Lesson 3: The Self as Cognitive Construct
Lesson Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
1. Identify the different ideas in psychology about the “self”;
2. Create your own definition of the “self” based on the definitions from psychology; and
3. Analyze the effects of various factors identified in psychology in the formation of the “self.”
INTRODUCTION
As discussed in the previous lessons, every field of study, at least in the social sciences, have their own
research, definition, and conceptualization of self and identity. Some are similar while some specific only
in their field. Each field also has thousands of research on self and identity as well as related or
synonymous terms. The trend of the lessons also seems to define the concept of the “self” from a larger
context (i.e., culture and society) down to the individual. However, it must be pointed out that modern
researches acknowledge the contributions of each field and this is not some sort of a nurture vs. nature,
society/culture vs. individual/brain, and other social sciences vs. Psychology debate. Psychology may
focus on the individual and the cognitive functions, but it does not discount the context and other
possible factors that affect the individual. For students who take up psychology, discussions on theories,
and development, among others actually take at least one semester and there are still more to be
learned about the concept of “self.” This lesson provides an overview of the themes of psychology
regarding the said concept.
ABSTRACTION
In confidence or in an attempt to avoid further analytical discussion, a lot of people say, “I am
who I am.” Yet, this statement still begs the questions “if you are who you are, then who are you that
makes you who you are?”
As mentioned earlier, there are various definitions of the “self” and other similar or
interchangeable concepts in psychology. Simply put, “self” is “the sense of personal identity and of who
we are as individuals (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014).”
William James
William James (1890) was one of the earliest psychologists to study the self
and conceptualized the self as having two aspects – the “I” and the “me.”
The “I” is the thinking, acting, and feeling self (Gleitman, Gross, and
Reisberg 2011; Hogg and Vaughan 2010).
The “me” on the other hand, is the physical characteristics as well as
psychological capabilities that makes who you are
Carl Rogers’s (1959) theory of personality also used the same terms, the
“I” as the one who acts and decides while the “me” is what you think or
feel about yourself as an object (Gleitman, Gross, and Reisberg 2011).
Identity and Self-concept.
Identity is composed of personal characteristics, social roles, and
responsibilities, as well as affiliations that define who one is
(Oyserman, Elmore, and Smith 2012).
Self-concept is what basically comes to your mind when you are
asked about who you are (Oyserman, Elmore, and Smith 2012).
Self, identity, and self-concept are not fixed in one-time frame.
For example, when you are asked about who you are, you can
say “I was a varsity player in 5th Grade” which pertains to the
past, “a college student” which may be the present, and “a
future politician” which is the future. They are not also fixed for
life nor are they ever-changing at every moment.
Carl Rogers captured this idea in his concept of self-schema or our organized system or collection of
knowledge about who we are (Gleitman, Gross, and Reisberg 2011; Jhangiani and Tarry 2014). Imagine
an organized list or a diagram similar to the one below:
Hobbies
Family
Self Religion
Nationality
The schema is not limited to the example above. It may also include your interests, work, course, age,
name, and physical characteristics, among others. As you grow and adapt to the changes around you,
they also change. But they are not passive receivers, they actively shape and affect how you see, think,
and feel about things
Theories generally see the self and identity as a mental construct, created and recreated in memory
(Oyserman, Elmore, and Smith 2012). Current researches point to the frontal lobe of the brain as the
specific area in the brain associated with the process concerning the self (Oyserman, Elmore, and Smith
2012).
Several psychologists, especially during the field’s earlier development, followed this trend of
thought, looking deeper into the mind of the person to theorize about the self, identity, self-concept,
and in turn, one’s personality. The most influential of them is Sigmund Freud. Basically, Freud saw the
self, its mental processes, and one’s behavior as the results of the interaction between the Id, the Ego,
and the Superego
However, as mentioned earlier, one cannot fully discount the effects of society and culture on the
formation of the self, identity, and self-concept. Even as Freud and other theories and researchers try to
understand the person by digging deeper into the mind, they cannot fully discount the huge and
important effects of the environment. As in the abovementioned definitions of the self, social
interaction always has a part to play in who we think we are. This is not nature vs. nurture but instead a
nature-and-nurture perspective.
Under the theory of symbolic interactionism, G.H. Mead (1934) argued that the self is created and
developed through human interaction (Hogg and Vaughan 2010). Basically, there are three reasons why
self and identity are social products (Oyserman, Elmore, and Smith 2012):
1. We do not create ourselves out of nothing. Society helped in creating the foundations of who
we are and even if we make our choices, we will still operate in our social and historical
contexts in one way or the other. Try looking at your definition of who you are and see where
society had affected you.
2. Whether we like to admit it or not, we
actually need others to affirm and reinforce
who we think we are. We also need them as
reference points about our identity. One
interesting example is the social media
interactions we have. In the case of Facebook,
there are those who will consciously or
unconsciously try to garner more “likes”
and/or positive “reactions” and that can and
will reinforce their self-concept.
3. What we think is important to us may also have been influenced by what is important in our
social or historical context. Education might be an important thing to your self-concept because
you grew up in a family that valued education. Money might be important to some because they
may have grown in a low-income family and realized how important money is in addressing
certain needs like medical emergencies. Being a nurse or a lawyer can be priority in your self-
schema because it is the in-demand course during your time.
Social interaction and group affiliation, therefore, are vital factors in creating our self-concept especially
in the aspect of providing us with our social identity or our perception of who we are based on our
membership to certain groups (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014). It is also 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.
CARVER AND SCHEIER
They identified to types of self that
we can be aware of: (1) the private
self or your internal standards and
private thoughts and feelings, and
(2) the public self or your public
image commonly geared toward
having a good presentation of
yourself to others (Hogg and
Vaughan 2010).
Self-awareness also presents us with at least three other self-schema: the actual, ideal, and ought self.
The “actual” self is who you are at the moment, the “idea” self is who you like to be, and the “ought”
self is who you think you should be (Higgins 1997 in Hogg and Vaughn 2010). An example is that you are
a student interested in basketball but is also academically challenged in most of your subject. Your ideal
self might be to practice more and play with the varsity team but ought to pass your subjects as a
responsible student. Self-awareness may be positive or negative depending on the circumstances and
our next course of action
Our group identity and self-awareness also have a great impact on our self-esteem, one of the common
concepts associated with the “self.” It is defined as our own positive or negative perception or
evaluation of ourselves (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014; Gleitman, Gross, and Reisberg 2011).
One of the ways in which our social relationship affects our self-esteem is through social comparison.
According to the 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; Hogg and Vaughan 2010).
The downward social comparison is the more common type of
comparing ourselves with others. As the name implies, we create
a positive self-concept by comparing ourselves with those who
are worse off than us (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014). By having the
advantage, we can raise our self-esteem. Another comparison is
the upward social comparison which is comparing ourselves with
those who are better than us (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014). While it
can be a form of motivation for some, a lot of those who do this
actually felt lower self-esteem as they highlight more of their
weaknesses or inequities.
Social comparison also entails what is called self-evaluation maintenance theory, which states that we
can feel threatened when someone out-performs us, especially when that person is close to us (i.e., a
friend or family) (Tesser 1988 in Jhangiani and Tarry 2014). In this case, we usually react in three ways:
1. First, we distance ourselves from
that person or redefine our
relationship with them. - Some
will resort to the silent treatment,
change of friends, while some may
also redefine by being closer to
that person, hoping that some
association may give him a certain
kind of acknowledgement
2. Second, we may also reconsider
the importance of the aspect or
skill in which you were
outperformed - If you got beaten
in a drawing competition, you
might think that drawing is not
really for you and you will find a hobby where you could excel, thus preserving your self-esteem
3. Lastly, we may also strengthen our resolve to improve that certain aspect of ourselves -
Instead of quitting drawing, you might join seminars, practice more often, read books about it,
and add some elements in your drawing that makes it unique, among other. Achieving your
goals through hard work may increase your self-esteem, too.
However, in the attempts to increase or
maintain self-esteem, some people become
narcissistic. Narcissism is a “trait characterized
by overly high self-esteem, self-admiration, and
self-centeredness” (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014).
They are often charismatic because of how they
take care of their image. Taking care of that
image includes their interpersonal relationships
thus they will try to look for better partners,
better acquaintances, as well as people who will
appreciate them a lot. This makes them a bad
romantic partner or friend since they engage in
relationships only to serve themselves (Jhangiani
and Tarry 2014).
People with high self-esteem are commonly described as outgoing, adventurous, and adaptable in a lot
of situations. They also initiate activities and building relationships with people. However, they may also
dismiss other activities that do not conform to their self-concept or boost their self-esteem. They may
also be bullies and experiment on abusive behaviors with drugs, alcohol, and sex (Jhangiani and Tarry
2014).
This duality in the behavior and attitudes only proves the above-mentioned correlation. Baumeister,
Smart, and Boden (1996) in their research on self-esteem concluded that programs, activities, and
parenting styles to boost self-esteem should only be for rewarding good behavior and other
achievements and not for the purpose of merely trying to make children feel better about themselves or
to appease them when they get angry or sad (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014).
REFERENCES
Elmore, Kristen, George Smith, and Daphna Oyserman. 2012. “Self, Self-Concept
And Identity. “ Handbook of Self and Identity. 2nd Ed. Edited by Mark R. Leary and June Price Tangney:
69-95. New York: The Guilford Press.
Gleitman, Henry, James Gross, and Daniel Reisberg. 2011, Psychology. 8 th Ed. Canada: W.W. Norton
Company.
Hogg, Michael, and Graham Vaughan 2010. Essentials of Social Psychology. Italy: Pearson Education
Limited.
Jhangiani, Rajiv, and Hammond Tarry. 2014. Principles of Social Psychology. 1 st Ed. Creative Commons
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