THE SELF FROM

PSYCHOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE
THE SELF AS A COGNITIVE
CONSTRUCTION

– What is psychology? How can psychology help you

understand yourself and know you who you really are?
– Psychology is the scientific study of how people behave,
think, and feel. It includes topic, such us how the brain
works, how our memory organized, how people interact
in groups, and how children learn about the world.
Psychology will scrutinize the
following:
– brain to consciousness
– memory
– reasoning
– language
– to personality and mental health
– and everything about human experience
FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND HOW IT IS TO BE YOU.
– Online dictionaries define the term cognitive as “of,
relating to, being, or involving, conscious intellectual;
activity, such as thinking, reasoning, or remembering.”
(WEB).
– Self-theories argue that it is natural for humans to form
theories about themselves, both as a single entity and as
a group, to make meaning of one’s existence and
experience.
– Psychologist Jean Piaget was a Swiss clinical psychologist known for his
pioneering work in Child Development. He pioneered the “theory of cognitive
development,” a comprehensive theory about the development about human
intelligence.
– The theory dealt with the knowledge itself and how humans gradually come to
acquire, construct, and used it, (Torres & Ash, 2007). According to Piaget,
cognitive development is a progressive reorganization of mental processes
resulting from biological maturation and environmental experience.
Piaget (1952) observed how children processed and made sense the world around them
and eventually developed a four stage model of how the mind processes new information
encountered.
There are three basic components to Piaget’s cognitive theory. These are:
– Schemas/schemes. These are the building blocks of knowledge. Schemes are mental
organizations that individuals use to understand their environments and designate
action.
– Adaptation. It involves the child’s learning processes to meet situational demands.
– Stages of Cognitive Development. They reflect the increasing sophistication of the
child’s thought process.
– Furthermore, he describes two processes used by the individual in his/her
attempt to adapt – assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is the
application of previous concepts to new concepts. Meanwhile, accommodation
happens when people encounter completely new information or when existing
ideas are challenged.
– In the “Stages of Cognitive Development,” Piaget theorize that children progress
through four stages and that they all do in the same order. A brief summary of
Piaget’s four stages of cognitive development appears below.
 STAGE AGE CHARACTERISTICS OF STAGE
Sensorimotor 0–2 The child learns by doing: looking, touching, sucking. The
child also has a primitive understanding of cause – and –
effect relationships. Object permanence appears around 9
months.

Preoperational 2–7 The child uses language and symbols, including letters and
numbers. Egocentrism is also evident. Conservation marks
the end of the preoperational stage and the beginning of
concrete operations.

Concrete Operations 7 – 11 The child demonstrates conservation, reversibility, serial

ordering, and a mature understanding of cause and effect
relationship. Thinking at this stage is still concrete.

Formal Operations 12 + The individual demonstrates abstract thinking at this stage is

still concrete.
Harter’s Self Development Concept

Psychologist, author, and professor, Dr. Susan Harter (1999) expanded her self –
development concept until adulthood. The development of self – concept
according to Harter are as follows:
 Early childhood. The child describes the “self” in terms of concrete, observable
characteristics.
 Middle to later childhood. The self is described in terms of trait like construct.
 Adolescence. This is the emergence of more abstract self – definitions, such as
inner thoughts, emotions, attitudes and motives.
 Emerging adults. The marked characteristic of “self” for emerging adults is
having a vision of a “possible self.”
 William James and The Me – Self; I – Self

– William James gave one of the earliest self – theory psychological analyses. According to James (1950),
the “self” has two elements: The I – self and the Me – self.
– I – self is the pure ego. It is the subjective self. It is the self that is aware of its own actions. The I – self
characteristically has four features. These are:
 A sense of being the agent or initiator of behavior. I believe my actions have an impact; that I cause an effect in
my environment.
 A sense of being unique. This is how I am different from everything in my environment; I perceive there is only
one Me.
 A sense of continuity. I am the same person from day to day.
 A sense of awareness about being aware. I understand what is going on in me and around me; and I know I
understand it.
The me – self is the self that is the object. It is the “self” that you can describe,
such as your physical characteristics, personalities, social role, or relationships,
thoughts and feelings. James called it the empirical self. The dimensions of the me
– self include:
 Material – physical appearance and extensions of it such as clothing, immediate
family, and home.
 Social – social skills and significant interpersonal relationships; and
 Spiritual – personality, character, defining values.
 Real and Ideal Self – Concepts

– Carl Ransom Rogers was an American psychologist and among the founders of the humanistic approach
to psychology (Capuzzi, 2016). Humanistic psychology emphasized the active role of the individual in
shaping their internal and external worlds.
Personality development and the self – concept
According to Rogers, all behavior is motivated by self – actualizing tendencies and these tendencies
drive you to reach your full potential. He believes that the world a person exists in is the center of constant
changes, and the person reacts to these changes. If the person holds a positive self – concept, he or she
would tend to feel good about himself or herself, and would generally see the world as a safe and positive
place. If the person holds a negative self – concept, then he or she may feel unhappy with who he/she is
(Kirschenbaum& Henderson, 1989).
Ideal self vs. real self
Roger’s further divided the self into two categories: the ideal self and the real self. The ideal self is the person that
you would like yourself to be; it is your concept of the “best me” who is worthy admiration. The ideal self could include:
1. Notions influenced by your parents;
2. What you admire in others;
3. What the society sees as acceptable; and
4. What you think is in your best interest.
– The real self is the person you actually are. It is how you behave right at the moment of a situation. It is who you are
in reality – how you think, feel, or act at present.
 The importance of alignment

– According to Rogers, “If the way that I am (real self) is aligned with the way that I want
to be (the ideal self), then I will feel a sense of mental well – being or peace of mind. In
other words, when your real self and ideal self are very similar you experience
congruence. When there is a great inconsistency between your ideal and real selves,
then you experienced a state Rogers called incongruence. He added that incongruence
could lead to maladjustment. Maladjustment is defined as the inability to react
successfully and satisfactorily to the demands of one’s environment.
Multiple vs Unified Selves

– William James (1890) said, “Properly speaking, a man has many social selves as
there are individuals who recognize him and carry an image of him in their head. “
– On the other hand, social psychologist Roy Baumeister (2010) said, “But the
concept of the self loses its meaning if a person has multiple selves … the essence
of self involves integration of diverse experiences into a unity… In short, unity is
one of the defining features of selfhood and identity.”
– Let is reflect deeper, when you talk about self you are not just talking about
your physical body. There is something in you that cannot be reduced to biology,
chemistry, or physics. Thus, the questions “Who am I (really)? Remains relevant
then and now.
 The Unity of Consciousness

– The human experience is always that of unity. According to Rene Descartes, the mind (that is the
thinking, experiencing being) is not made up of parts; thus, it cannot be a physical substance
because anything material has parts (Skirry, 2005). Descartes claimed that this “being” is of
unified consciousness and not composed of merged fragments (Brook & Raymond, 2017).

– There is also Immanuel Kant’s “unity of consciousness” that can be described as “I am conscious
not only of single experiences but of a great many experiences at the same time. The same is
true of actions; I can do and be conscious of doing a number of actions at the same time” (Brook,
2016)
One Self or Many Selves?
– Contemporary psychological studies challenged the notion of a single, distinct, “only one”
notion of self. Several major personality theorists proposed that the mind is made up of several sub
– selves.
Allport’s Personality Theory
– Psychologist Gordon Allport (1961) proposed his “personality trait” theory asserting that every
person possesses “traits.” According to Allport, a “trait” is your essential characteristic that never,
ever changes and sticks with you all your life. Moreover, these traits shape who you are in any given
day (Hall, & Lindsey, 1957; Morris, et.al., 2002).
The ego states
– In 1990 psychiatrist Eric Berne began to develop his transactional analysis
model as basis for understanding behavior. Transactional analysis is anchored
on two notions:
– 1. Every person has three parts called “ego states” in his or her personality.
– 2. People communicate with one another assuming roles of any of these ego
states.
Berne presented the ego states as: (1) parent, (2) adult, (3) child
 Parent ego state. It is the voice of authority. It could be a comforting
“nurturing parent” voice or a “controlling/critical parent” voice that tells what
you should or should not do.
 Adult ego state. It is the rational person. It is the voice that speaks
reasonably and knows how to assert himself or herself.
 Child ego states. There are three child ego states. First, is the natural child
who loves to play but is sensitive and vulnerable. The little professor is the
curious child who wants to try everything. The adaptive child is the one who
reacts to the world. He or she could be trying to fit in or is rebelling against the
authority (Berne, 2016 edition).
Domains of the self

University professor and author Gregg Henriques proposed that the human self
has three related, but separable domains. These domains are:
– Experiential self;
– Private self – conscious; and
– Public self/persona.
– Henriques (2014) described the “experiential self” as the theater of consciousness
because it is the first to experience its beingness. He added that the experiential self is
closely tied to memory. The “private self – conscious” can be described as the narrator or
interpreter. It is the self that narrates the unfolding events and at the same time tries to
make sense of the experience. The “public self or persona” is the image you project to the
public. This is the image that interacts with others and will influence how others see you.
– True vs False Selves

In 1960, an English pediatrician and psychoanalyst, D.W. Winnicott introduced his

concept of “false self” and “true self.” According to Winnicott, the self is simply

“the person who is me” (1960;1965). Winnicott also proposed that the healthy

core of a healthy person’s self is hidden from the outside world, uninfluenced by

external realities. The false self is put up to defend the core from these realities

and prevent it from any changes.

False self
– Winnicott expressed that the false self is the product of early experience. It
is a defensive organization formed by the infant because of inadequate
mothering or failures in empathy. He added that the false self is developed as
the infant is repeatedly subjected to maternal care that intrudes upon, rejects,
or abandons his/her experience (Daehnert, 1998). The false self is also based on
being completely obedient to the parents’ wishes.
– The false self is a mask or a persona. It is a form of defense that constantly
seeks to anticipate other’s demands and complying with them, as a way of
protecting the true self from the world that us felt to be unsafe.
True self
– True self flourishes in infancy if the mother is positively responsive to the
child’s spontaneous expressions (Winnicott, 1960; Jones – Smith, 2011).
Winnicott described true self as a sense of “self” based on spontaneous
authentic experience.” It is an awareness that bodily functions are working,
such as the heart pumping, as well as simply breathing. Moreover, true self, is
part of the infant that feels creative, spontaneous and real. It has a sense of
integrity, of connected wholeness. True self is a sense of being alive and real
in one’s mind and body, having feelings that are spontaneous and unforced.
This experience of being aliveness is what follows people to be genuinely
close to others and to be creative.