11/02/2019

THE SELF
UNDERSTANDING THE SELF FROM VARIOUS PERSPECTIVES
Psychology 1 Philosophy, Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology,
and Western & Oriental/Eastern Thought
PAULA FERRER CHENG, MA

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What is Philosophy?
from Greek φιλοσοφία, philosophia = “love of wisdom“
a way of thinking about the world, the universe, &
society
 asks basic questions about:
PHILOSOPHY  the nature of human thought
 the nature of the universe
 and the connections between them.

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WHO AM I IN RELATION TO THE

NATURAL WORLD (COSMOS)?

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Ancient Philosophy Pre-Socratics

1000 BC to 500 AD (eg. Milesians, Ionians, Sophists)
 Favored: Rational explanations
Cosmo-centric
 There is a fundamental principle/ thing that underlies
everything else, including the human self
The Ancient Triumvirate Post-Aristotelians
(Socrates, Plato, Aristotle)

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Identify the characteristics of the following: Pre-Socratics (The Milesians)

“material monism”
everything = comprised/originated in a single material substance

Earth Water Fire Air Thales Anaximander Anaximenes

Water Apeiron:“Boundless” Air

Democritus Heraclitus
How would you classify yourself based on the four? Why? Atom Fire

Anaxagoras Pythagoras
Nous: Mind Numbers

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The Ancient Triumvirate

IN WHAT WAYS DO I GET

TO KNOW MYSELF? Socrates Aristotle Plato

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Socrates Socrates

“Know thy self ”

We must live and stand
according to our nature
The gods and civic religion rule over life We must look at ourselves
BUT gods were not good examples of how
life should be lead
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Socrates Socrates
“An unexamined life is not worth living.”
To find what?
 Knowledge = Within man
 Wisdom is learning to reflect &
recollect

 Invitation to introspection:
2 fundamental questions: To find what? By what means? Theory of Reminiscence

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Socrates Socrates

Our Soul (Self)

By what means?
• Unified, indissoluble, immortal
Socratic Method: Dialogue entity
between the soul and itself • Remains the same over time
Between a student and his • Likeness of the divine
teacher • REASON = SOUL’S TOOL TO
ACHIEVE WISDOM & PERFECTION

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Two aspects of reality:

Socrates
Dualistic Reality “Body & Soul”
Happiness wasn’t to be found in the
transitory distractions of the material
world

We can only realize our human potential

Physical World Spiritual World when we nurture our soul
• Changeable, transient, • Unchanging, eternal, perfect That is by
imperfect • World of Ideas/Form KNOWING WHAT’S RIGHT AND
• World of Senses/Matter WHAT’S WRONG.

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Plato Plato

Immortalized Socrates words Civic religion (gods) Platonic religion (one god)

“Academy”
People came from the heavens and
- the first university where when we die we return to the heavens
people discussed their ideas where an ideal “city” awaits us

Athenians now mirrored that ideal city

and began to reflect that on earth

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Plato Plato
Reason
3-Part Soul/Self (Psyche)
Reason: divine essence that lets us think deeply 3-Part Soul/Self (Psyche)
(wisdom), make wise choices and achieve a true
understanding of eternal truths.
 Dynamic Relationship: Agreement
or Conflict
 Reason = Restores harmony
Physical Appetite: accounts for the basic biological needs Physical
such as hunger, thirst and sexual desire
among the three Spirit/Passion
Appetite

 Harmony: Justice in the individual,

Spirit/Passion: accounts for the basic emotions such as social, and political levels.
love, anger, ambition, aggressiveness, empathy

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Plato Aristotle

There is something “The Mind is the Self ”

beyond life
Mind = Tabula Rasa (a blank slate)
 Idea of a prime mover
 a cosmic/universal god
 responsible for creation Self = matter and form
 stood for truth, justice, • Matter = in a continuous process of developing (sensing)
goodness, beauty, harmony
Knowledge is acquired through the senses
 There must be a divine mind
that moves the heavens Through experiences = Process of Completion

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Aristotle The Post-Aristotelians

 Maintains the dualism between
Self comes from a First Cause body and soul
 the source of all changes (although  More ethical in the ideas
unchangeable itself)
 Moral Norms
- attainment of happiness
Goal of Self = happiness though
moderation or balance of things

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The Post-Aristotelians
Stoicism IS THE SELF RELATED TO A
Apathy or indifference to pleasure
SUPREME BEING/GOD?
Hedonism WHO AM I IN RELATION TO A
“Eat, drink, and be happy. For tomorrow, you will die.
SUPREME BEING/GOD?
Epicureanism
Moderate pleasure

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Medieval Philosophy Medieval Philosophy

500 AD to 1350 AD 500 AD to 1350 AD

Theo-centric
 From the scientific investigation on More imposing than informing
nature and search for happiness to the
There was an aim to merge
question of life and salvation in another
realm, in a better world (i.e. the afterlife) philosophy and religion
(Christian, Jewish, Muslim)
 Influence from ancient thought:
 The (human) self endures through time.

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St. Augustine St. Thomas Aquinas

Theologian, Philosopher Theologian, Philosopher

Integrates Platonic ideas experience of the world =

with the tenets of self-knowledge
Christianity We discover ourselves
 Christian Philosophy of a  NOT as isolated
Transcendent God minds/selves
The self strives to achieve  as agents interacting with
union with God through our environment
faith and reason

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St. Thomas Aquinas St. Thomas Aquinas

Labels we give ourselves

are taken from the things
we encounter
“The things that we love tell
in our environment us what we are.”

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St. Thomas Aquinas

Experiencing that something exists doesn’t tell us what it is

If St. Thomas Tells us that our knowledge is based on our encounter of things,

Does this mean that we get to know

everything simply by experiencing it? KNOWING AND LEARNING ABOUT A THING REQUIRES A LONG
PROCESS OF UNDERSTANDING
same with the mind and the self
– WITH EXPERIENCE AND REASON

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Modern Philosophy
14th Century to the early 20th Century

HOW CAN I BE SURE THAT THE

SELF EXISTS? WHAT ARE THE
PROOFS THAT THE SELF EXISTS? Genuine Knowledge = based on independent rational inquiry
and real world experimentation
(not handed down from authority)

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Modern Philosophy René Descartes

14th Century to the early 20th Century
A Rationalist; Mathematician, Philosopher, Scientist

Anthropocentric
 Reject (medieval thinkers) “Cogito ergo sum”
excessive reliance on
authority
I think, therefore, I am.
Period of radical social, Human identity: Self-awareness
political and intellectual
developments

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René Descartes René Descartes Dualism

PINEAL GLAND

Thinking
(Spiritual) Self Physical Body
Governed by laws of Governed by the
reason & God’s will laws of nature

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John Locke John Locke

An Empiricist; Physician & Philosopher An Empiricist; Physician & Philosopher

You know
Knowledge Significance You know
Direct sense Enters Pag di siya Intelligent Pag di siya
GF hindi there’s
(something ofnagtetext,
our sense Dapat ako GF hindi there’s Dapat ako
Reason Reason nagtetext,
experience
nagtetext something Reason conclusions
mag-sorry nagtetext something mag-sorry
exists)
wrong
experience
galit na yan
wrong
galit na yan

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John Locke John Locke

The self But the self endures

not found in a single substance
or soul, but exists in space and because of memory
time Conscious awareness
Body changes = Physical self and memory of
changes
experiences = keys to
Physical body = Personal
identity understanding the self

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David Hume David Hume

An Empiricist, Skeptic, & Nihilist An Empiricist, Skeptic, & Nihilist

The mind = a container for

Empiricism: fleeting sensations and
disconnected ideas
There is Our reasoning ability is merely “a
no self! slave to the passions.”

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David Hume Immanuel Kant

Philosopher

The self is a “bundle or collection of different perceptions,

Rejected Hume’s idea
which succeed each other in an inconceivable rapidity,
Suggests the primary experience of the world
and are in perpetual flux and movement.”
that is not a disconnected stream of sensations.
How you see yourself is more important than any
one else’s view of you.

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Immanuel Kant Immanuel Kant

A priori concepts: The self exists independently of

innate, inborn fundamental rules and transcends experiences.
a built-in of the architecture of the mind The self is a transcendental
helps categorize, organize, synthesize experience into unifying principle of
something familiar bounded by space and time consciousness.
unity of consciousness that makes the world intelligible

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Immanuel Kant Gilbert Ryle

Physicalist

WE CONSTRU CT THE SE LF!

The Self actively organizes all sensations & Behaviorism
thoughts = picture that makes sense to us
No more dichotomy by denying the inner
Because it UNIFIES & TRANSCENDS our
experiences selves, immortal souls, states of
The self is a subject consciousness, or unconscious entities
 not an object located in the consciousness

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Sigmund Freud Gilbert Ryle

Father of Psychoanalysis
Physicalist

The self is Behaviorism

The self = behavior presented to
multi-tiered/
the world
multi-layered: The self is a pattern of behavior
 tendency or disposition
 to behave in a certain way
 in certain circumstances

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Paul Churchland
Physicalist

Eliminative Materialism
The mind/self = THE BRAIN
Grounded in neuroscience
No coherent neural basis CONTEMPORARY
for psychological concepts
such as belief or desire or PHILOSOPHY
pain

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Contemporary Philosophy Phenomenology

Late 19th Century
Greek phainomenon,
 Political & Industrial Revolution
 Scientific advancements and meaning appearance.
growth of materialism
 Theory of Evolution
 More HUMANIST as a response
to the so-called alienation of the
the study of appearances
human person as opposed to reality
 Phenomenology

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Phenomenology Edmund Husserl

Father of Phenomenology; Transcendental Phenomenology

 method of inquiry in philosophy

 developed Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger How can we have knowledge of the world?
reality consists of perceived in Study our experience of it.
objects and events the human Transcend the experience to discover meaning by
("phenomena") consciousness pure reflection (not scientific method).
 Not independent of human consciousness
 Its more descriptive than prescriptive

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Edmund Husserl Edmund Husserl

Father of Phenomenology; Transcendental Phenomenology

How can we have knowledge of the world? “the lived experience”

Study our experience of it. Study of nature ≠ Study of
Transcend the experience to discover meaning by consciousness
pure reflection (not scientific method). Self = unity of mental and physical
Go back to the things themselves which are seamlessly interwoven
– see things as they really are. Non-dualistic human being

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Maurice Merleau-Ponty According to Husserl and Merleau-Ponty

French Philosopher

“lived body”
Can only be known in a subjective way
There is no duality of substance
“Just a natural synthesis of mind and biology, and any
attempts to divide them into separate entities are artificial If we accurately examine our direct and immediate
and nonsensical but a dialectic of living being in its experience of our selves, these mind-body “problems”
biological milieu.”
fall away

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Rediscover the world, rediscover the self

 “we shall need to reawaken our experience of the world as it appears
to us in so far as we perceive the world through our body, and in so WHICH AMONG THESE
far we perceive the world with our body.
 But by this remaking contact with the body and the world, we shall PHILOSOPHIES CAN YOU RELATE
also rediscover ourself, since, perceiving as we do with our body, the
body is a natural self and, is it were, the subject of perception.” WITH? HOW DO THEY AFFECT THE
WAY YOU SEE YOURSELF?

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ACTIVITY#1: PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVE

UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
WHAT MAKES A
SOCIOLOGICAL &
PERSON HAPPY? ANTHROPOLOGICAL VIEWS

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CLASSICAL SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE:

Sociology Anthropology
the self is a relatively stable
•deals with the •focuses on the set of perceptions
society culture, behavior of
•class, race, and biology
who we are
ethnicity, gender, •the effect of
in relation to ourselves,
family, education changing time on
and religion. them. others, and to social
systems.

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THE INDIVIDUAL:
The self:
is not a passive participant
SocIALLy coNSTRUcTED has a powerful influence
shaped through interaction over interactions and its
consequences
with other people.

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Charles Horton Cooley: Charles Horton Cooley:

The Looking Glass Self The Looking Glass Self

belief
A person’s self grows out of a person´s
social interactions with others.

The view of ourselves comes from: How we see ourselves does not come from who
1. contemplation of personal qualities we really are, but rather from how we believe
2. impressions of how others perceive us others see us.

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How your
How your
Heads up! friends see
you parents see
Activity#2: High Five you

How your
teachers &
Lets see the power of your beliefs classmates
see you How you wish How you
others to see see
and remember yourself
How you
strangers
see you

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Johari Window Johari Window

Not known to the Not known to the
Known to the Self Known to the Self
self self

Known to Known to
others
Open/Area Blindspot
others
Open/Area Blindspot

Not known Not known

Hidden/Facade Unknown Hidden/Facade Unknown
to others to others

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Johari Window Johari Window

Not known to the Not known to the
Known to the Self Known to the Self
self self

Known to Known to
others
Open/Area Blindspot others
Open/Area Blindspot

Not known Not known

to others
Hidden/Facade Unknown
to others
Hidden/Facade Unknown

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Johari Window
Not known to the UNDERSTANDING THE SELF
Known to the Self
self

Known to SOCIOLOGICAL &

Open/Area Blindspot
others ANTHROPOLOGICAL VIEWS
Not known
to others
Hidden/Facade Unknown

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Impact of Culture:
The Self in the Anthropological Perspective
The Competitive World
 Western society = development of excessive needs, increased
The Self embedded in the hostility & anxiety, and heightened competitiveness
culture  3 CONTRADICTORIES
Significance of the self is Cultural teachings of kinship love and Prevailing attitude of aggressiveness and
humility drive to win or be superior
greatly underestimated in Society demand for achievement & Every time a goal has been reached, new
anthropology. success ones are determined continually
Society tells people are free & can But freedom is restricted by genetics,
accomplish anything with hard work and social position, & competitiveness of
perseverance others

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Individualism Collectivism
• A human being has an • A human being is an
individualistic nature and integral part of the
is an independent part universe and the society.
of the universe and the • People are fundamentally
society. connected.
• Duty towards all others is
Kotelnikov & Bibikova, n.d.
a very important matter.

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Individualism (Cherry, 2017) Collectivism

Social rules focus: Essential:
Being dependent
Individual rights Independence is selflessness
=shameful or Work as a group
take center stage highly valued community needs >
embarrassing Support others
individual needs

greater emphasis
People tend to
= standing out & Families and
be self-reliant Do what's best for
being unique communities have
society
central role
Cherry, 2017

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Some qualities imparted to the Western

subjective view of the self

Analytic and deductive Monotheistic

The self in Eastern thought

Materialistic and The Self as embedded in relationships and through spiritual development in
Confucian thought
Individualistic Realistic (displace
religious consciousness )
Johnson, 1985

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ASIAN SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT Buddhism

1 Buddhism
Buddha discovered why life is filled with suffering
2 Hinduism and how humanity can escape from this unhappy
existence

3 Taoism Experience in the transformations of

consciousness and stages of meditation
4 Confucianism
Jun, 2005

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Buddhism Buddhism
Everything is impermanent
Buddha denies the self: no self, no
individual in the continuous
becoming of lived experience
No-self
• go beyond human experience that is
full of the anxieties and defensiveness Implies emphasis on
Jun, 2005 compassion for others
To study the self is to deny the self and conduct ourselves with restraint
When self becomes anxiety-free, one can act spontaneously
out of a sense of responsibility Jun, 2005

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Hinduism

Hindus believe that an

individual’s action (Karma) –
the bad or good actions
that the individual performed in
a previous life determines his
or her caste
Jun, 2005

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Hinduism Taoism
Law Of Karma: person's mental
Relativity of opposites i.e. yin and yang
and physical actions are binding.
The law of karma is very much
Self does not exist without the existence
verifiable in real life. of the other
We reap what we sow.
Our successes and failures are Self as a separate identity IS STILL supported
mostly products of our own by the equal and opposite sensation of
thoughts and actions. Jun, 2005 otherness Jun, 2005

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Confucianism
Who am I?

The self in Confucianism is the starting Confucianism

point of a constructive process
For western philosophers, the concept of the self is the
end of their searches. Where am I
Yao, 1996 from? Who will I be?
Yao, 1996

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Confucianism Confucianism

It is only through the continuous opening up of the self to others Confucian self is relational and interdependent
that the self can maintain its wholesome personal identity. Belief that certain sets of human relationships are
basis for moral community
A person who is not responsive to others is self-centered.
Elder and Friend
Do unto others what you want others do unto you. Ruler and
minister
Father
and son
Husband
and wife
younger and
brother friend

Man isn’t the measure of all things, but man’s relationship

with man
Wei-ming, 1985 Wei-ming, 1985

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FILIAL PIETY Recognize

presence of Father should Confucianism
is a cardinal parents in every
dimension of act fatherly
value
lived reality • WILLING PARTICIPATION of the son
• Confucianism recognizes “erroneous” or unfit parents
Filiality and • Recognize the continuous presence of our parents
Son must learn to
Filial Piety brotherliness
suppress his own • Father should act fatherly
desires are bases of
unquestioned humanity • Son’s filiality is conceived as a response to father’s
obedience of kindness
the son to the • Filiality and brotherliness are bases of humanity: Initial step
authority of
the father Wei-ming, 1985 towards realizing one’s humanity

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Confucianism Activity#2: High Five

•Lets see the power of your beliefs

Selfhood is endowed by heaven
•Heads up!
How can I realize My relationships are vitally
my selfhood as important, if ignored, I can
the heaven- longer face up to the reality
endowed
humanity? of who I am in a holistic
sense.
Wei-ming, 1985

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How your
friends see How your
you parents see
you

How your
teachers &
classmates
see you How you
How you wish
others to see see PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
and remember yourself
How you
strangers
see you

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What is Psychology? MIND = BEHAVIOR

•“logos”
•Science or study
“psyche” Ψ
•Mind or soul

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“Psychology is the
scientific study of The SELF Based on
The Psychoanalytic Approach
behavior.” FREUD

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INSTINCTS
AND
FREUD: UNCONSCIOUS FORCES
ANXIETy What Drives Behavior: INSTINCTS

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FREUD: UNCONSCIOUS FORCES

FREUD: UNCONSCIOUS FORCES • Instinct
LIBIDO
The Self based • energy of the sexual drive as a
• “trieb” – drive or stimulus within; impulse which is internal;
involuntary
on Psycho- component of the life instinct.
• Characterized by:
Analytic • Sex is influenced by biological,
psychological and social factors. Impetus – amount of force
Approach • THANATOS
Source – region of the body in a state of tension
• Energy of aggression
• The destructive drive. Aim – seek pleasure by removing or reducing tension

Object – person or thing through which aim is satisfied

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FREUD: LIFE INSTINCT/ SEXUAL INSTINCT/ EROS FREUD: LIFE INSTINCT/ SEXUAL INSTINCT/ EROS
FORMS
1. Narcissism
•Primary (infants’ self-centeredness)
•Secondary (adolescents’ self-love)
2. Love – investing libido on object/person other than self
•Sexual (overt)
•Aim-inhibited (repressed)
3. Sadism and Masochism – cornerstone of the two-
instinct theory of Sex & Aggression

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FREUD: DEATH OR DESTRUCTIVE INSTINCT/

THANATOS

FREUD: PROVINCES OF THE MIND

What Drives Behavior: ANXIETY

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ID Ego Superego ID Ego Superego

• “das Es” = the “It” • “das Ich” = the “I” •“das Uber-Ich” = the • “das Es” = the “It” • “das Ich” = the “I” •“das Uber-Ich” = the
• BIOLOGICAL SELF
• Natural part of the
self
• PSYCHOLOGICAL SELF
• Reality Principle
“above-I”
•SOCIAL SELF
•incorporates the
I want.
• BIOLOGICAL SELF
I need.
• Natural part of the
self
• PSYCHOLOGICAL SELF
• Reality Principle
“above-I”
•SOCIAL SELF
•incorporates the
• The only region of • The only region of
• Animalistic nature of
man
• Pleasure principle
the mind that is in
contact with reality.
• The ego constantly tries
values and morals of
society which are
learned from one's
I like. Balance I must.
• Animalistic nature of
man
• Pleasure principle
the mind that is in
contact with reality.
• The ego constantly tries
values and morals of
society which are
learned from one's
• Pleasure seeking part
of the personality
• Determined by the
to reconciles the
irrational wants of the id
parents and others.
•Moralistic & Idealistic
Principle Gusto both
• Pleasure seeking part

Dapat.
of the personality
• Determined by the
to reconciles the
irrational wants of the id
parents and others.
•Moralistic & Idealistic
Principle
and the superego with and the superego with
genetic code the realistic demands of •Ego ideal- should be genetic code the realistic demands of •Ego ideal- should be
• Providing the raw • Providing the raw
materials
• Setting the boundary
conditions for
the world done
•Conscience - What
shouldn’t
ko.materials
• Setting the boundary
conditions for
the world done
•Conscience - What
shouldn’t
development development

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The Id represents the basic need of man.

If it is not satisfied it could result to stress and tension
FREUD: PROVINCES OF THE MIND
but if satisfied it could give you comfort and joy.
What happens when the Ego is weak?

ID EGO SUPEREGO

If the id is properly If the id is angered or provoked it

controlled it could bring or
could destroy not only himself
warmth and comfort but also his surrounding

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FREUD: PROVINCES OF THE MIND FREUD: ANXIETY

What happens when the Ego is weak? Definition: felt, affective, unpleasant state
accompanied by physical sensation that
warns the person of impending danger
ID EGO SUPEREGO

Origin: The Ego, confronted by demands of

Id, Superego, External World

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(1) Neurotic (3) Realistic Anxiety

(2) Moral Anxiety
Anxiety / Objective Anxiety
• an apprehension • originates from • originates from
about an unknown conflict between outside world;
danger originates ego and superego; resembles fear but
from the • result from failure does not involve
• Id; result fear of to do behave specific feared
punishment or
authority
correctly object;
• an unpleasant, FREUD: DEFENSE MECHANISMS
nonspecific feeling
involving a
possible danger

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Fixation – permanent; remaining at the present more comfortable stage of

Freud: Defense Mechanisms
development Freud:
Reaction Defense
Formation – doingMechanisms
the opposite in an exaggeration; form a reaction
that it acceptable to society/others
Regression – temporary; reverting back to an earlier stage of development
which has lesser stress
Undoing – look away or do away with unpleasant experiences by making it
disappear through repetitive and ceremonial acts (Compulsion)
Projection –see in others unacceptable feelings or tendencies that reside in
ourselves (Paranoia)
Displacement – redirect unacceptable urges onto different people or objects so
that original impulse is concealed; no exaggeration
Introjection – incorporating positive qualities of another person onto own self;
gives inflated sense of self-worth
Sublimation – beneficial to self and society (Humor – channeling of unacceptable
Acting Out – performing an extreme behavior in order to express thoughts or impulses or thoughts into a light-hearted story or joke)
feelings the person is incapable of expressing (Self-harm)

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THE SELF AS A COGNITIVE

CONSTRUCTION
1. WILLIAM JAMES
1. William James and the Me-Self and I-Self AND THE ME-SELF
2. Real and Ideal Self-Concepts AND I-SELF
3. The Self defined by social comparison

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Functionalism Functionalism
WILLIAM JAMES
Functionalism is a theory about the
What we do? nature of mental states.
Focus: Conscious
thinking and
activity Mental states are
learning
identified by what
How do we adjust?
they do rather than by
• Materials
what they are made of.
• Capacities
• Skills

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“I and the Me” self When do we use “i” or “me”?

George Herbert Mead’s Imaginary Audience
SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM  Adolescents are thought to believe that others are always watching
and evaluating them, and that they are special and unique

"me" is the How do they see me?

socialized aspect "I" is the active Do they notice me?
of the person aspect of the What’s in me that gets attention?
Will they like me?
person

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When do we use “i” or “me”?

SELF-CONCEPT
Mental representation

What do I look like?

3. THE SELF
How do I feel in different types of situations? DEFINED BY SOCIAL
How do I behave towards others? COMPARISON
What do I do at work?
What roles do I have in the family or society?

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Carl Rogers: Real and Ideal Self Carl Rogers: Real and Ideal Self
Ideal self may not be consistent with
SELF-CONCEPT IDEAL SELF
what actually happens (Real Self)
• includes all aspects of one’s • one’s view of self as one BUT
being & experiences that wishes to be
are perceived in awareness
To achieve self-
• includes attributes , usually
• People can disown positive, one aspires to actualization:
experiences or aspects of possess They must be in a
themselves not consistent
with their self-concept state of congruence.

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Self defined by social comparison (Festinger,

1954)

3. THE SELF DEFINED Temporal Social

BY SOCIAL Comparison Comparison
COMPARISON • Present condition • Evaluate your
in relation to how attributes using
you were in the others as bases
past

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Leon Festinger: Leon Festinger:

Self defined by social comparison Self defined by social comparison
How does the social
upward comparison

When someone is unhappy or is

comparison process A highly motivated person
unmotivated
work?
downward comparison

• engage in upward comparisons • usually engages in downward

Depends on level of UPWARD: DOWNWARD:
comparisons
• usually assume himself as
motivation:
better worse better or equal to the “best • in order to feel better about
Tendency to compare person”. himself
himself with others • Studies: People choose to
either in an upward make upward comparisons
instead of downward ones
or downward

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2 kinds of DOWNWARD COMPARISONS

PASSIVE
a person takes into
consideration the ACTIVE KEY TERMS ABOUT THE SELF
previous condition in
making comparison
a person compares himself DEFINED BY SOCIAL COMPARISON
with others by demeaning
or causing harm to them.

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Self-evaluation and self-enhancement

Self esteem
 Motivation plays a role in this model and is manifested by self-
evaluation and self-enhancement. person's overall sense of self-
Self-evaluation worth or personal value
• occurs when someone looks for positive
traits in himself how much do i appreciate and like
• based on the best person he compares myself?
himself with.
Self-enhancement often seen as a personality trait
• what needs to be improved? - tends to be stable and enduring
• to reach the level of goodness of the person
he is comparing himself with.

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The Creation of Identities

Reference Group One’s identity must balance
the need to be similar to one’s reference group
 Definition: A group to which an the need to be a unique individual
individual or another group is
compared. Children become aware of the need for a group
identity and are often afraid or acting differently
 Sociologists call any group that Teens often seem torn between the need to
individuals use as a standard for assert their own individual identity and the need
evaluating themselves and their to conform to their reference group
own behavior
New identities are forged in relation to work,
parenthood, economic status and ageing

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