PSYCHOLOGY

“The self thus becomes aware of itself, at least in its practical action, and
discovers itself as a cause among other causes and as an object subject to the
same laws as other objects.”
―Jean Piaget

Activity 4
“I AM WHO I AM”
Activity Proper:
A. Get a ¼ - sheet of paper, and fold it into two.
B. Formulate at least three questions for yourself.
Examples:
1. Am I approachable?
2. Do I appear friendly to others?
3. Am I aloof?
C. After answering these questions yourself, look for a classmate whom you don’t know
well, and validate your answers by asking him/her to answer the same questions as you
cover your answers.
Guide Questions:
1. Were your answers to the three questions the same as your classmates answers? How
did you feel?
2. How would you feel if you found out that your answers were all different from those of
your classmate, giving you an idea of how he finds you as a person.
3. Why do you think you have different perceptions?

The Self As A Cognitive Construction

What is psychology? How can psychology help you understand yourself and know
who you really are? Psychology is the scientific study of how people behave, think, and
feel. It includes topics, such as how the brain works, how our memory is organised, how
people interact in groups, and how children learn about the world. In fact, everything
that concerns the human being is a concern of psychology. From the basic workings of
the human brain to consciousness, memory, reasoning and language, to personality and
mental health, and everything about the human experience – Psychology will scrutinize
it so that you as a human being will understand how it is to be “you.”

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 Online dictionaries define the term cognitive as “of, relating to, being, or involving
conscious intellectual activity, such as thinking, reasoning, or remembering” (WEB).
Self-theorists argue that it is natural for humans to form theories about themselves,
both as a single entity and as a group, to make meaning of one’s existence and experience.
Psychologist Jean Piaget was a Swiss clinical psychologist known for his pioneering
work in child development. He pioneered the “theory of cognitive development,” a
comprehensive theory about the development of human intelligence. The theory
dealts with the nature of knowledge itself; and how humans gradually come to acquire,
construct, and use it (Torres & Ash, 2007). According to Piaget, cognitive development
is a progressive reorganization of mental processes resulting from biological maturation
and environmental experience. He believes that children construct an understanding
of the world around them, experience inconsistencies between what they already know
and what they discover in their environment, and then adjust their ideas accordingly
(McLeod, 2009). Moreover, Piaget claims that cognitive development is at the center
of the human organism. For example, language is dependent on knowledge and
understanding, and the capacity to speak and express oneself through language can only
be acquired through the development of intelligence, conscious thought, and problem-
solving ability that begins in infancy (Baldwin, 2005).
Piaget (1952) observed how children processed and made sense of the world around
them and eventually developed a four-stage model of how the mind processes new
information encountered.
There are three basic components to Piaget’s cognitive theory. These are:
1. Schemas/schemes. These are the building blocks of knowledge. Schemes are
mental organizations that individuals use to understand their environments and
designate action.
2. Adaptation. It involves the child’s learning processes to meet situational
demands.
3. Stages of Cognitive Development. They reflect the increasing sophistication
of the child’s thought process.
According to Piaget, the knowledge children acquire is organized into schemas
(scheme) or groupings of similar actions or thoughts. Over time, these schemes may
change, but they provide an important base level of information about particular events,
objects, and information.
Furthermore, he describes two processes used by the individual in his/her attempt
to adapt - assimilation and accommodation. The individual uses both these processes to
adjust to his or her environment in an increasingly complex manner. Assimilation is the
application of previous concepts to new concepts. For example, a child who was just
learned the word “fish,” shouts “fish!” upon seeing one. Meanwhile, accommodation
happens when people encounter completely new information or when existing ideas

34 A Holistic Approach In Understanding The Self

are challenged. For example, a child knows dogs and cats. At school, he/she learns the
word “animals.” The child will then adjust her understanding that dogs and cats are both
animals. People often have to form a new schema or alter existing mental categories to
accommodate new information.
In the “Stages of Cognitive Development,” Piaget theorize that children progress
through 4 stages and that they all do so in the same order. A brief summary of Piaget’s
four stages of cognitive development appears below.

Table 1 piaget’s stages of cognitive development

STAGE AGE CHARACTERISTICS OF STAGE

The child learns by doing: looking, touching, sucking. the
child also has a primitive understanding of cause-and-
Sensorimotor 0-2
effect relationships. Object permanence appears around
9 months.
The child uses language and symbols, including letters and
numbers. Egocentrism is also evident. Conservation marks
Preoperational 2–7
the end of the preoperational stage and the beginning of
concrete oeprations.
The child demonstrates conservation, reversiblity, serial
Concrete Operations 7–11 ordering, and a mature understanding of cause-andk-
effect relationship. Thinking at this stage is still concrete.
The individual demonstrates abstract thinking at this stage
Formal Operations 12+
is still concrete.

Harter’s Self-Development Concept

Psychologist, author, and professor, Dr. Susan Harter (1999) detailed the emergence
of self-concept and asserted that the broad developmental changes observed across
early childhood, later childhood, and adolescence could be interpreted within a
Piagetian framework. Additionally, Harter expanded her self-development concept until
adulthood. The development of self-concept according to Harter is as follows:
• Early childhood. The child describes the “self” in terms of concrete, observable
characteristics, such as physical attributes (“I’m pretty/ugly/strong”), material
possessions (“I have lots of toys”), behaviors (“I love playing with my toys”), and
preferences (“I like candies”).
• Middle to later childhood. The self is described in terms of traitlike constructs
(e.g., smart, honest, friendly, shy) that would require the type of hierarchical
organizational skills characteristic of logical thought development.
• Adolescence. According to Harter, this is the emergence of more abstract self-
definitions, such as inner thoughts, emotions, attitudes, and motives. For example,
one 15-year-old girl in a study on self- conceptions described herself as follows:

A Holistic Approach In Understanding The Self 35

 “What am I like as a person? Complicated! I’m sensitive, friendly, outgoing, popular,
and tolerant though I can also be shy, self-conscious, even obnoxious. . . I‘m a pretty
cheerful person, especially with my friends. . . . At home, I’m more likely to be anxious
around my parents” (Harter, 1990b, p. 352). The use of the abstract words sensitive,
outgoing, cheerful, and anxious as self-portrait is consistent with Piaget’s findings
on the adolescent’s ability to construct higher-order abstractions and the capacity
for introspection (Harter, 1999).
• Emerging adults. The marked characteristic of “self” for emerging adults is having
a vision of a “possible self.” It is the “age of possibilities” (Amett, 2004a). In one
Australian study (Whitty, 2002), early emerging adulthood (ages 17—22) was found
to be a time of “grand dreams,” of being wealthy and having a glamorous occupation,
but beyond emerging adulthood (ages 28—33) the visions of a possible-self became
more realistic, if still optimistic.

William James and The Me-Self; I-Self

‘The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook,” wrote William James in his
groundbreaking masterpiece, The Principles of Psychology, written in 1890. A figure
commonly known as “the father of American psychology,” philosopher, psychologist, and
university professor, William James gave one of the earliest self-theory psychological
analyses. According to James (1950), the “self” has two elements: the I-self and the Me-
self.
I-self is the pure ego. It is the subjective self. It is the “self” that is aware of its own
actions. The I-self characteristically has four features. These are:
1. A sense of being the agent or initiator of behavior. I believe my actions have
an impact; that I cause an effect in my environment.
2. A sense of being unique. This is how I am different from everything in my
environment; I perceive there is only one Me.
3. A sense of continuity. I am the same person from day to day.
4. A sense of awareness about being aware. I understand what is going on in me
and around me; and I know I understand it.
(James, 1950; Newman, 2017; Pomerleau, ©2017; Damon & Hart, 1982)

The me-self is the self that is the object. It is the “self” that you can describe, such
as your physical characteristics, personalities, social role, or relationships, thoughts,
feelings (Newman, 2017; James, 1950; Pomerleau, ©2017). James called it the empirical
self. Empirical is defined as “based on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation or
experience rather than theory or pure logic” (WEB).

36 A Holistic Approach In Understanding The Self

 The dimensions of the me-self include:
1. Material – physical appearance and extensions of it such as clothing, immediate
family, and home;
2. Social – social skills and significant interpersonal relationships; and
3. Spiritual - personality, character, defining values.
(James, 1950; Newman, 2017; Pomerleau, ©2017; Damon & Hart, 1982)

Real and Ideal Self-Concepts

Instructions: Answer the test below to determine whether your real self is congruent with
your ideal self. Be honest.

A Self-Assessment Test for Congruence

The following demonstration test illustrates a version of a “Q-sort,” a self-assessment
procedure for measuring congruence, a state of internal consistency, which Carl Rogers
saw as important to healthy personality growth. A brief discussion follows the test,
which is self-scoring (as described below). Please read the directions, and complete part
A before going on to part B!

Part A
Please select ten adjectives from the following list, which you feel describe what you
are like. (You may find it useful to write them down on a sheet of paper, or print this page,
and cut them out individually.) Try to be as honest and accurate as possible in making
the choices to describe yourself. (For example, don’t omit an adjective that describes
you well if it happens to be somewhat negative, like “anxious.”) Once you have selected
the ten, which best describe you, arrange them in order, from the most important/
significant aspects, to those that are least significant in describing your personality.
Write them down, with the rank order, on a piece of paper, then fold it, and put it aside.
Place all the words together, shuffle them, and then go on to part B.

ANXIOUS ATTRACTIVE CARELESS DEPRESSED

DISHONEST ENERGETIC FUNNY HAPPY
HONEST INTELLIGENT KIND LAZY
OPTIMISTIC ORGANIZED OUT-GOING PLAIN
RELAXED SAD SERIOUS SHY
SLOPPY STRONG UNHELPFUL WEAK

A Holistic Approach In Understanding The Self 37

Part B
You are now requested to do the same task again, but this time selecting ten terms
to describe what you wish you were like--that is, your personal ideal. (For example, you
may feel that you are shy, but would like to be extroverted.) Do not refer to the list from
part A in making your choices! Once you have selected ten, arrange them in rank order,
from the most important/significant, to those that are relatively unimportant in your
imagined ideal. As in part A, write them down, in ranked order, on a piece of paper.

ANXIOUS ATTRACTIVE CARELESS DEPRESSED

DISHONEST ENERGETIC FUNNY HAPPY
HONEST INTELLIGENT KIND LAZY
OPTIMISTIC ORGANIZED OUT-GOING PLAIN
RELAXED SAD SERIOUS SHY
SLOPPY STRONG UNHELPFUL WEAK
Scoring

Take the two lists from Parts A and B, and assign values to the ranks on each list,
with the first term = 10, the second term = 9, etc. (the last term will have a value of 1).
Now, identify any adjectives that do not appear on both lists (appearing in different
positions doesn’t matter). For any terms which do not appear on both lists, change the
value to zero. For terms that appear on both lists, give the value assigned for the term
on list A to the term on list B. Then, using the values you have assigned to the two lists
(including the zero terms), apply the following formula:

(sum of list A + sum of list B)/(1.1) = score

The score range is from 0 to 100, with 100 representing a perfect match of self and
ideal self (i.e., complete congruence); if half the terms appear on both lists (but with
different ranks), the median score would be approximately 50. In general, the lower the
score, the less congruent is the relationship between one’s self and ideal self. (For further
information on these concepts, refer to the textbook, or the links to other sites.)
Note that this demonstration is not meant to be a serious clinical device, and
no claims are made as to its validity or reliability! (Even the scoring system is an
approximation, as a correlation coefficient would provide a more precise indicator.) It is
provided here simply as a learning tool, to better understand Rogers’ concepts of self,
ideal self, and congruence.
Source: http://www.ryerson.ca/~glassman/Qsort.html)
Another assessment of self-concept can be answered through this website:
https://childtrends.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/2008-32Self-Concept.pdf

38 A Holistic Approach In Understanding The Self

 Carl Ransom Rogers was an American psychologist and among the founders of
the humanistic approach to psychology (Capuzzi, 2016). Humanistic psychology is
a psychological perspective that rose to prominence in the mid-20th century. This
approach highlighted the individual’s innate drive toward self-actualization and the
process of realizing and expressing one’s own capabilities and creativity (Hansen, 2014).
Humanistic psychology emphasized the active role of the individual in shaping
their internal and external worlds. Rogers stressed that a person is an active, creative,
experiencing being who lives in the present and who thinks, feels, and responds to his
or her environment. He coined the term actualizing tendency, which refers to a person’s
basic instinct to succeed at his or her highest possible capacity. Through person-centered
counseling and scientific therapy research, Rogers formed his theory of personality
development, which highlighted free will and the great reservoir of human potential for
goodness (McLeod, S. A. 2014).

Personality development and the self-concept

Rogers based his theories of personality development on humanistic psychology and
theories of subjective experience. According to Rogers, all behavior is motivated by self-
actualizing tendencies and these tendencies drive you to reach your full potential. He
believes that the world a person exists in is the center of constant changes, and the person
reacts to these changes. As a result of this constant interaction with the environment
and others, an individual forms a structure of the self or self-concept—an organized,
fluid, conceptual pattern of concepts and values related to the self. If the person holds
a positive self-concept, he or she would tend to feel good about himself or herself, and
would generally see the world as a safe and positive place. If the person holds a negative
self-concept, then he or she may feel unhappy with who he/she is (Kirschenbaum&
Henderson, 1989).

Ideal self vs. real self

Rogers further divided the self into two categories: the ideal self and the real self.
The ideal self is the person that you would like yourself to be; it is your concept of the
“best me” who is worthy of admiration. It is an idealized image of self that the individual
has developed based on what you have has learned and experienced. For example,
your parents are medical doctors who are respected and admired in your community.
Observing your parents, you conclude that to be happy, you need to be smart and have a
high-paying job. Your ideal self may be someone who excels in science subjects, spends a
lot of time studying, and does not get queasy easily.

A Holistic Approach In Understanding The Self 39

 The ideal self could include:
1. Notions influenced by your parents;
2. What you admire in others;
3. What the society sees as acceptable; and
4. What you think is in your best interest.
The real self is the person you actually are. It is how you behave right at the moment
of a situation. It is who you are in reality – how you think, feel, or act at present.
Rogers, C. 1959; Gale, C. L. 2015; Eysenck, M. W., 2004; Brouwer, I. B., 2014

The importance of alignment

Rogers accentuated the need to achieve consistency between the ideal self and the
real self. According to Rogers, “If the way that I am (the real self ) is aligned with the way
that I want to be (the ideal self ), then I will feel a sense of mental well-being or peace of
mind. In other words, when your real self and ideal self are very similar you experience
congruence. High congruence leads to a greater sense of self-worth and a healthy,
productive life”(Rogers, C. 1950, 2000; Ellingham, I. 2001).
When there is a great inconsistency between your ideal and real selves or if the way
you are is not aligned with what you want to be, then you experience a state Rogers called
incongruence. He added that incongruence could lead to maladjustment. Maladjustment
is defined as the inability to react successfully and satisfactorily to the demands of one’s
environment (Rogers, C. 1950, 2000).

Multiple vs Unified Selves

William James (1890) said, “Properly speaking, a man has as many social selves as
there are individuals who recognize him and carry an image of him in their head.”
On the other hand, social psychologist Roy Baumeister (2010) said, “But the concept
of the self loses its meaning if a person has multiple selves…the essence of self involves
integration of diverse experiences into a unity…In short, unity is one of the defining
features of selfhood and identity.”
These two statements represent one of the oldest puzzles for psychologists in their
study of the “self.” The question is not just “What is a “self?” but “Is there just one self or
there are many selves?” Most likely you would say, “of course there’s just one self. There’s
just me. I’m the one reading this book.” True. This observation is justified since there is
only one physical body reading the text. However, let us reflect deeper. When you talk
about “self” you are not just talking about your physical body. There is something in you
that cannot be reduced to biology, chemistry, or physics. Thus, the question “Who am I
(really)?” remains relevant then and now.

40 A Holistic Approach In Understanding The Self

 The Unity of Consciousness

The human experience is always that of unity. For example, you dropped a hot pot
because you forgot to use a potholder. The experience of feeling pain and dropping the
pot displays striking unity. It was you who experienced both the pain and the act, rather
than a string of consciousness where one part felt the pain and the other dropped the
pot. It was experienced by “you” – a single, distinct, conscious entity in the situation.
The unity of consciousness was a central topic for classical modern philosophers
(from 1600s to 1900s). This idea was pushed by Descartes, Kant, and James to name a
few. According to Rene Descartes, the mind (that is the thinking, experiencing being) is
not made up of parts; thus, it cannot be a physical substance because anything material
has parts (Skirry, 2005). Descartes claimed that this “being” is of unified consciousness
and not composed of merged fragments (Brook & Raymont, 2017).
There is also Immanuel Kant’s “unity of consciousness” that can be described as “I am
conscious not only of single experiences but of a great many experiences at the same
time. The same is true of actions; I can do and be conscious of doing a number of actions
at the same time” (Brook, 2016).

One Self or Many Selves?

Contemporary psychological studies challenged the notion of a single, distinct, “only

one” notion of self. Several major personality theorists proposed that the mind is made
up of several sub-selves.

Allport’s Personality Theory

Psychologist Gordon Allport (1961) proposed his “personality trait” theory asserting
that every person possesses “traits.” According to Allport, a “trait” is your essential
characteristic that never, ever changes and sticks with you all your life. Moreover, these
traits shape who you are (how you think, feel, or behave, etc.) in any given day (Hall, &
Lindzey, 1957; Morris, et al., 2002).

The ego states

In 1960 psychiatrist Eric Berne began to develop his transactional analysis model
as basis for understanding behavior. Transactional analysis is anchored on two notions:
1. Every person has three parts called “ego states” in his or her personality.
2. People communicate with one another assuming roles of any of these ego states.

Berne presented the ego states as:

1. Parent 3. Child
2. Adult

A Holistic Approach In Understanding The Self 41

 The parent ego state is the voice of authority. It could be a comforting “nurturing
parent” voice or a “controlling/critical parent” voice that tells what you should or should
not do. The Adult ego state is the rational person. It is the voice that speaks reasonably
and knows how to assert himself or herself. There are Three child ego states. First is the
natural child who loves to play but is sensitive and vulnerable. The little professor is the
curious child who wants to try everything. The adaptive child is the one who reacts to the
world. He or she could be trying to fit in or is rebelling against authority (Berne, 2016
edition).

Domains of the self

University professor and author Gregg Henriques proposed that the human self has
three related, but separable, domains. These domains are:
1. Experiential self;
2. Private self-conscious; and
3. Public self/persona.
Henriques (2014) described the “experiential self ” as the theater of consciousness
because it is the first to experience its beingness (the state or fact of existing). He added
that the experiential self is closely tied to memory. The “private self-conscious” can be
described as the narrator or interpreter. It is the self that narrates the unfolding events
and at the same time tries to make sense of the experience. The “public self or persona” is
the image you project to the public. This is the image that interacts with others and will
influence how others see you.

True vs False Selves

Imagine that people are like onions. The center of the onion needs to be protected by
layers to be able to survive. At the center of the onion lies our true self, surrounded by
layers we have developed through our lives as protection. These layers are our false self.
Most of us need our false selves as protection to survive childhood, and we carry these
layers with us through our adult lives because these protective layers help us endure.
In 1960, an English pediatrician and psychoanalyst, D. W. Winnicott introduced his
concept of “false self ” and “true self.” According to Winnicott the “self ” is simply “the
person who is me” (1960; 1965). Winnicott also proposed that the healthy core of a
healthy person’s self is hidden from the outside world, uninfluenced by external (harsh)
realities. The false self is put up to defend the core from these realities and prevent it
from any changes.

42 A Holistic Approach In Understanding The Self

False self
Winnicott expressed that the false self is the product of early experience. It is a
defensive organization formed by the infant because of inadequate mothering or failures
in empathy. He added that the false self is developed as the infant is repeatedly subjected
to maternal care that intrudes upon, rejects, or abandons his or her experience (Daehnert,
1998). The false self is also based on being completely obedient to the parents’ wishes.
Winnicott asserted that when the child is constantly expected to follow rules, a false
self develops. The false self is a mask or a persona. It is a form of defense that constantly
seeks to anticipate others’ demands and complying with them, as a way of protecting the
true self from a world that is felt to be unsafe.
However, when the person has false self but can still function both as an individual
and in the society, then he or she has a healthy false self. The healthy false self feels that
it is still connected with the true self. Thus, it can be compliant without feeling guilty
that it abandoned its true self.
On the other hand, there is also the unhealthy false self. An individual who may seem
happy and comfortable in his or her environment but actually feels forced to fit in and
constantly needs to adjust his or her behavior to adapt to the social situation is said to
have an unhealthy false self.

True self
True self flourishes in infancy if the mother is positively responsive to the child’s
spontaneous expressions (Winnicott, 1960; Jones-Smith, 2011). Winnicott described
true self as a sense of “self ” based on “spontaneous authentic experience.” It is an
awareness that bodily functions are working, such as the heart pumping, as well as simply
breathing. Moreover, true self, according to Winnicott (1960), is part of the infant that
feels creative, spontaneous, and real. It has a sense of integrity, of connected wholeness.
True self is a sense of being alive and real in one’s mind and body, having feelings that
are spontaneous and unforced. This experience of aliveness is what allows people to be
genuinely close to others and to be creative.
Winnicott believed that people unconsciously repeat early relationships (particularly
the mother-infant relationship) in one form or another. A child whose mother is
positively responsive and supports the child’s natural process of individuation will grow
up as an adult with a stable self-image; views other people realistically; and accepts both
the positive and negative side of every person including himself/herself (Jones-Smith,
2011).

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