Comprehensive Guide to General Psychology: The Self, Intelligence, and Development

Self-Concept and the Perception of the Self

  • Definition of Self-Concept: This is a general term used to refer to how an individual thinks about, evaluates, or perceives themselves. Awareness of oneself is essentially having a concept of oneself.

    • Baumeister (1999) Definition: The individual's belief about himself or herself, including the person's attributes and who and what the self is.
    • Scope of Self-Concept: It is an overarching idea regarding who we are physically, emotionally, socially, spiritually, and in other aspects. It is formed during growth based on self-knowledge (Neill, 2005) and is considered multidimensional.

  • Self-Concept vs. Self-Esteem:

    • Self-concept is the perception of self; it is the answer to the question ‐Who am I?‐ It involves knowing one’s tendencies, thoughts, preferences, habits, hobbies, skills, and weaknesses.
    • Self-esteem refers to an overall sense of value or worth. It measures how much a person values, approves of, appreciates, prizes, or likes themselves (Adler & Stewart, 2004).
    • Morris Rosenberg (1965): Defined self-esteem simply as one's attitude toward oneself, either a favorable or unfavorable attitude.

  • Self-Concept vs. Self-Image:

    • Self-image is less broad than self-concept and constitutes how an individual sees themselves, which may not align with reality.
    • Self-concept is a comprehensive evaluation based on how a person sees, values, thinks about, and feels about herself.
    • Carl Rogers' Components: Rogers posited that self-concept consists of self-image, self-esteem (or self-worth), and the ‐ideal self‐ (McLeod, 2008).

Self-Concept Theory and Development

  • General Theoretical Agreements:

    • Self-concept includes cognitive and affective judgments about the self.
    • It is multi-dimensional (incorporating social, religious, spiritual, physical, and emotional aspects).
    • It is learned, not inherent.
    • It is influenced by biological factors, environmental factors, and heavily by social interaction.

  • Developmental Phases:

    • Self-concept develops through childhood and early adulthood, during which it is more easily changed or updated.
    • Changes in later years are possible but represent an uphill battle due to established ideas of identity.
    • Congruence: When self-concept aligns with reality.
    • Incongruence: When self-concept does not align with reality (Cherry, 2018B; Gecas, 1982).

Nature vs. Nurture Debate

  • Definitions:

    • Nature: Pre-wiring influenced by genetic inheritance and biological factors. Genes determine physical characteristics like eye color, hair type (straight or curly), skin pigmentation, and certain diseases.
    • Nurture: Influence of external factors after conception, including exposure, experience, learning, parenting styles, and social relationships.

  • Biological Correlations:

    • Height, weight, male hair loss, life expectancy, and vulnerability to specific illnesses (e.g., breast cancer in women) are positively correlated between genetically related individuals.

  • Philosophical and Psychological Views:

    • John Locke: Believed in tabula rasa (blank slate), suggesting everything we are and know is determined by experience.
    • Evolutionary View: Some advocates believe all characteristics and behaviors result from evolution and traits handed down from parents.

  • Examples:

    • Academic Success: Is it genetic predisposition or an enriched environment?
    • Aggression: A man who abuses his family might have been born with violent tendencies (nature) or learned it by observing parents (nurture).
    • Social Learning: A child learns to say 'please' and 'thank you' through observation and reinforcement or learns aggression on the playground.

Human Development and Developmental Psychology

  • Developmental Psychology: A branch of psychology studying physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the lifespan.

  • Lifespan Stages:

    1. Neonatal: Newborn infants equipped with sight and sound to facilitate social responses.
    2. Infancy: 12 mos−2 yrs12 \text{ mos} - 2 \text{ yrs}.
    3. Early childhood: 3−8 yrs3 - 8 \text{ yrs}.
    4. Middle childhood: 9−11 yrs9 - 11 \text{ yrs}.
    5. Adolescence: 12−18 yrs12 - 18 \text{ yrs}.
    6. Adulthood.

  • Prenatal and Neonatal Detail:

    • Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS): Physical and cognitive abnormalities caused by heavy drinking during pregnancy.
    • Rooting Reflex: A reflex in newborns where they turn their face toward a stimulus on the cheek or lip and make sucking motions; ensures successful breastfeeding.
    • Maturation: Biological growth processes enabling orderly behavioral changes.
    • Motor Development: A universal sequence (sitting, standing, walking) where genes play a major role.

Jean Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development

  • Biographical Data: Born in Switzerland on August 9, 1896; died in Geneva on September 16, 1980. Received a Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of Neuchâtel in 1918.

  • Genetic Epistemology: Piaget identified as a genetic epistemologist. Genetics is the study of origins; Epistemology is the philosophical study of the origin, nature, and limits of knowledge.

  • Cognitive Components:

    1. Schemas: Basic building blocks of cognitive models; mental representations or 'index cards' used to understand and respond to the world (Wadsworth, 2004).
    2. Assimilation: Using an existing schema to deal with a new object/situation.
    3. Accommodation: Changing an existing schema to deal with a new object/situation when the current knowledge does not work.

  • Stages of Cognitive Development:     | Stage | Age | Description | Phenomena |     | :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |     | Sensorimotor | Birth to 2 yrs2 \text{ yrs} | World experienced through motor and actions (looking, touching, mouthing) | Object permanence, differentiating self from objects, stranger's anxiety |     | Preoperational | 2−7 yrs2 - 7 \text{ yrs} | Representing things with words and images | Egocentrism (inability to take another's view), language development |     | Concrete Operational | 7−11 yrs7 - 11 \text{ yrs} | Thinking logically, performing arithmetical operations, internal mental work | Mathematical transformations, major turning point |     | Formal Operational | 11 yrs+11 \text{ yrs} + | Abstract reasoning | Potential for mature moral reasoning |

Attachment, Morality, and Adolescence

  • Attachment Key Concepts:

    • Stranger Anxiety: Fear of strangers beginning around 8 months8 \text{ months} of age.
    • Attachment: Emotional tie with another shown by seeking closeness and distress upon separation.
    • Secure Attachment: Results in a sense of "basic trust"—the feeling that the world is predictable and reliable.
    • Deprivation of Attachment: Children in institutions or abusive homes without regular caregivers may be withdrawn, frightened, or speechless. Abuse can lead to nightmares, depression, and drug abuse in adolescence.

  • Adolescent Milestones:

    • Puberty: Period of sexual maturation capable of reproduction.
    • Primary Sex Characteristics: Body structures (ovaries, testes, external genitalia) enabling reproduction.
    • Secondary Sex Characteristics: Non-reproductive traits (breasts/hips in females, voice quality/body hair in males).
    • Menarche: The first menstrual period, associated with pride, excitement, embarrassment, and apprehension.

  • Morality and Identity:

    • Moral Reasoning: Thinking process to determine if an idea is right or wrong.
    • Self-Identity: Awareness and identification with oneself.
    • Erik Erikson: Developmental psychologist (1902–1994) who studied psychosocial development. He believed identity formation is the most important life task, shifting as people confront challenges.

Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Development

  • Biography: Born June 15, 1902, in Frankfurt, Germany. Never received a formal degree in medicine/psychology; received certificates from the Montessori teachers association and Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute.
  • Theoretical Model: Eight stages throughout the lifespan. Successful completion of a stage results in a "basic virtue"; failure reduces the ability to complete future stages (though they can be resolved later).
  • Adult Stages:
    • Young Adulthood (20s20s to early 40s40s): Intimacy vs. Isolation. Capacity for intimate love vs. social isolation.
    • Middle Adulthood (40s40s to 60s60s): Generativity vs. Stagnation. Sense of contributing to the world (family/work) vs. lack of purpose.
    • Late Adulthood (late 60s60s and up): Integrity vs. Despair. Satisfaction vs. failure when reflecting on life.

Perception and Attention

  • Sensation vs. Perception:
    • Sensation: Receiving sense impressions.
    • Perception: Organizing and interpreting sensory data by combining it with previous experience.
  • Factors of Attention:
    • Voluntary: Requires effort; directed energy to a task. Prolonged voluntary attention can lead to boredom or fatigue.
    • Involuntary: Used in advertising to manipulate motives and needs.
    • Habitual: Result of practice; routines become automatic.
  • Visual Perception Cues:
    1. Aerial Perspective: Near objects are clear; far objects are blurred/hazzy.
    2. Superposition: Partially covered objects are perceived as farther away.
    3. Apparent Magnitude: Smaller figures in a picture are perceived as farther away.
    4. Illusions: False/distorted perceptions.
  • Perception of Time: Subjective; time drags during boredom or suspense/pain and moves quickly when engrossed.

Motivation: Drives and Needs

  • Key Terms:
    • Motivation: General arousal of an inner urge to react.
    • Need: Felt lack of anything desired.
    • Drive: Internal stimulus moving one to act.
    • Physiological Needs: Hunger, thirst, sex, elimination of waste.
    • Social Motives: Recognition, security, status, affiliation, conformity.
  • Theories of Motivation:
    • Robert Woodworth: Mechanisms can furnish their own drive; habits have motivating power.
    • Alfred Adler: The most important motive is the desire for power and superiority as a reaction to inferiority complex.
    • Sigmund Freud (Instincts):
      • Eros: Life drive; love, creativity, sexuality, self-preservation.
      • Thanatos: Death drive; aggression, destruction, violence, and sadism. Energy from traumatic events leads to reenactment or outward violence.

Psychoanalysis: Sigmund Freud

  • Biographical Data: Born in Czech Republic, May 6, 1856; died 1939. Founder of psychoanalysis; investigated hysteria with Josef Breuer using hypnosis.
  • The Iceberg Analogy (Levels of the Mind):
    1. Conscious: Focus of attention; rational thinking.
    2. Pre-conscious: Thoughts easily brought to consciousness.
    3. Unconscious: The largest region; repository of primitive wishes, frightening memories, and unacceptable desires locked away through repression.
  • Tripartite Theory (Platonic structure):
    • Id: Instinctual drives (Eros and Thanatos); operates on the pleasure principle in the unconscious.
    • Ego: Developed from the id; operates on the reality principle in both conscious and unconscious to satisfy the id safely.
    • Superego: Developed in early childhood; operates on the morality principle ensuring moral standards are followed.
  • Psychosexual Stages (Libido-focused):
    1. Oral Stage: Birth to 1 yr 6 mos1 \text{ yr } 6 \text{ mos}.
    2. Anal Stage: 1 yr 6 mos1 \text{ yr } 6 \text{ mos} to 3 yrs3 \text{ yrs}.
    3. Phallic Stage: 3−5 yrs3 - 5 \text{ yrs} (Oedipus and Electra complexes: sexual attraction to opposite-sex parent).
    4. Latency Stage: 5−12 yrs5 - 12 \text{ yrs}.
    5. Genital Stage: 12 yrs12 \text{ yrs} to adulthood.
  • Dream Analysis:
    • Manifest Content: What is remembered.
    • Latent Content: Symbolic, underlying wish.
    • Dream-work Processes: Condensation (joining ideas), Displacement (transforming the target person), and Secondary Elaboration (stringing images logically).

Intelligence and the Nine Intelligences

  • Definition: Capacity to adjust thinking to new requirements; mental adaptability. Intelligence is defined by Dr. Howard Gardner as being broader than traditional I.Q. testing.
  • Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences:
    1. Linguistic: Learning through reading, writing, and speaking. Careers: Writers, lawyers.
    2. Logical-Mathematical: Finding patterns, calculating, solving puzzles. Careers: Scientists, programmers.
    3. Musical: Using rhythms and patterns to understand things. Careers: Composers, singers.
    4. Interpersonal: Extroverted/empathetic socializers and team players. Careers: Politicians, teachers.
    5. Intrapersonal: Introspective, self-motivated, learning best alone. Careers: Psychologists, poets.
    6. Bodily-Kinesthetic: Learning through movement and touch; fine-tuned motor skills. Careers: Dancers, actors.
    7. Visual-Spatial: Ability to visualize, draw, and design. Careers: Architects, designers.
    8. Naturalistic: Connection to the earth and working with nature. Careers: Veterinarians, zookeepers.
    9. [Clarification: Numbering appears out of sequence in transcript, indicating 9 types total]
    10. Existential (Spirit Smart): Dealing with big questions of existence; metaphysics. Careers: Philosophers, clergy.

Psychological Testing and Intelligence Distribution

  • Testing Types:

    1. Clinical Interview: Information-gathering for the professional.
    2. Assessment of Intellectual Functioning (IQ): E.g., Raven’s Progressive Matrices, a non-verbal measure of general intelligence.
    3. Personality Assessment: E.g., Thematic Apperception Test (TAT).
    4. Behavioral Assessment.

  • Normal Distribution Table:     | IQ Score | Description | % of Population |     | :--- | :--- | :--- |     | 0−190 - 19 | Idiot | 1%1\% |     | 20−4920 - 49 | Imbecile | 1%1\% |     | 50−6950 - 69 | Moron | 2%2\% |     | 70−7970 - 79 | Inferior | 6%6\% |     | 80−8980 - 89 | Dull | 15%15\% |     | 90−10990 - 109 | Average | 46%46\% |     | 110−119110 - 119 | Bright | 18%18\% |     | 120−129120 - 129 | Superior | 8%8\% |     | 130−139130 - 139 | Very Superior | 3%3\% |     | 140−179140 - 179 | Gifted | 1%1\% |     | 180+180 + | Genius | 1%1\% |

  • Categories of Ability:

    • Mental Retardation: Diagnosed before 1818, IQ below average, lack of skills for daily living. Mild involves lack of curiosity; severe involves lifelong infantile behavior.
    • Idiots Savants: Moderately retarded individuals with extraordinary talent in specific fields (e.g., math, memory, music).
    • Child Prodigies: Children under 1010 producing adult-level output; have high working memory.
    • Genius: Defined either as great intellectual ability (I.Q. score) or exceptionally high creative achievement/originality.

Emotions and Facial Expressions

  • Components of Emotion:

    1. Subjective (Personal) Feelings: Difficult to measure; rely on individual description.
    2. Physiological (Body) Responses: Heart rate, sweating, "fight or flight" reaction.
    3. Expressive Behavior: Outward signs like body language; can reinforce or inhibit survival actions (e.g., running faster when scared).

  • Six Universal Emotions:

    1. Happiness
    2. Sadness
    3. Surprise (Brows arch, upper eyelids rise, jaw drops).
    4. Fear (Lower eyelids tighten, brows flat/tense, lip corners go sideways).
    5. Disgust (Upper lip pulls up, nose wrinkles, mouth opens, tongue out).
    6. Anger (Lips/eyes/brow movements; furrowed eyebrows protect the eyes).

  • Other Emotional Displays:

    • Embarrassment: Averted gaze (head down and to the side), exposing the neck, constrained smile.
    • Shame: Head moves straight down, chin tucks into neck; sign of submissiveness.
    • Pride: Head tilts back, chin goes up.

  • Emotion Control: Emotions should be controlled, not suppressed. Suppressing a "fight" response (freeze) is harmful; an outlet like "blowing off steam" (flight) is preferred.

Learning and Thinking

  • Learning Theories:

    1. Classical Conditioning (Pavlov): Includes stimulus generalization, transfer of responses, and extinction (loss of response over time).
    2. Operant Conditioning (Skinner):
      • Positive Reinforcement: Adding something of value (praise, money).
      • Negative Reinforcement: Escaping or preventing something unpleasant.
      • Punishment: Adding an aversive stimulus to decrease behavior frequency.
    3. Social Learning (Bandura): Modeling/observational learning.
    4. Constructivism: Knowledge is built by the learner as an active maker of meaning; teachers guide understanding into correspondence with reality.

  • Thinking and Imagination:

    • Problem-solving: Reaching a goal when it is not immediately attainable.
    • Reasoning: Orderly, logical sequence of thought.
    • Creative Thinking Stages:
      1. Preparation: Gathering facts, recall of experience.
      2. Incubation: Idle period allowing the mind to find solutions after fatigue.
      3. Inspiration: Sudden spurt where the creation comes into being.
      4. Verification: Evaluating and revising the outcome.

Theories and Experiments on Dreaming

  • Theories:
    • Continuity Theory: Waking life preoccupations carry over to dreams (e.g., amputees dreaming of missing limbs).
    • Self-Organization Theory: Memories and thoughts organize without direction or logic.
    • Threat Simulation Theory: Evolutionary carryover to help deal with waking life threats.
  • Experimental Findings:
    • People have between 33 to 99 dreams per night.
    • Dreams are preceded by bodily movement, but during the dream, only eyes move and fingers twitch.
    • Depriving subjects of dreams for 44 to 55 nights causes tension, anxiety, memory lapses, and concentration issues. Dreaming is viewed as nature's way of "blowing off steam."

Spiritual Self and Logotherapy

  • Logotherapy: Introduced by Dr. Viktor Frankl (survivor of the Holocaust; author of Man’s Search for Meaning).
    • Core Belief: Man’s primary motivational force is the search for meaning.
    • Discovery of Meaning: Through purposeful work, courage in suffering, or love.
    • Three Assumptions: Life has meaning under all circumstances; people have a will to meaning; people have freedom to find meaning by changing attitudes toward unavoidable fate.

Existentialism and Anxiety

  • Philosophy: Individual existence, freedom, and choice. "Existence precedes essence." Humans are original authors of their own lives.
  • Existential Anxiety: Unavoidable product of the "givens of existence": death, freedom, isolation, and meaninglessness. It is viewed by therapists as a catalyst for growth and an invitation to freedom rather than a symptom to be cured.

Questions & Discussion

  • Self-Reflection: When was the first time you realized there is a higher being than yourself? How old were you then? What made you believe that there is a higher being?
  • Structured Learning Experience: Activities include "Kamao sa Ilong" (Tao A and Tao B) and Tableau (depicting love for work, family, animals, spouse, and self).