S p e c ifi c L e a r n i n g Ou t c o m e s :

During the students’ engagements, they will be able to:

a. determine the different psychological perspectives about

the “self” and the proponents behind them ;
b. examine the different influences, factors, and forces that
shaped the psychological self as well as the complexity
of human conditions.
T E A CHING L E A RNING A C T I V I T I E s
Engaging Activity No.1: “You Through Others’ Eyes”

Part I. List ten to fifteen (10-15) qualities or things that you

think define who you are .
Part II. Let your sibling or someone in the house answer the question below. Write

first your name in this format , “ I am (your name)." List down five only .

Compare and contrast the contributions of the following personalities:

1. William James
2. Carl Rogers
4. G.H. Mead
5. Sigmund Freud
Engaging Activity No.2: “Class Discussion”
Learning Guide Mapping

LECTURETTE
William James (1890)

One of the earliest psychologists to study the self and conceptualized the self
as having two aspects – the “I” and the “me”.
The “I” is the thinking, acting, and feeling self
The “me” is the physical characteristics as well as psychological capabilities
that makes who you are.
Carl Rogers (1959)

His theory of personality uses the “I” as the one who acts and decides while
the “me” is what you think or feel about yourself as an object.
Captured the concept of self-schema or our organized system or collection of
knowledge about who we are (hobbies, religion, family, nationality, interests,
work, course, age, name, physical characteristics and among others ).
G.H. Mead (1934)

.argued that the self is created and developed through human interaction
(theory of symbolic interactionism).
.Three reasons why self and identity are social products:
We do not create ourselves out of nothing.
Whether we like it or not, we actually need others to affirm and reinforce who
we think we are.
What we think is important to us may also have been influenced by what is
important in our social or historical context.
Sigmund Freud

Most influential psychologist

Self is a mental processes, and one’s behavior is the results of the interaction
between the Id, the Ego, and the Superego.

Components of the Self

The Id
 According to Freud, the id is the source of all psychic energy, making it
the primary component of personality.1
 The id is the only component of personality that is present from birth.
 This aspect of personality is entirely unconscious and includes
instinctive and primitive behaviors.

The id is driven by the pleasure principle, which strives for immediate

gratification of all desires, wants, and needs. 1 If these needs are not satisfied
immediately, the result is a state of anxiety or tension. For example, an
increase in hunger or thirst should produce an immediate attempt to eat or
drink.

The id is very important early in life because it ensures that an infant's needs
are met. If the infant is hungry or uncomfortable, they will cry until the
demands of the id are satisfied. Young infants are ruled entirely by the id;
there is no reasoning with them when these needs demand satisfaction.

Examples of the Id
Imagine trying to convince a baby to wait until lunchtime to eat their meal.
The id requires immediate satisfaction, and because the other components
of personality are not yet present, the infant will cry until these needs are
fulfilled.

However, immediately fulfilling these needs is not always realistic or even

possible. If we were ruled entirely by the pleasure principle, we might find
ourselves grabbing the things that we want out of other people's hands to
satisfy our cravings.
This behavior would be both disruptive and socially unacceptable. According
to Freud, the id tries to resolve the tension created by the pleasure principle
through the use of primary process thinking, which involves forming a
mental image of the desired object to satisfy the need. 1

Although people eventually learn to control the id, this part of personality
remains the same infantile, primal force throughout life. It is the
development of the ego and the superego that allows people to control the
id's basic instincts and act in ways that are both realistic and socially
acceptable.

The Ego
 According to Freud, the ego develops from the id and ensures that the
impulses of the id can be expressed in a manner acceptable in the real
world.2
 The ego functions in the conscious, preconscious,
and unconscious mind.
 The ego is the personality component responsible for dealing with
reality.3

Everyone has an ego. The term ego is sometimes used to describe your
cohesive awareness of your personality, but personality and ego are not the
same. The ego represents just one component of your full personality.

The ego operates based on the reality principle, which strives to satisfy the
id's desires in realistic and socially appropriate ways. The reality principle
weighs the costs and benefits of an action before deciding to act upon or
abandon impulses.

In many cases, the id's impulses can be satisfied through a process

of delayed gratification—the ego will eventually allow the behavior, but only
in the appropriate time and place.1

The term ego is often used informally to suggest that someone has an
inflated sense of self. However, the ego in personality has a positive effect. It
is the part of your personality that keeps you grounded in reality and
prevents the id and superego from pulling you too far toward your most
basic urges or moralistic virtues. Having a strong ego means having a strong
sense of self-awareness.

Freud compared the id to a horse and the ego to the horse's rider. The horse
provides power and motion, while the rider provides direction and guidance.
Without its rider, the horse would wander wherever it wished and do
whatever it pleased. The rider gives the horse directions and commands to
get it where it wants it to go.

The ego also discharges tension created by unmet impulses

through secondary process thinking, in which the ego tries to find an object
in the real world that matches the mental image created by the id's primary
process.4

Examples of the Ego

Imagine that you are stuck in a long meeting at work. You find yourself
growing increasingly hungry as the meeting drags on. While the id might
compel you to jump up from your seat and rush to the break room for a
snack, the ego guides you to sit quietly and wait for the meeting to end.

Instead of acting upon the primal urges of the id, you spend the rest of the
meeting imagining yourself eating a cheeseburger. Once the meeting is
finally over, you can seek out the object you were imagining and satisfy the
demands of the id realistically and appropriately.

The Superego
The last component of personality to develop is the superego.

 According to Freud, the superego begins to emerge at around age five.

 The superego holds the internalized moral standards and ideals that
we acquire from our parents and society (our sense of right and
wrong).1
 The superego provides guidelines for making judgments.

The superego has two parts:

1. The conscience includes information about things that are viewed as

bad by parents and society. These behaviors are often forbidden and
lead to bad consequences, punishments, or feelings of guilt and
remorse.5
2. The ego ideal includes the rules and standards for behaviors that the
ego aspires to.5

The superego tries to perfect and civilize our behavior. It suppresses all id's
unacceptable urges and struggles to make the ego act upon idealistic
standards rather than on realistic principles. The superego is present in the
conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.
Examples of the Superego
For example, if you give in to the urges of the id, the superego is what will
cause you to feel a sense of guilt or even shame about your actions. The
superego may help you feel good about your behavior when you suppress
your most primal urges.

Other examples of the superego include:

 A woman feels an urge to steal office supplies from work. However, her
superego counteracts this urge by focusing on the fact that such
behaviors are wrong.
 A man realizes that the cashier at the store forgot to charge him for
one of the items he had in his cart. He returns to the store to pay for
the item because his internalized sense of right and wrong urge him to
do so.
 A student forgot to study for a history test and feels an urge to cheat
off of a student sitting nearby. Even though he feels like the chances of
getting caught are low, he knows that cheating is wrong, so he
suppresses the urge.

The Interaction of the Id, Ego, and