The self from various perspectives

1. THE SELF: VARIOUS
PERSPECTIVES
(PHILOSOPHICAL, SOCIOLOGICAL,
ANTHROPOLOGICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL)
Mr. Michael A. Mendoza, MAEd, RGC, RPm, LPT, CHRA
Instructor

3. Do You Truly
Know Yourself?

4. Can one truly
know the self? Do
you want to know
about self?

5. Philosophy

6. It came from the Greek words “Philos”
which means love and “Sophia” which
means wisdom; hence, compounded, its
literal meaning is the “love of wisdom”.
It is a set of ideas formulated to
understand the basic truth about the
nature of being and thinking.
“Search for meaning”

7. SOCRATES
 He was the first
philosopher who ever
engaged in a systematic
questioning about the
self.
 Every man is composed
of body and soul.
 Every human person is
dualistic. “Know thyself.”
“An unexamined life is not
worth living.”

8. PLATO
 He supported the idea of
Socrates that man is a dual
nature of body and soul.
 Three components of the
soul “psyche”: Rational,
Spirited and Appetitive.
 When this ideal state is
attained, then the human
person’s soul becomes just
and virtuous.
“Good actions give strength
to ourselves and inspire
good actions in others.”

9. ➢ Man is composed of two parts:
body (matter) and soul (form).
➢ Body and soul are inseparable.
➢ 3 kinds of the soul:
1. Rational
2. Sensitive
3. Vegetative
“Knowing yourself is the
beginning of all wisdom.”
ARISTOTLE

10. ST. AUGUSTINE
 He viewed of the human
person reflects the
entire spirit of the
medieval world.
 He 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 communion
with God.
“Our heart is restless, until
it rests in you.”

11. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
 He adapted Aristotle’s
ideas that man is
composed of two parts:
matter and form.
 Matter – hyle in Greek,
“common stuff that makes
up everything in the
universe.”
 Form – morphe in Greek
refers to the “essence of a
substance or thing.”
 The soul is what animates
the body; it is what makes
us humans.
“The things that we love tell us what we
are”
“To one who has faith, no explanation is
necessary. To one without faith, no
explanation is possible”

12. RENE DESCARTES
 He considered as the Father
of Modern Philosophy.
 Human person as having a
body and mind.
 The Meditations of First
Philosophy
 The existence of the self
 Cogito ergo sum, “I think
therefore, I am.”
 Self is a combination of two
distinct entities: the cogito,
thing that thinks (mind), the
extenza, extension of the
mind (body). “It is not enough to have a good
mind; the main thing is to use
it well.”

13. DAVID HUME
 He was a Scottish
philosopher, has a very
unique way of looking at man.
 Empiricist
 Men can only attain
knowledge by experiencing.
 2 categories of experiences:
Impressions and Ideas.
 Self 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.”
“Beauty in things exists in the
mind which contemplates them.”
“A wise man proportions his belief
to the evidence.”

14. IMMANUEL KANT
 He was a German
philosopher who is a central
figure of modern philosophy.
 There is necessarily a mind
that organizes the
impressions that men get
from the external world.
 Apparatuses of the mind.
 Without the self, one cannot
organize the different
impressions that one gets in
relation to his own
existence. It is also the seat
of knowledge acquisition for
all humans.
“All our knowledge begins with the
senses, proceeds then to the
understanding, and ends with reason.
There is nothing higher than reason.”

15. GILBERT RYLE
 He was a 20th Century
British philosopher, mainly
associated with
the Ordinary Language
Philosophy movement.
 For him, 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.

16. MAURICE MERLEAU-PONTY
 He is a phenomenologist
who asserts that the mind-
body bifurcation that has
been going on for a long time
is a futile endeavor and an
invalid problem.
 Mind and body are so
intertwined that they cannot
be separated from one
another.
 Embodied experience
 The living body, his
thoughts, emotions, and
experiences are all one.
“We know not through our
intellect but through our
experience.”

17. Sociology

18. It is a discipline provides general laws and
theories about groups (societies), not
individual.
It focuses on groups, organizations, social
categories and societies on how they
organize, function, and change.

19.  Self becomes a “delocalized” self which is free to
seek its own identity; defining religion,
theological tradition; free from customary
constraints with modernization.
 Problems arises:
 Newfound freedom threatens the very
authenticity of the self
 Alienation
 Objectification of the body
 Dehumanization of self
SELF AS PRODUCT OF MODERN SOCIETY

20. Self is the sum of individual’s action,
thoughts and feelings (Nietzsche).
It is nothing more than a metaphor, a
representation of something abstract
(symbolic).
SELF AS NECESSARY FICTION

21. Self is dynamic and a product of modern
discourse and socially imprisoned by what
is acceptable by norms.
Self is “digitalized” in cyberspace, a virtual
version of who we are.
POST-MODERN VIEW OF THE SELF

22. Self is not discovered; it is made through
socialization process.
Individual is an active strategizing agents
that negotiates for the definition of
himself.
We construct ourselves based on our social
roles through socialization agents.
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF THE SELF

23. MEAD’S THEORY OF SELF
 He was one of the founders of
social psychology and pioneer
of symbolic interaction
theory.
 Two components of self:
◦ “I” is the response of an
individual to the attitudes of
others (Spontaneous Actor).
◦ “Me” represents the
expectations and attitudes of
others (Generalized other)
organized into a social self.
George Herbert Mead
(1863-1931)

24. THREE STAGES OF SELF DEVELOPMENT

25. LOOKING-GLASS SELF
 He is an American
Sociologist.
 States that part of how we
see ourselves comes from our
perception of how others see
us.
 How we see ourselves does
not come from who we really
are, but rather from how we
believe others see us.
 Labeling bias
 Self-labeling
 Internalized prejudice
Charles Horton Cooley
(1864-1929)

26. Proposed by Leon Festinger in 1954.
We learn about ourselves, the
appropriateness of our behaviors, as
well as our social status by
comparing aspects of ourselves with
other people.
SOCIAL COMPARISON THEORY

29. Anthropology

30. It is the study of human beings and
their ancestors through time and
space and in relation to physical
character, environmental and social
relations, and culture.

31. Culture is traditionally defined as
systems of human behavior and
thought which includes rituals,
traditional beliefs and practices.
Enculturation is the transmission
of culture from one generation to the
next generation.
CULTURE AND ENCULTURATION

32. It as “that which permits one to
assume responsibility for one’s own
conduct, to learn how to react, and to
assume a variety of roles” (Haviland,
2003)
SELF-AWARENESS

33. 1. Object orientation – positions the self
in relation to the surrounding objects.
2. Spatial orientation - provides the self
with personal space in relation to other
people or things.
3. Temporal orientation – endows the self
with the sense of time.
4. Normative orientation – provides the
self with the grasp of accepted norms in
the community.
ENVIRONMENTAL ORIENTATIONS

34. The claim of the self as embedded in
culture can only be embraced when the
self recognizes its relation to everything
else which includes the complexity of
cultural identities of people, things, and
events.
SELF EMBEDDED IN CULTURE

35. Psychology

39. WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY?
 It comes from the Latin word “psyche” which
means “mind or soul”, and “logos” meaning
“study.”
 It is a scientific study of human behavior and
mental processes.
 Psychology of self – focuses on the
representation of an individual based on
his/her experiences

40. Cognitive Construction - is a cognitive
approach that focuses on the mental
processes rather than the observable
behavior.
SELF AS COGNITIVE CONSTRUCTION

41. WILLIAM JAMES
 He is an American
philosopher and psychologist.
He was one of the earliest
psychologists to study the self
and conceptualized the self as
having two aspects: the “I”
and the “Me”
 “I” is the thinking , acting,
and feeling self (Knower/ Pure
Ego).
 “Me” is the physical
characteristics as well as
psychological capabilities that
makes who you are (known).

42. THREE COMPONENTS OF “ME”
1. Material Self – consists of things that
belong to us or what we belong to.
2. Social Self – who we are in a given
social situation.
3. Spiritual Self – is who we are at our
core that is more concrete or
permanent. It is our subjective and
most intimate self.

43. SELF-ESTEEM
It is our own positive or negative
perception or evaluation of ourselves.
It is used to describe a person's overall
self-evaluation or sense of self-worth.

44. TYPES OF SELF-ESTEEM
1. Global Self-esteem – is a personality
variable that represents the way people
generally feel about themselves (Trait self-
esteem).
2. State Self-esteem – refers to temporary
feelings or momentary emotional reactions to
positive and negative events where we feel
good or bad about ourselves during these
situations (Feelings of Self-worth).
3. Domain Specific Self-esteem – is focused
on how people evaluate their various abilities
and attributes (Self-evaluations).

45. Imagine yourself
looking into the
mirror?

46. What do you see?

47. Do you see your
ideal self…

48. or your real self?

49. SELF-CONCEPT
It is what basically
comes to your mind
when you are
asked about who
you are (Oyserman,
Elmore, and Smith
2012).

50. SELF
IDENTITY
SELF-
CONCEPT
NOT FIXED
FOR LIFE
Ever-changing

51. KAREN HORNEY
 She was a German
Psychoanalyst known for her
research about feminine
psychology.
 Ideal Self - an imaginary
picture of the self as the
possessor of unlimited
powers and superlative
qualities.
 Actual Self - the person one
is in everyday life.
 “Real Self” - a force that
impels growth and self-
realizations.
Life itself still remains a very
effective therapist.

52. CARL ROGERS
 He was an American
psychologist and among the
founders of the humanistic
approach to psychology.
 “Ideal Self” revolves around
goals and ambitions in life
that is dynamic.
 “Real Self” is the part of
ourselves where we feel,
think, look and act involving
our self-image.
 Self-actualization
“Incongruence between the ideal self
and actual self can result in
unhealthy personality and mental
distress.”

53. SIGMUND FREUD
 He was the Father of
Psychoanalytic Theory
and most influential
theorist of personality.
 He saw the self, its
mental processes, and
one’s behaviors as the
result of the interaction
between the three
provinces of the mind: Id,
Ego and Superego.

54. PROVINCES OF THE MIND

55. ID
It has no contact with reality, yet it
strives constantly to reduce tension
by satisfying basic desires.
It serves the pleasure principle.

56. EGO
It is the only region of the mind that
has contact in reality.
It governed by the reality principle.

57. SUPEREGO
It grows out of the ego, and like the
ego, it has no energy of its own.
It is guided by the moralistic and
idealistic principle.