The ideal realm is unchanging, Plato’s philosophy of the self can be
Lesson 1: The Philosophical Perspective Of The
Self
 What is Philosophy?
 Philosophy - love of wisdom
 Philosophy employs the inquisitive mind to
discover the ultimate causes, reasons, and
principles of everything.
 The nature of the self is a topic of interest
among philosophers.
 The philosophical framework
understanding the self was first introduced by
ancient Greek philosophers Socrates and
Plato.
 Socrates reminds us to “know thyself” (gnothi
seauton)
 What is self and the qualities that define it?
 Philosophers agree that self-knowledge is a
prerequisite to a happy and meaningful life.
 Notable Philosophers
 SOCRATES: AN UNEXAMINED LIFE IS NOT WORTH
LIVING
 For ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, the
self is synonymous with the soul.
 The soul is immortal. Socrates believed that
every human possessed an immortal soul.
 Human life does not end at one’s death.
 Socrates explained that death is the
departure of the soul for the eternal world.
 One continues to live in the world after death.
 Concept of Reality
 Socrates' concept of Reality consists of
two dichotomous realms: physical realm
and ideal realm.
 The physical realm is changeable,
transient, and imperfect. The body
belongs to the physical realm.

eternal, and immortal. The soul
belongs to the ideal realm.
 The Power of Reason
 Socrates was the first thinker to focus on
the full power of reason on the human self:
who we are, who we should be, and who
we will become.
 The soul strives for wisdom and perfection,
and reason is the soul’s tool to achieve
an exalted state of life.
 Our preoccupation with bodily needs
for such as food, drink, sex, pleasure, material
possessions, and wealth keep us from
attaining wisdom.
 Meaningful life
 Goodness or beauty is the most
important of all.
 A person can have a meaningful and
happy life only if he becomes virtuous
and knows the value of himself that can
be achieved through constant soul-
searching.
 For him, this is best achieved when one
tries to separate the body from the soul
as much as possible.
 The Socratic Method
 Soul searching must begin at the source
of all knowledge and significance – the
self.
 The Socratic method, the so-called
introspection, is a method of carefully
examining our thoughts and emotions – to
gain self-knowledge.
 Self-knowledge – knowing one’s degree of
understanding about the world and
knowing one’s capabilities and potentials.
 PLATO: THE SOUL IS IMMORTAL
 Plato believed that the self is synonymous with
the soul.

explained as a process of self-knowledge
and purification of the soul.
 The self consists of three-parts: reason, spirit
or passion, and physical appetite
 Reason is the divine essence that
enables us to think deeply, make wise
choices, and achieve a true
understanding of eternal truths.
 The spirit or passion includes basic
emotions such as love, anger, ambition,
aggressiveness, and empathy.
 The physical appetite includes our basic
biological needs such as hunger, thirst,
and sexual desire.
 These three elements of our selves are in a
dynamic relationship with one another,
sometimes in conflict.
 When conflict occurs, Plato believes that it is
the responsibility of our Reason to sort things
out and exert control, restoring a harmonious
relationship among the three elements of our
selves.
 Plato believes that genuine happiness can
only be achieved by people who consistently
make sure that their Reason is in control of
their Spirits and Appetites.
 ARISTOTLE: THE SOUL IS THE ESSENCE OF THE
SELF
 For Aristotle, the body and soul are not two
separate elements but are one thing.
 The soul is simply the Form of the body, and is
not capable of existing without the body.
 The soul is that which makes a person a
person. The soul is the essence of the self.
 Without the body the soul cannot exist. The
soul dies along with the body.
 Aristotle suggested that anything with life has
soul.
 His discussion about the self centers on the
kinds of soul possessed by man.
  He introduced the three kinds of soul:
vegetative, sentient, and rational.
 Vegetative soul includes the physical
body that can grow.
 Sentient soul includes the sensual desires,
feelings, and emotions.
 Rational soul is what makes man human. It
includes the intellect that makes man
know and understand things.
 Aristotle suggests that the rational nature of
the self is to lead a good, flourishing, and
fulfilling life.
 ST. AUGUSTINE: I AM DOUBTING, THEREFORE I AM
 St. Augustine integrated the ideas of Plato
and Christianity.
 He developed a more unified perspective on
the body and soul.
 The soul is what governs and defines the
human person or the self.
 The soul is an important element of man.
 The soul is united with the body so that man
may be entire and complete.
 The physical body is different from and
inferior to its inhabitant, the immortal soul.
 Augustine described that humankind is
created in the image and likeness of God.
 Augustine believed that God is transcendent
and everything created by God who is all
good is good.
 Therefore, the human person being a creation
of God is always geared towards the good.
 The self is known only through knowing God.
 Self-knowledge is a consequence of
knowledge of God.
 For Augustine, “knowledge can only come by
seeing the truth that dwells within us.”
 The truth of which Augustine spoke refers to
the truth of knowing God.
 Unity of faith and reason
 God is transcendent and that the self
seeks to be united with God through faith
and reason.
In Augustine's mission to discover the truth on
the existence of God, he developed the
fundamental concept of the human person
and thus, provided the philosophical
principle, “I am doubting, therefore I am.”
 Time, Memory and the Self
 Time is something that people measure
within their own memory
 It is a property of the mind: past present
and future exists in the soul (mind)
 Past is memory
 Present is direct experience
 Future is expectation
 We measure the passage of time when
we measure the intervals of perception.
 Introspection or self-examination
 Leads to self consciousness
 Led to the inquiry of the soul, the mind,
consciousness and thought.
 Self-consciousness confirms superiority of
humans over other organisms.
 RENE DESCARTES: I THINK THEREFORE I AM
 The phrase “I think therefore I am” is the
keystone of Descartes’ concept of self.
 For him, the act of thinking about the self – of
being self-conscious – is in itself proof that
there is self.
 For Descartes, the essence of the self – a
thinking entity that doubts, understands,
analyzes, questions, and reasons.
 Methodic Doubt:
 “I think therefore I am”
 One can always doubt about the
certainty of things but the very fact that
one doubts cannot be doubted.
 Mind-Body Dichotomy
There are two dimensions of the self:
 The thinking self (or soul) is the
nonmaterial, immortal, conscious
being, and independent of the
physical laws of the universe.
 The physical body is the material,
mortal, non-thinking entity, fully
governed by the physical laws of
nature
 Thought (mind) always preceded action
(body).
 The soul and body are independent of
one another and each can exist and
function without the other.
 The self as a thinking entity is distinct from
the self as a physical body. In other
words, the thinking self can exist
independently of the physical body.
 JOHN LOCKE: THE SELF IS CONSCIOUSNESS
 For Locke, the human mind at birth is tabula
rasa or blank slate.
 He felt that the self, or personal identity, is
constructed primarily from sense experiences –
or more specifically, what we see, hear, smell,
taste, and feel.
 These experiences shape and mold the self
throughout a person’s life.
 Self-consciousness is necessary to have a
coherent personal (self) identity or knowledge
of the self as a person.
 Consciousness is what makes possible our
belief that we are the same identity in
different situations.
 Using the power of reason and introspection
enables people to understand and achieve
accurate conclusions about the self.
 Locke holds that consciousness can be
transferred from one substance (body and
soul) to another.
 DAVID HUME: THERE IS NO SELF
 Hume suggests that if people carefully
examine their sense experience through the
process of introspection, they will discover
that there is no self.
 According to Hume, what people experience
is just a bundle or collection of different
 perceptions, impressions, sensations, ideas,
thoughts, and images.
 The idea of personal identity is a result of
memory and imagination.
 Rejected the idea that personal identity is
reflected by the association of the self with
an enduring body.
 X and Y are the same person if they
share the same mind.
 If Z is a set of memories, X and Y are the
same person only if they have the same Z.
 Minds are individuated by a collection of
perceptions united under the idea of a
unifying self with awareness of entertaining
those perceptions.
 Mind is constituted by a set of private
memories.
 IMMANUEL KANT: WE CONSTRUCT THE SELF
 According to Kant, it is the self that makes
experiencing an intelligible world possible
because it is the self that is actively
organizing and synthesizing all of our
thoughts and perceptions.
 In other words, the self constructs its own
reality creating a world that is familiar and
predictable.
 Through our rationality, the self transcends
sense experience.
 Inner Sense vs. Outer Sense
 Inner sense – one’s psychological state
and intellect
 Outer sense – senses and the physical
world
 Empirical self
 Consciousness of oneself and one’s
psychological state.
 Transcendental apperception
 Consciousness of oneself and of one’s
state via acts of apperception.
 Makes experience possible and allows
the self and the world to come together.
 Apperception
 The faculty that allows for application of
concepts.
 Allows one to synthesize or make sense of
a unified object.
 Consciousness being unified is the central
feature of the mind; makes the world
intelligible
 The self is metaphysical (as opposed to Hume)
that has a transcendental status for it exists
independently of experience
 It is able to perform synthesizing and unifying
functions because it transcends experience.
(Not a product of experience).
 The ability of the mind to regulate
experiences into one experience makes the
self a product of reason.
 SIGMUND FREUD: THE SELF IS MULTILAYERED
 According to Freud, the self consists of three
layers: conscious, unconscious, and
preconscious.
 The conscious self is governed by the
reality principle and is organized in ways
that are rational, practical, and
appropriate.
 The unconscious contains the basic
instinctual drives that would be
considered socially taboo and is
governed by the pleasure principle.
Much of the self is determined by the
unconscious.
 The preconscious is located between the
conscious and unconscious part of the
self that is not threatening and is easily
brought to mind.
 GILBERT RYLE: THE SELF IS THE WAY PEOPLE
BEHAVE
 The self is best understood as a pattern of
behavior, the tendency or disposition for a
person to behave in a certain way in certain
circumstances.
 Ryle’s concept of the human self thus
provided the philosophical principle, “I act
therefore I am.”
 In short, the self is the same as bodily
behavior.
 PAUL CHURCHLAND: THE SELF IS THE BRAIN
 The self is inseparable from the brain and the
physiology of the body.
 All we have is the brain and so, if the brain is
gone, there is no self.
 For Churchland, the physical brain and not
the imaginary mind, gives us our sense of self.
 The mind does not really exist.
 It is the brain and not the imaginary mind
that gives us our sense of self.
 The self is the brain.
 MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY: THE SELF IS EMBODIED
SUBJECTIVITY
 All knowledge of our selves and our world is
based on subjective experience.
 The self can never be truly objectified or
known in a completely objective sort of way.
Lesson 2: Sociological Perspective:
The Self as a Product of Society
 What is Sociological Perspective?
 Sociological Perspective of the SELF is based
on the assumption that human behavior is
influenced by group life.
 A particular view of oneself is formed through
interactions with other people, groups, or
social institutions.
 The Sociologist
 Charles Horton Cooley
 Introduced the looking-glass self to highlight
that the people whom a person interacts
become a mirror in which he views himself
 Presenting oneself to others
 Analyzing how others perceive oneself
  Creating an image of oneself
 Since these perceptions are subjective, a
person might have wrong interpretations of
how other people evaluate him.
 Negative self-image can develop if he thinks
others judge him unfavorably
 George Herbert Mead
 Supported the view that man develops a
sense of self through social interaction and
not the biological preconditions of that
interaction.
 He noted that what matters for our self-
concepts is not how others actually see us
but the way we imagine they see us.
 People generally feel freer to praise than to
criticize; they voice their compliments and
restrain their criticism. We may, therefore,
overestimate others’ appraisal, inflating our
self-image.
 Two Divisions of Self
 The “I” is the subjective element and the
active side of the self. It represents the
spontaneous, and unique traits of the
individual.
 The “me” is the objective element of the
self. It represents the internalized
attitudes and demands of other people
and the individual’s awareness of those
demands.
 Role-taking
 Since there is meaning in human actions,
he infers people’s intentions or direction
of action, which may lead him to
understand the world from others’ point of
view
 Development of Self
 Preparatory Stage (0 to 3 years old)
 Imitate without understanding
underlying intentions
 No sense of self
 Play Stage (3 to 5 years old)
 Communicate language symbols
 Role-taking is exhibited
 Self emerges
 Game Stage (Begins in the early school
years)
 Social position of people around
them
 Self is now present
 Social Identity Theory by Henry Tajfel
 The person’s sense of who he/she is
according to his/her membership to a certain
group.
 Group membership is an important source of
pride and self-esteem.
 Social Groups by William Graham Sumner
 In-group
 An esteemed social group commanding a
member’s loyalty
 Out-group
 A scorned social group to which one feels
competition or opposition.
 Social identity theory states that the in-group will
discriminate against the out-group to enhance its
self-image.
 Three mental processes
 Social Categorization
 Living or non-living, urban or rural
 Social Identification
 People adopt the identity of the group to
which they have categorized themselves
 Social Comparison
 Comparing one’s group with other groups
 May begin to discriminate and criticize others
The Self As A Product Of Modern And
 Presentation of Self in Everyday Life
Postmodern Societies
 Postmodern View of Self
 A report on the mindset of the 20th century
 The self is seen as a product of modern
discourse that is socially and historically
conditioned. -Michel Foucault
 Four Postmodernist Ideas on the Self
 Multiphrenia
 Many different voices speaking
about who and what we are
 Protean
 A self capable of changing
constantly to fit the present
conditions
 De-centered
 The is no self at all
 Self-in-relation
 Humans do not live their lives in
isolation but in relation to people
people and to certain cultural
contexts.
 2 Realities that dominate postmodern social
condition
 Rise of new media technologies
 Dominance of Consumerism
 The predicament of the self is complicated by
the advent of electronic mediated virtual
interactions of cyberselves and the spread of
information technology (Lyon, 1997).
 This disrupts the self from the traditional
constraints of time and space.
 Jean Baudrillard
 Posits that in the modern postmodern, the
self is found in the prestige symbols of
goods consumed by man.
 The postmodern person has become an
insatiable consumer.
 Erving Goffman
 Dramaturgical Model of Social Life
 Social interaction may be compared
to a theatre and people to actors
on a stage where each plays a
variety of roles.
  Impression Management
 A process in which people regulate
and control information in social
interaction
 The key goal of social actor is to
present their various selves in ways
that create and sustain particular
impressions to their different
audiences.
 Self is a product of the dramatic interaction
between actor and audience.
 This model of social life assumes that
personalities are not static because they
change to suit the situation.
 Saturated or Multiplicitous Self
 Kenneth Gergen
 Saturated Self
 Characterized by constant
connection to others
 A self that absorbs a multitude of
voices and takes in a seemingly
endless streams of information.
 Contradicts the notion of a singular,
true, authentic self
 Multiphrenia
 Splitting of the self into a multitude of
options that causes the formation of
multiple selves.
 Through the absorption of the
multiple voices of people in their lives,
either in real life or in media.
 Today’s technology has become a
major outlet for people to create
and experiment with multiple selves.
 Saturated self as a multiphrenic condition
accounts for the feelings of overload
that results in a socially saturated
condition.
 The saturated self is stressed.
 Endless options and demands
 No time or distance constraints
 Social saturation brings with it a general
loss of true and knowable selves.
Lesson 3: The self from the Anthropological
Perspective
 Cultural Identity and National Identity
 Culture - is derived from the Latin word
cultura or cultus meaning care or cultivation.
 Personal Identity - the way he or she sees
himself or herself as an individual.
 Collective Identity - the way he or she sees
himself or herself as member of a certain
group.
 Identity - refers to “who the person is,” or the
qualities and traits of an individual that make
him or her different from others.
 There are many ways to distinguish
people.
 By geographical context or based
on where they come from.
 People from the West are different
from the people from the East.
 Cultural identity - refers to the identity or
feeling of belongingness to a certain culture
group.
 The cultural categories that shapes one’s
overall cultural identity prove how one’s
cultural identity is meant to be
multidimensional.
 It is an individual’s perception about
himself or herself anchored on:
 Race
 Gender
 Nationality
 Religion
 Ethnicity
 Language
Nation - is a group of people built on the
premise of shared customs, traditions, religion,
language, art, history and more.
 National identity - refers to the identity or
feeling of belongingness to one state or
nation.
 Rupert Emerson (political scientist) defines
National Identity as “A body of people who
feel that they are a nation.”
 Material Culture vs. Non-Material Culture
Material Culture Non-material Culture
 National Flag  Norms
 Emblem  Beliefs
 Seal  Traditions
 These represent all  Embodies the shared
the people who are understanding of a
part of a nation. group of people
 National Identity requires the process of Self-
categorization
 Self-categorization - one must identify himself
or herself with an in-group and differentiate
himself or herself from the out-groups.
 Cultural Identity Theory
 It explains why a person acts and behaves
the way he or she does.
 A single person can possess multiple identities,
simultaneously making him or her part of many
cultural groups.
 Brian Morris’s Anthropology of the Self
 SELF is not an entity but a PROCESS that
orchestrates an individual’s personal
experience.
 As a result, the person becomes self-aware
and self-reflective about his or her place in
the surrounding world.
 The most crucial form of interaction and
exchange takes place between the SELF and
your own CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT as
mediated by SOCIAL PRACTICES.
 SELF and OTHERS
 Marcel Mauss
  Mauss focused on the notion of the person as
a CULTURAL CATEGORY.
 Personality as a CULTURAL CONCEPTION or
a category of a particular community
 Dialogical Self
 The Dialogical Self Theory was introduced in
1992 by Hubert Hermans.
 The theory regarded “SELF” as the “SOCIETY
OF MIND”
 SPATIAL PERSPECTIVE: the self is
engaged in a process of positioning and
counterpositioning in a globalizing
society.
 TEMPORAL POINT OF VIEW: the self is
part of a process of positioning and
repositioning in collective history and
personal development.
 In this theory, an individual’s sense of self is
established through how one identifies himself
or herself with the different positions he or she
holds, internally or externally, to himself or
herself.
 INTERNAL I-POSITION: refers to how one
functions in himself or herself
 EXTERNAL I-POSITION: refers to how one
identifies himself or herself based on
particular external factors
 The dialogic self approach calls for the need
for the I-positions to come in contact with
each other - to be in a dialogue with one
another in order for an individual to become
fully aware of the different dimensions that
constitute his or her self.
 Designed to stimulate conversations between
the internal and external positions of the self.
 Constructivist view: The self does not have an
existence apart from its surroundings: it is co-
created in relation with society.
 Three Fundamental Selves
Individual Self, Relational Self and
Collective Self
 INDIVIDUAL SELF: reflects the cognitions
related to traits, states and behaviors that
are stored in memory.
 RELATIONAL SELF: reflects cognitions that are
related to one’s relationships.
 COLLECTIVE SELF: reflects cognitions that are
related to one’s group.
 Each self is important and meaningful to human
experience.
 Identity Struggles
 This term is introduced by Anthony Wallace
and Raymond Fogelson.
 It characterizes the discrepancy between the
identity a person claims to possess and the
identity attributed to that person by others.
 It has to be done as soon as possible in
order to prevent future conflicts.
 Confrontations must be done in a calm and
respectful manner.
Lesson 4: The Self from the Psychological
Perspective
 William James
 American philosopher and psychologist.
 William James’s Self Theory
 James divided an individual’s perception
of the self into two categories:
 I: which is responsible for the thinking
and makes awareness and self-
awareness possible.
 Me: when he or she makes himself or
herself the object of his or her own
thinking.
 James claims that the self can be
contextualized in 3 categories:
 Constituents of the self refer to the further
sub-categories of the self including the
material self, social self, spiritual self and
pure ego.
 The feelings and emotions aroused in the
individual because of his or her
knowledge and appraisal of his or her
empirical existence in the world.
 The actions the self prompts - the effort
of every individual to preserve and
improve oneself based on one’s self-
knowledge and resulting self-feelings.
 In the Constituents of the Self there are 4
sub-categories:
 Material Self: consists of one’s body,
clothes, family, home and other material
possessions that he or she values and
regards as his or her own.
 Social Self: connotes the image of an
individual in the eyes of the people
around him or her which determines his or
her reputation in society.
 Spiritual Self: includes one’s thoughts,
beliefs and feelings
 Pure Ego: the most puzzling aspect of the
self.
 Carl Rogers
 American psychologist and among the
founders of the humanistic approach to
psychology.
 Rogers’ believes that the SELF does not exist
at birth. It is developed gradually during
childhood wherein one differentiates the self
from NON-SELF
 He proposed that by means of FREE CHOICE
and ACTION, one can shape himself or herself
based on what he or she wants to be.
 His theory focuses on the nature of the self
and the conditions that allow the self to
freely develop.
 Real Self Vs. Ideal Self
 REAL SELF
 Who an individual actually is,
intrinsically.
  It is the self that feels closest to how
one identifies with.
 The real self is one’s SELF-IMAGE
 IDEAL SELF
 Is the perception of what a person
would like to be or thinks he or she
would be.
 It is the IDEALIZED IMAGE that has
develop over time based on the
influence of the environment and the
people one interacts with.
 People with congruent selves are more likely
to attain SELF-ACTUALIZATION compared to
those with incongruent selves.
 SELF-WORTH is high when the real self and
ideal self are close to each other.
 Congruence: an agreement between the
selves, which happens when the ideal self is
closer to the real self.
 Self-Concept
 The totality of complex, organized and
dynamic system of learned beliefs,
attitudes and opinions that each person
holds to be true about his or her
personal existence.
 It is a social product, developing out of
interpersonal relationships and striving for
consistency.
 Three Components of Self-concept
 SELF-WORTH or SELF-ESTEEM:
 Is what one thinks about oneself.
 This develops in early childhood
stage resulting from the interaction of
the child with his or her mother and
father.
 SELF-IMAGE:
 Is how one sees himself or herself,
which is important for good
psychological health.
 Includes the influence of body image
on inner personality.
 IDEAL SELF:
 Is the person that one wants to be.  This structure’s role is to maintain
 It consists of one’s dreams and goals equilibrium between the demands of
in life, and it is continuously changing. id and superego in accordance with
 Gestalt Psychology what is best and practical in reality.
 Max Wertheimer (Austro-Hungarian-born  It is developed by the individual’s
psychologist who was one of the three personal experiences and adheres to
founders of Gestalt psychology.) principles of reason and logic.
 Gestalt Psychology is guided by the principle  If ego is successful, it turns out a
that: “The whole is greater than the sum of its brilliant, creative and emotionally
parts.” balanced individual.
 This particular school of thought is interested  SUPEREGO
in looking at the entirety of the self - the mind,  It operates according to the morality
body, physical attributes, behaviors and more. principle.
 Experience is interpreted based on its context.  It ensures compliance with the norms,
 Gestalt Rules for Perceptual values and standards imposed by
Organization society.
 It is developed by means of
1. Proximity
socialization in various agents like
2. Similarity
home, school, church and others.
3. Continuity
 It has two systems: the conscience
4. Closure
and the ideal self.
 Sigmund Freud  If superego is dominant, a law-
 Austrian neurologist and the founder of abiding, morally upright, god-fearing
psychoanalysis. and socially acceptable individual
 The psyche is composed of three parts: appears.
 ID
 Carl Jung
 It exists since birth, pertaining to
 Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who
instinct.
founded analytical psychology.
 It serves as a storeroom of wishes
 The human psyche is divided into three parts:
and obsessions related to sexual
 The Ego
and aggressive desires.
 Is the center of consciousness.
 It operates on the hedonistic or
 It is the person’s sense of identity and
pleasure principle - seeking pleasure
existence
and avoiding pain.
 It organizes thoughts, feelings, senses,
 It is driven by the so called libido
and intuition.
(sexual energy).
 The Personal Unconscious
 If it is dominant, an egoistic, boorish,
 It refers to all information stored in a
and barbaric brute emerges.
person’s mind that can be accessible
 EGO
to conscious recall.
 It operates according to the reality
 The Collective Unconscious
principle.
  It refers to the unconscious mind
shared by all human beings such as
instincts and archetypes.
 Mandala
 In Hindu and Buddhist thought is a symbol of
the universe
 A symbol of the self (Jung).
 A concentrically arranged figure such as a
circle, wheel, or cross, which Jung saw
appearing again and again in his patients’
dreams and in the artwork of all cultures.
 It represents the self striving toward wholeness.
 Albert Bandura
 Canadian-American psychologist.
 Formulated the Social Cognitive Theory of
Personality
 Agentic Theory of the Self
 To be an agent means to be capable of
intentionally influencing one’s own
functionality and life circumstances.
 For Bandura, people are not merely
passive entities molded by environmental
forces or driven by inner influences
 This theory rejects the notion that the
selfhood is culturally influenced or
controlled by urges, rather, it looks upon
every human being as capable of
thinking, deciding, foreseeing, and
controlling his or her actions, free to
decide for himself or herself.
 This capability is termed by Bandura as
HUMAN AGENCY.
 Four Core Properties of Human Agency
 Intentionality: is manifested in how an
individual forms intentions with action
plans and strategies to realize them.
 Forethought: refers to how an individual
positions his or her plans in the future.
 Self-reactiveness: shows that agents are
not only planners and fore-thinkers but
also self-regulators. The goals that the
person wants to reach should be clear
and specific.
 Self-regulation: allows the person to
set goals that are better and higher
than the former, challenging his
capabilities and making him a wiser
and self-actualized individual.
 Self-reflectiveness: signifies that people
are capable of self-examining their own
functioning.
 Bandura’s theory views the self as a person
and not as a distinct entity responsible for
bearing information and regulating behavior.
Lesson 5: The Self in Western and Eastern
Thoughts
 Individualism versus Collectivism
 Individualism
 An orientation concerned with the
independence and self-reliance of the
individual
 Grounded on the idea that an individual
makes judgements, acts based on his or
her own thoughts.
 An individual has the capacity to
consider his or her own best interest.
 Everyone is free to decide whether to
take part or not in solving societal
problems.
 Collectivism
 An orientation characterized by
belongingness to larger groups or
collectives.
 An idea that man should think, live and
act toward certain goals that benefit the
group.
 An individual decides according to the
interest of the group.
 Individualistic cultures versus
Collectivistic cultures
 Individualistic cultures
 Puts more emphasis on promoting the
individual and the immediate family’s
welfare
 Personality traits and characteristics.
 Countries: New Zealand, Germany, Austria,
Greece, Poland, Italy, Belgium, Ireland,
Spain and Finland
 Collectivistic cultures
 Give more importance to loyalty to the
in-group, which in turn takes care of the
individual’s welfare
 Social relationships and roles.
 Countries: Denmark, Sweden, Norway,
Iceland, Indonesia, Philippines, Argentina,
Brazil, Mexico and Portugal
 Western Concepcion versus Eastern
Concepcion
 Western Concepcion
 Western conception of the self is
individualistic.
 An independent self that is free from the
influence of culture and environment and
from the expectations of society.
 It emphasizes the uniqueness of every
individual and is predicated on egoism
or self-orientedness.
 Individualism foregrounds that a human
being has a self, is an individual, and is a
person.
 Eastern Concepcion
 Eastern conception of the self is
collectivistic.
 It prioritizes the needs and goals of
society over the needs and desires of
every individual.
 It puts more importance on
belongingness to a large group and
emphasizes social obligations.
  Individual behavior is guided by
adjustments to social demands and
situations.
 It is others-oriented because it
encourages people to be kind,
benevolent, charitable, dependable, and
sensitive to the needs of others.
 Collectivism stresses that an individual
has “many selves” instead of having a
one knowable self.
 The Self in Four Great Systems of Eastern
Thought
 Buddhism
 There is no such thing as the ATMAN (self).
 The ATMAN is impossible to perceive by one’s
senses for it does not actually exist in any
metaphysical, material and spiritual level.
 It is regarded as an illusion, an imaginary
concept born as a product of evolved
consciousness and misguided thinking of
humans.
 Humans have no real knowledge of a self or
a clear proof of claiming that there is a self.
 Everything is just an illusion, a flux of
momentary perceptions, thoughts and feelings.
 What is perceived by one’s sense becomes
one’s reality.
 The Buddhist Philosophy refutes the idea of
having and enduring self.
 Buddhism does not consider humans as
individuals with a fixed and unified identity.
Instead, a human being is a product of 5
changing processes that experiences them all:
 Physical Body
 Feelings
 Perceptions
 Responses
 The Flow of Consciousness
 In Buddhism, the “I”, “Me” and “Myself” which
are process of identification are believed to
be hidden from awareness.
 Instead, one can identify with his or her body,
feelings, and thoughts, or with images,
patterns, roles and archetypes. This is when
the self arises.
 ANATTA (no-self) is not a denial of existence.
 It is a conviction that no words can define
the essence of this present moment of
existence.
 Buddhism tries to reject the conception of self
as unchanging and separate unto itself.
 Confucianism’
 It is a way of life that was propagated by
Confucius.
 It regards an individual as a member of a
larger whole, not as a separate being.
 The ethical teachings of Confucius are based
on human relationships as reflected in his
concept of Five Cardinal Relationships or
Five Bonds:
 The King and His Subject
 Father and Son
 Husband and Wife
 Between Brothers
 Between Friends
 According to Confucius, individual identity is
defined by membership in the reference
group to which one belongs.
 This identity is called The Relational Self.
 The Subdued Self is the condition to respond
to perceptions, not of one’s own needs and
aspirations but of social requirements and
obligations.
 To subdue oneself means to practice REN.
 Ren: means human-heartedness; the
hallmark of Confucian ethics.
 Ren is a Confucian virtue characterized
by altruistic behavior that must be
nurtured in every person.
 Taoism
 It emphasizes living in harmony with TAO (way
or path), is a religion and a philosophy at
the same time.
 Tao is the expression of the unity of the
universe and of the path which human beings
must take to preserve that unity.
 Tao - core concept of Taoist beliefs and
practices.
 the life force that surrounds and flows
through all living and non-living things,
and that balances, orders, unifies and
connects them.
 Knowledge of the universe or nature can be
attained by studying the self because Taoists
regard the human body as the miniature of
the universe, as an extension of the cosmos.
 Taoism does not support the philosophical
teachings of Confucius about self and
society.
 Hinduism
 The Hinduist view about the self was written in
the Upanishads, “Story of Creation,” which tells
about the origin of the universe and of
humans.
Story of the Creation
In the beginning was Self alone, in the shape of
a person which was called Purusha. He looked around
and saw nothing but his Self. He first said, “This is I;
therefore, he became ‘I” by name. Therefore, even man
is asked, he first says, ‘This is I’ and then pronounces
the name which he may have”
From this story of creation, the Self which is
Purusha created a wife out of himself. The wife bore
Man and then transformed herself into a cow, which
prompted Purusha to transform into a bull. Then the
wife transformed into a mare, while Purusha into a
stallion.
These continuous transformations imply the belief
that all creation is made up of the same self as
everything originated from Purusha. This also implies
that the creator is the same as the creation.
 The ATMAN, which is referred to as the self,
spirit, or soul, is the same self described in the
creation.
 In Hinduism, the ATMAN is one with the
BRAHMAN which means the absolute,
transcendental power.
 By being identified with the BRAHMAN, the
ATMAN indicates a true self which underlies
one’s existence.