UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Mr. Danilo M. Villamil Jr.
PSYCHOLOGIC
AL
PERSPECTIVE-1
Summary
1. William James
2. Carl Rogers
3. Donald Winnicott
4. Albert Bandura
5. Carl Jung
WILLIAM JAMES:
“THE ME SELF AND THE I SELF”
William James suggests that the Self is
divided into two categories: the I-Self
and the Me-Self
I-Self- refers to the self that he knows
who he is which is also called the
thinking self
Me-Self- refers to the empirical self
which refers to the person’s personal
experiences and is further divided into
sub-categories:
Sub-categories:
1. Material Self- is attributed to an individual’s
physical attributes and material possessions
that contribute to one’s self-image.
2. Social Self- refers to who a person is and
how he or she acts in social situations.
3. Spiritual Self – the most intimate and
important part of the self that includes the
person’s purpose, core values and moral
behavior.
CARL ROGERS:
“SELF THEORY: REAL SELF AND IDEAL SELF”
Self Concept- refers to image of oneself. Self-
concept is the perception that we have of
ourselves, our answer when we ask ourselves the
question “Who am I?”
Rogers suggests two components of self: the real
self and ideal self
Real self- consists of all ideas, including the
awareness of what one is and what he can do.
Ideal self- is the person’s conception of what one
should be or what one aspires to be which includes
DONALD WINNICOTT:
TRUE SELF VS. FALSE SELF
Winnicott has found that the self is
composed of the true self and the false
self. The function of the false self is to
hide and protect the true self. For
instance, adolescents are more likely to
show their false self during dating
situations and are likely to show their true
self when they are with their family and
close friends. In other words, adolescents
display a false self to impress others.
ALBERT BANDURA:
“The Self as a Proactive and Agentic”
Agency embodies the endowments,
belief systems, self-regulatory
capabilities and distributed structures and
functions through which personal
influence is exercised rather than reside
as discrete entity. The main features of
human agency are Intentionality,
Forethought, Self-reactiveness and Self-
reflectiveness
1. Intentionality- refers to the acts done
intentionally. Intentions center on plans of
action with the anticipation of possible
outcomes.
2. Forethought- enables person to
anticipate the likely consequences of
prospective actions.
3. Self-reactiveness- involves making
choices and choosing appropriate courses
of action as well as motivating and
regulating them
4. Self-reflectiveness- gives the person
Example:
1. Forethought- permit us to anticipate
outcomes.
Example: When a person is deciding to his
options. With each options he has to
anticipate outcomes in order for that person
decides depending on what might comes out
after. What will happen if he will choose the
red door? (stop) orange door? (ready) green
door? (go)
2. Self-reactiveness- allows us to motivate and
regulate actions.
Example:
Drinking on a beer house gives a person
pleasure and it will give that person the
motivation to drink yet he will regulate his
actions in order for him to get away from self-
censured stuff.
3. Self-reflectiveness- gives us thoughts
(reflection) and behavior and make changes if
needed.
Example: Back to the deciding situation, when
a person chooses one of his options and
everything went wrong, that person will
reflect and will make changes for the better.
CARL JUNG:
The Self as the Central Archetype
Personal Unconscious - what is in one
person’s unconscious might not be in
another person’s unconscious.
Collective Unconscious – all human beings
share certain unconscious ideas because we
are all human and were created from similar
evolutionary circumstances and common
ancestors.
Archetypes – images/components that
make up the collective unconscious
Archetypes include the following:
The Self – our feelings of wholeness and
unity, our sense of organization within our
personality, our identity
The Persona – the artificial, phony self that
we show to others: our public self that
conforms to societal standards, the mask
The Anima – the feminine side of men
The Animus – the masculine side of
women
The shadow – the dark, cruel side of us that
contains animal urges and feelings of
