UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
to think deeply and make wise choices.
PHILISOHICAL SELF
Philosophy is defined as the study of knowledge
or wisdom from its Latin roots, philo (love) and
sophia (wisdom). This field is also considered as
the “The Queen of all Sciences” because every
scientific discipline has philosophical foundations.
GREEK PHILOSOPHY
SOCRATES (470 BC- 399 BC)
- Know thyself!
- Question everything
- Only the pursuit of goodness brings
happiness
- An unexamined life is not worth living
- I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only
make them think.
- To know is to know that you know nothing.
That is the meaning of true knowledge.
SOCRATES METHOD
- Question and answer, leads to students
thinking for themselves
The self is dichotomous consisting of two
things:
PHYSICAL REALM (changeable, temporal and
imperfect) anything we sense – see, smell, feel,
hear and taste – it is always changing.
IDEAL REALM (imperfect and unchanging, eternal
and immortal – includes concept on beauty, truth
and goodness – always limited, relative and
subjective.
PLATO
- Greek philosopher who founded the
academy in Athens.
- The academy is the first institution of
learning in the West.
- Reason, appetite, and spirit. These 3
elements of the self work in every individual
inconsistently.
- He elaborates the concept of PSYCHE, a
Greek term for the soul (self) which has
three-part soul/ self.
- Reason or Divine Essence enables human
Physical Appetite is the basic biological
needs of human such as hunger, thirst and
sexual desire. Spirit or Passion is the basic
emotions of human such as love, anger,
ambition, aggressiveness and empathy.
- Be kind, because all the people we met may
have battle to surpass
- Never discourage anyone who continually
makes progress, no matter how slow.
ST. AUGUSTIN OF HIPPO
The last of the Great Ancient Philosophers
Christianity’s first Theologian
- Pray where supposedly everything depends
on God. Work which seems all depends on
you
- You must lose whatever you have filled and
you will be filled with things that you do not
have.
- Admission of wrongdoing is the first step to
a good cause.
- A habit that, if not prevented, is becoming a
necessity.
RENE DESCARTES
- I think therefore I am. (ito ang iniisip ko,
kaya ito ako)
- The mind exists. In order to gain true
knowledge, one must doubt everything,
even own existence. Doubting makes one
aware that he/she is thinking being, thus,
he/she exists. The self is a dynamic entity
that engages in mental operations –
thinking, reasoning, and perceiving
processes.
JOHN LOCKE
- No mans knowledge here can go beyond
his experience.
- He is famed in his concept of TABULA
RASA or black state that assumes the
nurture side of human development
- Personal identity and soul in which the
personal identity is situated are two very
different things.
 - Self is not tied to any particular body; it only IMMANUEL KANT
exists in other times and places because of
- Morality is not properly the doctrine of how
the memory of those experiences.
we may make ourselves happy, but how we
- Even if a man has the ability to think, it does
may make ourselves worthy of happiness.
not mean that he is using it. Others have
(ang moralidad ay hindi ang doktrina kung
chosen to live in ignorance, others think
paano natin pasasayahin ang ating sarili; ito
very weak, or others are slaves to their
ay kung paano natin magagawa an gating
emotions which they use their brains to
sarili na karapat dapat na lumigaya)
understand the laws of nature. Others
- He is regarded as the greatest philosopher
chose to simply be bad because they are
of the modern period.
accustomed to it.
- To Kant, there is necessarily a mind that
DAVID HUME organizes the impressions that men get
from the external world.
- A wise man therefore, proportions his belief
- To Kant, self is not the object of
to the evidence. (ang paniniwalaan ng isang
consciousness but it makes the
matalinong tao ay nakabase sa mga
consciousness understandable and unique.
ebidensya)
- The self is not just what gives one his
- He assumed that there is NO SELF! He
personality, it is also the seat of knowledge
said that, if we carefully examine the
acquisition for all human persons.
contents of experience, we find that there
are only two distinct entities: Impression and SIGMUND FREUD
Ideas.
- Impression are the basic sensations of our - The child is the Father of a man
- He is considered as the Father and Founder
experience: pain, pleasure, heat, cold, grief,
of Psychoanalysis.
happiness, fear and so on.
- Ideas are copies of impressions that are - His dualistic view of self involves the
conscious self and unconscious self.
built up from our primary impressions.
- CONSCIOUS SELF – is governed by reality
Hume’s Theory of Bundle principle – rational, practical and
appropriate to the social environment.
- The man is a collection of different
- UNCONSCIOUS SELF- is governed by
successive perception is always changing
pleasure principle – aggressive, destructive,
and moving.
unrealistic and instinctual.
- The qualities that we feel the is only part of
something. GILBERT RYLE
- The EMPIRICISM school of thought that
- In searching for the self, one cannot
espouses the idea that knowledge can only
simultaneously be the hunter and hunted.
be possible if it is sensed and experienced.
(Sa paghahanap sa sarili, hindi maaaring
- The self does not exist because all of the
ang naghahanap ay sya ring hinahanap.)
experiences that a person may have are
- He is an important figure in the field of
just perception of self.
Linguistic Analysis, which focused on the
- The self that is being experienced by an
solving of philosophical puzzles through an
individual is nothing but a kind of fictional
analysis of language
self.
- Fictional self is created to unify the mental - The SELF is best understood as a pattern of
behavior, the tendency or disposition for a
events and introduce order into an individual
person to behave in certain circumstances.
lives, but this self has no real existence.
 - The SELF is not an entity one can locate
and analyze but simply the convenient
name that people use to refer to all the
behaviors that people make.
PAUL AND PATRICIA CHURCHLAND
- Churchland holds to materialism, the belief
that nothing but matter exists. This means
that the PHYSICAL BRAIN, and not the
mind, exists.
- The self is a product of brain activity. The
behavior of the self can be attributed to the
neuro-pharmacological states, the neural
activity in specialized anatomical areas.
- That the physiological processes of the
body directly affect the mental state of the
person.
- To understand the mind, we must
understand the brain. (Upang maunawaan
ang isipan, kaailangang una wain natin ang
utak.)
- Brain are not magical; they are causal
machines. (Ang utak/isip/talino ay hindi
mahiwaga or mahika; ito lang ang dahilan
ng mga bagay-bagay)
MAURICE MERLAU-PONTY (1908-1961)
- We know not through our intellect but
through our experience.
- Merleau-Ponty is a phenomenologist who
asserts that the mind-body are so
intertwined that they cannot be separated
from one another.
- The consciousness is a dynamic form that
actively structures our experience.
- One cannot find any experience that is not
embodied experience.
- Because we are in the world, we are
condemned to meaning, and we cannot do
or say anything without its acquiring a name
in history. (Dahil tayo ay nasa mundo,
kailangan nating magkaroon ng kahulugan,
at hindi tayo maaaring gumawa o magsalita
ng kahit na ano na hindi tayo nagkakaroon
ng pangalan sa kasaysayan.)
THE SELF ACCORDING TO SOCIOLOGY AND
ANTHROPOLOGY
THE SELF ACCORDING TO SOCIOLOGY
- SELF and with OTHERS
THE SELF ACCORDING TO ANTHROPOLOGY
- SELF and what makes us HUMAN
- SOCIETY
- CULTURE
SELF separate, self-contained, independent,
consistent, unitary, and private (Stevens 1996)
- SEPARATE (SELF IS DISTINCT FROM
OTHER SELVES)
- SELF CONTAINED AND INDEPENDENT
(IN ITSELF IT CAN EXIST FOR IT
DOESNT REQUIRE ANY OTHER SELF
FOR IT TO EXIST)
- CONSISTENT (IT HAS A PERSONALITY
THAT IS ENDURING AND THEREFORE
CAN BE EXPECTED TO PERSIST FOR
QUITE SOME TIME)
- UNITARY (THE CENTER OF ALL
EXPERIENCES AND THOUGHTS – CHIEF
COMMAND POST
- PRIVATE (NEVER ACCESSIBLE TO
ANYONE BUT THE SELF)
KEY FACTORS OF SOCIAL CHANGE
- PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT
- POPULATION
- ISOLATION / CONTACT
- TECHNOLOGY
KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERNITY
- INDUSTRIALISM – the social relations
implied in the extensive use of materials
power and machinery in all process of
production
- CAPITALISM – a production system
involving both competitive product markets
and commodification (putting a price tag) of
labor power.
 - POLITICAL GOVERNMENT – the massive - It is the individual’s response to the
increase of power and reach by institutions, community’s attitude toward the person
especially in government - It represents impulses and drives that
- DYNAMISM – having vigorous activity and enables him/her to express individualism
progress, everything is subject to change and creativity
- Constructs a person based on what has
SELF IS DYNAMIC AND CHANGING
been learned by the “me”
HUMANS ARE CHANGING BEINGS IN THIS ME
CHANGING WORLD
- The product of what the person has learned
- Culture is central to identity. Culture defines
while interacting with others and with the
who we are, how we think, how we
environment
communicate, what we value and what is
- It comprises the learned behaviors,
important to us… Every area of human
attitudes, and even expectations
development, which defines the child’s best
- It exercises social control over the self
interest, has a cultural component. Your
- It sees to it that rules are not broken
culture helps define HOW you attach, HOW
you express emotion, HOW you learn and SELF AS REPRESENTATION
HOW you stay healthy.
- ERWING (1989) ASSERTED THAT A SELF
THE SELF AND CULTURE IS ILLUSORY.
- PEOPLE CONSTRUCT A SERIES OF
- According to Mauss there are two kinds of
SELF-REPRESENTATIONS THAT ARE
self. The personne and the moi.
BASED ON SELECTED CULTURE
- Personne has much to do with what it
CONCEPTS OF PERSON AND
means to live in a particular institution, a
SELECTED CHAINS OF PERSONAL
particular family, a particular religion, a
MEMORIES.
particular nationality, and how to behave
- PEOPLE FROM ALL CULTURES HAVE
given expectations and influences from
BEEN OBSERVED TO BE ABLE TO
others.
RAPIDLY PROJECT DIFFERENT SELF-
- Moi refers to a persons sense of who he is,
REPRESENTATION, DEPENDING ON
his body and his basic identity, his biological
THE CONTEXT OF THE SITUATION.
givenness. Moi is a person’s basic identity.
SELF AND THE FAMILY
MEAD AND VYGOTSKY
- More than his givenness, (personality,
- The way that human persons develop is
tendencies, and propensities, among
with the use of language acquisition and
others), one is believed to be in active
interaction with others. The way that we
participation in the shaping of the self.
process information is normally a form of an
internal dialogue in our head. THE SELF AND EDUCATION
MEAD’S SIDE OF THE SELF - Language as both a publicly shared in
privately utilize symbol system is the site
I
where the individual and the social make
- The part of the self that is unsocialized and and remake each other (Schwarts, White,
spontaneous. and Lutz 1993)
LANGUAGE
- Language opens the door for learners to
acquire knowledge that others already have.
- Language serves as social function at the
same time has important individual function,
like “talking to oneself” (private speech ) is a
form of self talk that guides the child’s
thinking and action.
THE SELF AND THE SOCIETY
SOCIAL INTERACTION
- Vygotsky emphasized that effective learning
happens through participation in social
activities, making the social context of
learning crucial.
- Parents, teachers and other adults explain,
model, assist, give directions and provide
feedbacks to the learner
- Peers / friends cooperate and collaborate
and enrich the learning experience
CULTURAL FACTORS
- Vygotsky looked into the wide range of
experiences that a culture would give to a
child.
- Example, one culture’s view about
education, how children are trained early in
life all can contribute to the cognitive
development of the child
GENDER AND THE SELF
- SOCIETY FORCES A PARTICULAR
IDENTITY DEPENDING ON OUR GENDER
- RELATIONSHPS – may be seen as
voluntary or as duty-based
- PERSONALITY TRAITS - culture
influences whether (and how) you value
traits, like humility, self-esteem, politeness,
assertiveness, etc. , as well as how you
perceive hardship or how you feel about
relying on others.
- ACHIEVEMENT – culture influences how
you define success and whether you value
certain types of individual and group
achievements
- EXPRESSING EMOTIONS – culture
influences what will affect you emotionally,
as well as how you express yourself, such
as showing your feelings in public or
keeping it private.
The Self according to Psychology
- Psychology is a scientific study of mental
processes and human behavior. It aims to
describe, analyze, predict and control
human behavior in general
What is Self?
- “I am who I am” “If you are who you are,
then who are you that makes you who you
are.”
- the sense of personal identity and of who
we are as individuals (Jhangani and Tarry,
2014)
William James
- Founder of Functionalism
- Brought prominence to U.S Psychology
through the publication of The Principles of
Psychology
- Ways of approaching the self – the knower
(the pure or I-Self) and the known (the
objective or the Me-Self)
- The self having two aspects – the “I” and
the “me” (William James 1890)
Knower or I-Self
- the thinking, acting, and feeling self as the
one who acts and decides. (Gleitman,et. Al
2011)
FEATURES OF THE I-SELF
- A sense of being the agent or initiator of
behavior (I believe my actions have an
impact; that I cause an effect in my
environment)
- A sense of being unique. (This is how I
am different from everything in my
environment; I perceive there is only one
me.)
 - A sense of continuity. (I am the same
person from day to day)
- A sense of awareness about being
aware. (I understand what is going on in me
and around me; and I know I understand it.)
Real and Ideal Self Concepts
Carl Rogers
- One of the prominent humanistic or
existential theorists in personality.
- Founder of Client-centered therapy – aimed
to make the person achieve balance
between their self-concept (real self) and
ideal self.
Real Self
- Includes all those aspects of one identity
that are perceived in awareness.
- These are the things that are known to
oneself like the attributes that an individual
posses.
Ideal Self
- Ones view of self as one wishes to be
- Contains aspirations or wishes of an
individual for themselves
The SELF
- as IDENTITY is composed of personal
characteristics, social roles and
responsibilities, as well as affiliations that
define who one is (Oyserman, Elmore and ROY BAUMEISTER
Smith 2012)
- Self-concept should be understood as a
- as SELF CONCEPT is what basically
knowledge structure. People pay attention
comes to your mind when you are asked
to themselves, noticing both their internal
about who you are.
states and responses and their external
behavior. Through such self-awareness,
people collect information about
themselves. Self-concept is built from this
information and continues to develop as
people expand their ideas about who they
are.
Gregg HEnriques Tripartite Model of Human Self-Efficacy
Consciousness
- The agent-self expresses what Albert
Self and identity are social products Bandura (1989) termed self-efficacy.
- Self-efficacy is a person’s belief that he or
Multiple versus Unified Self
she can execute goal-directed behavior in a
- Experiential Self is a domain of self that successful manner, especially under
defined as felt experience of being – challenging or stressful circumstances.
memory
- Private Self is a portion of self that verbally
narrates what is happening and tries to
make sense of what is going on
- Public Self/Persona is a domain of self that
an individual show to the public
DONALD WINNICOT (1896-1971):
TRUE SELF, FALSE SELF
- Winnicott used the term "True Self" to
describe a sense of self based on
spontaneous, authentic experience, a sense
of "all-out personal aliveness," or "feeling
real."
SIGMUND FREUD
- The "False Self" was, for Winnicott, a
defense designed to protect the True Self - saw the “self”, its mental processes, and
by hiding it. Winnicott thought that In health, one’s behavior as the results of the
a False Self was what allowed one to interaction between the “Id”, the “Ego”, and
present a "polite and mannered attitude" the “Superego” as it is influenced by the
level of consciousness.
Albert Bandura
- Psychologist and Professor Emeritus of
Social Science in Psychology at Stanford
University.
- He is known for his theory of social learning
by means of modelling.
Self as Proactive and as Agent
- Self as proactive means an individual have
control in any situation by making things
happen.
- They act as agent in doing or making
themselves as they are.
- Agents assume some degree of ownership
and control over things , both internally and
externally.
ID
- Pleasure principle
- Seat of passion, desires and other
instinctual drives
- Body needs, wants and impulses
EGO
- Function by the Reality Principle
- Seeks to pleasure the Id drives in realistic
way
- Regulates our action
SUPEREGO
- Works on morality principle
- The seat of what is right or wrong
- Reflect the internalization of cultural rules,
set by the guidance and influence of our
parents.
Sikolohiyang Pilipino
(Filipino Psychology)
- Virgilio Enriquez Father of Sikolohiyang
Pilipino.
- The Self in the Filipino is the unity of “self”
and “others” or “kapwa”.
- The word “kapwa” is the concept of how
every Filipino thinks, behaves and relates
with others.
- Filipino concept of self can be identified with
the unity of his inner self (oneself) and outer
self (others) expressed in the word “kapwa”.
- SOCIAL INTERACTION always has a part
to play in who we think we are.
- It is not Nature vs. Nurture but instead
“Nature and Nurture” perspective.
THEORY OF SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM
(G.H. Mead 1934)
- The self is created and developed through
human interaction.(Hogg, Vaughan, 2010)
3 Reasons why “SELF” and “IDENTITY” are
Social Products.
- We do not create ourselves out of nothing.
Society helped in creating the foundations
of who we are.
- We actually need others to affirm and
reinforce who we think we are. We need
them as reference points about our identity.
- What we think is important to us may also
have been influenced by what is important
in our social or historical context.
“Social interaction” and “Group affiliation”
- are vital factors in creating our self-concept
especially in the aspect of providing us with
our social identity.
- It is inevitable that we can have several
social identities, that those identities can
overlap, and that we automatically play the
roles as we interact with our groups
“SELF-AWARENESS”
- can keep you from doing something
dangerous.
- can be too much that we are concerned
about being observed and criticized by
others also known as “SELF-
CONSCIOUSNESS”.
2 types of self that we can be aware of:
(Carver and Scheier 1981)
- The private self or your internal standards
and private thoughts and feelings.
- The public self or your public image
commonly geared toward having a good
presentation of yourself to others.
“Deindividuation”
- the loss of individual self-awareness and
individual accountability in groups.
SOCIAL COMPARISON THEORY
- We learn about ourselves, the
appropriateness of our behaviors, as well as
our social status by comparing aspects of
ourselves with other people. Jhangiani and
Tarry 2014
2 types of Social Comparison:
- The downward social comparison – we
create a positive self-concept by comparing
ourselves with those who are “worse” of
than us.
- The upward social comparison – we
create a positive self-concept by comparing
ourselves with those who are “better” of
than us.
SELF-ESTEEM
- Defined as our own positive or negative
perception or evaluation of ourselves.
Jhangiani and Tarry, 2014 Gleitman, et al,
2011
SELF-EVALUATION MAINTENANCE THEORY
- states that we can feel threatened when
someone out-performs us, especially when
that person is close to us (a friend or
family).
- First, we distance ourselves from that
person or redefine our relationship with
them.
- Second, we may also reconsider the
importance of the aspect or skill in which
you were outperformed.
- Lastly, we may also strengthen our resolve
to improve that certain aspect of ourselves.
THE SELF IN WESTERN AND EASTERN
THOUGHTS
- Different cultures and varying environment
tend to create different perceptions of the
SELF and one of the most common
distinctions between cultures and people is
the:
EASTERN – vs – WESTERN
(Asia as Eastern)
EUROPE vs NORTHERN AMERICA
- While countries who are geographically
closer to each other may share
commonalities, there are also a lot of factors
that create differences
- In the Philippines, each region may have a
similar or varying perception regarding the
SELF
 - This self-cultivated self is called
SUBDUED SELF, wherein personal needs
are repressed for the good of many, making
Confucian society also hierarchal for the
purpose of maintaining balance in society
TAOISM
- The SELF is not just an extension of the
family or the community; It is part of the
universe
- The SELF is selflessness but this is not
forgetting about the self, it is living a
balanced-life with society and nature, being
open and accepting to change, forgetting
about prejudices and egocentric ideas and
thinking about equality as well as
complementarity among human as well as
other beings.
- Harmony with everything
BUDDHISM
- The SELF is seen as an illusion, born out of
ignorance, of trying to hold and control
things, or human-centered needs
- The SELF is the source of all these
sufferings, it is therefore, one’s quest to
forget about the self, forget the cravings of
CONFUCIANISM
the self, break the attachments you have
- It can be seen as a code of ethical conduct with the world, and to renounce the self
of how one should properly act according to which is the cause of all suffering and in
their relationship with other people doing so, attain the state of NIRVANA
- Its main focus is on having a harmonious
life
- The identity and self concept of the
individual is woven with the identity and
status of his/her community or culture,
sharing its pride as well as its failure. Ho,
1995
- SELF CULTIVATION is seen as the ultimate
purpose of life but the characteristics of a
chun-tzu (a man of virtue or noble
character), is still embedded in his social
relationship.
 - Both thoughts / perspectives do not
discount the role of environment and society
in the formation of the SELF
Differences
- Confucianism
based on the human conduct.
women are socially inferior to men.
- Taoism
emphasizes on belief in nature and dealing
with life in a natural manner.
women and men are generally equal.
- Buddhism
Emphasizes the suffering of life and how to
alleviate it in oneself.
Similarities
- Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism
They are all attempting to find harmony in
life and in nature