PSYCHOLOGICAL

PERSPECTIVE OF THE
SELF
 Psychology
- Scientific study of human behavior and mental processes.
- Psychology of the self focuses on the representation of an
individual based on his/her experiences.
The Self as a Cognitive Construction

Cognitive Construction is a cognitive approach that focuses on the

mental processes rather than the observable behavior
The Self as a Cognitive Construction
• William James and the Me-Self, I-Self
• I-Self – consists of purely ego; consciousness itself; the thinking, acting, feeling
self; knower
• Me-Self – one of the many things that the “I-self” may be conscious of; known
• Material Self – consists of many things that belong to us or that we
belong to us such the body, family, clothes, or money.
• Social Self – who we are in a given social situation
• Spiritual Self – who we are at the core; more concrete or permanent
The Self as a Cognitive Construction
• Global vs Differential Models
• William James coined the term “Self-Esteem”
• Global Self-Esteem – a personality variable that represents the way
people generally feel about themselves
• State Self-Esteem – temporary feelings or momentary reactions
• Domain Specific Self-Esteem – how people evaluate their various
abilities and attributes
Real and Ideal Self Concepts
• Karen Horney (Feminine Psychology) – believed that everyone experiences
basic anxiety through which we experience conflict and strive to cope and
employ tension reduction approaches
• Real self - refers to what an individual actually is.

• Ideal Self – means the type of person an individual will like to be.
Real and Ideal Self Concepts
• Carl Rogers (Person-Centered Theory) - Takes a positive view of
individuals, believing that they tend to move toward becoming fully
functioning
• Real Self – is the person you actually are; includes all those aspects of one’s being and
one’s experiences that are perceived in awareness by the individual

• Ideal Self – this is the person who we would like to be. It consists of our goals and
ambitions in life, and is dynamic – i.e., forever changing.
Multiple vs Unified Self
• Kenneth Gergen – argues that having a flexible sense of self in
different context is more socially adaptable than force oneself to
stick to one self-concept
• Multiple Self – capacities we carry within us from multiple relationships

• Unified Self – when our personality dynamics are congruent, cohesive

and consistent
True vs False Selves
• Donald W. Winnicott
• True Self – has a sense of integrity, of connected wholeness that harks to the early
stage; based on the sense of being in the experiencing body
• False Self – when someone has to comply with the external rules; a necessary
defensive organization, a survival kit, a caretaker self
• Healthy False Self – is functional, can be compliant without the feeling that it
has betrayed its true self
• Unhealthy False Self – fits in but through a feeling of forced compliance

False Selves can lead towards Narcissistic Personality (Heinz Kohut, 1971)
The Self as Proactive and Agentic
• Albert Bandura
• Social Cognitive Theory – takes an agentic view of personality, meaning that
humans have the capacity to exercise control over their own lives. People are
self regulating, proactive, and self-organizing and that they have the power to
influence their own actions to produce desired consequences
• Agent Self – known as the executive function that allows for actions;
resides over anything that involves decision making, self-control, taking
charge in situations, and actively responding
The Self as Proactive and Agentic
• Human agency is not a thing but an active process of exploring, manipulating
and influencing the environment in order to attain desired outcomes. Core
features of human agency are:
• Intentionality – acts a person performs intentionally
• Forethought – setting goals, anticipation of outcomes of actions, selection of behaviors
to produce desired outcomes and avoiding undesirable ones)
• Self-reactiveness – monitoring progress toward fulfilling choices
• Self-reflectiveness – examination of own functioning, evaluation of the effect of other
people’s action on them
• Self-efficacy – the belief that they are capable of performing actions that will produce a
desired effect