UNDERSTANDING THE SELF in ways that actualize himself, the belief about

himself, how he evaluates himself, and a

The Self in the Psychological Perspective mental picture of who he is. Our self-concept
begins to develop in early childhood
THE SELF AS COGNITIVE CONSTRUCTION throughout the lifespan—the self-concept of
Cognitive Psychology is the branch of how someone thinks about himself.
Psychology that focuses on internal mental
states. Psychology may focus on the Rogers suggests two components of self-
individual and cognitive functions, but it does concept: the real self and the ideal self. The
not discount the context and other possible real self consists of all the ideas, how we see
factors that affect the individual. ourselves, and how a person feels and thinks.
On the other hand, the ideal self is the
WILLIAM JAMES: The ME-SELF and The I- person’s conception of what one should be or
SELF what one aspires to be, striving for the
The I-Self refers to the self that knows who attainment of what one wants to be. In Rogers’
he or she is, which is also called the thinking theory, the closer the ideal self is to the real
self. This is how we interpret the things around self, the more consistent and the higher the
us. The I-Self reflects the soul of a person or person’s self-worth. Contrary, when the ideal
the mind, which is also called the pure ego. self is far from the real self, the person
The Me-Self, on the other hand, is the becomes unhappy and dissatisfied (Ismail
empirical self, which refers to the person's &Tekke, 2015).
personal experiences and is further divided
into sub-categories: the material self Congruence vs Incongruence. Figure A
(clothes, foods, and other things), social self shows that when a person's ideal self is not
(relationship with other people), and spiritual consistent or matched with what happens in
self (cannot be seen in our physical self that his life, incongruence occurs. For instance, his
needs a depth understanding of our self and ideal self is to finish college and be a
relationship with God). successful engineer, but his real self is that he
does not make an effort to study, and his
The “I” is you doing things without the actions are not aligned. The difference that
opinion of other people. On the other hand, the exists between a person's ideal self and actual
“Me” is the awareness of how people might be experience is called incongruence. Then,
thinking about you or the expectations of anxiety and depression may arise.
people around you. For instance, in a
workplace, if your boss suggests something
that you disagree with, your I-self would like to
tell your boss just to leave the place or
disappear, but your Me-self would show how
your boss and people around expect you to
respond to that situation.
Another way to interpret the basic concept Figure B shows that when a person's ideal
of William James, the “I” is the knower, the self is consistent with what is happening in his
experiencer, the storyteller, and it is in the life, there is a matching of experience and
present tense. The “Me” on the other hand is awareness that is called congruence. For
known, experienced, a story and it is in the instance, one’s ideal self is to become a
past tense. famous volleyball player, and his real self
strives to discipline and gives more time to
CARL ROGERS’ SELF THEORY: REAL AND practice then, there is alignment between the
IDEAL SELF two selves; there is congruence. If the real self
Carl Roger’s personality theory is one of and ideal-self are closely matched, self-
the essential contributions is the notion of self- esteem, trust, and self-worth develop.
concept. The self-concept is defined in a Rogers' Three Parts of Self-Concept
broad way as the individual's tendency to act
Humanist psychologist Carl Rogers believed According to Freud, the superego begins
that self-concept is made up of three different to emerge at around age five. The superego
parts: tries to perfect and civilize our behavior. It
• suppresses all id's unacceptable urges and
> Ideal self: The ideal self is the person you struggles to make the ego act upon idealistic
want to be. This person has the attributes or standards rather than on realistic principles.
qualities you are either working toward or want
to possess. It's who you envision yourself to According to Freud, the key to a healthy
be if you were exactly as you wanted. personality is a balance between the id, the
> Self-image: Self-image refers to how you ego, and the superego. If the ego is able to
see yourself at this moment in time. Attributes adequately moderate between the demands of
like physical characteristics, personality traits, reality, the id, and the superego, a healthy and
and social roles all play a role in your self- well-adjusted personality emerges. Freud
image. believed that an imbalance between these
> Self-esteem: How much you like, accept, elements would lead to a maladaptive
and value yourself all contribute to your self- personality.
concept. Self-esteem can be affected by a
number of factors—including how others see DAVID LESTER: MULTIPLE VS UNIFIED
you, how you think you compare to others and SELF
your role in society. In Lester's multiple self theory of
personality, he made it clear that each multiple
SIGMUND FREUD and the THREE self in the individual's mind is a complex
STRUCTURES OF THE SELF organization of psychological contents
According to Sigmund Freud, human (thoughts, feeling, emotions, and behaviors).
personality is complex and has more than a The mind is made of a multiplicity of
single component. In his famous selves but there are also notions that humans
psychoanalytic theory, Freud states that have a single self. Some theorists argue that
personality is composed of three elements: the this is always the case, while others argue that
id, the ego, and the superego. These elements integrating the various components of the
work together to create complex human mind into a single self is a task for the second
behaviors. half of life (Lester, 2012). The construction of
multiple selves varies across different
The id is the only component of personality interpersonal and intrapersonal roles and
that is present from birth. This aspect of relationships. Coping with different selves
personality is entirely unconscious and constitutes a formidable task among
includes instinctive and primitive behaviors. adolescents. These challenges heavily to the
The id is driven by the pleasure principle, young person's struggle for a unified self. The
which strives for immediate gratification of all task of integrating one's multiple selves
desires, wants, and needs.1 If these needs are naturally causes concern. Given the enormous
not satisfied immediately, the result is a state challenges of self-integration, it is important
of anxiety or tension. For example, an that ado-adolescents are supported in their
increase in hunger or thirst should produce an effort to create a consistent, coherent, or
immediate attempt to eat or drink. unified theory of the self (Go-Monilla &
The term ego is often used informally to Ramirez, 2018).
suggest that someone has an inflated sense of Unified self is the personality that stays
self. However, the ego in personality has a within us, the self we usually only show to
positive effect. It is the part of your personality people we trust and whenever we are alone. A
that keeps you grounded in reality and person's "composite" persona, also known as
prevents the id and superego from pulling you the "self" that incorporates all of the other
too far toward your most basic urges or personalities present in their interactional
moralistic virtues. Having a strong ego means style, is referred to as the “unified self”.
having a strong sense of self-awareness.
DR. DONALD WINNICOTT: TRUE VS FALSE ▪ Resides over everything that involves
SELF decision-making, self-control, taking charge in
Dr. Donald Winnicott, a pediatrician and a situations, and actively responding.
psychoanalyst, explains his theory about the Human Agency
true self and the false self. He expounded the ▪ It is not a thing but an active process of
idea that the function of the false self is to hide exploring, manipulating and influencing the
and protect the true self. environment in order to attain the desired
Winnicott highlighted the importance of the outcomes.
mother as the caregiver and the child as
spontaneous, meaning they just do whatever There were four core properties of human
they want without thinking. The child needs agencies that are described. Intentionality
reassurance and help, which mother does her includes action plans and strategies where we
best to gratify the needs. This strengthens and humans plan and do things intentionally.
grows up feeling confident that will help us to Forethought forming goals and anticipating
show our true self in the real world. future events, where we expect the
Sometimes a child has spontaneous needs, consequences of our actions.
and parents cannot respond immediately, the Self-reactiveness processes of
child will think that their desire is not self-management, self-regulation, and self-
manageable and acceptable. In this case, the motivation, where we make choices and
child will adjust his behavior to protect them decide after we think about the consequences.
from depression and disappointments. Self-reflection refers to self-examination and
reflection on our decisions.
People decided to take out his false self to
protect his true self from pain. For instance, Bandura defined that a human has the
some people may experience loneliness or be capability to influence one's functioning and
alone, and we do not want other people to see actions (Go-Monilla & Ramirez, 2018). He
them in that situation and see how depressed believed that a person could do and make
they are. They will pretend that they are things happen. People can make it intentional,
happy, even deep inside; they need someone and anticipate the consequences that might
to hold on to. Some of them will say, "I do not occur after the decision, enable him to make
need anyone, I am happy with my life" instead choices after seeing the possible
of saying "I need someone to be with" or consequences and eventually, evaluating the
"someone who will listen to me". decision he made.

ALBERT BANDURA: THE SELF AS

PROACTIVE AND AGENTIC
Albert Bandura (2001) posits that humans,
through their agencies, are perceived as
proactive agents of experiences. The Social
Cognitive Theory takes an agentic view of
personality, meaning that humans have the
capacity to exercise control over their own
lives. People consciously act on their
environment in a manner that permits growth
toward psychological health.

Agent Self
▪ Known as an executive function that allows
for actions.
▪ This is how we, as individuals, make choices
and utilize our control in situations and actions.