CHAPTER 3: THE SELF FROM A PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

❖ In psychology, the sense of self is defined as the way a person thinks about
and views his or her traits, beliefs, and purpose within the world.
❖ The self is said to be in constant change. As one grows up, his or her sense
of self changes.

A. SIGMUND FREUD
➢ For him, the human psyche could be divided into three parts: id, ego and
super-ego.
➢ The id is the completely unconscious, impulsive, child-like portion of the
psyche that operates on the “pleasure principle” and is the source of basic
impulses and drives. It seeks immediate pleasure and gratification. The ego
acts on the “reality principle” while the super ego acts on moralistic and
idealistic principles.
➢ The ego is the sole region of the mind that is in contact with the external
world. It is the decision-making or executive branch of the self. It is governed
by the reality principle.
➢ The super-ego represents the moral and ideal aspects of personality. It aims
for perfection and so is guided by the moralistic and idealistic principles in
contrast to the pleasure principle of the id and realistic principle of the ego.
➢ Unlike the ego, the superego has no contact with the outside world and
therefore is unrealistic in its demands for perfection.

B. WILLIAM JAMES
➢ He is an American philosopher and psychologist, who divided an
individual’s perception of the self into two categories – Me and I.
➢ According to him, the self is the totality of all that a person can call his or
hers.
➢ For him, a human being has the capacity to be a thinking subject and the
object of his or her thinking at the same time. As a thinking subject, an
individual is both conscious of his or her environment and conscious of his
or her existence. The continuous stream of consciousness internal to an
individual constitutes the I which is responsible for the thinking and makes
awareness and self-awareness possible. An individual turns himself or herself
into a Me when he or she makes himself or herself the object of his or her
own thinking. He called the “Me” part of self the “empirical me” and the
“I” part as the “pure ego.”
➢ According to him also, there are three components of me self: the material
self, the social self and the spiritual self. A) The material self consists of one
body, clothes, home, family and other material possessions the he or she
values and regards as his or her own. B) The social self connotes the image
of an individual in the eyes of the people around him or her which
determines his or her reputation in society. C) The spiritual self includes one’s
thoughts, beliefs and feelings.
 C. CARL ROGERS
➢ He believes that the self does not exist at birth; it is developed gradually
during childhood wherein one differentiates the self from non-self.
➢ He proposed that by means of free choice and action, one can shape
himself or herself based on what he or she wants to be.
➢ He considered the self as the center of experience. According to him, the
self is one’s ongoing sense of who and what he or she is and how and why
he or she responds to the environment.
Real Self and Ideal Self
a. Real Self
▪ It is who an individual actually is, intrinsically.
▪ It is the self that feels closest to how one identifies with. It is how one
thinks, feels. Looks and acts.
▪ It is the self that feels most natural, comfortable, and true to what and
who one really is.
▪ The real self is one’s self-image.

b. Ideal Self
▪ It is the perception of what a person would like to be or thinks he or
she would be.
▪ It is an idealized image that has developed over time based on the
influence of the environment and the people one interacts with.
▪ It is the self that one thinks he or she should be, and that one feels
others think he or she should be.
▪ This self is a product of expectations and pressures form other people,
and arises from the need to be loved and accepted by others. It is
dynamic and forever changing.

SELF CONCEPT
➢ When a human being is born into the world, the concept of self is
represented to him or her like a small dot whose size increases and develops
as one gets older.
➢ Self-concept is defined as the totality of complex, organized, and dynamic
system of learned beliefs, attitudes and opinions that each person holds to
be true about his or her personal existence.
➢ It is defined as the organized structure of cognitions or thoughts that an
individual has about himself or herself.

Aspects of Self-Concept
a. Existential Self
 ➢ It begins when an individual recognizes his or her existence as a
separate entity from others and realizes that he or she will continue
to exist over a period of time and space.
➢ It usually starts from infancy up to early childhood. This is evident
when a child can relate to the outside world.

b. Categorical Self
➢ It starts after a child recognizes his or her existence as separate entity
and becomes aware that he or she is an object in the world.
➢ Like objects with physical properties, one begins to categorize himself
or herself in terms of age, sex, height, weight. Afterwards, an
individual engages in self-description and other’s perceptions about
him or her.

Three Components of Self-concept

1. SELF WORTH OR SELF-ESTEEM
▪ It is what one thinks about oneself. This develops in early childhood
stage resulting from the interaction of the child with his or her mother
and father.

2. SELF-IMAGE
▪ It is how one sees himself or herself, which is important for good
physical health. Self-image includes the influence of body image on
inner personality. At a simple level, one might look at oneself as either
good or bad, beautiful or ugly.
▪ Self-image has an effect on how a person thinks, feels, and behaves
in the world.

3. IDEAL SELF
▪ It is the person that one wants to be. It consists of one’s dreams and
goals in life, and it is continuously changing.
▪ To illustrate, the ideal self during childhood is not the same ideal self
during adulthood.

Donald W. Winnicott’s TRUE SELF and FALSE SELF

a. TRUE SELF
➢ It is also known as real self, authentic self, original self and vulnerable
self.
➢ It is the core of who you are, the original you.

b. FALSE SELF
➢ It is also known as fake self, ideal self, perfect self.
 ➢ This is composed of the parts of the self wherein behaviors are
altered, feelings are repressed, and one’s needs are set aside in order
to fit in with others.
➢ The false self constantly seeks to anticipate the demands and
expectations of others in order to preserve and improve relationships.

Identity Struggles
Did you experience being described as stubborn, lazy, unsympathetic,
undisciplined, bossy, insecure, perfectionist, impatient, uncooperative, hostile,
careless, insensitive, and many other negative descriptions?
• In this kind of situation, you could either accept or deny and defend yourself
against these negative impressions. Regardless of the truthfulness of how
people perceive you, it provides opportunity for self-reflection. Your
response to how people describe you will depend on your own perception
of yourself.
➢ An individual can be unsympathetic because of particular individual issues
but people, sometimes, fail to consider any justification for why one can be
unsympathetic. This is called identity struggle.
➢ It characterizes the discrepancy between the identity a person claims to
possess and the identity attributed to that persons by others.