UNDERSTANDING SELF (PRELIM REVIEWER)

Lesson 1: Philosophical Perspectives of the Self

The self is a complex being. It may be impossible to come up with a single definite concept of
the self since human beings have divergent concepts and views about the self. Let us begin by
looking into how the different philosophers define the self.

Readings on Filipino Philosophical Perspectives

1. Self as thinking machine

Answer: Rene Descartes
2. Man becomes whole not in relation to himself but only through a relation to another self
Answer: Martin Buber
3. There is no such thing as the self
Answer: David Hume
4. Filipino self as dependent on others and as relational in nature
Answer: Ramon Reyes
5. self is born with a blank slate
Answer: John Locke

A. The Self in the Greek Philosophy

- The Greek philosophers are considered as forerunners in the study of man.
- Protagoras’ maxim “man is the measure of all things” (homo mensura) signaled a
significant shift in philosophical probing from cosmological to anthropocentric.
- Virtue depends on character and character is shaped by every action the self performs.
We must seriously mind out the moral character of our actions.
- the concept of the self is that the self is seen as body-soul compound with the rational
soul as immaterial, immortal, immutable, distinct, and far superior to the body
- the nature and identity of the self from the Greek philosophy, we limit our discussion to
Socrates and Plato.

Socrates (469-399 B.C.)

- He contemplated that the self is not just a mind-body aggregate, but also a moral being.
- That is why his philosophy chiefly centered on the moral aspect of man, on how man
should live a morally good life or attain happiness.
- He opined that happiness, without morality is impossible
- Man must live a good moral life in order to be happy.

First, the self must focus on improving quality of the soul or moral life through the quest
for wisdom and truth instead of indulging in the chase of material things, fame, and prestige.
Second, the improvement of the soul can be achieved through quest for wisdom and
truth. That is the reason why Socrates believed that knowledge equals virtue.
Third, life must be ceaselessly examined for it to be worth living. By examining life, the
self will be able to know his/her true nature, what is really good for him/her, and what really
matters in life that begets happiness. If life is not worth living any longer, then happiness could
hardly be attainable. True happiness springs from goodness or living out a morally good life
(Castell & Borchert, 1988).
The key to self-discovery is mediation: “Know thy self”. The self is the one who thinks,
reflects, and acts on what is right. Only in the pursuit of goodness, the self can find happiness.

Plato (427-3447 B.C.)

- Plato’s dualistic, idealistic, and abstract view on reality shaped his notion of the self.
- The self, for him, is a rational substance consisting of body and soul.
- The soul is derived from the world of ideas, while the body from the world of matter.
Since everything in the world of matter merely contains the shadows of the real and
perfect realm of reality in the world of ideas, he deduced that man is essentially a soul
imprisoned in a body.
- The ideal self does not exist in the world of matter because what we see in this world is
an imperfect copy of the original self in the perfect realm of reality or world of ideas.
- Plato, in his theory on the tripartite of the soul, stated that the soul of the self consists of
three dissimilar elements; the highest is the element of reason (head); the spirited
element (heart) which expressed emotional drives such as aggression, ambition, pride,
anger, honor, loyalty, courage, and protectiveness; and at the bottom level of hierarchy
are the bodily appetite (stomach), which includes ones physiological desire and needs
(Lavine, 1989).

B. The Self in the Medieval Philosophy

Lesson 2: Sociological Perspectives of the Self

Sociology is the scientific study of society, including patterns of social relationships, social
interactions, and culture. It focuses primarily on the influence of social relationships on your
attitude, beliefs and behavior.

A. The Self as Product of Modern Society

Sociology posits that socially formed norms, beliefs, and values come to exist within the person
to a degree where these become natural and normal (Elwell, 2003), thus, developing the
person’s self-identity.

Modernization has significantly changed society, and this has affected how an individual builds
and develops his or her self-identity.
Pre-modern society ― centered on survival ― people behaved according to social
rules and traditions while the family and the immediate environment provided supervision on
how to get through life (e.g. choosing where to live, what line of work to do, who to marry, etc.)
Modern society ― people are free to choose how to lead their lives but stability has decreased
as traditions and traditional support system (e.g. family) have decreased in importance ―
individualism has become dominant ― developing one’s self-identity is central

B. The Development of the Self

1. George Herbert Mead’s Theory of the Social Self

- George Herbert Mead (1863–1931) developed the theory of social behaviorism to
explain how social experience develops an individual’s personality (1962, orig. 1934).
- The Self Mead’s central concept is the self, the part of an individual’s personality
composed of self-awareness and self-image.
- Mead’s genius was in seeing the self as the product of social experience.

Three Stages of Self Development according to Mead

i. Language Stage ― self-development and language are intimately tied

*self-development ― through shared understanding of symbols, gestures, and sound,

language gives the individual the capacity to express himself or herself while at the same time
comprehending what the other people are conveying

ii. Play Stage ― individuals role-play or assume the perspective of others

iii. Game Stage ― individual not only internalizes other people’s perspectives, he or she is also
able to take into account societal rules and adheres to it ― self is developed by understanding
the
rule, and one must abide by it to win the game or be successful at an activity

*Two sides of the self: “I” and “Me”

2. Charles Horton Cooley: “The Looking Glass Self” Theory

To sum up, Cooley believed that individuals and their personalities are products of social
interactions and social influences, and that attitudes, behaviors and self-concepts develop from
our interactions with others. As a result, we develop a feeling about ourselves by imagining what
others think about the way we look and act.

3 major elements of Looking Glass Self:

a. Our imagination of how other see us
b. Our imagination how others judge our appearance
c. The feeling of the self that results from our imagination of the thoughts others have of
us.
Briefly, the important aspect of Looking Glass Self is how we see ourselves influenced by how
we think others perceive us.

3. Erving Goffman: The Dramaturgical Approach

-Views social life as a stage where people interact with one another
-People are viewed as members of the audience and as actors. The parts that are
played are the roles people play in their actual respective daily routines

*Dramaturgical Approach - He compares the behavior of people in a society to acting on a

stage. People are acting out a script on society’s (real life) expectation and even making
improvements in order to impress the audience.

- In short, people are “social actors” who do not have a “real self” but many “real selves”
- For Goffman then, different social interactions are “on stage” and are socially structured with
a script, a responding audience, and the “stage” itself.

Lesson 3: Anthropological Perspectives of the Self

It is believed that how we see ourselves shapes our lives, and is shaped by our cultural
context. Self-perceptions influence, among other things, how we think about the world, our
social relationships, health and lifestyle choices, community engagement, political actions, and
ultimately our own and other people's well-being (Vignoles, V. L., etal., 2016)

THE SELF AND THE PERSON IN CONTEMPORARY ANTHROPOLOGY

I. ANTHROPOLOGY
- The study of people past and present
- Focuses on understanding the human condition in its cultural aspect. Concerned with
understanding how humans evolved and how they differ from one another.

II. DEFINITION OF SELF IN MODERN ANTHROPOLOGY

- Unit but unitary
- Prof. Katherine Ewing described self as encompassing “physical organism,
possessing psychological functioning and social attributes.

III. 2 ASPECTS OF THE SELF (Joseph LeDoux)

- Explicit – Self that you are consciously aware of
- Implicit – Self that is not immediately available to the consciousness
- “The self is not static, it is added to and subtracted from genetic maturation, learning,
forgetting, stress, aging, and disease.”
- Self-representation (Culturally shaped “self”)
- Ewing (1989) asserted that “self is illusory.” People construct a series of self
representation that are based on selected on selected cultural concepts of person and
selected ‘chains’ of personal memories.
IV. THE SELF EMBEDDED TO CULTURE
- The ways of how the self is developed are bound to cultural differences
- The principles of how the mind works cannot be conceived of as universal, but that is as
varied as the culture and traditions that people practice all over the world (Cultural
Anthropologists). The self is culturally shaped and infinitely variable.

V. DISTINGUISHED TWO WAYS OF HOW THE SELF IS CONSTRUCTED

(CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGIST)

a. Independent Construct (Individualistic Culture)

a.1 Internal Attributes – values and skills
b. Interdependent Construct (Collectivist Culture)
b.1 The essential connection between individual to other people.

Catherine Raeff (2010) believed that culture can influence how you view: relationship,
personality traits, achievement, and expressing emotions.

Lesson 4: Psychological Perspectives of the Self

What is Freud’s theory in simple terms?

Freudian motivation theory posits that unconscious psychological forces, such as
hidden desires and motives, shape an individual's behavior, like their purchasing
patterns. This theory was developed by Sigmund Freud who, in addition to being a medical
doctor, is synonymous with the field of psychoanalysis.

Three Structure of Personality

The Id
- According to Freud, the id is the source of all psychic energy, making it the primary
component of personality.
- The id is the only component of personality that is present from birth.
- This aspect of personality is entirely unconscious and includes instinctive and primitive
behaviors.
The Ego
- According to Freud, the ego develops from the id and ensures that the impulses of the id
can be expressed in a manner acceptable in the real world.
- The ego functions in the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious mind.
- The ego is the personality component responsible for dealing with reality.
The Superego
- According to Freud, the superego begins to emerge at around age five.
- The superego holds the internalized moral standards and ideals that we acquire from our
parents and society (our sense of right and wrong).
- The superego provides guidelines for making judgments
\
Prelim Long Quiz {Lessons 1 to 4}

Question 1: _____ sees the Filipino self as dependent on others and as relational in nature.
Answer: Ramon C. Reyes

Question 2: _____ sees the self as a subject, an organizing principle that actively interprets,
constructs, and gives meaning to sensory experiences.
Answer: Immanuel Kant

Question 3: _____ and _____ are the two types of self according to Rogers.
Answer: ideal and real

Question 4: _____ suggests that we are social actors, adjusting ourselves depending on our
audience.
Answer: Erving Goffman

Question 5: For Socrates, man can live truly happy lives by _____.
Answer: good moral

Question 6: For _____, man becomes whole not in relation to himself but only through a relation
to another self.
Answer: Martin Buber

Question 7: The two kinds of self according to Kant are _____ and _____.
Answer: prori and categories

Question 8: Identify whether the following is descriptive of individualism or collectivism.

Self-sufficiency and uniqueness
Answer: Individualism

Question 9: Among the three stages mentioned by Mead, it is during the ___ stage that we learn
to take into consideration the rules set by society.
Answer: game/ game stage

Question 10: _____ is considered as the age of possibilities.

Answer: Emerging adults

Question 11: _____, _____ and _____ are the three personality structures according to Freud.
Answer: Id, Ego and Superego

Question 12: According to Plato, the soul comprises three dissimilar elements which are the
____, ____, and ____.
 Answer: reason, spirited and appetite

Question 13: Among the three personality structures, _____ should be the strongest according
to Freud.
Answer: Id

Question 15: According to Harter, _____ is the stage wherein we describe the self in terms of
trait-like constructs.
Answer: Middle to later childhood/ Middle childhood

Question 16: Psychology came from two Greek words which are _____ and _____.
Answer: psyche and logos

Question 17: Identify whether the following is descriptive of individualism or collectivism.

Personal goals over group goals
Answer: Individualism
Question 18: _____, _____, and _____ are the three stages of self-development according to
Mead (in order).
Answer: Language Stage, Play Stage, Game Stage
Question 19: For _____, the self is born with a blank slate.
Answer: John Locke
Question 20: _____ considers the self as a "thinking machine".
Answer: Rene Descartes
Question 21: Among the three elements of the soul mentioned by Plato, _____ should govern
the other two.
Note: One-word answer per 'blank'
Question 22: _____ is the Father of the Psychoanalytic Theory.
Answer:Sigmund Freud
Question 23:For _____, there is no such thing as the self and that it is nothing but a collection of
different perceptions.
Answer: David Hume
Question 24: Identify whether the following is descriptive of individualism or collectivism.
Group membership
Answer: Collectivism
Question 25: Among the three levels of personality, _____ has the most impact on one's
personality according to Freud.
Answer: Id
Question 26: Identify whether the following is descriptive of individualism or collectivism.
Exercises more control over their own lives
Answer: Individualism
Question 27: _____, _____ and _____ are the three levels of personality according to Freud.
Answer: Id, Ego and Superego
Question 28: _____ and _____ are the two basic attitudes men are capable of according to
Buber.
Answer: I-Thou and I-It