GE 092 

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

    Mid-Term Exam
   1st sem 2021-2022

 Name: Cris Angelo C. Adel

Crs & Yr: BS Criminology Y1
 GE 092
I. IDENTIFICATION
1. Self
2. Identity
3. Family
4. Environmental factors
5. Friends
6. Socrates
7. Immanuel Kant
8. Rene Descartes
9. Socrates
10. John Locke
11. Psychology
12. Neurophilosophy
13. Cultural Sociology
14. Economics
15. Sociology
16. Political Science
17. Karl Marx
18. Ego
II.ENUMERATION
1-3. Rational, Spirited, Appetitive
4-6. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Democritus
7-9. The id is driven by the pleasure principle, which strives for
immediate gratification of all desires, wants, and needs. If these
needs are not satisfied immediately, the result is a state anxiety
or tension. For example, an increase in hunger or thirst should
produce an immediate attempt to eat or drink
The ego operates based on the reality principle, which strives to
satisfy the id's desires in realistic and socially appropriate ways.
The reality principle weighs the costs and benefits of an action
before deciding to act upon or abandon impulses.
The superego tries to perfect and civilize our behavior. It works
to suppress all unacceptable urges of the id and struggles to
make the ego act upon idealistic standards rather that upon
realistic principles. The superego is present in the conscious,
preconscious, and unconscious.
10-14 Stages of personality according to Sigmund Freud

Oral Stage
In the first stage of psychosexual development, the libido is
centered in a baby's mouth. During the oral stages, the baby gets
much satisfaction from putting all sorts of things in its mouth to
satisfy the libido, and thus its id demands.  Which at this stage in
life are oral, or mouth orientated, such as sucking, biting, and
breastfeeding. 

Anal Stage 
During the anal stage of psychosexual development the libido
becomes focused on the anus, and the child derives great
pleasure from defecating.  The child is now fully aware that they
are a person in their own right and that their wishes can bring
them into conflict with the demands of the outside world (i.e.,
their ego has developed). 

Phallic Stage 
The phallic stage is the third stage of psychosexual
development, spanning the ages of three to six years, wherein
the infant's libido (desire) centers upon their genitalia as the
erogenous zone.
The child becomes aware of anatomical sex differences, which
sets in motion the conflict between erotic attraction, resentment,
rivalry, jealousy and fear which Freud called the Oedipus
complex (in boys) and the Electra complex (in girls).

Latency Stage 
The latency stage is the forth stage of psychosexual
development, spanning the period of six years to puberty.
During this stage the libido is dormant and no further
psychosexual development takes place (latent means hidden). 
Freud thought that most sexual impulses are repressed during
the latent stage, and sexual energy can be sublimated towards
school work, hobbies, and friendships. 

Genital Stage 
The genital stage is the last stage of Freud's psychosexual theory
of personality development, and begins in puberty.  It is a time
of adolescent sexual experimentation, the successful resolution
of which is settling down in a loving one-to-one relationship
with another person in our 20's.
III. DEFINATION
*SEPARATE*- it is meant that the self is distinct from other
selves. The self is always unique and has its own identity.one
cannot be another person. Even twins are distinct from each
other.
*SELF-CONTAINED & INDEPENDENT*-because in itself it
can exist its distinctness allow it to be self-contained with its
own thoughts, characteristics, and volition. It does not require
any other self for it to exist.
*CONSISTENT*- because it has a personality that is enduring
and therefore can be expected to persist for quite some time its
consistency allows to be studied, described, and measured,
consistency also means that a particular self traits,
characteristics, tendencies, and potentialities are more or less the
same.
*UNITARY*- in that it is the center of all experiences and
thoughts that run through a certain person it is like the chief
command post in an individual where all processes, emotion,
and thoughts converge.
*PRIVATE*- Each person sorts out information, feelings and
emotions, and though processes within the self. This whole
process is never accessible to anyone but the self. This last
characteristic of the self being private suggest that the self is
isolated from the external world From this perspective: the
concern of this lesson is in understanding the vibrant.
2. what is culture?
Ans: Culture helps define how individuals see themselves and
how they relate to others. ... A family's cultural values shape the
development of its child's self-concept: Culture shapes how we
each see ourselves and others.Culture is a major factor in the
constitution of the ability to develop one’s identity.Culture
means the way in which individuals or groups of people handle
the raw material of their social and material existence in order to
develop their own specific ways of life with their own distinct
forms of expression as a network of meaning.

3. What is a Cultural self?

ANS: Cultural self-awareness refers to the awareness of how
culture has influenced the self. These individuals would be
aware of how culture has influenced different aspects of their
self, such as their values and behaviors.
IV. Compare & contrast the following:

1. Eastern cultures to Western cultures

Ans: Eastern Self Everyone is interconnected in a drama with
specific roles. Self-cultivation: The cultivated self in
Confucianism is what some scholars call a “subdued self”
wherein personal needs are repressed [subdue] for the good of
many, making Confucian society also hierarchal for the purpose
of maintaining order and balance.

Western Self focuses on self (Individualistic). You compare in

order to be better. You create associations and bask in the glory
of that group for your self-esteem. You put primacy on
developing yourself. By focusing on the self, they may seem to
have loose associations or even loyalty to their groups.
Competition is the name of the game and they are more likely
straightforward and forceful in their communication as well as
decision making. They value equality even if they see that
individual can rise above everything else. They also promote
ideals that create 'fair' competition and protect the individual.
Western and Eastern Differences
Western referred as the school of thought from Greek
Philosophy. It is rooted from Rome and Christianity. Laws are
the ones that govern the behavior. It is individualist in culture. It
is all about 'I'. Tries to find self as it is the given part of the
divine. Logical, scientific, rational, and focus on ethics.
Eastern roots are from Asia. They believe that natural world
does not follow laws, it simply 'is'. It is collectivist in culture. It
is all about 'We'. Drawn on people's actions and thought as one.
Trying to get rid of the false 'me' concept and find meaning in
discovering the true 'me'. Life is all about unity. The inner self
must be freed.

Western and Eastern Similarities

Similarities: Both approach share a concept that a deeper
understanding of reality is possible. Influenced by the notion
that there is a supreme being who guides the mankind and
provides for all he created. Believes in the concept of "god as
the king of universe"
2. Personne to Moi
ANS: Moi- refers to a person's sense of who he is, his body, and
his basic identity, his biological governess. Moi is a person's
basic identity personne on the other hand, is composed of the
social concepts of what it means to be who he is.While
Personne has much to do with what it means to live in a
particular institution, a particular family, a particular religion, a
particular nationality and how to behave given expectations and
influences from others.

3. Compare the philosophical view of the following    

   philosophers:
a. Gilbert Ryle - denies the internal, non-physical self
• “what truly matters is the behavior that a person manifests in
his day-to-day life.”
• looking for the self is like entering LU and looking for the
“university” 
• the self is not an entity one can locate and analyze but simply
the convenient name that we use to refer to the behaviors that we
make
 b. Marleau Ponty
• a phenomenologist who says the mind- body bifurcation is an
invalid problem
• mind and body are inseparable
• “one’s body is his opening toward his existence to the world”
• the living body, his thoughts, emotions, and experiences are all
one.
• if you hate this subject, Merleau-Ponty understands you.
 c. Immanuel Kant- agrees with HUME that everything starts
with perception/sensation of impressions
• there is a MIND that regulates these impressions
• “time, space, etc. are ideas that one cannot find in the world,
but is built in our minds
• “apparatus of the mind”
 the self organizes different impressions that one gets in relation
to his own existence
• we need active intelligence to synthesize all knowledge and
experience
• the self is not only personality but also the seat of knowledge
  
 d. St. Augustine & St Thomas Aquinas
(ST.) AUGUSTINE
• ‘spirit of man’ in medieval philosophy
• following view of Plato but adds Christianity
• man is of a bifurcated nature
• part of man dwells in the world (imperfect) and yearns to be
with the Divine
• other part is capable of reaching immortality
• body – dies on earth; soul – lives eternally in spiritual bliss
with “God”
(ST) THOMAS AQUINAS • man = matter + form
• matter (hyle) – “common stuff that makes up everything in the
universe”
• form (morphe) – “essence of a substance or thing”; (what
makes it what it is)
• the body of the human is similar to animals/objects, but what
makes a human is his essence
• “the soul is what makes us humans”
V. Essay: IN YOUR OWN BRILLIANT IDEAS, Explain the
following:

1. Describe how culture, family & social forces shaped your

   view of yourself.
Ans: culture refers to the shared values, beliefs and norms of a
specific group of people. Culture, therefore, influences the
manner we learn, live and behave. Because of this, many
theorists believe that culture is an important shaper of our
personality. One of the general assumptions asserting the effect
of culture to personality is that people who are born and bred in
the same culture share common personality traits. The culture
shapes the way I work and play, and it makes a difference in
how I view myself and others. It affects my values—what I
consider right and wrong. This is how the society we live in
influences our choices. But our choices can also influence others
and ultimately help shape our society. Culture helps define how
individuals see themselves and how they relate to others. A
family’s cultural values shape the development of its child’s
self-concept: Culture shapes how we each see ourselves and
others. And as we grow up and become what we are today, our
family has always been there, watching and being our guide
whenever we lost the right path or whenever we face huge
challenges in our life. For me, our family had a great contribute
on what we are today. Our characteristics were based on them --
mom, dad, ate, kuya, tita, tito, lolo, lola, etc. They became our
role models that's why we are committing these characteristics;
our family has been the main reason on how we became this
character today. We may had a fight with them, we may had
sometimes don't understand them or we may had a very difficult
wall facing with them, still, they're still our family. Our life
hasn't been always perfect that you're just going to find yourself
one day crying and crying at the darkest scariest corner of hell,
that you keep on telling to yourself that "I should do this all
alone by myself because this is my problem at the first place", "I
shouldn't include anyone even my family or my friends because
I don't seriously find a legit reason to include them." Sometimes
you're just going to wake up by being mad at them because they
keep on knowing and knowing what the hell is your problem.
But swear, don't. Don't be mad at them because they're just
trying to help you figure out a way to solve your problem. Just
be contented because you're actually one of the luckiest person
in the world that had their family on their back. Many had a
family but don't care of each other or worst to you. Whenever
we can't see anymore, whenever we're already blinded of
the right thing to do, whenever our mind already act 0% that we
don't know what the hell are we going to do anymore, our
family, they had been there. They didn't let us suffer a certain
something just by our own self. They supported us, they guided
us, they did something just for us to be back onto the right path
again. They let us pick the right choices, the choices that will
make us happy and completely out of miserable, the choices that
made us see the light again.and “We are not alone. We live in a
society, as wild as it is. We live in groups, we define ourselves
through them, and hence, at least in some aspects, we belong to
them.” These groups that we live in are the cultures we create
for ourselves. We do this to build social connections, which
allow people to feel accepted by the general population. It is a
human need to feel accepted by other people, so it is only
natural for a person to gravitate to a group that is made of
members that reflect their own characteristics.

2. Among the philosophical views of the self, which one

   reflects your view of yourself?

Ans For me it was the philosophical view of the self according

to Plato, Plato’s idea on the self is very simple yet complex. He
has a different way of talking, which means that he either tells
you what he means or he contradicts himself. He starts off
saying that the soul, psyche, is the “thing” that causes things to
be alive, but then says that “I” equals my soul. Does that mean
that I cause myself to be alive? That thought can be very
contradicting and complicated to understand. He then goes and
says that the soul is different from the body. This thought is very
complicated and makes Plato’s words very contradicting. On the
other hand, Plato’s idea of self can be simple to understand if we
take another view on it. We know that two things are constant in
Plato’s search to find the answers for the soul and these
He wrote many dialogues, and one of them includes his famous
dialogue called “Allegory of the Cave.” This dialogue explained
how we were born into being very naïve people about our
surroundings and taking things for granted, but eventually with
the right education we grow to be philosophers that know the
Form of Good. Society closes our eyes and whispers things to us
in our ears and we believe it, in order to break free we need to
educate ourselves into being more knowledgeable about our
surroundings. We need to analyze even the smallest things,
nothing is to be taken for granted because everything is more
complex than what it seems.

3. Between Western & Eastern views, which one do you prefer?

    Why?
Ans: I prefer Eastern Views,Why? Because the most important
characteristic of the Eastern world view - one could almost say
the essence of it - is the awareness of the unity and mutual
interrelation of all things and events, the experience of all
phenomena in the world as manifestations of a basic oneness. It
is all about 'We'. Drawn on people's actions and thought as one.
Trying to get rid of the false 'me' concept and find meaning in
discovering the true 'me'. Life is all about unity. The inner self
must be freed.
And the main goal of Eastern Philosophy are making us wiser,
less agitated, more thoughtful and readier to appreciate our lives.