understanding the self, Slides of Psychology

Download understanding the self and more Slides Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! PARA SA UNDERSTANDING THE SELF Lesson 1: The Self from Various Philosophical Perspectives | UNDERSTANDING THE SELF REX Book Store LESSON OBJECTIVES At the end of this lesson, you should be able to: 1.Explain why it is essential to understand the self; 2.Describe and discuss the different notions of the self from the points-of-view of the various philosophers across time and place; 3.Compare and contrast how the self has been represented in different philosophical schools; and 4.Examine one’s self against the different views of self that were discussed in class. ACTIVITY Answer the following questions about your self as fully and precisely as you can. 1. How would you characterize your self? 2. What makes you stand out from the rest? What makes your self special? 3. How has your self transformed itself? 4. How is your self connected to your body? 5. How is your self related to other selves? 6. What will happen to your self after you die? • Augustine and Thomas Aquinas - Augustine agreed that man is of a bifurcated nature; the body is bound to die on earth and the soul is to anticipate living eternally in a realm of spiritual bliss in communion with God. - The body can only thrive in the imperfect, physical reality that is the world, whereas the soul can also stay after death in an eternal realm with the all-transcendent God. - Aquinas said that indeed, man is composed of two parts: matter and form. Matter, or hyle in Greek, refers to the “common stuff that makes up everything in the universe.” Man’s body is part of this matter. Form, on the other hand, or morphe in Greek refers to the “essence of a substance or thing.” - To Aquinas the soul is what animates the body; it is what makes us humans. • Rene Descartes - Conceived of the human person as having a body and a mind - The body is nothing else but a machine that is attached to the mind. The human person has it but it is not what makes man a man. If at all, that is the mind. • David Hume - The self is not an entity over and beyond the physical body. - Men can only attain knowledge by experiencing. - Self, according to Hume, is simply “a bundle or collection of different perceptions, which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity, and are in a perpetual flux and movement.” • Immanuel Kant - Things that men perceive around them are not just randomly infused into the human person without an organizing principle that regulates the relationship of all these impressions. - There is necessarily a mind that organizes the impressions that men get from the external world. - Time and space are ideas that one cannot find in the world, but is built in our minds; he calls these the apparatuses of the mind. - The self is not just what gives one his personality; it is also the seat of knowledge acquisition for all human persons. LESSON SUMMARY - Philosophy is replete with men and women who inquired into the fundamental nature of the self. - Socrates was the first philosopher who ever engaged in a systematic questioning about the self. - Plato supported the idea that man is a dual nature of body and soul. - Augustine agreed that man is of a bifurcated nature. - Thomas Aquinas said that indeed, man is composed of two parts: matter and form. - Rene Descartes conceived of the human person as having a body and a mind. - David Hume, the self is not an entity over and beyond the physical body - Immanuel Kant, there is necessarily a mind that organizes the impressions that men get from the external world - Gilbert Ryle, “self” is not an entity one can locate and analyze - Merleau-Ponty, the living body, his thoughts, emotions, and experiences are all one Lesson 2: The Self, Society, and Culture ANALYSIS After having examined your “self” in its different stages, fill out the table below: ABSTRACTION • What Is the Self? The self, in contemporary literature and even common sense, is commonly defined by the following characteristics: - Separate means that the self is distinct from other selves. The self is always unique and has its own identity. - Self-contained and independent because in itself it can exist. Its distinctness allows it to be self-contained with its own thoughts, characteristics, and volition. - Consistency means that a particular self’s traits, characteristics, tendencies, and potentialities are more or less the same. - Unitary in that it is the center of all experiences and thoughts that run through a certain person - Private means that each person sorts out information, feelings and emotions, and thought processes within the self. This whole process is never accessible to anyone but the self. • The Self and Culture - According to Marcel Mauss, every self has two faces: Moi refers to a person’s sense of who he is, his body, and his basic identity, his biological givenness. Personne is composed of the social concepts of what it means to be who he is. - Language is another interesting aspect of this social constructivism; it is a salient part of culture and ultimately, has a tremendous effect in our crafting of the self. - If a self is born into a particular society or culture, the self will have to adjust according to its exposure. • Gender and the Self - Gender is one of those loci of the self that is subject to alteration, change, and development. - The sense of self that is being taught makes sure that an individual fits in a particular environment, is dangerous and detrimental in the goal of truly finding one’s self, self-determination, and growth of the self. - It is important to give one the leeway to find, express, and live his identity. - Gender has to be personally discovered and asserted and not dictated by culture and the society. APPLICATION AND ASSESSMENT Answer the following questions cogently but honestly. 1. How would you describe your self? 2. What are the influences of family in your development as an individual? 3. Think of a time when you felt you were your “true self.” What made you think you were truly who you are during this time of your life? 4. Following the question above, can you provide a time when you felt you were not living your “true self”? Why did you have to live a life like that? What did you do about it? 5. What social pressures help shape your self? Would you have wanted it otherwise? 6. What aspects of your self do you think may be changed or you would like to change? LESSON SUMMARY The self is commonly defined by the following characteristics: - Separate, is always unique and has its own identity - Self-contained and independent because in itself it can exist - Consistency, a particular self’s traits, characteristics, tendencies, and potentialities are more or less the same - Unitary in that it is the center of all experiences and thoughts that run through a certain person - Private. Each person sorts out information, feelings and emotions, and thought processes within the self. • Gender and the Self - Gender is one of those loci of the self that is subject to alteration, change, and development. - It is important to give one the leeway to find, express, and live his identity. - Gender has to be personally discovered and asserted and not dictated by culture and the society. Lesson 3: The Self as Cognitive Construct | UNDERSTANDING THE SELF REX Book Store LESSON OBJECTIVES At the end of this lesson, you should be able to: 1. Identify the different ideas in psychology about the “self”; 2. Create your own definition of the “self” based on the definitions from psychology; and 3. Analyze the effects of various factors identified in psychology in the formation of the “self.” ABSTRACTION - There are various definitions of the “self” and other similar or interchangeable concepts in psychology. - Other concepts similar to self are identity and self-concept: Identity is composed of personal characteristics, social roles, and responsibilities, as well as affiliations that define who one is. Self-concept is what basically comes to your mind when you are asked about who you are. - Self, identity, and self-concept are not fixed in one time frame. - Carl Rogers captured this idea in his concept of self-schema or our organized system or collection of knowledge about who we are. - Theories generally see the self and identity as mental constructs, created and recreated in memory. - Freud saw the self, its mental processes, and one’s behavior as the results of the interaction between the Id, the Ego, and the Superego. - There are three reasons why self and identity are social products: 1. We do not create ourselves out of nothing. Society helped in creating the foundations of who we are. 2. Whether we like to admit it or not, we actually need others to affirm and reinforce who we think we are. 3. What we think is important to us may also have been influenced by what is important in our social or historical context. - Social interaction and group affiliation are vital factors in creating our self-concept especially in the aspect of providing us with our social identity; - There are times when we are aware of our self-concepts; this is also called self-awareness; - Carver and Scheier identified two types of self that we can be aware of: 1) the private self or your internal standards and private thoughts and feelings; and 2) the public self or your public image commonly geared toward having a good presentation of yourself to others. - There is a thin line between high self-esteem and narcissism and there are a lot of tests and measurements for self- esteem like the Rosenberg scale. - Though self-esteem is a very important concept related to the self, studies have shown that it only has a correlation, not causality, to positive outputs and outlook. - Programs, activities, and parenting styles to boost self- esteem should only be for rewarding good behavior and other achievements and not for the purpose of merely trying to make children feel better about themselves or to appease them when they get angry or sad. APPLICATION AND ASSESSMENT • Do a research and list 10 things to boost your self-esteem or improve your self-concept. Cite your sources. • Analyze which of those tips are more likely to backfire and make someone conceited or narcissistic and revise them to make the statements both helpful to the individual as well as society in general. LESSON SUMMARY - Other concepts similar to self: Identity, composed of personal characteristics, social roles, and responsibilities Self-concept, what basically comes to your mind when you are asked about who you are - Self, identity, and self-concept are not fixed in one time frame. - Theories generally see the self and identity as mental constructs, created and recreated in memory. - Social interaction and group affiliation are vital factors in creating our self-concept. Lesson 4: The Self in Western and Eastern Thoughts | UNDERSTANDING THE SELF REX Book Store LESSON OBJECTIVES At the end of this lesson, you should be able to: 1. Differentiate the concept of self according to Western thought against Eastern/Oriental perspectives; 2. Explain the concept of self as found in Asian thoughts; and 3. Create a representation of the Filipino self. ACTIVITY Write top five differences between Western society and Eastern society, culture, and individuals in the table below. Cite your sources. • Confucianism - A code of ethical conduct, of how one should properly act according to his/her relationship with other people - The identity and self-concept of the individual are interwoven with the identity and status of his/her community or culture, sharing its pride as well as its failures. - Self-cultivation is seen as the ultimate purpose of life. - The cultivated self in Confucianism is what some scholars call a “subdued self” wherein personal needs are repressed (subdued) for the good of many, making Confucian society also hierarchal for the purpose of maintaining order and balance in society. • Taoism - Living in the way of the Tao or the universe - Rejects having one definition of what the Tao is - Rejects the hierarchy and strictness brought by Confucianism and would prefer a simple lifestyle and its teachings thus aim to describe how to attain that life - The self is not just an extension of the family or the community; it is part of the universe. - The ideal self is selflessness but this is not forgetting about the self; it is living a balanced life with society and nature, being open and accepting to change, forgetting about prejudices and egocentric ideas and thinking about equality as well as complementarity among humans as well as other beings. • Buddhism - The self is seen as an illusion, born out of ignorance, of trying to hold and control things, or human-centered needs; thus, the self is also the source of all these sufferings. - To forget about the self, forget the cravings of the self, break the attachments you have with the world, and to renounce the self which is the cause of all suffering and in doing so, attain the state of Nirvana.