by people that pertains to us.

Spiritual self - Most intimate part of our selves. It is an active element of our consciousness that includes our moral awareness, will and conscience.

#proudfriendher #proudmomand e dad #proudsister - It is the self-conscious emotions and attitudes such as pride, vanity, modesty that may occur when we become conscious of the constituents of ourselves.

Self seeking and self preservation

- Once we experience self-feelings, we are more likely to perform self-seeking behaviors to improve and preserve the state of our material, social and spiritual self.

Self seeking and self preservation

- Are future-oriented actions that aim to preserve and develop our empirical self. They are as follows BODILY SELFSEEKING - These are reflexes, feelings, and actions that protect

Self seeking and self preservation SOCIAL SELFSEEKING These are friendliness and affections that develop our relationship with others as well as achievement and influence that

Self seeking and self preservation SPIRITUAL SELF-SEEKING - these are intellectual, moral and spiritual development that improves a persons sense of self. - James also stated that our spiritual self is explored when we engage in self reflection

Susan Harter and the I-self •

she elaborated • For her, the I-self is William James the assumptions about developmentalthe I-self. cognitive construct that promotes mental health and well being of #feelingpositive#positivet children and hinking#lifeisgood#ha adolescents ppylife#ilovemyself

Harter’s concept of I-self Protective factors in the development of mental health problems namely: Awareness • Contention of selfawareness, being conscious of one’s reality, appreciate relationship with people, challenge psychological and physical abilities and pursue new activities

Harter’s concept of I-self Sense of agency • Individuals demonstrate control over the way they behave and think. This is reflected through

Sense of Agency (Bandura) Self efficacy –a conviction of the Iself in which one can successfully accomplish accomplishing a challenging task or deliver positive outcomes even in difficult situation

Sense of Agency (Bandura) How self-efficacy developed?

Sense of Agency (Bandura) Mastery motivationdetermination in doing so and uphold mindset in terms of developing our intellectual, social; and moral faculties

Sense of Agency (Bandura) Intrinsic motivation- self drive in performing the task

Sense of Agency (Bandura) Flow- I- self extreme concentration on performing intrinsically rewarding activities, characterized by positive emotion, and awareness

Sense of self-continuity - During five to six years of age; the child’s understanding that he self is constant even if physical appearance may change. - It also serves as protective factors in the development of mental health problems such as low self-esteem, depression, suicidal ideation and disorganized self concept

Self coherence - A process in figuring out how different attributes could coincide within an individual; a persons acceptance, as well as flexibility about his/her diverse psychological well-being

Social Comparison

- Is a way to evaluate and further develop our performance in social situations through comparing ourselves to other people.

Social Comparison

Social Comparison Downward social comparison contrastive effect Upward social comparison contrastive effect Downward social comparison assimilative effect Upward social comparison assimilative effect

Failure of other people causes positive feelings about the self (I am way more better than him) Success of other people

causes negative feelings such as anger and envy (I feel so inferior to him) Failure of other people causes negative disposition such as dejection and threat to share same outcomes (I Success of other people may end up failing just like causes positive disposition him) such as being happy and inspired to do better (I will

Don’t compare yourself to others

Self Activation • Is a cognitive stimulation of mindsets and information processing styles that are used to evaluate the self during social comparisons.

Self Construct • Are the mindsets that one uses in organizing social information that is eventually used for evaluating the self.

Global versus Differentiated Models

Self Esteem • A person’s overall self evaluation or sense of 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 a decision people make about their self worth.

• Physical Self-esteem including physical appearance and physical ability

• Social Self-esteem, including work performance and performance in other task • Performance self-esteem, including relationship wit family members, relationship with significant others

Self Esteem • A person’s overall self evaluation or sense of worth

State self-esteem

• A.k.a Feelings of selfworth it refers to temporary feelings or momentary emotional reactions to positive and negative events where we feel good or bad about ourselves during these situations

Self Esteem • A person’s overall self evaluation or sense of worth

Domain Specific self-esteem

• A.k.a Self-evaluations it refers on the focused on how people evaluate their values abilities and attributes. This is making distinctions or differentiations on how good or bad people are in bad specific physical attributes, abilities and personal characteristics

Real and Ideal Self Concepts

To want who you actually are is good for your well being

• These perspective assert the overall dignity and worth of human beings and their capacity for self-realization • Lets talk about the ideas of;

• Karen Horney and Carl Rogers ideas of the Real self and Ideal self concepts

Karen Horney • Feminine Psychologist • She 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

Karen Horney • Idealized Self-image – an imaginary picture of the self as the possessor of unlimited power and superlative qualities is developed . • Example: This is the person who we would like to be. It consists of our goals and ambitions in life, and is dynamic – i.e. forever changing. The ideal self in childhood is not the

Karen Horney • Actual Self– the person one is in everyday life, is often despised because it fails to fulfill the requirements of the idealized image. • Example: Qualities you believe you actually possess.

Karen Horney • Real Self– revealed only as a person begins to shed the various techniques developed to deal with basic anxiety and to find ways resolving conflicts. It is a “force” that impels growth and self realization. • Example:“Real” is a term that displays originality. If a thing is described as real, it means it is very original and

Carl Rogers • Developed Person Centered Theory • He establish a conception of the self involving the “real self” (a.k.a self-concept) and “ideal self”

Carl Rogers • Real self– Rogers definition of real self includes all those aspects of one’s being and one’s experiences that are perceived in awareness by the individual.

• Part of ourselves where we feel, think, look and act involving our self image.

Carl Rogers • Ideal self– revolves around goals and ambitions in life, it is dynamic, the idealized image that we have developed overtime. • This is what our parents have taught us considering what we have admire in others, what our society promotes, what we think are in our best

Multiple versus Unified Selves

Multiple Selves

- According to Kenneth Gergen, it is the capacities we carry within us from multiple relations. These are not ‘discovered’ but ‘created’ in our relationships with other people

Unified Selves

- It is understood that a person is essentially connected with self hood and identity. Ego is the most important part of the mind that make the organized and coherent to the

True versus False Selves

Donald W. Winnicott

- Distinguished what he called “true self” from the “false selves” in the human personality, considering the true self as based on a sense of being experiencing body, false self as a necessary defensive organization, a survival kit, a caretaker self, the means which a threatened person has

True self • True self– has a sense of integrity, connected to wholeness that harsh to the early stage

False self • False self- is used when the person has to comply with external rules, such as being polite or otherwise following social codes.

Healthy and Unhealthy self

• Healthy false self- is functional, can be compliant but without the feeling that it has betrayed the true self. • Unhealthy False selfa feeling of forced compliance rather than loving adaptation

Heinz Kohut • As investigated by Heinz, false selves can lead towards narcissistic personality, which identifies with external factors at the cost of one’s own autonomous creativity. • "self states", including one's sense of worth and well-being, are met in relationships with others.

Narcissism • is a personality trait characterized by overly high self-esteem, self-admiration, and selfcenteredness.

• Narcissists can be perceived as charming at first, but often alienate others in the long run. They can also make bad romantic partners as they often behave selfishly and are always ready to look for someone else who they think will be a better mate, and they are more likely to be unfaithful than non-narcissists

Narcissists tend to agree with statements such as the following: • “I know that I am good because everybody keeps telling me so.” • “I can usually talk my way out of anything.” • “I like to be the center of attention.” • “I have a natural talent for influencing people.”