UNIT 1. Chapter 2-4

GE 1: UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
II. CHAPTER 2: THE SELF, SOCIETY, AND CULTURE
A. WHAT IS THE SELF?

 The self, in contemporary literature and even common sense, is commonly defined by the following
characteristics:
 Separate means that the self is distinct from other selves. The self is always unique and has
its own identity.
 Self-contained and independent because in itself it can exist. Its distinctness allows it to be
self-contained with its own thoughts, characteristics, and volition.
 Consistency means that a particular self’s traits, characteristics, tendencies, and
potentialities are more or less the same.
 Unitary in that it is the center of all experiences and thoughts that run through a certain
person
 Private means that each person sorts out information, feelings and emotions, and thought
processes within the self. This whole process is never accessible to anyone but the self.
B. THE SELF AND CULTURE

 According to Marcel Mauss, every self has two faces:
 Moi refers to a person’s sense of who he is, his body, and his basic identity, his biological
givenness.
 Personne is composed of the social concepts of what it means to be who he is.
 Language
 is another interesting aspect of this social constructivism; it is a salient part of culture and
ultimately, has a tremendous effect in our crafting of the self.
 If a self is born into a particular society or culture, the self will have to adjust according to its
exposure.
C. THE SELF AND THE DEVELOPMENTAL OF THE SOCIAL WORLD

 More than his givenness (personality, tendencies, and propensities, among others), one is believed
to be in active participation in the shaping of the self.
 Men and women in their growth and development engage actively in the shaping of the self.
 The unending terrain of metamorphosis of the self is mediated by language.
D. MEAD AND VGOTSKY

 For Mead and Vygotsky, the way that human persons develop is with the use of language
acquisition and interaction with others.
 Both Vygotsky and Mead treat the human mind as something that is made, constituted through
language as experienced in the external world and as encountered in dialogs with others.
E. SELF IN FAMILIES
 The kind of family that we are born in, the resources available to us (human, spiritual, economic),
and the kind of development that we will have will certainly affect us.
 Human beings are born virtually helpless and the dependency period of a human baby to its
parents for nurturing is relatively longer than most other animals.
 In trying to achieve the goal of becoming a fully realized human, a child enters a system of
relationships, most important of which is the family.
 Human persons learn the ways of living and therefore their selfhood by being in a family. It is what a
family initiates a person to become that serves as the basis for this person’s progress.
F. GENDER AND SELF

 Gender is one of those loci of the self that is subject to alteration, change, and development.
 The sense of self that is being taught makes sure that an individual fits in a particular environment,
is dangerous and detrimental in
 the goal of truly finding one’s self, self-determination, and growth of the self.
 It is important to give one the leeway to find, express, and live his identity.
 Gender has to be personally discovered and asserted and not dictated by culture and the society.
CHAPTER 3: THE SELF AS COGNITIVE CONSTRUCT
A. ABSTRACTION
 There are various definitions of the “self” and other similar or interchangeable concepts in
psychology.
 Oher concepts similar to self are identity and self-concept:
 Identity is composed of personal characteristics, social roles, and responsibilities, as well as
affiliations that define who one is.
 Self-concept is what basically comes to your mind when you are asked about who you are.
 Self, identity, and self-concept are not fixed in one time frame.
 Carl Rogers
 captured this idea in his concept of self-schema or our organized system or collection of
knowledge about who we are.
 Theories generally see the self and identity as mental constructs, created and recreated in memory.
 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.
 There are three reasons why self and identity are social products:
1) We do not create ourselves out of nothing. Society helped in creating the foundations of who
we are.
2) Whether we like to admit it or not, we actually need others to affirm and reinforce who we
think we are.
3) What we think is important to us may also have been influenced by what is important in our
social or historical context.
 Social interaction and group affiliation are vital factors in creating our self-concept especially in the
aspect of providing us with our social identity;
 There are times when we are aware of our self-concepts; this is also called self-awareness;
 Carver and Scheier 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 toward having a good presentation of
yourself to others
 Self-awareness also presents us with at least three other self-schema:
 The “actual” self is who you are at the moment
 The “ideal” self is who you like to be
 The “ought” self is who you think you should be
 Self-awareness may be positive or negative depending on the circumstances and our next course
of action.
 Our group identity and self-awareness also have a great impact on our self-esteem, defined as our
own positive or negative perception or evaluation of ourselves
 One of the ways in which our social relationship affects our self-esteem is through social
comparison:
 The downward social comparison is the more common type of comparing ourselves with
others, by comparing ourselves with those who are worse off than us.
 The upward social comparison which is comparing ourselves with those who are better off
than us.
 Social comparison also entails what is called self-evaluation maintenance theory, which states that
we can feel threatened when someone out-performs us, especially when that person is close to us.
 In the attempt to increase or maintain self-esteem, some people become narcissistic, a “trait
characterized by overly high self-esteem, self-admiration, and self-centeredness.”
 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.
 Though self-esteem is a very important concept related to the self, studies have shown that it only
has a correlation, not causality, to positive outputs and outlook.
 Programs, 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.
CHAPTER 4: THE SELF IN WESTERN AND EASTERN THOUGHTS
A. EASTERN THOUGHTS
 Sees the other person as part of yourself as well as the things you may create, a drama in which
everyone is interconnected with their specific roles
 Asian culture is called a collectivistic culture as the group and social relations that is given more
importance than individual needs and wants.
B. WESTERN THOUGHTS
 Looks at the world in dualities wherein you are distinct from the other person, the creator is
separate from the object he created, in which the self is distinguished and acknowledged
 The Western culture is what we would call an individualistic culture since their focus is on the
person.
C. CONFUCIANISM
 A code of ethical conduct, of how one should properly act according to his/her relationship with
other people
 The identity and self-concept of the individual are interwoven with the identity and status of his/her
community or culture, sharing its pride as well as its failures.
 Self-cultivation is seen as the ultimate purpose of life.
 The cultivated self in Confucianism is what some scholars call a “subdued self” wherein personal
needs are repressed (subdued) for the good of many, making Confucian society also hierarchal for
the purpose of maintaining order and balance in society.
D. TAOISM
 Living in the way of the Tao or the universe
 Rejects having one definition of what the Tao is
 Rejects the hierarchy and strictness brought by Confucianism and would prefer a simple lifestyle
and its teachings thus aim to describe how to attain that life
 The self is not just an extension of the family or the community; it is part of the universe.
 The ideal self is selflessness but this is not forgetting about the self; it is living a balanced life with
society and nature, being open and accepting to change, forgetting about prejudices and egocentric
ideas and thinking about equality as well as complementarity among humans as well as other
beings.
E. BUDDHISM
 The self is seen as an illusion, born out of ignorance, of trying to hold and control things, or human-
centered needs; thus, the self is also the source of all these sufferings.
 To forget about the self, forget the cravings of the self, break the attachments you have with the
world, and to renounce the self which is the cause of all suffering and in doing so, attain the state of
Nirvana.

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UNIT 1. Chapter 2-4

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GE 1: UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

II. CHAPTER 2: THE SELF, SOCIETY, AND CULTURE

A. WHAT IS THE SELF?

B. THE SELF AND CULTURE

C. THE SELF AND THE DEVELOPMENTAL OF THE SOCIAL WORLD

D. MEAD AND VGOTSKY

F. GENDER AND SELF

CHAPTER 3: THE SELF AS COGNITIVE CONSTRUCT

CHAPTER 4: THE SELF IN WESTERN AND EASTERN THOUGHTS

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