The Self as a

Cognitive
Construction
 PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology is the scientific study of how people behave, think, and
feel.
 It includes topics, such as how the brain works, how our memory is
organized, how people interact in groups, and how children learn
about the world.
In fact, everything that concerns the human being is concern of
psychology.
 Psychology will scrutinize it so that you as human being will
understand how it is to be “you.”
 Jean Piaget's Cognitive
Development
Psychologist Jean Piaget was a Swiss clinical psychologist known for his
pioneering work in child development.
The theory dealts with the nature of knowledge itself; and how humans
gradually come to acquire, construct, and use it.
According to Piaget, cognitive development is a progressive reorganization of
mental processes resulting from biological maturation and environmental
experience.
He believes that children construct an understanding of the world around
them, experience inconsistencies between what they already know and what
they discover in their environment, and then adjust their ideas accordingly.
 Jean Piaget's Cognitive
Development
Piaget observed how children processed and made sense of the world around them and
eventually developed a four-stage model of how the mind processes new information
encountered.
These are the three basic components to Piaget’s cognitive theory:
1.Schemas/schemes: These are the building blocks of knowledge. Schemes are
mental organizations that individuals use to understand their environments and
designate action.
2.Adaptation: It involves the child’s learning processes to meet situational demands.
3.Stages of Cognitive Development: They reflect the increasing sophistication of the
child’s thought process.
 Jean Piaget's Cognitive
Development
According to Piaget, the knowledge children acquire is organized into schemas
(scheme) or groupings of similar actions or thoughts.
Furthermore, he describes two processes used by the individual in his/her attempt to
adapt- assimilation and accommodation.
The individual uses both these processes to adjust to his or her environment in an
increasingly complex manner.
Assimilation is the application of previous concepts to new concepts.
Accommodation happens when people encounter completely new information or
when existing ideas are challenged.
 Jean Piaget's Stages of Cognitive
Development
STAGE AGE CHARACTERISTICS OF STAGE
Sensor imotor 0-2 The child learns by doing: looking, touching,
sucking. The child also has a primitive
understanding of cause-and-effect
relationships. Object permanence appears
around 9 months.
Pr eoper ational 2-7 The child uses language and symbols,
including letters and numbers. Egocentrism is
also evident. Conservation marks the end of
the preoperational stage and the beginning of
concrete operations.
Concr ete Oper ations 7-11 The child demonstrates conservation,
reversibility, serial ordering, and a mature
understanding of cause-and-effect relationship.
Thinking at this stage is still concrete.

For mal Oper ations 12+ The individual demonstrates abstract thinking
at this stage.
HARTER’S SELF-DEVELOPMENT CONCEPT
 Psychologist, author, and professor, Dr. Susan Harter (1999) detailed the emergence of self-
concept and asserted that the broad developmental changes observed across early childhood,
later childhood, and adolescence could be interpreted within a Piagetian framework.

 The development of self-concept accoring to Harter is as follows:

1.Early childhood- The child describes the “self” in terms of concrete,observable

characteristics such as physical attributes, material possessions, behaviors and preferences.

2.Middle to later childhood- The self is described in terms of trait-like constructs that
would require the type of hierarchical organizational skills characteristic of logical thought
development.

3.Adolescence- According to Harper, this is the emergence of more abstract self-

definitons, such as inner thoughts, emotions, attitudes, and motives.

4.Emerging adults- The marked characteristic of “self” for emerging adults is having a
vision of a “possible self”. It is the “age of possibilities”.
WILLIAM JAMES AND THE ME-SELF; I-SELF
 “The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook”, wrote William
James in his groundbreaking masterpiece, The principles of
Psychology, written in 1890.
 A figure commonly known as “the father of American Psychology”,
philosopher, psychologist, and university professor, William Jmaes
gave one of the earliest self-theory psychological analyses.
 According to him, the “self” has two elements: the I-self and the Me-
self.
 I-self is the pure ego. It is the subjective self. It is the “self” that is
aware of its own actions.
WILLIAM JAMES AND THE ME-SELF; I-SELF
The I-self characteristically has four features. These are:
1.A sense of being the agent or initiator of behavior- I believe my
actions have an impact; that I cause an effect in my environment.
2.A sense of being unique- This is how I am different from everything
in my environment; I perceive there is only one Me.
3.A sense of continuity- I am the same person from day to day.
4.A sense of awareness about being aware- I understand what is
going on in me and around me; and I know I understand it.
WILLIAM JAMES AND THE ME-SELF; I-SELF
 The me-self is the self that is the object. It is the “self” that you can
describe, such as your physical characteristics, personalities, social
role, or relationships, thoughts, feelings.
 James called it the empirical self.
 Empirical is defined as “based on, concerned with, or verifiable by
observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic.”
WILLIAM JAMES AND THE ME-SELF; I-SELF
The dimensions of the me-self include:
1.Material- physical appearance and extensions of it such as
clothing, immediate family, and home.
2.Social- social skills and significant interpersonal relationships.
3.Spiritual- personality, character, defining values
REAL AND IDEAL SELF-CONCEPTS
Personality development and the self-concept
 Rogers based his theories of personality development on humanistic
psychology and theories of subjective experience.
 According to Rogers, all behavior is motivated by self-actualizing tendencies
and these tendencies drive you to reach your full potential.
 He believes that the world a person exists in is the center of constant
changes, and the person reacts to these changes.
 As a result of this constant interaction with the environment and others, an
individual forms a structure of the self or self-concept.
Ideal self vs. Real self
 Rogers further divided the self into two categories: the ideal self
and the real self.

 The ideal self is the person that you would like yourself to be; it is
your concept of the “best me” who is worthy of admiration.

 It is an idealized image of the self that the individual has developed

based on what you have has learned and experienced.

 The real self is the person you actually are. It is how you behave
right at the moment of a situation. It is who you are in reality--how
you think, feel, or act at present.
Ideal self vs. Real self
The ideal self could include:
1.Notions influenced by your parents;
2.What you admire in others;
3.What the society sees as acceptable;and
4.What you think is in your best interest.
Importance of Alignment
Rogers accentuated the need to achieve consistency between the
ideal and real self.
According to Rogers, “if the way that I am (real self) is aligned
with the way I want to be (ideal self), then I will feel a sense of
mental well-being or peace of mind.
High congruence leads to a greater sense of self-worth and a
healthy, productive life.
Importance of Alignment
 When there is great inconsistency between your ideal and real
selves, or if the way you are is not aligned with what you want to
be, then you experience a state Rogers called incongruence.
 He added that incongruence could lead to maladjustment.
Maladjustment is defined as the inability to react successfully
and satisfactorily to the demands of one’s environment.
 ALLPORT’S PERSONALITY THEORY
 Psychologist Gordon Allport (1961) proposed his
“personality trait” theory asserting that every person
possesses “traits”.

 According to Allport, a “trait” is your essential

characteristic that never, ever changes and sticks with
you all your life.

 Moreover, these traits shape who you are (how you think,
feel, or behave) in any given day.
 THE EGO STATES
● In 1960, psychiatrist Eric Berne began to develop his transactional
analysis model as basis for understanding behavior. Transactional
analysis is anchored on two notions:

1.Every person has three parts called “ego states” in his or

her personality.
2.People communicate with one another assuming roles of
any of these ego states.

● Berne presented the ego states as:

○ 1.Parent
○ 2.Adult
○ 3.Child
 THE EGO STATES
 The parent ego is the voice of authority. It could be a comforting
“nurturing parent” voice or a “controlling/critical parent” voice that
tells you what you should do or should not do.

 The adult ego state is the rational person.

 First is the natural child who loves to play but is sensitive and
vulnerable.

 The little professor is the curious child who wants to try everything.

 The adaptive child is the one who reacts to the world. He or she could
be trying to fit in or is rebelling agaisnt authority.
 DOMAINS OF THE SELF
● University professor and author George Henriques proposed that the
human self has three related, but separable, domains.

● Henriques (2014) described the “experiential self” as the theater of

consciousness because it is the first to experience its beingness
(the state or fact of existing).

● The “private self-conscious” can be described as the narrator or

interpreter.

● The “public self or persona” is the image you project to the public.
 TRUE VS FALSE SELVES
● In 1960, an English pediatrician and psychoanalyst, D.W. Winnicott
introduced his concept of “false self” and “true self”.
● According to Winnicott, the “self” is simply the “ person who is me”.
● Winnicott expressed that the false self is the product of early experience.
● It is a defensive organization formed by the infant because of the inadequate
mothering or failures in empathy.
● The false self is also based on being completely obedient to the parents’
wishes.
● However, when the person has false self but can still function both as an
individual and in the society, then he or she has a healthy false self.
● The healthy false self feels that it is still connected with the true self. Thus,
it can be compliant without feeling guilty that it abandoned its true self.
 TRUE VS FALSE SELVES
● On the other hand, there is also the unhealthy false self.

● True self flourishes in infancy if the mother is positively responsive to the

child’s sponatneous expressions.

● Winnicott described true self as a sense of self based on “spontaneous

authentic experience”.

● Winncott believed that people unconsciously repeat early relationships

(particularly the mother-infant relationship) in one form or another.

● A child whose mother is positively responsive and supports the child’s

natural process of individuation will grow up as an adult with a stable self-
image; views other people realistically; and accepts both the positive and
negative side of every person including himself/herself.