UTS REVIEWER

Philosophical Perspective of the Self

considers man from the point of view of his inner self.
Socrates-know thyself
Virtue – the deepest and most basic propensity of man.
Self is synonymous with the soul.
Introspection – method of carefully examining one’s thoughts and emotions to gain self-
knowledge.
Plato:
The Ideal Self, The Perfect Self
Plato’s philosophy can be explained as a process of self-knowledge and purification of the soul.
• Three part soul/self: Reason, Physical Appetite and Spirit or Passion.
• Reason – the divine essence that enables us to think deeply, make wise choices, and achieve a
true understanding of eternal truths.
• Physical Appetite – includes the basic biological needs such as hunger, thirst and sexual desire.
• Spirit or Passion – includes basic emotions such as love, anger, ambition, aggressiveness and
empathy. Plato’s philosophy can be explained as a process of self-knowledge and purification of
the soul.

ARISTOTLE:
The Soul is the Essence of the Self
•Three Kinds of Soul: Vegetative, Sentient, and Rational
•Vegetative soul – the physical body that can grow
•Sentient soul – includes sensual desires, feelings and emotions
•Rational soul – what makes man human. It includes the intellect that allows man to know and
understand things.

St. Augustine:
The Self has an Immortal Soul
•“Knowledge can only come by seeing the truth that dwells within us.”
•Truth → truth of knowing God.
•God is transcendent and the self seeks to be united with God through faith and reason.
•Mission – to discover the truth on the existence of God
•Principle: “I am doubting, therefore I am.”

Rene Descartes
States that the self is a thinking entity distinct from
the body.
Essence of Human Self – a thinking entity that doubts, understands, analyzes, questions and
reasons.
•Two Dimensions of the Human Self:
1. The self as a thinking entity
2. The self as a physical body

John Locke
consciousness awareness and memory of experiences are keys to understanding the self.
•Human mind at birth is tabularasa or a blank slate.
•The self is constructed primarily from sense experiences

David Hume: There Is No Self

•Impressions – the basic sensations of people’s experience such as hate, love, joy, grief, pain, cold
and heat.

Immanuel Kant
We construct the self

Sigmund Freud:
The Self is Multilayered
Three layers of the self
Preconscious-contains material that is not threatening and is easily brought to mind.
• Located between the conscious and unconscious parts of the self , conscious unconscious

Gilbert Ryle:
The Self is the Way People Behave

Paul Church Land:

The Self is the Brain

Maurice Merleau-Ponty:
The Self is Embodied Subjectivity
The self is based on the “phenomena” of experience.
• “I” – single integrated core identity, a combination of the mental, physical, and emotional
structures.
• The mind and body are unified, not separate.
•In his book, Phenomenology of Perception, that everything that people are aware of is contained
within the consciousness.
• Consciousness – a dynamic form responsible for actively structuring conscious ideas and
physical behavior.
• The world and the human body are intricately intertwined in perceiving the world.
• The self is embodied subjectivity.

Anthropology

•Explored various meanings of culture, self and identity in the desire to come up with a better
understanding of the self.
•Concerned with how cultural and biological processes interact to shape human experience.
Practices among different societies

→ reveal ways how societies conceptualize what the self is and how it relates to culture.

Anthropologists
•Believe that culture and self are complementary concepts that are to be understood in relation to
one another.

James L. Peacock
•Emphasizes an academic field for understanding the interconnection and interdependence of
biological and cultural aspects of the human experience at all times and in all places.

The field of anthropology has contributed indirectly to the understanding of the nature of self
through:

→Ethnographic investigations:
•Sampling method
•Sentence completion
•Interviews

The Cultural Construction of Self and Identity

-Identity is understood as a disposition of basic personality features acquired mostly during

Ways which the self is viewed in

different societies

EGOCENTRIC VIEW
→The self is seen as an autonomous and distinct individual.
SOCIOCENTRIC VIEW
→The self is contingent on situation or social setting.

Francis Hsu
(Chinese American
Anthropologist)
•Explains that Chinese prioritize kin ties and cooperation.

Identity Toolbox
-refers to the features of a person’s identity that he or she chooses to emphasize in constructing a
social self.

Family membership most significant feature in determining a person’s identity.

Language - another important identity. Essential for the maintenance of a group identity.

Religious affiliation another important marker of group identity.

Personal Naming
Establishes a child’s birthright and social identity.

Arnold Van Gennep believes that changes in one’s status and identity are marked by:

•Three-phased rite of passage:

•Separation
•Liminality
•Incorporation
Separation phase
•People detach from their former identity to another.

Liminality phase

•A person transitions from one identity to another.

Incorporation phase

•The change in one’s status is officially incorporated.

Anthony Wallace and Raymond Fogelson

•coined the term “identity struggles” to characterize interaction in which there

is a discrepancy between the identity a person claims to possess and the identity attributed to that
person by others.

Sociological Perspective: The Self as a Product of Society

Sociology-scientific study of social groups and human relationships. The interconnectedness

between the self and other people.
Relationship is the mirror in which the self is reveal
-Jiddu Krishnamurti
•Based on the assumption that
human behavior is influenced by group life.
•Particular view of oneself is formed through interactions with other people, groups,

Jean Baudrillard
-the self is found in the prestige symbols of goods consumed by people.
-if people desire to be satisfied with things in life, they should not be persuaded by the postmodern
culture of advertisement and mass media which suggest false needs.

Charles Horton Cooley

(Looking-glass Self)
-People whom a person interacts with become a mirror in which he or she views himself or herself.

Self-image or Self-identity is achieved through a threefold event in which begins by conceiving

an idea

George Herbert Mead

(Social Self)
-A person develops a sense of self through social interaction and not biological preconditions of
interaction.

The Theory of Social Self

•Two divisions – the “I” and the “me”
•“I” – subjective element and the active side of the self. It represents the spontaneous and unique
traits of the individual.
•“me” – the objective element of the self that represents the internalized attitudes and demands
of other people and the individual’s awareness of those demands.

According to Mead:
•The self develops only with social experience in which language, gestures and objects are used
to communicate meaningfully.
•A person infers people’s intention or direction of action, which may lead him or her to understand
the world from other’s point of view – a process that Mead labels as role-taking.
Role-taking
•He or she creates his or her own role and anticipates
how others will respond. When he or she performs his or her own particular role, he or she becomes
self-aware.

Mead Stages of Development

Preparatory stage
(0-3yrs old)
-children imitate people especially family members with whom they have daily interaction.

Play Stage (3-5yrs. Old)

-children start to view themselves in relation to others as they learn to communicate through
language and other symbols.

Game Stage (8-9yrs old)

-children understand those around them.

Psychological Perspective of Self

•Theories about the self give way for the identification of which characteristics of the self are
relevant and the understanding of how these characteristics are related to each other.

WILLIAM JAMES CONCEPT OF SELF

The ME-SELF and the I-SELF

The self is divided into two categories

I-Self
•The self that knows who he or she is – called “the thinking self”
•Reflects the soul of a person or the mind – called “the pure ego”
Me-Self
•The empirical self which refers to the person’s personal experiences.
•divided into subcategories:
•Material self
•Social self
•Spiritual self

Material self
•Attributed to an individual’s physical attributes and
Material possessions that contribute to one’s self-image.

Social self
•Refers to who a person is and how he or she acts in social situations.

Spiritual self
•the most intimate and important part of the self that includes the person’s purpose, core values,
conscience, and moral behavior.

CARL ROGER’S SELF THEORY: REAL and IDEAL SELF

SELF-CONCEPT
-Image of oneself

•Defines the self as a flexible and changing perception of personal identity. The self is the center
of experience.
Two components of self-concept
REAL SELF
•Consists of all ideas, including the awareness of what one is and what one can do.
IDEAL SELF
•The person’s conception of what one should be or one aspires to be which includes one’s goals
and ambitions in life.

MULTIPLE VERSUS UNIFIED SELF

•Varies across different interpersonal and intrapersonal roles and relationships.

TRUE VERSUS FALSE SELF

•The function of the false self is to hide and protect the true self.

THE SELF AS PROACTIVE AND AGENTIC

Human Agency
-an active process of exploring, manipulating, and influencing the environment in order to attain
desired outcomes.

Main Features of Human Agency

•Intentionality, forethought, self- reactiveness, and self-reflectiveness

Intentionality
•Acts done intentionally.

Forethought
•Enables person to anticipate the likely consequences of prospective actions.

Self-reactiveness
•Involves making choices and choosing appropriate courses of action as well as motivating and
regulating them. Self-reflectiveness
•Gives the person the ability to reflect upon and the adequacy of his or her thoughts and actions.

Self-Efficacy

•The individual’s belief that he or she is capable to perform a task which influences whether he or
she will think pessimistically or optimistically and in ways that are self-enhancing or self-
hindering.

THE SELF AS THE CENTRAL ARCHETYPE

ARCHETYPES

•Universal models after which roles are patterned.

•Represents the hidden potentialities of the psyche, or total personality.

ARCHETYPES •Reside in the personal

Unconscious (forgotten experiences) that is common to all human beings, known as the collective
unconscious.

Four Major Archetypes

•Persona,
•shadow,
•animus/anima,
•and self.

Persona
-Social roles that individuals present to others.
Shadow
-the repressed thoughts that are socially unacceptable.

Anima
-the feminine side of the male psyche.

Animus
- the masculine side of the female psyche.

Self
-the central archetype that unites all parts of the psyche.

SIGMUND FREUD’S CONSTRUCTION OF SELF AND PERSONALITY

•Id – component of the personality characterized by its need to satisfy basic urges and desires.

•Ego – refers to the “I” and operates on the reality principle and controls the id.

•Superego – refers to the “conscience” and “moral judge” of one’s conduct.

Freud’s Psychosexual Stages of Development

•Oral Stage – lasts from birth up to the 1st year of life.

•Anal Stage- occurs around the 2nd year of life.

-the child derives pleasure from the elimination of body wastes. Through toilet training, the child
learns the basic rules of society.
•Phallic Stage – occurs 3-6 years
- children derive pleasure from examining, touching, fondling, or displaying their genitals.

•Latency Stage – lasts from 7-12 years of age.

- sexual energy is repressed because children become occupied with school.

•Genital Stage – starts from adolescence to adulthood.

- pleasure is again derived from the genital area and individuals seek to satisfy their sexual drives
from sexual relationships.

The Role of ERIK ERIKSON’S THEORY in Understanding The Self

•Identity formation is usually viewed as a process that requires adolescents to distance themselves
from the strong expectations and definitions imposed by parents and other family members.

Erik Erikson’s Eight Psychosocial Stages of Development

• The ego is the positive force that contributes to identity formation and lays foundation for certain
strengths and virtues in life such as hope, will, purpose, competence, fidelity, love, care and
wisdom.

Trust versus mistrust

•1st psychosocial stage of development (1st year of life).
•The child develop trust if he or she is properly cared for.

Autonomous versus Shame and doubt

•2nd stage of development (first three years of life).
•Autonomy – independence of thought and confidence to think and act for oneself.
•If parents allow their children to explore, they will become more confident and secure
in their own abilities.

Initiative versus guilt

•3rd stage of development (3-5 years of age).
•During this period, developing a sense of responsibility among children lead to the
development of initiative.

Industry versus inferiority

•4th stage of development (elementary school years).
•Children face the task of developing knowledge and skills taught in schools.
Identity formation versus identity confusion
•5th psychosocial stage (adolescence).

Intimacy versus isolation

•6th psychosocial stage (early adulthood).
•People explore personal relationships.

Generativity versus stagnation

•7th stage of development (middle
adulthood).
•Generativity – a person’s desire to contribute to the world by teaching, leading and guiding the
next generation and doing activities that will benefit the community.

Integrity versus despair

•Last stage of development (old age)
•Focused on self reflection in one’s life.
•Individuals reflect on the important events
of their lives.