THE SELF FROM

THE
PERSPECTIVE
OF
PSYCHOLOGY
Lesson 8​
QUESTIONS TO
PONDER
1. Why are there many versions of the self
in psychology?
2. What role do individual differences play
in the determination of the self?
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LESSON 4: THE SELF STUDY FROM THE

PERSPECTIVE OF PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology is the field of the social sciences that deals with the description, explanation, prediction and control of
behavior (Ciccarelli and Meyer, 2006). Evolving into a science only in the late 19th century from the discipline of
philosophy. the field assumed the existence of the states of. consciousness in human beings. Psychology further
believes that the world of material things including people exists independently of the perceiving human mind.

The mind-body problem of philosophy is one issue in the field of knowledge. Another, specifically for psychology is
the famous Nature-Nurture Controversy. Over the years, experts in the field of human behavior have sought for ways
to best explain the causes of human behavior only to discover that both nature and nurture influence behavior, each
one to a greater or lesser degree.

Connected to the study of human behavior is the concept of the self. Psychologists for many generations have provided
their own explanations of the self for want of a clearer, better understanding of the individual in particular and human
behavior in general.
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WILLIAM JAMES
William James (1842-1910) was an
American Philosopher and
Psychologist. He was professor of
psychology and philosophy at
Harvard University and was known
for being one of the great
pragmatists. He is also known for
his Theory of the Self. He wrote
many articles on both philosophy
and psychology and published
several books, one of which is The
Principles of Psychology in 1890. It
is in this book where his theory of
the self is explained
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THE ‘ME’ AND ‘I’

William James in his studies of human thoughts concluded that thoughts have five
characteristics:

2. All thoughts are 3. There is a 4. Thoughts deal 5. Consciousness

1. William James
constantly continuity of with objects that can focus on
in his studies of
changing or are thoughts as its are different from particular objects
human thoughts
never static. focus shifts from and independent and not others.
concluded that
one object to consciousness
thoughts have five
another itself.
characteristics:
 6

As mentioned in the list of thought

characteristics above, thoughts are
associated with the existence of the
self. Further, James believed that
the self is made up of two parts: the
ME self and the I self. The ME self
can be considered as a separate
object or individual that the person
refers to when discussing or
describing their personal
experiences.

For example:
The gifts were sent to ME.
The person is smiling at ME.
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The I self is the self that

knows and recognizes who
they are and what they have
done.
For example:
I borrowed the book from the
library.
I won the game.
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• James called the ME self as the empirical ME and the I self the Pure Ego or the thinking self. The ME self is
further divided into three components namely: the material self, the social self and the spiritual self.