PSYCHOLOGICAL

PERSPECTIVES OF
THE SELF
What is Psychology?
• Psychology is the study of human behavior and
mental processes.
Four Goals of Psychology
▪ Describe – what the person is doing.
▪ Explain - why is s/he doing that?
▪ Predict - what is s/he going to do?
▪ Modify – how can we change the behavior?
Psychology is concerned with
• How individuals develop and mature at
different life stages. Concepts such as
consciousness, memory, and reasoning.
• How the individual and his environment
shape his personality. How we think,
behave and feel in certain situations.
• Mental health and mental illnesses.
Character strengths, coping, happiness
and well-being.
William James and the
Me-Self, I-Self

• William James is considered to

be one of the most prolific
psychologists and philosophers
of the 20th century - a figure
commonly known as 'the father
of American psychology.'

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I-self is subjective self
that is aware of its
own actions.
• A sense of being the agent or
initiator of behavior.
• A sense of being unique.
• A sense of continuity.
• A sense of awareness
Me-self is an object or the
self you can describe.
Three Dimensions
• Material Self- consists of things that belong to us
or that we belong to (e.g family, clothes, body,
money)
• Social Self- who we are in a given social situation.
For James, people change how they act depending
on the social situation that they are in.
• Spiritual Self- who we are at the core. The spiritual
self is more concrete and permanent than the other
two selves. The spiritual self is our subjective and
most intimate self. (e.g personality, core values and
conscience)
 Carl Rogers' Person-Centered Theory
• “Carl Rogers (1959) believed that humans
have one basic motive, that is the tendency to
self-actualize - i.e., to fulfill one's potential
and achieve the highest level of 'human-
beingness' we can. Like a flower that will grow
to its full potential if the conditions are right,
but which is constrained by its environment,
so people will flourish and reach their
potential if their environment is good enough.
(McLeod, 2014)”
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• Real self - Includes all those aspects of one’s being and one’s
experiences that are perceived in awareness by the individual. It is
the part of ourselves where we feel, think, look and act involving
our self-image.
• Ideal self - Revolves around ambitions in life and is dynamic, the
idealized image that we have developed over time.
• Congruence - The alignmentof the real self and the ideal self.
• Incongruence - Happens when there is inconsistency between the
real self and the ideal self.
Albert Bandura's Proactive and
Agentic Self
• Albert Bandura said that humans,
through their agency are perceived as
proactive agents of experiences.
• We don’t just merely observe and
imitate behavior; we have cognitive
faculties that enable us to discern
unto whether or not such behavior is
worth emulating or if such can help
us become better individuals.
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Main Features of Human Agency
• Intentionality refers to acts that we do intentionally, and you know already the
possible outcome. for example, you decided to not sleep early, then you intentionally
want to wake up late.
• Forethoughts enables the person to anticipate of future outcomes. example you
noticed that is raining, now you anticipate that the class might be suspended or not.
• Self-reactiveness involves making choices and choosing appropriate courses of
action as well as motivating and regulating. One good example is during examination
you don’t know the answer it is your decision if you want to copy from your classmate
or not.
• Self-reflectiveness gives us the ability to reflect on our lack of thoughts and actions.
we are also self-examiners. we give time to our self to think about our experiences
and decisions that we made
Sigmund Freud's Id, Ego
and Superego
• According to Sigmund Freud,
human personality is complex and
has more than a single component.
In his famous psychoanalytic theory,
Freud states that personality is
composed of three elements known
as the id, the ego, and the
superego. These elements work
together to create complex human
behaviors.
3 Elements of Personality
Id
• The id is the source of all psychic
energy, making it the primary
component of personality.
• The id is the only component of
personality that is present from birth.
• This aspect of personality is entirely
unconscious and includes instinctive and
primitive behaviors.
3 Elements of Personality
Ego
• The ego develops from the id and ensures that
the impulses of the id can be expressed in a
manner acceptable in the real world.
• The ego functions in the conscious, preconscious,
and unconscious mind.
• The ego is the component of personality that is
responsible for dealing with reality
3 Elements of Personality
Superego
• The superego begins to emerge at around age
five.
• The superego holds the internalized moral
standards and ideals that we acquire from our
parents and society (our sense of right and
wrong).
• The superego provides guidelines for making
judgments.
The superego has two parts:
1. The conscience includes information about things that
are viewed as bad by parents and society. These
behaviors are often forbidden and lead to bad
consequences, punishments, or feelings of guilt and
remorse.
2. The ego ideal includes the rules and standards for
behaviors that the ego aspires to.
What Happens If There Is an Imbalance?
• If the ego is able to adequately moderate between the demands of reality, the
id, and the superego, a healthy and well-adjusted personality emerges. Freud
believed that an imbalance between these elements would lead to a
maladaptive personality.
• For example, an individual with an overly dominant id might become
impulsive, uncontrollable, or even criminal. Such an individual acts upon their
most basic urges with no concern for whether their behavior is appropriate,
acceptable, or legal.
• On the other hand, an overly dominant superego might lead to a personality
that is extremely moralistic and judgmental. A person ruled by the superego
might not be able to accept anything or anyone that they perceive to be
"bad" or "immoral."
Gordon Allport's Functional
Autonomy and Personality Traits.
• Functional Autonomy – Human motives
are functionally independent from the
original motive responsible for the
behavior.
• Traits / Disposition - Basic units on
which our personalities are structured. It
is a stable characteristic that causes
individuals to consistently behave in
certain ways.
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• In a dictionary, there are over
4000 words which describe
different human traits.
3 Levels of Trait
• Cardinal
• Central
• Secondary
 Cardinal Traits
• Traits that are so dominant
that they could be used to
define a person.
• One or two of these traits can be used
to define entire personalities of people who
have them.
• E.x. Mother Teresa is strongly associated
with goodness and kindness and Hitler can
be associated with ruthlessness.
Central Traits
• The general characteristics that form the
basic foundations of personality.
• Aren’t as dominant as cardinal
traits. They’re important traits, but not
absolutely dominant.
• Each person has between 5 and 10 central
traits. They’re present to varying degrees in
each person.
• These include common traits such as
intelligence, shyness, and honesty.
 Secondary Traits
• Dispositions that are significantly
less generalized and relevant.
• They’re only seen in certain
situations or under specific
circumstances.
• E.x. Getting anxious when speaking
in public, being impatient while
waiting in a line, and highly
assertive people displaying
submissive personalities
when vulnerable.
Donald Woods Winnicott’s True
and False Self
• Winnicott believed that the self is a very
important part of mental and emotional
well-being. He thought that people were
born without a clearly developed self and
had to search for an authentic sense of self
as they grew. For Winnicott, the sense of
feeling real, feeling in touch with others
and with one's own body and its processes
was essential for living a life.
True Self
• Based on our authentic experiences as a person.
This is somehow similar to Roger’s concept of the
real self. The feeling of being alive, doing the
things you want to do, and just being yourself
comprise the true self.
• Begins to develop in infancy, in the relationship
between the baby and its primary caregiver.
False Self
• May also referred to as a fake self or superficial
self, it is our defense against the vulnerabilities or
imperfections of our real self.
• May start to surface as early as infancy, when we
are put under the control of our parents or early
caregivers.