Lesson 1 Midterm: The Self as Cognitive • Think of a malleable metal, strong and hard but can be

Construct bent and molded in other shapes.

• Think about water, it can take shape of the container, but
Introduction at its core, it is still the same element.
• As discussed in the previous lessons, every field of study, • Carl Rogers captured this idea in his concept of self-
at least in the social sciences, have their own research, schema or our organized system or collection of knowledge
definition, and conceptualization of self and identity.
about who you are.
• 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 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.
•This lesson provides an overview of the themes of
• The Schema is not limited to the example above.
psychology regarding the said concept.
• It may also include your interests, work, course, age,
name, and physical characteristics, among others.
Abstraction • As you grow and adapt to the changes around you, they
• As mentioned earlier, there are various definitions of the also change.
"self" and other similar or interchangeable concepts in • But they are not passive receivers, they actively shape
psychology. and affect how you see, think, and feel about things.
•Simply put, "self" is "the sense of personal identity and of • i.e.
who we are as individuals." • When someone states your first name even if they are
• William James (1980) was one of the earliest not talking about you, your attention is drawn to them.
psychologists to study the self and conceptualized the self • If you have a provincial language and you hear someone
as having two aspects using it, it catches your attention.
 The "|" • If you consider yourself a book-lover, a bookstore may
 The "Me" always entice you out of all the other stores in a mall.
•" The "I" is the thinking, acting, and feeling self
• Theories generally see the self and identity as mental
• The "me" is the physical characteristics as well as
constructs, created and recreated in memory.
psychological capabilities that makes you who you are
• Current researches point to the frontal lobe of the brain
• Carl Roger's theory of personality also used the same
as the specific area in the brain associated with the
terms, the "I" as the one who acts and decides while the
processes concerning the self.
"me" is what you think or feel about yourself as an object.
• Other concepts similar to self are identity and self- • Several psychologists, especially during the field's earlier
concept. development, followed this trend of thought, looking
• Identity is composed of personal characteristics, social deeper into the mind of the person to theorize about the
roles, and responsibilities, as well as affiliations that define self, identity, self-concept, and in turn, one's personality.
who one is. • The most influential of them is Sigmund Freud. Basically,
• Self-concept is what basically comes to your mind when Freud saw the self, its mental processes, and one's behavior
you are asked about who you are. as the results of the interaction between the Id, the Ego,
• Self, identity, and self-concept are not fixed in one time and the Superego.
frame. • However, as mentioned earlier, one cannot fully discount
• When you are asked about who you are, you can say "I the effects of society and culture on the formation of the
was a varsity player in 5th grade" which pertains to the self, identity, and self-concept.
past. • Even as Freud and other theories and researchers try to
•"A college student" which may be the present and understand the person by digging deeper into the mind,
•"A future politician" which is the future. they cannot fully discount the huge and important effects
• They are not also fixed for life nor are they ever-changing of the environment.
at every moment.
• Social interaction always has a part to play in who we of providing us with our social identity or our perception of
think we are. who we are based on our membership to certain groups.
• This is not nature vs. nurture but instead a nature-and- • It is also inevitable that we can have several social
nurture perspective. identities, that those identities can overlap, and that we
• Under the theory of symbolic interactionism, automatically play the roles as we interact with our groups.
• G.H. Mead argued that the self is created and developed • For example, you are a student who is also part of a
through human interaction. certain group of friends. You study because it is your role as
a student but you prefer to study with your friends and
Basically, there are 3 reasons why self and identity are your study pattern changes when you are with your friends
social products. than when you do it alone.
• There are times, however, when we are aware of our self-
Theory of symbolic interactionism:
concepts, this is called self-awareness.
1. We do not create ourselves out of nothing.
• Carver and Scheir identified two types of self that we can
Society helped in creating the foundations of who we are
be aware of:
and even if we make our choices, we will still operate in our
• 1. the private self or your internal standards and private
social and historical contexts in one way or the other.
thoughts and feelings
• You may, of course, transfer from one culture to another,
• 2. The public self or your public images commonly geared
but parts of who you were will still affect you and you will
toward having a good presentation of yourself to others.
also have to adapt to the new social context.
Try looking at your definition of who you are and see where
Self-awareness also presents us with at least 3 other self-
society had affected you.
schema:
Theory of symbolic interactionism
1. Actual
2. Ideal
2. Whether we like to admit it or not, we actually need
3. Ought
others to affirm and reinforce who we think we are.
• We also need them as reference points about our
• The "ACTUAL" self is who you are at the moment,
identity.
, The "IDEAL" self is who you like to be
• One interesting example is the social media interactions
• The "OUGHT" self is who you think you should be.
we have.
• In the case of facebook, there are those who will
Example:
consciously or unconsciously try to garner more "likes"
• You are a student interested in basketball but is also
and /or positive "reactions" and that can and will reinforce
academically challenged in most of your subject.
their self-concept.
• Your "ideal" self might be to practice more and play with
• It is almost like a battle between who got more friends,
the varsity team but "ought" to pass your subjects as a
more views, and trending topics.
responsible student.
• If one says he is a good singer but his performance and
• Self-awareness may be positive or negative depending on
the evaluation of his audience says otherwise, that will
the circumstances and our next course of action.
have effect on that person's idea of himself, one way or
• Self-awareness can keep you from doing something
another.
dangerous; it can help remind you that there is an exam
tomorrow in one of your subjects when you are about to
3. What we think is important to use may also have been
spend time playing computer games with your cousins
influenced by what is important in our social or historical
among others.
context.
• In other instances, self-awareness can be too much that
• Education might be an important thing to your self-
we are concerned about being observed and criticized by
concept because you grew up in a family that valued
others, also known as self-consciousness.
education.
• At other times, especially with large crowds, we may
• Money might be an important to some because they may
experience deindividualization or "the loss of individual
have grown in a low-income family and realize how
self-awareness and individual accountability in groups.
important money is in addressing certain needs like medical
• A lot of people will attune themselves with the emotions
emergencies.
of their group and because the large crowd also provides
• Being a nurse or a lawyer can be priority in your self-
some kind of anonymity, we may lessen our self-control
schema because it is the in-demand course during your
and act in ways that we will not do when we are alone. i.e.
time.
riot
• Social interaction and group affiliation, therefore, are vital
• Our group identity and self-awareness also has a great
factors in creating our self-concept especially in the aspect
impact on our self-esteem, one of the common concepts
associated with the "self." It is defined as our own positive acquaintances, as well as people who will appreciate them
or negative perception or evaluation of ourselves. a lot.
• One of the ways in which our social relationship affects • This makes them a bad romantic partner or friend since
our self-esteem is through social comparison. they engage the relationship only to serve themselves.
• According to the social comparison theory, we learn • Sometimes, there is a thin line between high self-esteem
about ourselves, the appropriateness of our behaviors, as and narcissistic and there are a lot of tests and
well as our social status by comparing aspects of ourselves measurements for self-esteem like the Rosenberg scale but
with other people. the issue is that the result can be affected by the desire of
• The downward social comparison is the more common the person to portray herself in a positive or advantageous
type of comparing ourselves with others. way.
• As the name implies, we create a positive self-concept by • Even though self-esteem is a very important concept
comparing ourselves with those who are worse off than us. related to the self, studies have shown that it only has a
• By having the advantage, we can raise our self-esteem. correlation, not causality, to positive outputs and outlook.
Another comparison is the upward social comparison
which is comparing ourselves with those who are better off
than us.
• 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 weakness or inequities.
• Social comparison also entails what is called self-
evaluation maintenance theory, which states that we can
feel threatened when someone outperformed us, especially
when that person is close to us..

In this case, we usually react in 3 ways.

1st: we distance ourselves from that person or redefine
our relationships with them.
• Some will resort to 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 also

2nd: 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
another hobby where you excel, thus preserving your self-
esteem.

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 you unique, among
others.
• Achieving your goal through hard work may increase your
self-esteem too.
• However, in an attempt to increase our self-esteem, some
people become narcissistic.
• Narcissism is a "trait characterized by overly high self-
centeredness". 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