Psychology and The Self
Psychology and The Self
Psychology and The Self
SELF
FDM
PSYCHOLOGY
IT IS A MULTIFACETED DISCIPLINE AND INCLUDES MANY SUB-
FIELDS OF STUDY SUCH AREAS AS HUMAN DEVELOPMENT,
SPORTS, HEALTH, CLINICAL, SOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND COGNITIVE
PROCESSES.
A. THE SELF AS A
COGNITIVE CONSTRUCTION
1) Me-Self vs I-Self
“A man's Self is the sum total of all that he can call his, not only his body and his
psychic powers, but his clothes and his house.”
(2)Neurotic claims.
(3)Neurotic pride.
• Neurotic means someone who shows signs of mental disturbance (anxiety, self-
doubt, and other negative feelings) but does not indicate complete psychosis.
• It gives us more attention to negative outcomes or risks.
DAVID LESTER AND ROY BAUMEISTER:
MULTIPLE VS UNIFIED SELVES
• David Lester
“Properly speaking, a man has as many social selves as there are individuals who
recognize him and carry an image of him in their head.”
• Roy Baumeister
“But the concept of the self loses its meaning if a person has multiple
selves…the essence of self involves integration of diverse experiences
into a unity…In short, unity is one of the defining features of selfhood and
identity.”
• Jung realized that we are guided toward Self-realization by the aims and instincts of the
soul.
• Striving for superiority or success: single drive or motivating force behind all behavior
and experience.
• People striving for superiority with little concern to others are motivated largely by
exaggerated feelings of personal inferiority.
• People striving for superiority with concern to others has more importance for them the
social progress rather than personal credit.
ABRAHAM MASLOW:
THEORY OF SELF-ACTUALIZATION
• Self-actualization, according to Maslow, represents growth
of an individual toward fulfillment of the highest needs—
those for meaning in life, in particular.
CARL ROGERS:
ACTUALIZE THE PERCEIVED
SELF
"The organism has one basic tendency and striving - to actualize, maintain, and
enhance the experiencing organism”
(Rogers, 1951, p. 487).
• Humans have one basic motive, that is the tendency to self-actualize - i.e., to fulfill
one's potential and achieve the highest level of 'human-beingness' we can.
• Ordinary consciousness of self: stage most people refer to when they speak
of a healthy personality. It involves being able to learn from ones mistakes and
live responsibly.
• We introduced the idea of the onion – the true self at the
center protected by outer layers of false self.
TRUE SELF FALSE SELF
• Like their bodies • Pessimistic
• However, he does not experience what he lives out as something that is truly his, but
rather as something alien to him.
• He is never able to feel happy about his successes, nor feel valued even
though others may see that value in him.
• As far as he is concerned, it is his false self who has achieved it or his false self that is
being valued. This just creates a breakdown with himself and with the world.
• His true self is trapped, fantasizing about, and experiencing, a despair that it is never
able to understand by itself.
B. ALBERT BANDURA:
THE SELF AS PROACTIVE AND
AGENTIC
• Humans through their agency are proactive agents
of experiences.
4. Self-reflectiveness: give the person the ability to reflect upon and the
adequacy of his or her own thoughts and actions; people are not only
agents of actions but also self-examiners of their own functioning.
• Efficacy Beliefs: foundation of human agency; plays a role in self-regulation.