THE SELF IN VARIOUS
Learning Objectives
1. Discuss the different representations and
conceptualizations of the self from various
PERSPECTIVES disciplinal perspectives.
2. Examine the different influences, factors and forces
that shape the self.
Psychology 3. Compare and contrast how the self has been
represented across the different disciplines and
perspectives.
Self
a person's essential being that distinguishes them from Premise:
others, especially considered as the object of
introspection or reflexive action.
Personality of normal adults
the set of someone's characteristics, such as personality and kids is composed of a
and ability, that are not physical and make that person
group of
different from other people:
subselves or parts
What is the self?
Answer: It depends.
--New York Times
Self is the essence of a person: his thoughts,
feelings and actions, experiences, beliefs, values,
principles and relationships. 4 Sub-sections of the Me-self
1. The Material Self
“ME” Self refers to the aspects of
2. The Social Self
someone that come from that person's
experiences. 3. The Spiritual Self
4. Pure Ego
‘I’ Self classified as the thinking
self
William James The Me-self and I-self
creates one cohesive self.
Social self
Material self This is the self in a given social situation.
It consists of things that belong to us or that we belong to.
For James, people change how they act depending
Things like family, clothes, our body, and money are some on the social situation that they are in.
of what makes up our material selves.
People had as many social selves as many as the
social situations they participate in.
Spiritual self Pure Ego
The spiritual self is our subjective and most intimate self. The pure ego is the “most puzzling aspect of the self,” .
This is the sub-category of the self that is capable of
It includes one’s personality, core values, recognizing its own thoughts.
and conscience that do not
It is the self that synthesizes its thinking and brings all
typically change throughout their lifetime.
thoughts together.
It is more concrete or permanent than the other two selves.
Global Self Differentiated
Self
2
Global self is that
sub-self that is
considered as the
“citizen of the world”.
Self-Concept Clarity Scale Scale ranges from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
Scale ranges from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4. Sometimes I feel that I am not really the person that I appear to be.*
5 (strongly agree).
5. When I think about the kind of person I have been in the past, I'm
Differentiated 1. My beliefs about myself often conflict with not sure what I was really like.*
one another.*
self is that
sub-self that 6. I seldom experience conflict between the different aspects of my
2. On one day I might have one opinion of personality.
possess a clear myself and on another day I might have a
sense of who they different opinion.* 7. Sometimes I think I know other people better than I know myself. *
are and where
they are going in 3. I spend a lot of time wondering about what 8. My beliefs about myself seem to change very
life. kind of person I really am.* frequently.*
Scale ranges from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).
Add all your scores.
9. If I were asked to describe my personality, my description might end * Indicates reverse-keyed item.
up being different from one day to another day.*
41-60 High Scorer
10. Even if I wanted to, I don't think I could tell someone what I'm 21-40 Average Scorer
really like.* 1-20 Low Scorer
11. In general, I have a clear sense of who I am and what I The Self-Concept Clarity scale (SCC) measures "the extent to which
am. self-beliefs are clearly and confidently defined, internally consistent, and
12. It is often hard for me to make up my mind about things because I stable."
don't really know what I want.*
LOW SCORERS tend to have lower self-esteem, ruminate more, and their self-descriptions
from Campbell, J. D., Trapnell, P. D., Heine, S. J., Katz, I. M.,
are less stable over time.
Lavallee, L. F., & Lehman, D. R. (1996). Self-concept clarity:
Measurement, personality correlates, and cultural boundaries. HIGH SCORERS tend to have higher self-esteem, more consistent self-descriptions, and
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70(1), 141-156. less chronic self-analysis.
For Carl Rogers,
the real self and
the ideal self are
terms used to
describe
personality
domains.
Ideal Self
Real Self
The ideal self is how we want to be.
The real self is who we actually are.
It is an idealized image that we have developed over
It is how we think, how we feel, look, and act. time, based on what we have learned and experienced.
The real self can be seen by others, but because we
have no way of truly knowing how others view us, the The ideal self could include components of what our
real self is our self-image. parents have taught us, what we admire in others, what
our society promotes, and what we think is in our best
interest.
Donald Woods Winnicott True self is also known as real False self is also known as
self, authentic self, original fake self, ideal self, perfect
For Winincott, the self is a very self and vulnerable self; self, superficial self and pseudo
important part of mental and emotional self.
This is rooted from early
well-being which plays a vital role in
infancy in the experience of being When the person has to
creativity. comply with external rules, such
alive.
as being polite or otherwise
He thought that people were Out of this, the baby creates following social codes, then a
born without a clearly developed self the experience of a sense false self is used. The false self
and had to "search" for an authentic of reality, a sense that life is worth constantly seeks to anticipate
living. demands of others in order to
sense of self as they grew. maintain the relationship.
Multiple Self/Unified Self
Multiple Self Unified Self
The self that resides in the dimension of the The self that consists of unified
mental and cultural and is not really consciousness of acts of experiencing.
reducible to the physical and biological.
It is present when, for the current acts of
3 Domains: experiencing that one is doing,
1. The Experiential Self. This is the consciousness of one act of experiencing
(consciousness of how one is experiencing
‘theater of consciousness’ and the first
something, for example seeing it, imagining
person felt experience of being.
it, ...) provides consciousness of other acts
of experiencing. (This explication is
It includes the felt consistency of
structured to be neutral as to whether
being across periods of time. In that
unified conscious states include a
sense, it is tied very closely to memory.
multiplicity of conscious states.
This is the part of you that
disappears” when you enter a deep sleep,
We speak of ‘consciousness of acts of
flickers on and off as you dream, and then
experiencing’ rather than ‘consciousness
comes back on line as you wake up.
of an experience’ for the same reason.)
5
2. The private self-consciousness
system. This is called the “narrator” (or
interpreter), because is the portion of
your being that verbally narrates what is
happening and why and tries to make
sense of what is going on.
It is also the part that includes your
reportable self-concept and explicit
beliefs and values about the way the
world works (e.g., your religious and
political beliefs).
3. The public self or persona.
It refers to the public image that you attempt
Multiple Self to project others, which in turn interacts with
2. The private self-consciousness how other people actually see you.
system. This is called the “narrator” (or
interpreter), because is the portion of
your being that verbally narrates what is
happening and why and tries to make
sense of what is going on.
It is also the part that includes your
reportable self-concept and explicit
beliefs and values about the way the
world works (e.g., your religious and
political beliefs).
3. The public self or persona.
It refers to the public image that you attempt
to project others, which in turn interacts with
how other people actually see you.
END