LESSON 3 – The Self as a Cognitive Construct

INTRODUCTION

As discussed in the previous lessons, every field of study, at least in the social sciences,
have their own research, definition, and conceptualization of self and identity. Some are similar
while some specific only in their field. Each field also has thousands of research on self and
identity as well as related or synonymous terms. The trend of the lessons seems to define the
concept of the “self” from a larger context (i.e., culture and society) down to the individual.
However, it must be pointed out that modern researches acknowledge the contributions of each
field and this is not some sort of a nature vs. nurture, society/culture vs. individual/brain, and
other social sciences vs. psychology debate. Psychology may focus on the individual and the
cognitive functions, but it does not discount the context and other possible factors that affect the
individual. For students who take up psychology, discussions on theories, and development,
among others actually take at least one semester and there are still more to be learned about
the concept of “self”. This lesson provides an overview of the themes of psychology regarding
the said concept.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

1. Identify the different ideas in psychology about the “self”;

2. Create your own definition of the “self” based on the definitions from psychology; and
3. Analyze the effects of various factors identified in psychology in the formation of “self”.

COURSE MATERIALS

The Self as a Cognitive Construct

In confidence or in an attempt to avoid further analytical discussions, a lot of people say,

“I am who I am”. Yet, this statement still begs the question “if you are who you are, then who
are you that makes you who you are?”

As mentioned earlier, there are various definitions of the “self” and other similar or
interchangeable concepts in psychology. Simply put, “self” is the “sense of personal identity
and of who we are as individuals (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014).”

William James (1890) was one of the earliest psychologists to study the self as having
two aspects—the “I” and the “me”. Hogg and Vaughan 2010). The “I” is the thinking, acting,
and feeling self. The “me” on the other hand, is the physical characteristics as well as
psychological capabilities that makes who you are (Gleitman, Gross, and Reisberg 2011; Hogg
and Vaughan 2010). The “me” on the other hand, is the physical characteristics as well as

Understanding the Self/ Compiled by: Minera Laiza C. Acosta 1

psychological capabilities that makes who you are (Gleitamn, Gross and Reisberg 2011; Hogg
and Vaughan 2010). Carl Rogers’ (1959) theory of personality also used the same terms, the “I”
as the one who acts and decides while the “me” is what you think or feel about yourself as an
object (Gleitman, Gross, and Reisberg 2011).

Other concepts similar to self are identity and self-concept. Identity is composed of
personal characteristics, social roles, and responsibilities, as well as affiliations that define who
one is. Self-concept is what basically comes to your mind when you are asked about who you
are (Oyserman, Elmore, and smith 2012).

Self, identity, and self-concept are not fixed in one-time frame. For example, when you
are asked about who you are, you can say “I was a varsity player in 5th Grade” which pertains to
the past, “a college student” which may be the present, and “a future politician” which is the
future. They are not also fixed for life nor are they ever-changing at every moment. Think of a
malleable metal, strong and hard but can be bent and molded in other shapes. Think about
water. It can take any shape of the container, but at its core, it is still the same element.

Carl Rogers captured this idea in his concept of self-schema or our organized system or
collection of knowledge about who we are. Imagine an organized list or a diagram similar to this
one below:

Understanding the Self/ Compiled by: Minera Laiza C. Acosta 2

 The schema is not limited to the example above. It may also include your interests,
work, course, age, name, and physical characteristics, among others. As you grow and adapt
to the changes around you, they also change. But they are not passive receivers, they actively
shape and affect how you see, think and feel about things (Gleitman, Gross, and Reisberg
2011; Jhangiani and Tarry 2014).

For example, when someone states your first name even if they are not talking about
you, your attention is drawn to them. If you have a provincial language and you hear someone
using it, it catches your attention. If you consider yourself a book-lover, a bookstore may always
entice you out of all the other stores in the mall.

Theories generally see the self and identity as mental constructs, created and recreated
in memory (Oyserman, Elmore, and Smith 2012). Current researches point to the frontal lobe of
the brain as the specific area in the brain associated with the processes concerning the self
(Oyserman, Elmore, and Smith 2012).

Several psychologists, especially during the field’s earlier development, followed this
trend of thought, looking deeper into the mind of the person to theorize about the self, identity,
self-concept, and in turn, one’s personality. The most influential of them is Sigmund Freud.
Basically, Freud saw the self, its mental processes, and one’s behavior as the results of the
interaction between the Id, the Ego, and the Superego.

However, as mentioned earlier, one cannot fully discount the effects of society and
culture on the formation of the self, identity, and self-concept. Even as Freud and other theories
and researchers try to understand the person digging deeper into the mind, they cannot fully
discount the huge and important effects of the environment. As in the abovementioned
definitions of the self, social interaction always has a part to play in who we think we are. This is
not nature vs. nurture but instead a nature-nurture perspective.

Under the theory of symbolic interactionism, G.H. Mead (1934) argued that the self is
created and developed through human interaction (Hogg and Vaughan 2010). Basically, there
are three reasons why self and identity are social products (Oyserman, Elmore, and Smith
2012):

1. We do not create ourselves out of nothing. Society helped in creating the

foundations of who we are and even if we make our choices, we will still operate in
our social and historical contexts in one way or the other. You may, of course,
transfer from one culture to another, but parts of who you were will still affect you and
you will also have to adapt to the new social context. Try looking at your definition of
who you are and see where society had affected you.

2. Whether we like to admit or not, we actually need others to affirm and reinforce who
we think we are. We also need them as reference points about our identity. One
interesting example is the social media interactions we have. In the case of
Facebook, there are those who will consciously or unconsciously try to garner more
“likes” and/or positive “reactions” and that can and will reinforce their self-concept. It

Understanding the Self/ Compiled by: Minera Laiza C. Acosta 3

 is almost like a battle between who got more friends, more views, and trending
topics. If one says he is a good singer but his performance and the evaluation of his
audience says otherwise, that will have an effect on that person’s idea of himself,
one way or another.

3. What we think is important to us may also have been influenced by what is important
in our social or historical context. Education might be an important thing to your self-
concept because you grew up in a family that valued education. Money might be
important to some because they may have grown in a low-income family and
realized how important money is in addressing certain needs like medical
emergencies. Being a nurse or a lawyer can be priority in your self-schema because
it is the in-demand course during your time.

Social interaction and group affiliation, therefore, are vital factors in creating our self-
concept especially in the aspect of providing us with our social identity or our perception of who
we are based on our membership to certain groups (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014). It is also
inevitable that we can have several social identities, that those identities can overlap, and that
we automatically play the roles as we interact with our groups. For example, you are a student
who is also a part of a certain group of friends. You study because it is your role as a student
but you prefer to study with your friends and your study pattern changes when you are with
friends than when you do it alone.

There are times, however, when we are aware of our self-concepts; this is also called
self-awareness. Carver and Scheier (1981) identified two types of self that we can be aware of:
(1) the private self or your internal standards and private thoughts and feelings, and (2) the
public self or your public image commonly geared toward having a good presentation of yourself
to others (Hogg and Vaughan 2010).

Self-awareness also presents us with at least three other self-schema: the actual, ideal,
and ought self. The “actual” self is who you are at the moment, the “ideal” self is who you like to
be,a nd the “ought” self is who you think you should be (Higgins 1997 in Hogg and Vaughan
2010). An example is that you are a student interested in basketball but is also academically
challenged in most of you subject. Your ideal self might be to practice more and play with the
varsity team but ought to pass your subjects as a responsible student. One has to find a
solution to such discrepancies to avoid agitation, dejection, or other negative emotions. In some
instances, however, all three may be in line with one another.

Self-awareness may be positive or negative depending on the circumstances and our

next course of action. Self-awareness can keep you from doing something dangerous; it can
help remind you that there is an exam tomorrow in one of your subjects when you are about to
spend time playing computer games with your cousins, among others. In other instances, self-
awareness can be too much that we are concerned about being observed and criticized by
others, also known as self-consciousness (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014). At other times,
especially with large crowds, we may experience deindividuation or “the loss of individual self-
awarness and individual accountability in groups” (Festinger, Pepitone, and Newcomb 1952;

Understanding the Self/ Compiled by: Minera Laiza C. Acosta 4

Zimbardo 1969 in Jhanghiani and Tarry 2014). A lot of people will attune themselves with the
emotions of their group and because the large crowd also provides some kind of anonymity, we
may lessen our self-control and act in ways that we will not do when we are alone. A common
example is a mass demonstration erupting into a riot.

Our group identity and self-awareness also has a great impact on our self-esteem, one
of the common concepts associated with the “self”. It is defined as our own positive or negative
perception or evaluation of ourselves (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014; Gleitman, Gross, and
Reisberg 2011).

One of the ways in which our social relationship affects our self-esteem is through social
comparison. According to social comparison theory, we learn about ourselves, the
appropriateness of our behaviors, as well as our social status by comparing ourselves with other
people (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014; Hogg and Vaughan 2010).

The downward social comparison is the more common type of comparing ourselves with
others. As the name implies, we create a positive self-concept by comparing ourselves with
those who are worse off than us. By having the advantage, we can raise our self-esteem
(Jhangiani and Tarry 2014). By having the advantage, we can raise our self-esteem. Another
comparison is the upward social comparison which is the upward social comparison which is
comparing ourselves with those who are better off than us (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014). While it
can be a form of motivation for some, a lot of those who do this actually felt lower self-esteem
as they highlight more of their weakness or inequities.

Take note that this occurs not only between individuals but also among groups. Thus, if
a person’s group is performing better and is acknowledged more than the other group, then his
self-esteem may be frightened.

Social comparison also entails what is called self-evaluation maintenance theory, which
states that we can feel threatened when someone out-performs us, especially when that person
is close to us (i.e., a friend of family) (Tesser 1988 in Jhangiani and Tarry 2014). In this case,
we usually react in three ways. Some will resort to the silent treatment, change of friends, while
some may also redefine by being closer to that person, hoping that some association may give
him a certain kind of acknowledgement also. Second, we may also reconsider the importance
of the aspect or skill in which you were outperformed (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014). If you got
beaten in a drawing competition, you might think that drawing is not really for you and you will
find a hobby where you could excel, thus preserving your self-esteem. Lastly, we may also
strengthen our resolve to improve that certain aspect of ourselves (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014).
Instead of quitting drawing, you might join seminars, practice more often, read books about it,
and add some elements in your drawing that makes it unique, among others. Achieving your
goal through hard work may increase your self-esteem, too.

However, in an attempt to increase self-esteem, some people become narcissistic.

Narcissism is a “trait characterized by overly high self-esteem, self-admiration, and self-
centeredness” (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014). They are often charismatic because of how they
take care of their image. Taking care of that image includes their interpersonal relationships

Understanding the Self/ Compiled by: Minera Laiza C. Acosta 5

thus they will try to look for better partners, better acquaintances, as well as people who will
appreciate them a lot. This makes them a bad romantic partner of friend since they engage in
relationships only to serve themselves (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014).

Sometimes, there is a thin line between high self-esteem and narcissism and there are a
lot of tests and measurements for self-esteem like the Rosenberg scale but the issue is that the
result can be affected by the desire of the person to portray herself in a positive or
advantageous way (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014). In case you want to take a test and find a
numerical value or level of your self-esteem, try to be honest and objective about what you feel
and see about yourself. And though self-esteem is a very important concept related to the self,
studies have shown that it only has a correlation, not causality, to positive outputs and outlook
(Jhangiani and Tarry 2014). It can be argued that high or healthy self-esteem may result to an
overall good personality but it is not, and should not be, the only source of a person’s healthy
perspective of herself.

People with high self-esteem are commonly described as outgoing, adventurous, and
adaptable in a lot of situations. They also initiate activities and building relationship with people.
However, they may also dismiss other activities that do not conform to their self-concept or
boost their self-esteem. They may also be bullies and experiment on abusive behaviors with
drugs, alcohol, and sex (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014).

This duality in the behavior and attitudes only proves the above-mentioned correlation.
Bausmeister, Smart, and Boden (1996) in their research on self-esteem should only be for
rewarding good behavior and other achievements and not for the purpose of merely trying to
make children feel better about themselves or to appease them when they get angry or sad
(Jhangiani and Tarry 2014).

READINGS/REFERENCES:

1. Alata, E.J. & Caslib, B.N. 2018. Understanding the Self. First Edition. Rex Bookstore
2. What is Self-Concept? By Kendra Cherry. Retrieved from
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-self-concept-2795865
3. Self-Esteem. Retrieved from
https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/basics/self-esteem

WATCH:

1. Self-Esteem vs Self-Confidence. Recovery Direct. Retrieved from

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVlKyHbFlP8
2. Self-Concept Carl Rogers. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZJhfPxzdm0

Understanding the Self/ Compiled by: Minera Laiza C. Acosta 6

ACTIVITIES/ASSESSMENT:

Application and Assessment (Group Work)

Do a research and list ten (10) things to boost your self-esteem or improve your self-
concept. Cite your sources. Analyze which of those tips are more likely to backfire and make
someone conceited or narcissistic and revise them to make statements both helpful to the
individual as well as society in general.

Understanding the Self/ Compiled by: Minera Laiza C. Acosta 7