Understanding the Self Lesson 3: The Self as

Cognitive Construct
A. Identity
is composed of personal characteristics social roles and responsibilities
as well as affiliations to define who one is

 personal characteristics- entails to our abilities and our evident

characteristics that others might describe us.

Example:
your friend describe you as a very polite person so that's one of
your personal characteristic or you think or others think i can see you
that you're a very talented person that's one of your personal
characteristics as well so personal characteristic these are how
people sees you as who you are and what you think and what they
think your characteristics are so these are your personal characteristics
this can be unique or you have other characters or or you have
characteristics that that others have too.
Example
you are very good in playing the guitar your personal characteristic of
playing guitar

 social roles - entails on the status in the society

Example
your social role is rich or poor or in the middle class or your social role
must be a student or a working student that's your social role social
role is defined by the society and our placement to the society.

 responsibilities - entails to the things that we do in the society for.

Example
you are the eldest son in your family and you are responsible in taking
care of your siblings that's your identity or you're the the group leader of
your class so that's your responsibility and that's your identity

 Affiliations - entails to the organization organizations that we

belong in.
Example
If you're a worship leader in a christian church so that's your identity so
our identity can be defined by our personal characteristics social roles
responsibilities and affiliations .
B. self-concept
is what basically comes to your mind when you're asked about who
you are self-concept means of ri means it is our ideas of the self.
Example
ou think you are a kind person so that's your self concept or you think
that you are a talented person so that's also your self-concept
self-concept is your idea of the self it's not what the society thinks
society thinks of you but it is the idea of yourself that self-concept.
Famous psychologists Carl Rogers

captured this idea in his concept of self schema or our organized

system or collection of knowledge about who we are self-concept these are
the the fragments in our mind of what you think something is.

Example
family the word family for me myself schema of that is the thing the
things that i think of my family. > i'm the fourth one in our family the
fourth child in our family so my self schema would be when someone tells the
word or tells the word family my self schema family would be i am the fourth
child in our family.

Famous Psychologist Freud

saw that the self its mental processes and one's behavior as the results
of the interaction between the ID the ego and the super ego.

believed that a behavior depends on the id the ego and the superego
these are actually uh we can actually define this as something as the um
layers of the mind according to foreign.

 Id
-is also known as the pleasure principle it only once it only needs it only
focuses on what would be pleasurable.
Example
if you are thirsty your id would be saying drink that water
because you're thirsty so again the eid focuses only on the pleasure.

 ego
-on the other hand is the is the reality principle it covers on the reality
aspect.
Example
ego would say wait maybe that water is dirty so it focuses on the
reality.

 superego
-is the conscience it is the conscience and it's also though they're
responsible for uh the idea what is ideal.
Example
Would say the water might be dirty or not but you should not
drink it because it's because it's not yours.
There are 3 reasons why the self and identity are actually the products of
social of the society

1. we do not create ourselves out of nothing in creating the foundations

of who we are.

2. whether we like to admit it or not we actually need others to assume

and reinforce who we think we are we have our friends and family to
tell us the ideas of who this who they think we are

3. what we think is important to us may also have been influenced by

what is important in our social or historical context.

 social interaction and group affiliation

are vital factors in creating our self-concept especially in the
aspect of providing us with our social identity.

example you are or you belong to a christian social group where you
are very active using phrases and read verses from there our our membership
in that organization gives us an idea of who we think we are and how people
think who we are so they might also they might think that you're a very
religious or he has a religious or a spiritual person.
because you like to to read verses and think praising or you can also also
think that you are a very spiritual person or religious person because you you
read verses and being created or if you belong to a basketball league your
friends may think that you're very athletic athletic rather and and very and
have a very leadership and strong personality because of how you move or
behave inside the organization you might you might also think the same but
that that's that does not necessarily mean that what people think of you and
what .you think of yourself is the same it can be different for example in the
basketball league all of your friends think that you're very talented but for you
you might think that you're not still and good enough for that it can be different
so our social interaction and group affiliation tells us of our concept and our
identity.

 self-awareness

if you already have an idea of who you think you are it means
that you are becoming self-aware.if you no longer believe on what people are
saying and believes what you think who you are you are becoming self-aware
for.