lOMoARcPSD|16138035

Understanding the Self... Prelims Reviewer

Nursing (Our Lady of Fatima University)

StuDocu is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university

Downloaded by Bea Balolong Avila (beba.avila.up@phinmaed.com)
 lOMoARcPSD|16138035

Understanding the Self

(UNDS111) Preliminary
Examinations’ Reviewer

Good luck, future RN!

BSN 1st Year

1
Ocampo, J.S._UNDS111-Prelims-Reviewer
Downloaded by Bea Balolong Avila (beba.avila.up@phinmaed.com)
 lOMoARcPSD|16138035

Chapter 1: Philosophical Perspective of the Self

Philosophy
- Derived from the Greek Word “philos” and “Sophia” which literally means “love for wisdom
- It is the study of acquiring knowledgethrough rational thinking and inquiries that involves in
answering and inquiries that involves in answering questions regarding the nature and existence
of man and he world we live in.
FOUNDERS OF PHILOSOPHY
1. Socrates - Socrates can be considered as first “Marty of Education” knowledge and
philosophy.
- He was charged with corruption of mind of minors and was made to
choose between exile and death via the intake ofhemlock
- The philosophy of Socrates underlies the importance of the notion
“knowing oneself”
- For him, men’s goal in life is to obtain happiness and such goal motivates
us to act towards or against the things that can bring negativities in our
lives
2. Plato - Known as the “father of the academy”
- Plato generally followed his teacher (Socrates) and the ides of knowing
thyself
- Conceptualized the “tripartite theory of the soul”

- Plato splits the human soul into 3 parts:

Appetitive Soul- is the part of the person that is driven by the desire
and need to satisfy oneself. Satisfaction involves both the physical
need and pleasures and desire
Spirited Soul- this can be attributed to the courageous part of a
person, one who wants to do something right and correct the wrong
doings of others.
Rational Soul- among the 3 souls, this is said to be the driver of our
lives. This is the part that thinks and plans for lives. This is the part
that thinks and plans for the future. It decides what to do, when to
do it and the possible results one could have depending on their
actions.
3. Aristotle - The soul is the essence of the self
- For Aristotle, the body and soul are not two separate elements but are one
thing.
- The soul is simply the form of the body, and is not capable of existing
without the body.
- The soul is that which makes a person a person. The soul is the essense of
the self.
- Without the body the soul cannot exist. The soul dies along with the body.
- Aristotle suggested that anything with life has soul.

2
Ocampo, J.S._UNDS111-Prelims-Reviewer
Downloaded by Bea Balolong Avila (beba.avila.up@phinmaed.com)
 lOMoARcPSD|16138035

- His discussion about the self centers on the kinds of soul possessed by
man.
- He introduced the three kinds of soul: vegetative, sentient, and
rational.
The vegetative includes the physical body that can grow.
Sentient includes the sensual desires, feelings, and emotions.
Rational is what makes man human. It includes the intellect that
makes man know and understand things.
- Aristotle suggests that the rational nature of the self is to lead a good,
flourishing, and fulfilling life.
4. St. Augustine - St. Augustine follows he idea that God encompasses us all, that
everything will be better if we are with God.
- His ides of man and how to understanding who we are as a person is
related to our understanding of who we are and how we question ourselves.
- He believes that our notion of ourselves and our idea of existence comes
from a higher form of sense in which bodily senses may not perceive or
understand.
5. Rene Descartes - Rene Descartes was a French philosopher, mathematician and scientist
known to be “father of modern western philosophy”
- Cartesian dualism - he believed that the “Mind” and the “body” are two
separate entities. The mind could exist without the body, but the body
could not exist without the mind
- “Cogito Ergo Sum” which means in English “I think therefore I am”
6. John Locke - He conceptualized the term
“Tabula Rasa” - which means a blank slate or and empty vessel.
- He believed that the experiences and perceptions of a person is important
in the establishment of who that person can become.
7. Sigmund Freud - “The father of psychoanalysis”
- His work on human nature and the unconscious
- He believed that man has different constructs of personality that interacts
with each other and along with his concept of the different levels of
conscious provides an idea of how a person develops the sense of self.
The ID – also known as “the child aspect of a person” its attention
is on satisfaction of one’s needs and self-gratification. Driven by
pleasure principle.
The Ego – sometimes known as the police or the mediator between
the ID and the Superego. It operates within the boundary of reality.
The Superego – is the conscience of one’s personality .
8. Merleau-Ponty - Merleau-Ponty is a French philosopher is known for his works on
existentialism and phenomenology. His idea of self, regarded that the
body and mind are not separated entities, but rather these two components
are one and the same.
- He follows the idea of the “Gestalt Psychology” where he believed that
“whole is greater than the sum of its parts” where he pushed the idea on
the unity of the function of the mind and the body and this idea is called
“Phenomenology of Perception”

3
Ocampo, J.S._UNDS111-Prelims-Reviewer
Downloaded by Bea Balolong Avila (beba.avila.up@phinmaed.com)
 lOMoARcPSD|16138035

9. David Hume - No permanent “self”

- Since our impressions of things based on our experience and from such
impressions, we can create out ideas and knowledge which leads to the
argument that since our impression and ideas change.
10. Immanuel Kant - He argued that the awareness of different emotions that we have,
impressions and behavior is only part of ourself.
- He said to fully understand who we are, a certain level of consciousness
or sense that uses our intuition which synthesizes all the experiences,
impressions and perceptions of ourselves will pave the way to define and
know who we really are.
11. Gilbert Ryle - He said that the self is the behavior presented by the person
- His notion of dualism is the behavior that we show, emotions and actions
are the reflection of our mind and as such is the manifest of who we are.
- He believed that the mind and body are two separate entitles which is said
to be evident in the unexplainable phenomenon or abilities of the mind
where the soul is considered
- He believed that once we encounter others, their perceptions of what we
do, how we act and the way we behave will then result to understanding of
other people and established of who we are.
- “Ghost in the machine” – this view said the man is concepts/ complex
machine with different functioning parts and intelligence and other
characteristics of behavior of man is represented by the ghost in the said
machine.
12. Paul Churchland - He focused on the idea that people should improved our association and
use of words in identifying the self
- He has idea that the “self” is defined by movement of our brain
- “Eliminative materialism”- it opposes that people’s common sense
understanding of the mind is false and that most of the mental states that
people subscribe to, inturn, do not actually exist.
- This idea also applies on the understanding of behavior and emotions.
- Neurophilosophy – he believed that to fully understand one’s behavior,
one should understand the different neurological movement of the brain
that pertains to different emotions feelings, actions and reactions and how
such brain movements affect the body.

Chapter 2: Socioloagical Perspective of the Self

Sociology
- is the study of how human society is established, its structure and how it works, the people’s
interaction with each other and the effects they have to one-another.
1. George Herbert Mead and the Social Self

4
Ocampo, J.S._UNDS111-Prelims-Reviewer
Downloaded by Bea Balolong Avila (beba.avila.up@phinmaed.com)
 lOMoARcPSD|16138035

- Is an American sociologist, he is considered as the father of American Pragmatism. He is also one of the
pioneers in the field of social psychology because of his contributions on the development of the person
relating to various social factors.
- He rejected the idea of biological determination of the self, which proposes that an individual has already
established one’s self from the moment he is born.

The “I” and the “Me” - Mead proposes that there are two components of the self which the
person have, these components of the self which the person have. These
components are the “I” and the “Me”.
“I” – is the reaction of an individual to the attitude of others, as well
as the manifestation of the individuality of a person or it is one’s
response to the established attitude and behavior that a person
assumes in reference to their social interactions.
“Me” – are the attitudes, and behavior of the person that follows the
generalized others that person interacts with or with reference to
their social environment
Three Role-playing Stages of Mead proposed that there are a three-stages in which a person has to go
Self-Development through for one to develop one’ self.
Preparation/Language Stage (Birth- 2yrs old) - during this stage,
the infant simply imitates the actions and behaviors of the people
that the infant interacts with.
Play Stage (2-6yrs old) - It is the time where children begin to
interact with other with which certain rules apply. These rules often
time does not adhere to any set or standards but rather are rules that
are set by children themselves.
Game Stage (6-9yrs old) - The finals stage of development
according to Mead, which are characterized by the ability of the
children to recognize the rules of the game and be able to identify
their roles and the roles of the others that is playing with them.
2. Charles Cooley and the - The term looking glass self was created by American sociologist Charles
Looking-glass Self Horton Cooley in 1902, and introduced into his work Human Nature and
the Social Order. It is described as our reflection of how we think we
appear to others. To further explain would be how oneself imagines how
others view him/her.

- The looking-glass self comprises three main components that are unique
to humans (Shaffer 2005):
• We imagine how we must appear to others in a social situation.
• We imagine and react to what we feel their judgment of that
appearance must be.
• We develop our sense of self and respond through this perceived
judgments of others.

“I am not what I think I am,

I am not what you think I am.
I am what I think you think I am.” - Charles Cooley

5
Ocampo, J.S._UNDS111-Prelims-Reviewer
Downloaded by Bea Balolong Avila (beba.avila.up@phinmaed.com)
 lOMoARcPSD|16138035

3. Gerry Lanuza and the Self • According to Gerry Lanuza, in modern societies the attainment and
as a Product of Modern and stability of self-identity is freely chosen. It is no longer restricted
Postmodern Societies by customs and traditions.
• In postmodern societies, self- identity continuously change due to
the demands of multitude of social contexts, new information
technologies, and globalization.
• These freedom and changes offer opportunities for self-cultivation
but problems may also arise ( e. g., alienation and
dehumanization).

4. Jean Baudrillard - According to Sociologist Jean Baudrillard, in postmodern societies,

individuals achieve self-identity through prestige symbols that they
consume.
- The cultural practices of advertising and mass media greatly influence
individuals to consume goods not for their primary value and utility but to
give them a feeling of goodness and power when compared with others.
- He intoduced the concept of simulacra (singular simulacrum). Signs
stand for nothing than themselves – they are not symbols of some other
thing.

POSTMODERNISM
- His theory suggests when a sign loses its relation to reality, it begins to
stimulate a simulation – making it difficult to distinguish what is/is not
reality.
Simulacra (Simulation) – the process in which the representation
of something comes to replace the thing which is actually being
represented. This representation becomes more important than the
‘real thing’. The media represents reality as fun, but what happens
when we start to believe the simulation is actually reality.
Hyperreality – Baudrillard suggests the media can create idealistic
representations of reality that leave an audience feeling depressed as
there own life does not live up to artificial reality. This division
between ‘real’ and simulation has therefore collapsed and an
illusion of an object is no longer possible because the real object is
no longer there.
- Reality – Heighten and Exaggerate (Simulate) – Simulacra –
Hyperreality
- The postmodern person has become an insatiable consumer and may
never be satisfied in his life.
- Thus, the self may be a never-ending search for prestige in the
postmodern society.

Chapter 3: Anthropological Perspective of the Self

Anthropology - Is a systematic exploration of human biological and cultural diversity.

6
Ocampo, J.S._UNDS111-Prelims-Reviewer
Downloaded by Bea Balolong Avila (beba.avila.up@phinmaed.com)
 lOMoARcPSD|16138035

THE SELF AND THE PERSON IN CONTEMPORARY ANTHROPOLOGY

Anthropology and its Sub- - The academic discipline of anthropology, or the “Four Field”
disciplines anthropology, studies human species and t’s immediate ancestors
includes four main subdisciplines or subfields namely;
Sociocultural
Archaeological
Biological
Linguistic
The Sub-disciplines of Anthropology
1. Cultural - is the study of human society and culture which describes, analyses,
Anthropology interprets and explain social and cultural similarities and differences.
- It explores the diversity of the present and the past.
Ethnography – based on field work
Ethnology – based on cross-cultural comparison.
2. Archaeological - This type of anthropology reconstructs, describes, and interprets, human
Anthropology behavior and cultural patterns through material remains.
- These material remains such as plant, animal, and ancient garbage
provides stories about utilization and actions.
3. Biological or Physical - This focuses on the special interest, human evolution, as revealed by the
Anthropology fossil, human genetics, human growth, and development.
4. Linguistic - This studies languages in tis social and cultural context across space and
Anthropology over time.
- Universal features of language are analysis and association between
language and culture are evaluated.
- It also studies how speech changes in social situations and over time.
THE SELF EMBEDDED IN THE CULTURE
Culture - This refers to customary behavior and beliefs that are passed on through
enculturation.

Enculturation – is the social process of which culture is learned and

transmitted.
Culture defined - It is shared, symbolic, natural, learned, integrated, encompassing and
maladaptive and adaptive.
- According to Geertz (1973), he described culture as “a system of inherited
conceptions expressed in symbolic forms by means of which men
communicate, perpetuate, and develop their knowledge about and attitudes
toward life.

Chapter 4: Psychological Perspective of the Self

Psychology
- The scientific study of human behavior. (Overt and covert behavior)
- And mental processes. (Thinking, feeling, memory)

7
Ocampo, J.S._UNDS111-Prelims-Reviewer
Downloaded by Bea Balolong Avila (beba.avila.up@phinmaed.com)
 lOMoARcPSD|16138035

- The psychological self is about the “Cognitive” and “Affective” representation of one’s
identity or subject of experience.
1. William James and The - For James, the main concept of self is the:
Principle of Psychology Me-self: is the phenomenal self, the experienced self, or the self as
known.
James also gives sub-categories of the Me-self:
- “The Material Self” – is constituted by our bodies, clothes, immediate
family and home.
- “The Social Self” – is based on our interactions with society and the
reaction of people towards us.
- “The Spiritual Self” – the most intimate type of self. And they have the
ability to argue and discriminate one’s moral sensibility, conscience, and
indomitable will.

I-self: is the self-thought or the self-knower

Self can be separated into Three Categories:

1. Its constituents
2. The feeling and emotions they arise. – Self-feeling
3. The actions to which they prompt – Self-seeking and Self-preservation.

2. Carl Rogers and The - was an American psychologist who proposed the personality theory
Concept of the Self known as the “Person-Centered Theory”.
- Rogers believed that people must be fully honest with themselves in order
to have personal discoveries on one self.
- Client-centered therapy: a non-directive intervention wherein a person is
believed to have the potential to solve his own problem.

The Concept of the Self:

A. The Perceived Self: self-worth – the person sees himself and how
others see them.
B. The Real Self – Self-image – how/who the person really is.
C. The Ideal Self – how the person like to be
3. Donald Winnicott and the - An English pediatrician and psychoanalyst who studied child
Concept of True and False development. Having true and false selves was observed from children or
Selves people through play.
True self – an individual is creative, spontaneously experiencing
each day of their lives, appreciating being alive, real integrated and
connected. To the whole existence.
False self – manifested as a form of defense be manifested as a
form of defense. It lacks spontaneity, is dead and empty. It is the
mask that hides the true person for fear of the pain of rejection and
failure.
 Healthy false self - when the false self is functional both for
the person and for society then it is considered healthy. The

8
Ocampo, J.S._UNDS111-Prelims-Reviewer
Downloaded by Bea Balolong Avila (beba.avila.up@phinmaed.com)
 lOMoARcPSD|16138035

healthy false self feels that it is still being true to the true
self.
 Unhealthy false self - a self that fits in but through a feeling
of forced compliance rather than loving adaptation is
unhealthy.

Concept of “True Self” and “Fake Self”

• TRUE SELF – instinctual and spontaneous.
• FAKE SELF – hideous and pretentious
Concept of Unified and As Daniel CW wrote in his article, “Psychoanalysis VS. Postmodern
Multiple Selves Psychology” he has emphasized how Freud perceived person as a unified
being and Gergen’s Concept of multiple self.
4. Murray Bowen and the - An American Psychiatrist and Professor of psychiatry. He was among
Global and Differentiated those who developed the Family Therapy and Systemic Therapy. In his
Self Models theory, he observed that there are two forces affecting the person which is
togetherness and individuality.

Global self
- This affects how he views and feels about himself. The groups of
people that he interacts with every day of his life strongly influence
him.
Differentiated self
- Recognizes his own personality and endowed with unique
characteristics. Being able to free himself from the influence of
others allows him to define himself.
5. Albert Bandura and the - a Canadian-American psychologist, known as the originator of social
Self as Proactive and Agentic learning theory (renamed the social cognitive theory).
- The Social Cognitive Theory suggested that Bandura's (1989) human
beings are proactive, self-regulating, Theory of self-reflective and self-
organizing.

Self as Proactive
- controlling a situation by making things happen or by preparing for
possible future problems
Agentic
- asocial cognition theory of Albert Bandura that views people as
self-organizing, proactive, self-reflective and self-regulating as
times change
- the capacity for human beings to make choices in the world

FEATURES OF HUMAN AGENCY

 Intentionality - refers to the actions performed by the person
intentionally or with full awareness of his behavior.
 Forethought - refers to the person's anticipation of likely outcomes
of his behavior.

9
Ocampo, J.S._UNDS111-Prelims-Reviewer
Downloaded by Bea Balolong Avila (beba.avila.up@phinmaed.com)
 lOMoARcPSD|16138035

 Self-reactiveness - refers to the process in which the person is

motivated and regulates his behavior as he observes his progress in
achieving his goals.
 Self-reflectiveness - refers to the person looking inward and
evaluating his motivations, values, life goals and other people's
effect on him.
 Self-regulation - the person engages in self-regulated behavior
when he reactively attempts to minimize the discrepancies between
what he has already accomplished and what he still wants to
achieve. After seeing that he is at the right track in achieving his
goal he will also proactively set new and higher goals for himself.

10
Ocampo, J.S._UNDS111-Prelims-Reviewer
Downloaded by Bea Balolong Avila (beba.avila.up@phinmaed.com)