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Self As Cognitive Construct

The self is conceptualized as having two aspects - the "I" which refers to thinking, acting and feeling, and the "Me" which refers to one's physical and psychological characteristics. William James and Carl Rogers described these two aspects of self. There are various definitions of self in psychology, including identity which refers to personal traits and roles, and self-concept which is one's idea of who they are. Self, identity and self-concept are mental constructs that are created and recreated through social interaction and experiences over time. Social interaction plays a key role in developing one's self-concept and social identity.

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44 views7 pages

Self As Cognitive Construct

The self is conceptualized as having two aspects - the "I" which refers to thinking, acting and feeling, and the "Me" which refers to one's physical and psychological characteristics. William James and Carl Rogers described these two aspects of self. There are various definitions of self in psychology, including identity which refers to personal traits and roles, and self-concept which is one's idea of who they are. Self, identity and self-concept are mental constructs that are created and recreated through social interaction and experiences over time. Social interaction plays a key role in developing one's self-concept and social identity.

Uploaded by

shyneegrngl
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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SELF AS A COGNITIVE CONSTRUCT

Self
-is the sense of personal identity and of who we
are as individual.

William James
-one of the earliest psychologist to study the
“self”.
-conceptualized the “self” as having two aspects.
The “I” and the “Me”.
• “I” is the thinking, acting and feeling self.
• “Me” is the physical characteristics as well
as psychological capabilities that makes you
who you are.

Similarly,
Carl Rogers
• “I” is the one who acts and decides.
• “Me” is what you think or feel about yourself.
There are various definitions of the “self” and other
similar or interchangeable concepts in
Psychology.

-Other concepts similar to self are identity and self-


Concept:
• Identity is composed of personal characteristics.
Social roles, and responsibilities, as well as
affiliations that define who one is.
Identity-the sociaty is telling us who we are.
• Self-concept is what basically comes to your
mind when you are asked about who you are
Self-concept-the idea of who we think we are.

Self, identity, and self-concept are not fixed in one


time frame.
-Carl Rogers captured this idea in his concept of self-
schema or our organized system or collection of
knowledge about who we are.
Self -schema -how we see some things.
Theories generally see the self and identity as mental
constructs, created and recreated in memory.
Mental construct-our beliefs of some things
based on our experience as well.

Freud saw the self, its mental processes, and one’s


behavior as the results of the interaction between the
stulructures or personaity(Id, the Ego, and the
Superego).
Id-known as the pleasure principle.
Ego-the reality principle
Superego-the conscience, provides moral
standards.
As in the abovementioned definitions of the self,
social interaction always has a part to play in who we
think we are.

Under the theory of symbolic interactionism, Mead


argued that the self is created and developed through
human interaction. There are three reasons why self
and identity are social products:
• 1.We do not create ourselves out of nothing.
Society helped in creating the foundations of who
we are.

• 2.Whether we like to admit it or not, we actually


need others to affirm and reinforce who we think
we are.
Reason why society is the product of self and
identity.

• 3.What we think is important to us may also have


been influenced by what is important in our social
or historical context.

Social interaction and group affiliation are vital factors


in creating our self-concept especially in the aspect of
providing us with or social identity. However, there are
times when we are aware of our self-concepts, also
called self-awareness. Carver and Scheier.

Identified two types of self that we can be aware of


• The Private Self-your internal standards and
private thoughts and feelings.
• Public Self – your public image commonly
geared toward having a good representation of
yourself to others.

Self-awareness also presents us with at least three


other self-schema:
• Actual Self – who you are at the moment.
• Ideal Self – who you like to be
• Ought Self- who we think we should be

Self-awareness may be positive or negative


depending on the circumstances and our next course
of action. It can keep you doing something
dangerous. In other instances, self-awareness can be
too much that we are concerned about being
observed and criticized by others, also known as self-
consciousness. At other times, we may experience
deindividuation or the loss of individual self-

Awareness and individual accountability in groups. A


lot of people will attune themselves
With the emotions of their group and because the
large crowd also provides some kind of anonymity
Our group identity and self-awareness also has a
great impact on our self-esteem. Self-esteem is our
own positive or negative perception or evaluation of
ourselves. One

Of the ways in which our social relationships affects


our self-esteem is through social comparison. 1.
Downward Social Comparison-comparing ourselves
with those people who

Are worse off than us.

2. Upward Social Comparison – comparing ourselves


with those people who

Are better off than us.

Social comparison entails what is called self-


evaluation maintenance theory which states that we
can feel threatened when someone out-performs us.
In this case, we react in three ways:

• We distance ourselves from the person or redefine


our relationship with them. • We may reconsider the
importance of the aspect or skill in which you were
out- performed.

We may also strengthen or resolve to improve that


certain aspect of ourselves.

However, in the attempt to increase or maintain self-


esteem, some people become narcissistic.
Narcissism is a trait characterized by overly high self-
esteem, self- admiration and self-centeredness
Sometimes, there is a thin line between high self-
esteem and narcissism and there are a lot of test and
measurements for self-esteem but the issue is that
the result can be affected by the desire of the person
to portray herself in a positive or advantageous way.

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