GE 101 Understanding the Self MRAguilos 1st Semester 2023-2024

LESSON 3 – THE SELF AS COGNITIVE CONSTRUCT

Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this lesson, student should be able to:

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

2. create their own definition of the “self” based on the definitions from psychology; and
3. analyze the effects of various factors identifies in psychology in the formation of the “self”.

Total Learning Time: Week 4 (3 hours)

ABSTRACTION

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 are as individuals”
(Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 106).
William James (1890) was one of the earliest psychologists to study the self and he conceptualized the
self as having two aspects-the “I” and the “me”. The “I” is the thinking, acting, and feeling self (Gleitman,
Gross, and Reinsberg 2011, 616; Hogg and Vaughan 2010, 66). 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, 616; Hogg and Vaughnn 2010, 66). 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, 616).
Other concepts similar to self is identity and self-concept. Identity is composed of one’s personal
characteristics, social roles and responsibilities, as well as affiliations that defines who one is (Elmore,
Oyserman, and Smith 2012, 69). Self – concept is basically what comes to your mind when you are asked about
who you are (Elmore, Oyserman, and Smith 2012, 69).
Self, identity, and self-concept are not fixed in one-time frame. For example, when asked about who you
are, you can say “I was a varsity player in Grade 5” 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, it can be in solid, liquid, or gas form, but at its
core, it is still the same elements.
Carl Rogers captured this idea in his concept of self-schema or our own organized system or collection
of knowledge about who we are (Gleitman, Gross, and Reinsberg 2011, 616; Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 107-
108). Imagine an organized list or a diagram similar to the one below.

Hobbies

Family SELF
Religion

Nationality
GE 101 Understanding the Self MRAguilos 1st Semester 2023-2024

The schema is not limited to the example above. It may also include your interest, your work, your
course, your age, your name, your physical characteristics, etc. As you grow and adapt to the changes around
your, they also change. But they are not passive receivers, they actively shape and affect how you see, think,
and feel about things object (Gleitman, Gross, and Reisberg 2011, 617; Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 107-108).
For example, when someone states your first name, even if he is not talking about you, your attention is
drawn to him. 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 a mall.
Theories generally see the self and identity as mental constructs, created and re-created in memory
(Elmore, oysterman, and Smith 2012, 75). Current researches point to the frontal lobe of the brain as the
specific area in the brain associated with processes concerning the self (Elmore, Oyserman, and Smith 2012,
75).
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 to the
formation of the self, identity, and self-concept. Even Freud and other theories and researchers try to understand
the person by digging deeper into the mind, they cannot fully discount the huge and important effects of the
environment. As in the above mentioned definitions of the self, social interaction always has a part to play in
who we think we are. This is not natures vs. nurture but instead a nature-and-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 Vaughn 2010, 66). Basically, there are at least three reasons
why self and identity are social products (Elmore, Oyserman, and Smith 2012, 76):
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. Of course, you may 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 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 is almost like a battle between who got friends, more views, and trending topics.
If one says s/he is a good singer but his/her performance and the evaluation of his/her audience says
otherwise, that will have an effect on that person’s idea of him/herself, one way or another.
3. What we think as 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 poor 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 are based on our membership to
certain groups (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 110). It is also inventible then 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 yet you are also a member of a certain group of friends. You study
because it is your role as a student but you prefer to study and your study pattern changes when you are with
your friends than when you done it alone.
GE 101 Understanding the Self MRAguilos 1st Semester 2023-2024
However, there are times when we are aware of our self-concepts, 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 having a good
presentation of yourself to others (Hogg and Vaughan 2010, 69).
Self-awareness also presents us with at least three other self-schemas: 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, and the “ought” self is
who we think we should be (Higgins 1997 in Hogg and Vaughn 2010, 74). Example is that you are as student
interested in basketball but is also academically challenged in most of your 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 solution to such discrepancies in order 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, 112). At other
times, especially with large crowds, we may experience deindividuation or “loss of individual self-awareness
and individual accountability in groups” (Festinger, Pepitone, & Newcomb, 1952; Zimbardo, 1969, all in
Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 114). 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, 125; Gleitman, Gross, and Reisberg 2011, 617).
One of the ways in which our social relationship affects our self-esteem as through social comparison.
According to the social comparison theory, we learn about ourselves, the appropriateness of our behaviors, as
well as our social statues by comparing aspects of ourselves with other people (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 139;
Hogg and Vaughan 2010, 72).
The downward social comparison is the more common type of comparing ourselves with other. As the
name implies, we create a positive self-concept by comparing ourselves with those who are worse off than us
(Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 139). By having the advantage, we are able to raise our self-esteem. Another
comparison is the upward social comparison which is comparing ourselves with those who are better off than us
(Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 139). While it can be a form of motivation for some, a lot of those who do this
actually felt lower self-esteem as we highlight more of our weakness or inequities.
Take not 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/her self-esteem may also be
heightened.
Social comparison also entails what is called self-evaluation maintenance theory which states that we
can feel the threatened when someone out-performs us, especially when that person is close to us i.e. a friend or
family (Tesser 1988 in Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 144). In the case, we usually react in three ways, first we
distance ourselves from that person or redefine our relationship with them (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 144).
Some will resort to silent treatment, change of friends, while some may also redefine by being closer with that
person, hoping that some association may give him/her a certain kind of acknowledgement also. Second, we
may also reconsider the importance of the aspect or skill in which you were out-performed (Jhangiani and Tarry
2014, 144). If you got beaten in drawing, you might think that drawing is not really for you and you’ll find a
hobby that where you could excel, thus persevering your self-esteem. Lastly, we may also strengthen our
resolve to improve that certain aspect of ourselves (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 144). I instead of quitting
drawing, you might join seminars, practice more often, read books about it, add some elements in your drawing
that makes it unique, etc. Achieving your goal through hard work may increase your self-esteem too.
However, in the attempt to increase or maintain self-esteem, some people become narcissistic.
Narcissism is a “trait characterized by characterized by overly high self-esteem, self-admiration, and self-
centeredness” (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 128). They are often charismatic because of how they care of their
image. Taking care of that image includes their interpersonal relationships thus they will try to look for better
GE 101 Understanding the Self MRAguilos 1st Semester 2023-2024
partners, better acquaintances, as well as people who will appreciate them a lot. This makes them a bad
romantic partner or friend since they engage in relationships only to serve themselves (Jhangiani and Tarry
2014, 128).
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 him/herself in a positive or advantageous way (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 126).
In case you really want to take a test and find a numerical value or level for your self-esteem, try to be honest
and objective about what you feel and see about yourself.
Though self-esteem is very important concept related to the self, studies has shown that it only has a
correlation, not causality, to positive outputs and outlook (Jhangiani and Tarry 2014, 131). 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 him/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 does 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, 131).
Thus duality in the behavior and attitudes only proves the above mentioned correlation. Baumeister,
Smart, and Boden (1996) in their research on self-esteem concluded that program, activities, and parenting
styles to boost 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, 132).
GE 101 Understanding the Self MRAguilos 1st Semester 2023-2024
REFERENCES

Elmore, Kristen, George Smith, and Daphna Oyserman. 2012. “Self, Self-Concept and Identity,” Handbook of
Self and Identity. 2nd Ed. Edited by Mark R. Leary and June Tangney: 69-95. New York: The Guilford Press.

Gleitman, Henry, James Gross, and Daniel Reisberg. 2011. Psychology. 8th Ed. Canada: W.W. Norton and
Company.

Hogg, Michael and Graham Vaughan. 2010. Essentials of Social Psychology. Italy: Pearson Education Limited.

Jhangiani, Rajiv and Hammond Tarry. 2014. Principles of Social Psychology. 1st Ed. Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.