Understanding the Self behavior might come from the study of the

brain.
Chapter 1: Introduction to Understanding
the Self Situational Factors of Personality
Personality  Although these factors do not literally
 The etymological derivative of create and shape up an individual’s
personality comes from the word “ personality, situational factors do alter
persona “. Personality also comes a person’s behavior and response
from the Latin two words “per” from time to time. The situational
and “sonare”, which means to factors can be commonly observed
sound through. when a person behaves contrastingly
 Personality refers to the total and exhibits different traits and
person his/her overt and covert characteristics.
behavior. The determinants of Cultural Factors
Factors of personality are follows.
 Culture is traditionally considered as
Environmental Factors of Personality the major determinants of an
 The surroundings of an individual individual’s personality.
compose the environmental factors of  Culture is complex of these belief,
personality. This includes the values, and techniques for dealing
neighborhood a persons lives in, with the environment which are
shared among contemporaries and
Biological Factors of Personality transmitted by one generation to the
 This further includes, heredity factors, next.
physical features, brain Five Factor Model of Personality
: Heredity Factors – or genetic make up of Openness – The tendency to appreciate new
the person that inherited from their parents. art, ideas, values, feelings and behaviors.
: Physical features - include the overall Conscientiousness – The tendency to be
physical structure of a person: height, careful, on time for appointments, to follow
weight, color, sex, beauty and body rules and to be hard working.
language, etc. Most of the physical
structures change from time to time, and so Extraversion – The tendency to be
does the personality. talkative, sociable, and enjoy others.

: Brain - The preliminary results from the Agreeableness – The tendency to agree and
electrical stimulation of the brain (ESB) go along with others rather that to assert one
research gives indication that better owns opinions and choices.
understanding of human personality and
Neurotism – The tendency to be frequently  The one who introduced the idea of a
experience negative emotions such as anger, three part soul / self that is composed
worry, and sadness as well as being of reason, physical appetite, and spirit
interpersonally sensitive. or passion.
Chapter 2: The Self According to  The reason; enables human to think
Philosophy deeply, make wise choices and
achieve a true understanding of
What is Philosophy? eternal truths.
 Philosophy defined as the study of  The Physical Appetite; is the basic
knowledge or wisdom from its Latin biological needs of human being such
word philo “ love” and Sophia ‘ as hunger, thirst, and sexual desire.
wisdom”.  Spirit or passion; is the basic emotions
 This field is also considered as “ of human being such as love, anger,
Queens of All Sciences “ because ambition.
every scientific discipline has a  Plato illustrated his view of the soul /
philosophical foundations. self in “ Phaedrus “ in his metaphor:
the soul is like winged chariot drawn
THE PHILOSOPHERS!
by two powerful horses. A white
Socrates horse representing Spirit , and a black
horse, embodying appetite.
 A philosopher from Athens
 Socrates had a unique style of asking St. Agustine
questions called Socratic Method.  He is considered as the last of the
 Socratic Method or dialectic method great ancient philosophers whose
involves the search for the correct / ideas were greatly Platonic.
proper definition of a thing.  He believed that the physical body is
 According to Socrates, self is different from the immortal soul.
dichotomous which means composed  he described body as “snare” or
of two things; Physical Real and Ideal “cage” of the soul and said that the
Realm. body is a “slave” of the soul he even
 Physical realm, changeable, temporal characterized that “the soul makes
and imperfect war with the body”.
 Ideal realm, the one that is imperfect  God as the source of all reality truth -
and unchanging, eternal, and Through mystical experience, man is
immortal. capable of knowing eternal truths.
Plato This is made possible through the
existence of the one eternal truth
 A student of Socrates
which is God.
  The sinfulness of man - The cause of  Hume explained that the self that is
sin or evil is an act of mans’ freewill. being experienced by an individual is
Moral goodness can only be achieved nothing but a kind of fictional self.
through the grace of God.
Gilbert Ryle
Rene Descartes
 A British analytical philosopher.
 A French philosopher, mathematician,  According to Ryle, the self is best
and considered the founder of modern understood as a pattern of behavior,
philosophy. the tendency or disposition for a
 Descartes, famous principle the person to behave in a certain way in
“cogito, ergo sum—“I think, therefore certain circumstances.
I exist” established his philosophical
Immanuel Kant
views on “true knowledge” and
concept of self.  A German Philosopher who made
 He explained that in order to gain true great contribution to the fields of
knowledge, one must doubt metaphysics, epistemology, and
everything even own existence. ethics.
 Kant is widely regarded as the
John Locke
greatest philosopher of the modern
 An English philosopher and physician period.
and famous in his concept of “Tabula  Kant maintained that an individual
Rasa” or Blank Slate that assumes the self makes the experience of the world
nurture side of human development. comprehensible because it is
 For Locke, personal identity and the responsible for synthesizing the
soul or substance in which the discreet data of sense experience into
personal identity is situated are two a meaningful whole.
very different things.
Maurice Merleau Ponty
David Hume
 A French philosopher and
 He was a Scottish philosopher and phenomenologist.
also an empiricist.  Developed the concept of self-subject
 His claim about self is quite and contended that perceptions occur
controversial because he assumed that existentially.
there is no self! In his essay entitled,
Chapter 3: The Self According to
“On Personal Identity” (1739) he said
Sociology and Anthropology
that, if we carefully examine the
contents of [our] experience, we find  Sociology and Anthropology are two
that there are only two distinct interrelated disciplines that
entities, "impressions" and "ideas".
 contributes to the understanding of  “I” the phase that responds to the
self. attitude of generalized other.
 Sociology presents the self as a
He also the one who proposed the Self
product of modern society. It is the
Formation:
science that studies the development,
structure, interaction, and collective  Preparatory Stage. Mead believed
behavior of human being. that the self did not exist at birth.
 Anthropology is the study of Instead, the self develops over time.
humanity. This broad field takes an Its development is dependent on
interdisciplinary approach to looking social interaction and social
at human culture, both past and experience. At this stage, children’s
present. behaviors are primarily based on
imitation.
George Herbert Mead and the Social Self
 The Play Stage. Skills at knowing
 Mead is an American philosopher, and understanding the symbols of
sociologist, and psychologist. communication is important for this
 He is regarded as one of the founders constitutes the basis of socialization.
of social psychology and the Through communication, social
American sociological tradition in relationship are formed.
general.  The Game Stage. Here, the child is
 Mead is well-known for his theory of about eight or nine years of age and
self. now does more than just role-take.
 He postulated that, the self represents The child begins to consider several
the sum total of people’s conscious tasks and various types of
perception of their identity as distinct relationships simultaneously.
from others. The Self as a product of modern society
 He claimed that the self is something among other constructions Georg Simmel
which undergoes development
because it is not present instantly at  Simmel was a German sociologist,
birth. philosopher, and critic.
 The self, according to Mead is not  He was intensely interested in the
merely a passive reflection of the ways in which modern, objective
generalized other. culture impacts the individual’s
 Mead identified the two phases of subjective experiences.
self: “ME and I”  Simmel proposed that there is
 “Me” the phase which reflects the something called human nature that is
attitude of the generalized other. innate to the individual.
Urbanization
  is the process that moves people from which human beings adapted to the
country to city living. This result to changes in their environment in order
the concentration of population in one for them to survive.
place brought about by Biological Anthropology
industrialization.
 This paved way to the organization of  Focus on how the human body adapts
labor or increased division of labor, to the different earth environments.
which demands specializations Among the activities of
wherein this creates more objective Anthropologists are identification of
culture. probable causes of diseases, physical
mutation, and death, evolution, and
Money comparison of dead and living
 creates a universal value system primates.
wherein every commodity can be Linguistic Anthropology
understood.
 Money also makes the individual to  Focused on using language as means
be less attached to the commodities to discover a group’s manner of social
because the individual tends to interaction and their worldview.
understand and experience their Anthropologists in this field want to
possession less in terms of their discover how language is used to
intrinsic qualities and more of their create and share meanings, to form
objective and abstract worth. ideas and concepts and to promote
social change.

THE SELF AND PERSON IN THE Cultural Anthropology

CONTEMPORARY ATHROPOLOGY:  Focused in knowing what makes one
 Archeology, Biological group’s manner of living forms an
Anthropology, Linguistics, and essential part of the member’s
Cultural Anthropology, suggest that personal and societal identity. This
human beings are similar and encompasses the principles of Theory
different in varying ways and of Cultural Determinism which
tendencies. suggests that the human nature is
determined by the kind of culture he
Archeology is born and grew up in.
 Focus on the study of the past and  Symbols, Heroes, Rituals, Values
how it may have contributed to the The Self Embedded in the Culture
present ways of how people conduct Clifford Geertz
their daily lives. Archeologists have
so far discovered the unique ways in
  Clifford Geertz was an Anthropology 4. the physical domain
Professor at the University of 5. academic domain
Chicago. 6. family domain
 He studied different cultures and WILLIAM JAMES AND THE ME-SELF
explored on the conception of the self AND I-SELF
in his writings entitled, “The Impact
of the Concept of Culture on the  William James is a well-known figure
Concept of Man” (1966) in his in Psychology who is considered as
fieldwork at Java, Bali and Morrocco. the founder of functionalism.
 He brought prominence to U.S.
Chapter 4: The Self According to
psychology through the publication of
Psychology
The Principles of Psychology (1890)
Psychology that made him more influential than
his contemporaries in the field.
 is a scientific study of mental
processes and human behavior. It CARL ROGERS REAL AND IDEAL
aims to describe, analyze, predict, SELF
control human behavior in general.
 Carl Rogers is best known as the
 Self is an essential construct in founder of client-centered therapy and
psychology because it fulfills the considered as one of the prominent
goals of the discipline in studying humanistic or existential theorists in
human and the reason for their action. personality.
The Self As Cognitive Construction  The ideal self is defined as one’s view
of self as one wishes to be. This
 The cognitive aspect of the self is
contains all the aspirations or wishes
known as self-concept.
of an individual for themselves.
 Self-concept is defined as self-
knowledge, a cognitive structure that MULTIPLE VERSUS UNIFIED SELF
includes beliefs about personality  According to Multiple Selves
traits, physical characteristics, Theory, there are different aspects of
abilities, values, goals, and roles, the self exist in an individual.
According to the psychologist Dr. Bruce A.  Gregg Henriques proposed the
Bracken in 1992, there are six specific Tripartite Model of Human
domains that are related to self-concept Consciousness, wherein he described
these are: that self is consist of three related, but
also separable domains these are the
1. the social domain
experimental self, private self, and
2. the competence domain
public self.
3. the affect domain
  The experiential self or the theater of in Psychology at Stanford University.
consciousness is a domain of self that He is known for his theory of social
defined as felt experience of being. learning by means of modeling. He is
This includes the felt consistency of famous for his proposed concept of
being across periods of time. It is self-efficacy.
tightly associated with the memory.  His personality theory, The Social
 The private self consciousness Cognitive Theory asserts that a person
system or the narrator/interpreter is a is both proactive and agentic, which
portion of self that verbally narrates means that we have the capacity to
what is happening and tries to make exercise control over our life
sense of what is going on. Chapter 5: The Self in the Western and
 the public self or Persona, the Oriental
domain of self that an individual
shows to the public, and this interacts  Individualism is not the idea that
on how others see an individual. individuals should live like
Henriques’ Tripartite Model attempts isolated entity, nor the idea that
to capture the key domains of they should never get or give help
consciousness, both within the self from others, nor the idea that an
and between others. individual never owes anything to
other people.
DONALD WINNICOTT TRUE VERSUS
 Individualism is the idea that the
FALSE SELF
fundamental unit of the human
 Donald Winnicott was a pediatrician species that thinks, lives, and acts
in London who studied toward goals is the individual. This
Psychoanalysis with Melanie Klein, a means that we can form our own
renowned personality theorist and one independent judgments, act on our
of the pioneers in object relations and own thoughts, and disagree with
development of personality in others.
childhood.  Collectivism is the idea that the
 According to him, false self is an fundamental unit of the human
alternative personality used to protect species that thinks, lives, and acts
an individual’s true identity or one’s toward goals is not the individual,
ability to “hide” the real self. but some group. In different
variants, this group may be the
THE SELF AS PROACTIVE AND
family, the city, the economic
AGENTIC ALBERT BANDURA
class, the society, the nation, the
 Albert Bandura is a psychologist and race, or the whole human species.
Professor Emeritus of Social Science
The Social Construction of the Self in The Self as Embedded in Relationships
Western Thought and through Spiritual Development in
Confucian Thought
 Self has been an area of interest by
French and English philosophers, and  Confucius was born in the period of
evident in the ideas of Greek the Zhou Dynasty in 551 BCE in the
philosophers like Socrates and Plato. state of Lu. He grew up poor although
 Descartes in 17th century emphasized he was descended from scholarly
the self in his dictum “I think family.
therefore I am” which claims that  Confucius philosophy is known as
cognitive basis of the person’s humanistic social philosophy which
thoughts is proof for the existence of focusses on human beings and the
the self. society in general.
 Kant believed that the self is capable  Confucianism is centered on ren
of actions that entitles it to have rights which can be manifested through the
as an autonomous agent. li (propriety), xiao (filiality), and yi
(rightness).
Western self as analytic. Since analytic and
inductive modes of thinking were prominent Li the propriety
for person in western cultures, to see objects
 Rules of propriety should be followed
as divisible combinations of yet smaller
to guide human actions. These rules
objects.
are the customs, ceremonies, and
Western self as monotheistic. Monotheism traditions that forms the basis of li.
can be known as the rigid consequence of According to Confucius, “to master
the doctrine of normal human being. It is oneself and return to propriety is
like forcing the concentration of humanity”
supernatural capabilities.
Xiao the filiality.
Western self as individualistic. The
 This is the virtue of reverence and
emphasis on individualism has direct and
respect for the family. Parents should
indirect effects on both the presentation of
be revered for the life they and given.
self (in public ways) and the experience of
Children show respect to their parents
the self (in private awareness).
by exerting efforts to take care of
Western Self as materialistic and themselves.
rationalistic. The western accentuation of
Yi the rightness.
rational, scientific approach to reality has
tended to define spiritual and immaterial  The right way of behaving which is
phenomena as potentially superstitious and unconditional and absolute. Right is
dangerous. right, and what is not right is wrong.
 Actions must be performed and aspect of the person which can be directly
carried out because they are right observed and examined.
actions.
Physical Characteristics - are the defining
Chapter 6: The Physical Self: Body Image traits or features of a person’s body. This is
and Self Esteem: also the first thing people see when they
look at another person that could include
The concept of Physical Self
facial features, hairstyle, clothes, or figure.
 The understanding of the Physical self
is shaped by biological and
environmental factors. Erik Erikson
The Biological Blueprint  Believed in the importance of the
body from early development because
 Heredity is defined as the
the physical as well as intellectual
transmission of traits from parents to
skills will serve as a basis whether a
offspring. The traits are made up of
person has achieved a sense of
specific information embedded within
competence and be able to manage
one’s genes.
and face the demands of life
 Genotype refers to the specific
complexities.
information embedded within one’s
genes; not all genotypes translation to William James
an observed physical characteristic.  Considered the body as the initial
 Phenotype is the physical expression source of sensation and necessary for
of a particular trait. the origin and maintenance of
personality
 Maturation is known as the
completion of the growth of a genetic PUBERTY: A PERIOD OF RAPID
character within an organism or the PHYSICAL CHANGES
unfolding of an individual’s inherent  According to Santrock (2016),
traits or potential. puberty is not the same as adolescence
Self-understanding can be described as because puberty ends prior to the end
simple to perplex and involve a number of of the adolescent period.
aspects of the self. It also changes Brain-neuroendocrine process – triggers
throughout the life span as the person grows rapid physical changes in the early
older. adolescence.
Physical Self - refers to the concrete Pituitary gland – the master endocrine
dimensions of the body, it is the tangible gland that controls growth and regulates
functions of all other endocrine glands
 Chapter 7: The Physical Self: Body Image
and Self Esteem

The Impact of Culture on Body Image

and Self-Esteem: The Importance of
Beauty
 Culture is defined as a social system
including gonads (ovaries for girls and testes that is characterized by the shared
for boys). meanings that are attributed to people
Psychodynamic Perspective and events by its members.
 Another anthropologist, Mary
 Freud’s theory of the ego was
Douglas (1973) said that the body is
primarily known as body ego, that
the most natural symbol for and
solidifies the importance of body in
medium of classification, and thus
understanding the self. The body and
rules associated with controlling the
its evolving mental representations
body and its processes emerge as a
form the basis of a sense of self
powerful means of social control.
(Krueger, 2002).
 Body image is the mental
Cognitive-Behavioral Perspective representation one creates, but it may
or may not bear close relation to how
 Focuses on perceptual, cognitive, and
others actually see you. Body image is
affective aspects which is a
subject to all kinds of distortion from
multidimensional experience that can
internal elements like our emotions,
aid a more precise understanding of
moods, early experiences, attitudes of
the body.
our parents, and much more.
Feminist Perspective  Self-esteem is the overall evaluation
 Relies on the social construction in that a person has of himself which can
which there is a possibility of be positive or negative, high or low.
individuals to experience their bodies Self esteem is a measure of the
in distorted ways (especially, women). person’s self-worth based on some
personal or social standard. It is a
Factors that affect perception of the global evaluative dimension of the
Physical Self: self.
 Personal Factors  The impact of culture on body image
 Social Factors and self-esteem has been very crucial
for sometimes people depend on this
as when they define beautiful.
 Charles Darwin in 1871 became one
of the first persons, if not the first, to
think and write extensively about
human beauty from a biological point
of view, concluding that there is no
universal standard of beauty with
respect to the human body and
attempts to determine underlying
dimensions of beauty are futile.