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Metacognitive Reading Report # 1

Student Name: Venice Anne J. Simasanti Date: February 16, 2019

GED101 – Understanding the Self

Self, Self-Concept, and Identity

Topic/Lesson

1. Difficult Concepts (What concepts did you find difficult to understand?)

a. Difference between Self and Identity
b. Self and Identity are Social Products
c. Pragmatic, contextualized and situated approaches make two critical points

2. Insights (What new insights or learnings did you gain in discussion/ activity?)

i. Before reading the article/understanding the lesson, I thought that we humans do not
really have to seriously think of the pros and cons before deciding our next move
because sometimes most of us do things without thinking about its consequences.
And that our reasons are because we already know who we really are and that is
enough to do things without thinking. However, reading the article/understanding the
lesson, I now think that the feeling of knowing oneself is based in part on an
assumption of stability which is central to both everyday (lay) theories about the self
and more formal (social science) theories about the self. Yet the assumption of
stability is belied by the malleability, context-sensitivity, and dynamic construction of
the self as a mental construct.

ii. Before reading the article/understanding the lesson, I thought that self and identity are
just to show what kind of person you try to imply to others, that will tell what you are
as a person. However, reading the article/understanding the lesson, I now
think/realize that Self and Identity are so much more than that, it needs a little bit
more of deep understanding. So, from the article that I have read, Self and Identity are
predicted to influence what people are motivated to do, how they think and make
sense of themselves and others, the actions they take, and their feelings and ability to
control or regulate themselves. In addition, it gives us an idea on what actions we can
do in connect with the Self and Identity we knew.

iii. Before reading the article/understanding the lesson, I thought that the self is
predominantly a product of natural processes to which people are inherently
predisposed. However, reading the article/understanding the lesson, I now
think/realize that our self is both a product of nature and nurture because based on the
nature, Biological sciences explains that our traits are passed on to humanity from one
generation to another, and these transmitted traits served as a blueprint of our self and
make us predispose to certain self-expressions (e.g., attitude, behavior, tendencies,
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etc.). and to the Nurture, the self should be principally viewed as an outcome of
various nurturing factors in the context of one’s social life. Different fields of social
science stresses how group life (formal and informal) affects individuals’ behavior
and attitude and emphasizes on the impact of various social institutions to the self-
construal of an individual.

3. Questions (What questions would you want answers for? Or vague areas you want more
explanations about?

i. What will happen to us if we do not know ourselves that much and we keep
on doing things that we think are right even if it is wrong?
ii. Why does knowing our identity connects to many factors, and why is it that
important?
iii. Is Self and Identity connects with each other? And why?