Understanding the Self

CHAPTER 1: Self Understanding

1. Provides sense of purpose
2. leads to healthier relationship
3. helps harness your natural strength and
4. promotes confidence

Personality
“persona”, the theatrical masks worn by Romans in Greek and Latin drama.
“per” and “sonare”- latin words means “to sound through”

Determinants of Personality
a) Environmental Factors of Personality
- surroundings of an individual compose the environmental factors of personality.
b) Biological Factors of Personality
b.1 Hereditary Factors or genetic make-up of the person that inherited from their parents.
b.2 Physical Features includes the overall physical structure of a person; height, weight, color,
sex, beauty, and body language, etc.
b.3 Brain the preliminary results from the electrical stimulation of the brain (ESB) research
gives indication that better understanding of human personality and behavior might come
from the study of the brain.
c) Situational Factors of Personality alter a person’s behavior and response from time to time.
The situational factors can be commonly observed when a person behaves contrastingly and
exhibits different traits and characteristics.
d) Cultural Factors culture is traditionally considered as the major determinants of an individ-
ual’s personality. The culture largely determinants what a person is and what a person will
learn.

Personality Traits
• Personality traits reflect people’s characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
• Personality traits imply consistency and stability- someone who scores high on a specific trait
like Extraversion is expected to be sociable in different situations and over time.
• Thus, trait psychology rests on the idea that people differ from one another in terms of
where they stand.

The Five Factor Model of Personality

O- openness: tendency to appreciate new art, ideas, values, feelings, and behaviors.
C- conscientiousness: tendency to be careful, on-time for appointments, to follow rules, and to
be hardworking.
E- extraversion: tendency to be talkative, sociable, and to enjoy others; the tendency to have
a dominant style.
A- agreeableness: tendency to agree and go along with others rather than to assert one owns
opinion and choices.
N- neuroticism: tendency to be frequently experience negative emotions as well as being in-
terpersonally sensitive.

O:
Low: prefers not to be exposed to alternative moral systems; narrow interest; inartistic; not an-
alytical; down-to-earth.
High: enjoys seeing people with new types of haircuts and body piercing; curious; imaginative;
untraditional.
C:
Low: prefers spur of the moment action to planning; unreliable; hedonistic; careless; lax
High: never late for a date; organized; hardworking; neat; persevering; punctual; self-disci -
plined

E:
Low: preferring a quiet evening reading to a loud party; sober; aloof; unenthusiastic
High: being the life of the party active; optimistic; fun-loving; affectionate

A:
Low: quickly and confidently asserts own rights; irritable; manipulative; uncooperative; rude
High: agrees with other about political opinions; good-natured; forgiving; gullible; helpful; for -
giving

N:
Low: not getting irritated by shall annoyances; calm; even-tempered; secure
High: anxious; unhappy; prone to negative emotions

CHAPTER 2: The Self According to Philosophy

Philosophy
- knowledge or wisdom
- philo (love) and sophia (wisdom)
- “the queen of all sciences”- every scientific discipline has philosophical foundations

SOCRATES
• from Athens, Greece
• Socratic method or dialectic method (unique style of asking questions)
• involves the search for the correct/ proper definition of a thing.
• known from the writings of his student Plato
• “Know Thyself”- emphasize that knowing or understanding oneself should be more than the
physical self, or the body
SELF IS DICHOTOMOUS
(1)the physical realm or the one that is changeable, temporal, and imperfect
(2)a human is composed of body and soul, the first belongs to the physical realm because it
changed, it is imperfect, and it dies, and the latter belongs to ideal realm for it survives the
death.
(3)self is the immortal and unified entity that is consistent over time.

PLATO
• student of Socrate, who introduced the idea of a three part soul/ self that is composed of:
(1)reason enables human to think deeply- “divine essence”
(2)physical appetite is the basic biological needs of human being such as hunger, thirst, and
sexual desire.
(3)spirit or passion is the basic emotions of human being such as love, anger, ambition, ag -
gressiveness, and empathy.
• the responsibility of the reason to organize, control and reestablish harmonious relationship
between these three elements.
• “Phaedrus”- the soul is like a winged chariot drawn by two powerful horses: a white horse,
representing spirit, and a black horse, embodying appetite.
• charioteer is reason, whose task is to guide the chariot to the external realm.
• unable to control their horses= personal, intellectual, and spiritual failure.

ST. AUGUSTINE
• characterized as Christianity’s first theologian
• body as “snare” or “cage” of the soul
• the human nature is composed of two realms:
(1)God as the source of all reality and truth
(2)The sinfulness of man
• real happiness can only be found in God.

RENE DESCARTES
• french philosopher, mathematician, and considered the founder of modern philosophy.
• famous principle: the “cogito, ergo-sum” I think therefore I exist” established his philosophi -
cal views on “true knowledge” and concept of self.
• being self-conscious in this way is integral to having a personal identity.
• in order to gain true knowledge, one must doubt everything even own existence.
• self is a dynamic entity that engages in mental operations- thinking, reasoning, and perceiv-
ing processes.
• the thinking self or soul is a non-material, immortal, conscious being, independent of the
physical laws of the universe while the physical body is a material, mortal, non-thinking en-
tity, fully governed by the physical laws of nature.

JOHN LOCKE
• english philosopher and physician and famous in his concept of “Tabula Rasa” or Bank Slate
that assumes the nurture side of human development.
• the self according to Locke is consciousness.
Key Point:
(1) discover the nature of personal identity, it is important to find out what it means to be a
person.
(2) a person is a thinking, intelligent being who has the abilities to reason and to reflect.
(3) a person is also someone who considers themself to be the same thing in different times
and different places.
(4) consciousness as being aware that we are thinking- always accompanies thinking and is an
essential part of the thinking process.
(5) consciousness makes possible our belief that we are at the same identity in different times
and different places.
• self is not tied to any particular body or substance.

DAVID HUME
• Scottish philosopher and also an empiricist.
• “controversial”
• he assumed that there is no self
• 2 distinct entities: “impressions” and “ideas”
• impressions: basic sensation of our experience, the elemental data of our minds
• ideas: copies of impressions that include thoughts and images that are built up from our pri -
mary impressions.
• experiences that a person may have are just perceptions and this includes the perception of
self.

SIGMUND FREUD
• father and founder of psychoanalysis
• conscious self and unconscious self
• conscious self is governed by reality principle
• unconscious self is governed by pleasure principle