Understanding the Self
in an eternal realm with the all
Self - is an active agent that promotes differential sampling,
processing, and evaluation of information from the
environment, and thus leads to differences in social behavior
 Nature of Self (Philosophical Perspective)
o Socrates – was more concerned with another
subject “The problem of the self”.
 First philosopher who engaged in a
systematic questioning about the self
 His view on self (dualistic) – the self has
body and soul
 Body – imperfect and impermanent
 Soul – perfect and permanent
o Plato – is a dualist; immaterial mind (soul) - the
driving force of the body, that is what gives us our
identity. Material body - only concerned with the
material world we live in. It wants to experience
self-gratification.
 The soul has 3 parts:
 The appetites – desires
 The spirited – in charge of emotions.
The part that gets angry when it
perceives an injustice being done
 The mind (Rational) – reason and
intellect. Conscious awareness of the
self
 Diagnosis - persons differ as to which part
of their nature is predominant.
o St. Augustine - agreed that man is of a bifurcated
nature
 Body – can only thrive in the imperfect,
physical reality that is the world
 Soul (Immortal) - can also stay after death
transcendent God
 The goal of every human person is to attain
this communion and bliss with the Divine by
living his life on earth in virtue.
o Aquinas
 Matter – Hyles – common stuff that makes
up the universe – body
 Form – morphed – essence of a substance
or thing – soul – what makes us human
o Rene Descartes - “Father of modern philosophy”
 Dualism- reality and existence is divided
into two parts
 Mind is separate from the Physical Body
 Self is also a combination of two distinct
entities
 Cogito - the thing that thinks, which
is the mind
 Extenza - the extension of the mind,
which is the body.
o David Hume - An empiricist who believes that one
can know only what comes from the senses and
experiences
 Self is nothing else but a bundle of
impressions.
 What one thinks is a unified self is simply a
combination of all experiences with a
particular person.
o Immanuel Kant - thinks that the things that men
are perceive around them are not just randomly
infused into the human person without an
organizing principle that regulates the relationship
of all these impression
  The apparatuses of the mind - a mind that
organizes the impressions that men get
from the external world.
 The self is not just what gives one his
personality. It is also the seat of knowledge
and acquisition for all human persons
 Two components of the self:
 Empirical Ego - How others identify
us- this is our body, what we look
like, how we sound, etc. This is the
self which makes us an individual
 Transcendental Ego - How we
identify our self. This is the ‘self’ that
what makes us human
o Sigmund Freud - view of the self was multitiered,
divided among the conscious, subconscious and
unconscious.
 Two Levels of Human Functioning:
 Conscious - Governed by the reality
principle
 Unconscious – Contains basic
instinctual drives
o Gilbert Ryle - solves the mind-body dichotomy that
has been running for a long time in the history of
thought by blatantly denying the concept of an
internal, non-physical self
 What truly matters is the behavior that a
person manifests in his day-to-day life.
 Self is not an entity one can locate and
analyze but simply the convenient name
that people use to refer to all the behaviors
that people make.
 The mind is never separate from the body
 All manifestations in the physical activities
or behavior are the dispositions of the self
 I act therefore I am or You are what you
do
o Paul Churchland
 Materialism - The belief that nothing but
matter exists, if it is somehow cannot be
recognized by the senses, then it’s akin to a
fairy tale.
 Eliminative Materialism - Developing a new,
neuroscience-based vocabulary that will
enable us to think and communicate clearly
about the mind, consciousness and human
experience
o Merleau-Ponty - asserts that the Mindbody
bifurcation that has been going on for a long time
is a futile endeavor and an invalid problem
 The mind and body are so intertwined that
they cannot be separated from one
another.
 One cannot find any experience that it is
not an embodied experience
 The living body, his thoughts, emotions and
experiences are all one.
 Stevens (1996) Definition of Self
o Self is separate – it is unique
o Self is contained/ self-contained – own thoughts
and feelings
o Self is independent – exist apart from the other
selves
o Self is consistent
o Self is unitary – center of all the experiences we
had
o Self is private – information/ thoughts /
feelings/emotions/ can sort it by ourselves
 Sociological Perspective - who we are is a product of the o Gender is a part of it, gender is subject to change
social world. We are socially constructed o Alfred Kinsey – sexual orientation is a continues
o The self is not static move
o Continues to change
o Multifaceted  Psychological Perspectives
A. Definition of self: sense of personal identity
 Self and culture - self is a product of influence of the o James William – duality (I & he)
world around us  I – thinking/acting/feeling self
o Marcel Mauss (French Sociologist)  Me – physical characteristics
 2 Types of Self o Carl Rogers – I & me
 The idea of 'person' (personne), the  I – one who divides
idea of 'self' (moi) – person  Me – what you feel/think who you are
him/herself. Self, including body and o Sigmund Freud – we are a product of the
own identity. interaction of the Id, ego, superego
 The 'role' (personnage), and the  Id (me) – lowest form of self/appetitive
place of the 'person' (personne). The desires/ instinctual part of the mind
Pueblos  Superego – operates as a moral conscience
o Erwing Goffman – “Life is like theatre, there’s a  Ego – realistic part that mediates/balances
back stage and a front stage” between the desires of the id and the
super-ego
 Self and the Social World – product of language and o George Herbert Mean – product of human
acquisition. Product of human social interaction interaction. Individual human interaction may also
o GEORGE HERBERT MEAD affect who we are.
 Language and role playing
o LEV VYGOTSKY  3 Reasons why We are Products of Human Interaction
 Real life dialogues o We do not create ourselves out of nothing. We are
always living in a social/historical context.
 Self and the External World – cannot do away with self o We need other people to affirm who we are.
and families. Indirectly thought with words and o What we think that is important to us is affected
punishment. by what is important to the historical &
o Family – link between us and external world/major sociological context.
socialization agent.

B. Concepts of Self
 Self in the Social World
 Identity – composed of personal/social characteristics/  Self-esteem – positive/negative evaluation or concept of
social roles and responsibilities / affiliation that define us who we are
 Self-Concept – personal/things that comes to your mind  Social Comparison
as supposed to who you are o Upward Social Comparison – comparing yourself
o Both are constant/ not fixed/ over changing to someone ‘higher’ than you are
mental constructs o Downward Social Comparison – compare yourself
 Self-Schema – organized systems/ collection of to someone lower than you are
knowledge  Self-Evaluation Maintenance Theory – states that we feel
threatened when somebody out performs us or is better
Hobbies
than us
o 3 Reactions when someone is better that us
 We distance ourselves
 We reconsider our skills
Family Self Nationality

 We strengthen our skills

Religion

 Self-Awareness – being aware of yourself, conscious

about yourself
o Actual – who we really are
o Ideal – what we would like to be
o Ought – what we think who we are

o 2 Types (Carver and Schier)

 Private Self - cognitions that involve traits,
states or behaviors of the person/ our real
self
 Public Self - cognitions concerning the
generalized other’s view of the self/public
image/the ones we portray
 Collective Self - cognitions concerning a
view of the self that is found in some
collective