WEEK 5.2: THE “ME” AND “I” SELF William James

William James

• "father of American Psychology"

• He was born on January 11, 1842, in New York City, New York, and died at the age of 68 last August 27, 1910 (Wikipedia, 2019).

• He was an American philosopher and psychologist who first offered psychology courses in the United States in 1875 at Harvard University Department of Psychology

THE “ME” AND “I” SELF

William James: topic

SELF is an empirical reality

• This means that you can experience and know as an object of thought, you can assign qualities, and you can make judgments (Seminar, 2006).

• According to him, the self is composed of two types: the "Me" and the "I"

William James

• According to ___________, human individuals have the capacity for being a thinking subject and the object of their thinking at the same time.

_________theory of the self can then be summarized in terms of “one duality” and “two trichotomies

one duality

“I” and “me,”

“two trichotomies

the “history of me” and the “constituents of me.”

The self as the knower or the “I”

• Also known as the pure ego

• The “____” is the thinking subject

• both conscious of their environment and self-conscious of their own existence.

• The continuous “stream of consciousness” inside an individual constitutes the “____”. -

• The “____”, does the thinking and makes awareness and self-awareness possible.

The self as known or the “ME”

• Individuals turn themselves into a “_____” when they make themselves the object of their own thinking.

- The “_____” self is divided into three temporal segments according to the “history” of its evolvement: constituents of me, self-feelings, and self-seeking.

Empirical Me

The self as Known or __________.

James called this part as “empirical self”.

• For him, there are three empirical selves, namely:

  • the material self,

  • the social self

  • the spiritual self

THE MATERIAL SELF

• consists of one’s body, clothes, family, home, and other possessions that one values and regards as one’s own

• among all those things, one’s body is the core of one’s _________self, which one calls “me,” and the rest of it one calls “mine

THE SOCIAL SELF

• consists of one’s images in the minds of others, which makes up one’s reputation in society

• __________self refers to how we are regarded and recognized by others.

• The essence of the "________self' according to James, is the recognition we tend to get from our friends, family, workmates, relatives, and others. Hence it is our innate tendency to get ourselves noticed favorably by others

THE SPIRITUAL SELF

• includes one’s psychological faculties and dispositions, as well as one’s thoughts, beliefs, and feelings

• these psychic dispositions are the most enduring and intimate part of the self

empirical self has a history

When a person reflects on one’s self at any given moment, the person encounters not only the “present self” but also the “past selves” as well as the “possible selves” in the future. This chronological dimension of the “empirical me” leads to the trichotomy of the self's history

history of me

composed of:

• constituents of the “Me”

• self feeling

• self-seeking

constituents of the “Me”

which refers to an individual’s empirical existence in the world

self feelings

refers to the feelings and emotions that are aroused in the individual by one’s knowledge and appraisal of one’s empirical existence in the world;

self-seeking

– refers to an individual’s effort to preserve and better oneself based on one’s self-knowledge and resulting self-feelings.

self-seeking

refers to an individual’s effort to preserve and better oneself based on one’s self-knowledge and resulting self-feelings.