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Tara Wend-Barbour General Psychology Professor Toussaint May 31, 2012

Know Thyself -Oracle at Delphi

PART 1

Discovering Psychology is part of the Annenberg Learner website and has many informational films that teach about different psychological concepts and topics. Among them is one that takes us on a journey into exploring why we behave the way we do and what makes us who we are. The Self is narrated by Philip Zimbardo, a psychologist and professor at Stanford University. In the very beginning, Zimbardo defines the word self in psychological terms as the individuals consciousness of his or her own identity. The film is a basic overview of the different concepts of what makes up the self and contains a few different psychologists perspectives such as William James, Sigmund Freud, and Carl Rogers. It also gives the viewer a glimpse of what researchers do and how they conduct experiments to discover more about a persons self-development. The desire to learn about who we are and how to solve our inner struggles and problems is an issue that human beings have yearned to discover dating back to ancient times. Recorded evidence of this was found by Ancient Greeks who had traveled to Delphi in search of answers to their problems. They would travel there to worship the Greek god Apollo and found the

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inscription know thyself on a shrine at what is known as the Oracle of Delphi. This shows that discovering the secrets to our inner most self has been a fascination for centuries. The film fast forwards to the late 1800s when a psychologist and philosopher, William James pioneered the scientific concept of self. He called it studying the mind from within and developed three aspects of self: the material, spiritual, and social self. James described the material aspect of self as the awareness of the physical world, that in which we notice our bodies, people, places, and things. The spiritual aspect was described as the part that thinks of ourselves as the thinker or as our inner witness. The spiritual aspect is more about our inner belief systems and how they mold us into who we really are. The social aspect is the part of us that creates the image of what we want other people to think and see us as. The well-known psychologist, Sigmund Freud also developed a version of what makes up the self. The ID, the ego, and the super ego are terms he created in order to understand the conflicts of the mind. He believed the majority of our thoughts, desires, and memories were buried deep inside the unconscious part of the mind and that we have inherent aggressive and pleasure-seeking tendencies. Carl Rogers put an optimistic emphasis on the self and started the humanistic movement in psychology. He observed that humans have a great capacity to develop, integrate, and change self-understanding and self-direction. Rogers also explains that humans have an inner guidance system that works toward self-enhancement. This is why an individual can work on improving who they are and bettering themselves throughout their lives. Some terms that have been born through research, such as self-concept, self-image or self-schemas, and self-efficacy are also discussed in this film. Self-concept is the awareness of

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an individuals continuing identity as a person. Researchers explain self-concept as the internal navigator for ongoing experiences. Self-concept affects performance by providing internal scripts, plans, goals, and incentives. Self-image or in more scientific psychological terms called, self-schemas, is how we organize our beliefs and information about ourselves. Self-image impacts our behavior and how others treat and behave toward us. The example the film uses for the different types of schemas we use to define who we are, is gender schemas and weight schemas. Gender schemas play a huge role in how we view ourselves. We learn masculine and feminine behavior through social learning and observation. Weight schematics are where an individual is always comparing themselves to others in regards to physical appearance and size. They tend to perceive bigger or overweight people as out of control, lethargic, and unmotivated and smaller, thinner people as in control and having their lives together. When a person has a good self-image they tend to try harder and have greater chance of success plus better social relationships. Someone with a poor self-image has a tendency to not try as hard at becoming successful. They may also experience struggles with relationships, and be more prone to having a negative attitude toward life experiences. It is possible to change selfimage through positive support. Another psychologist named Albert Bandura developed a theory known as self-efficacy. This theory helps us understand how some people can use their potential and desires to benefit them and improve their performance verses others that may hang out in the shadows of their own self-doubt. Self-efficacy is about an individuals belief about themselves. The higher their sense of efficacy the more likely they will take on challenges that they believe they can master.

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The lower the efficacy, the less likely they will move out of their comfort zone to experience more challenging activities. The level of self-efficacy a person has affects career choices and life paths they are willing to pursue. The last part of the film explores the development of self through a drama teachers perspective. Stanford University psychologist and drama teacher, Patricia Ryan, talks about a concept she uses in her acting classes called status transactions. Status transactions are basically the interactions we have with one another. Status is the way we speak to another person and the way we use nonverbal cues. These play a role in how we are perceived and will affect our relationships with others. Eye contact and body movement can influence the way our status is perceived by the person we are interacting with. This film was an overview of what makes up ones self. Its obvious that there are many layers to the cake and a twenty-five minute film can only hit the tip of the iceberg in the vast sea of self-knowledge. We will now explore a few concepts from the movie in relation to the book, Psychology in Everyday Life by David G Meyers. PART 2 Psychology is the study of human behavior. We can confidently say that a lot of the terms and theories of psychology are centered on discovering the self and how humans behave. We learned in the film, psychologist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) developed three internal systems that play off of each other. Under his theory of psychoanalysis the three systems are the ID, ego and the super ego. The super ego is our moral compass and plays a balancing act between the ID and the ego (290). Freud also discovered defense mechanisms which he says are used to protect our internal and emotional selves from anxiety and negative feelings that are

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associated with experiences. According to Freud, the ego stands behind these defense mechanisms as a protective shield that shelters a person from the storm of threatening impulses. A few of the defense mechanisms he developed are repression, regression, projection, and rationalization. Repression is the underlying mechanism behind all the others. The repressed emotions will appear through dreams or in conversation. Regression is when a person behaves in a way they once had but already moved beyond or matured in their actions. It is possible a person may regress to past behavior when facing anxious and stressful situations. Projection is a form of putting emotions onto another person. The book uses the example of making a statement such as, He doesnt trust me. When in reality, its the person making the statement that doesnt have trust in the other. Rationalization is saying things that will make a person appear better than they are or, if they are trying to justify bad behavior (293). Learning about ones self can be an emotional process, especially when there are issues that have been repressed or shoved down. Its difficult to figure out why an individual is having emotional issues when there are emotions hiding deep in the unconscious. Healing wont take place until the person can uncover the emotions and gain awareness and understanding as to what the emotions are attached to. Shifting into a more uplifting perspective of psychology, the book explores psychologist and researcher Carl Rogers (1902-1987). Rogers and Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) are known to be the fathers of humanistic psychology. They felt the need to explore a different side of human behavior. Realizing that humans are capable of self-actualization and reaching a higher level of consciousness, they focused on the ways healthy people strive for self-determination

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and self-realization. Rogers believed that in order to nurture growth, a person needs to have genuineness, acceptance, and empathy in their relationships (297). The film mentioned the term self-concept. Rogers and Maslow believed that self-concept is the center of personality. Self-concept is made up of thoughts and feelings that occur in response to the question, who am I? Positive self-concept comes from an optimistic perspective on life and situations. Where a negative self-concept comes from feeling less than or not measuring up to ones ideal self. It is possible to change the concept of ourselves over time by consciously changing our moods and working on behaviors and choices that will improve self-esteem and build selfconfidence. An action as simple as changing facial expressions can shift the mood of a person, according to psychologist William James. Turning your frown upside down can really improve your mood. James identified that by shifting your facial muscles from a frown to a smile, there is a tendency to trigger a happy emotion. This is known as the facial feedback effect and can subtly change how we feel through changing our facial expressions (258). Happiness and the choice to brighten your mood can also play a role in self-image. Selfimage is how a person feels about themselves. Happiness attracts positive experiences and relationships and research shows that the more happiness a person feels, the more likely they are going to do good for others. This is known as the feel-good, do-good phenomenon. On the other hand doing nice things, such as volunteering for a good cause, creates positive feelings (261). This is good news and a sweet slice of happy pie, since happiness and helping make the world a better place go hand in handBoth will be of great benefit in the end! As was said before, there are many aspects of what creates a person and contributes to the development of self. It is an ever-changing and lifelong process to gain an understanding of ones'

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self. Sometimes it takes a little help from a therapeutic system of counseling and support networks to help boost an individual into greater understanding of how they work on the inside. Developing a healthy relationship with yourself and working to improve your self-conceptselfimageis key to increasing productivity and the willingness to face challenges that seem a little out of reach. The more you know thyself and are comfortable with whom you really are, the more real and honest you will be as a person. You will gain deeper, more meaningful relationships and inspire others to strive for all they can be and help the world become a happier place one smile at a time.