UNDERSTAND SELF

CHAPTER 1. LESSON 4: THE SELF AS COGNITIVE CONSTRUCT

1. Define what is psychology?

~ Psychology is the study of human mind and behavior process. It embraces all human
experience and encompasses the biological influences, social pressures, and environmental
factors that affect how people think, act, and feel. It is a comprehensive discipline that covers a
wide variety of subfields such as human development, social behavior and cognitive processes.

2. Differentiate the I and me self.

"I SELF" "ME SELF"

• Self-as-subjective knower • Self-as-object that known

• Refers on how you see yourself • Refers on how others see you

• Self awareness of ability to act and react • Influence by perceptions of others attitudes

• Unique individuality • Internalized attitude and values

• It response to the "me" determines an individual • It represents learned social and societal behavior,
identity attitude and expectations.

• Individual impulses • Accumulated understanding of the generalized

other

3. Explain each psychosexual stages by Sigmund Freud and give examples for it's Stage.

PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES

• ORAL STAGES- Mouth (birth to 1 year)

>First stage of psychosexual development is the oral stage. It occurs between the ages of
birth and about 18 moths in the oral stage. During this stage the mouth is the erogenous zone
and hence, the libido is centered on the baby's mouth. The child primary source of interaction is
trough the mouth. Since during this stage the child is entirely dependent upon caretakers, such
as the mother, and the child also develops a sense of trust and comfort trough this oral
stimulation. The weaning process where the child first experience the feeling of loss as a result
of losing the physical intimacy of feeding at mother's breast and this is the primary conflict of
this stage.

Example: Biting, sucking and chewing. The baby was whining because his hungry so he grab
what he can handle like for example his feet or his hands and put it on his mouth.

• ANAL STAGE - Bowel and bladder control (1-3 years old)

> This is the second stage of psychosexual development. It spans from the age of one(1) to
three (3) years old. The child erogenous in this stage are the bowel and the bladder control. The
anal-expulsive personality is messy, careless, disorganized, and prone to emotional outbursts.
The anal-retentive personality is stingy and stubborn, has a compulsive need for order and
neatness, and might be considered a perfectionist.
EXAMPLE : Manipulating excrement , coping with parental demands. Parents gave their child's

favorite toy in either to go to toilet in appropriate time.

• Phallic Stage - Genital (3-6 years)

> In this stage, children become aware of their bodies and recognize the differences
between boys and girls. The erogenous zone in this stage is the genitals. At this age the parents
and teachers need to properly educate the children about sexuality.

EXAMPLE: A child became curious in what gender she have so she ask her parents to get an
answer to what makes her curious and her mother tell it honestly and carefully to her.

• Latency Stage - Sexual feelings are inactive ( 6 year's to puberty )

 > During this stage, the libido is dormant and no further psychosexual development takes
place. Most sexual impulses are repressed during this stage and sexual energy can be
sublimated towards school works, hobbies, and friendship.

EXAMPLE: A girl was enjoyed playing with her best friends and it became her hobbies.

• Genital Stage - Maturing Sexual Interest ( puberty to death )

 > The final stage is the genital stage (from puberty on).This is the time of adolescent
sexual experimentation. In this stage, there is a sexual reawakening as the incestuous urges
resurface. The young person redirects these urges to other, more socially acceptable partners
(who often resemble the other-sex parent). People in this stage have mature sexual interests,
which for Freud meant a strong desire for the opposite sex. Individuals who successfully
completed the previous stages, reaching the genital stage with no fixations, are said to be well-
balanced, healthy adults.

EXAMPLE: When two people that opposite sex enters in a relationship, they love each other
and they both happy.

4. Choose at least two (2) psychological defense mechanism and explain it in your
own words then give examples.

MECHANISM DEFINITION EXAMPLE

• It is a kind of holding back, • Jana has a phobia of spiders but

burying thoughts and feelings she cannot remember the first
REPRESSION from the conscious mind that time she was afraid of them.
are distressing.

• Retreating to an earlier level • Lara a college student girl

of development or to earlier, carefully takes her teddy bear
REGRESSION less demanding habits or and goes to sleep and cuddling it.
situations.

( Go back to an earlier form of

development.)

5. Define what is ID, EGO, and SUPEREGO.

ID ~ Its engaged in primary process thinking, which is primitive, illogical, irrational, and fantasy
oriented. This form of process thinking has no comprehension of objective reality, and is selfish
and wishful in nature. It is the very immature but basic component of personality. The id is the
impulsive part of our psyche which responds directly and immediately to basic urges, needs,
and desires. The ID is operates on pleasure principle. It is not affected by reality, logic or the
everyday world, as it operates within the unconscious part of the mind.

EGO ~ It is mostly located in the Conscious part. It's the decision-making component of
personality. Ideally, the ego works by reason, whereas the id is chaotic and unreasonable. The
ego operates according to the reality principle, working out realistic ways of satisfying the id’s
demands, often compromising or postponing satisfaction to avoid negative consequences of
society. Ego is a moderator between ID and SUPEREGO. It is a logical aspects of human
personality. Often the ego is weak relative to the headstrong id, and the best the ego can do is
stay on, pointing the id in the right direction and claiming some credit at the end as if the action
were its own.

SUPEREGO ~ Both in unconscious and conscious. It is the moral aspects of personality. It

represents internalized ideals and provide standards for judgement. The superego incorporates
the values and morals of society which are learned from one's parents and others. It develops
around the age of 3 – 5 years during the phallic stage of psychosexual development. The
superego's function is to control the id's impulses, especially those which society forbids, such
as sex and aggression. It also has the function of persuading the ego to turn to moralistic goals
rather than simply realistic ones and to strive for perfection.