Module 2: Psychological Perspectives of Self

Self VS. Me-Self

William James, one of the earliest proponents of psychology, formulated an idea of what the self is. He discussed two aspects of the self: the I self and the Me self.  The I self reflects what people see or perceive themselves doing in the physical world (e.g., recognizing that one is walking, eating, writing).  Whereas, the Me Self is a more subjective and psychological phenomenon, referring to individuals’ reflections about themselves (e.g. characterizing oneself as athletic, smart, cooperative).

The I-Self comprises of the following:

• Individual Self – It consists of aspects of self that tend to distinguish a person from others. It includes a person’s traits, abilities, and possessions.

  • Being assertive, detail-oriented, and confident.

• Relational Self – It reflects one's interpersonal side, consisting of attributes that are shared with close friends and family members and that define roles within a relationship. It reflects valued attachments.

  • Being the older brother of three boys.

• Collective Self – It represents one's intergroup side, consisting of shared attributes that differentiate ingroups from outgroups, reflecting membership in valued social groups.

  • “I am a Christian church leader.”

The Me-Self is further divided into these three layers:

Material Self → It includes those specific items in the physical world with which we personally identify. It is the total world of objects that we own. The material self encompasses the sum total of our home, possessions, friends, and family.

Social Self → It constitutes patterns of personal habit that form the mainstay of our relationships.

Spiritual Self → It constitutes the individual’s inner and subjective being.

Real and Ideal Self

Carl Rogers is a psychotherapist who created his own therapy approach and eventually a theory of personality. His theory, “person-centered theory”, gives valuable insights about the real and ideal self and about how these two affect one’s personality and wellbeing. This theory has two basic assumptions about people: the formative tendency and the actualizing tendency.

Formative Tendency

→ This refers to the tendency for all matter, both organic and inorganic, to evolve from simpler to more complex forms.

Actualizing Tendency

→ This refers to the tendency within all humans (and other animals and plants) to move toward completion or fulfillment of potentials. Some examples are the need to satisfy one’s hunger drive, to express deep emotions when they are felt, and to accept one’s self.

→ Actualization involves the whole person, that is, it involves the physiological and intellectual, rational and emotional, conscious and unconscious. The actualizing tendency is a biologically based tendency that involves the desire to maintain and enhance an organism.

→ Maintenance needs, such as food, air, and safety, are conserve and protect the current self-concept. However, people are willing to learn and change, aiming for growth and development. Enhancement needs, on the other hand, involve learning and achieving psychological growth. People possess the creative power to solve problems, alter self-concepts, and become self-directed.

→ This tendency can be realized under certain conditions, such as a partner who is congruent, shows authenticity, and demonstrates empathy and unconditional positive regard. Rogers argued that these conditions are necessary for psychological growth and that humans have a concept of self and potential for self-actualization.

The Self and Self-Actualization

Infants develop a vague concept of self when they experience personalized and differentiated experiences as "I" or "me." They learn about taste, texture, and sensation, and evaluate experiences as positive or negative using the actualizing tendency. Infants value food, sleep, fresh air, physical contact, and health as they are needed for actualization. Once they establish a basic self-structure, their tendency to actualize the self evolves.

Self-actualization is a subset of the actualization tendency, which refers to the whole person's experiences. When the organism and perceived self are in harmony, the two actualization tendencies are nearly identical. However, when the organismic experiences are not in harmony, a discrepancy exists, leading to conflict and inner tension. Rogers postulated two self-subsystems; these are the self-concept and the ideal self.

The Self-Concept

The self-concept includes all those aspects of one’s being and one’s experiences that are perceived in awareness (though not always accurately) by the individual. People often struggle with change and significant learnings once they form their self-concept. Disconformity with their self-concept often leads to rejection or acceptance in distorted forms. However, change is easier in an acceptance atmosphere, reducing anxiety and allowing ownership of rejected experiences.

The Ideal Self

The ideal self is the second subsystem of the self, encompassing the attributes one aspires to possess. A wide gap between the ideal self and self-concept indicates incongruence and an unhealthy personality, while psychologically healthy individuals perceive little discrepancy.

Incongruence of Real and Ideal Self

Rogers talked about how positive outcomes in therapy are more possible when a person experiences congruence or overlap between the real self and the ideal self. This means that the real self only has few differences from the ideal self. People who experience these have less anxiety and tension. However, some people experience incongruence, which refers to the state where there is little overlap between the real self and ideal self. This means that one’s real self has several differences from one’s ideal self, making them distinct from one another. This incongruence causes anxiety, defensiveness, distortion, and denial.

Multiple vs Unified Self

In the field of psychology, some theorists propose the existence of multiple selves. This means that the mind is made up of multiple selves, and we adopt one of the multiple selves depending on the situation. The Analytical Theory of Carl Jung relates to this. In his theory, he proposes that people have archetypes, which are contents of their collective unconscious of humans. These archetypes represent certain qualities. Some common archetypes include persona (side of personality being showed to the world), shadow (qualities that we do not acknowledge and that we just hide), animus (masculine side of women), and anima (feminine side of men). These show that people can end up having multiple selves. For instance, the self being presented to others (persona) is different from the self being hidden (shadow). However, Carl Jung also suggested that people can move to completion or the unification of the different selves.

Aside from Carl Jung, other personality theorists emphasize a single or unified self.  The theory of a unified self shows how different aspects of one’s personality work together towards one goal or objective. This goal typically refers to the actualization of one’s potential. One example of this theory is Abraham Maslow’s holistic-dynamic theory. Under this theory, he proposed the hierarchy of needs. The following are the levels in this hierarchy (from lowest to highest):

Physiological (e.g. food, water, etc.),Safety,Love and belongingness,Esteem (reputation and self-esteem), andSelf-actualization (self-fulfillment and the realization of one’s potential).

• Physiological (e.g. food, water, etc.),

• Safety,

• Love and belongingness,

• Esteem (reputation and self-esteem), and

• Self-actualization (self-fulfillment and the realization of one’s potential).

According to Maslow, one level needs to be satisfied or at least relatively satisfied before one can move to the next level. This theory shows that the many different needs of a person all help this person achieve one thing, showing the unity in one’s urges and functions.

True Selves vs False Selves

Due to the complex nature of the self, the mind, and human nature in general, a person can end up having a true self and a false self. These concepts were proposed by Donald Winnicott.

The true self – It refers to a sense of self based on authentic experience and the feeling of being truly present and alive.

The false self – It is considered a defensive façade, behind which the person can feel empty, with its behaviours being learnt and controlled rather than spontaneous and genuine.

The false self protects the vulnerable true self. However, the false self can also lead to a disconnection to one’s true self, leading to certain problems, such as being devoid of authentic emotions, struggling to feel valued, and developing addiction and narcissism.

The Self as Proactive and Agentic

The notion that the self is proactive and agentic is based on the social cognitive theory of Albert Bandura. This theory has an agentic perspective, that is, people have the capacity to exercise control over their environment and their lives. In this theory, the concept of self-efficacy is also emphasized. This concept refers to the confidence that one can perform those behaviors that will produce desired behaviors in a particular situation.

In addition, proxy agency and collective efficacy help in predicting one’s performance. Proxy agency refers to how people can rely on others for goods and services, while collective efficacy refers to people’s shared beliefs on how they can bring out change.

Bandura also proposes the concept of self-regulation, which is affected by the following:

Self-observation – It refers to how people monitor their performance.Judgmental process – It refers to self-evaluation that is based on personal standards, referential performances, valuation of activity, and performance attribution.Self-reaction – It pertains to how people respond positively or negatively to their behaviors depending on how these behaviors measure up their personal standards.

• Self-observation – It refers to how people monitor their performance.

• Judgmental process – It refers to self-evaluation that is based on personal standards, referential performances, valuation of activity, and performance attribution.

• Self-reaction – It pertains to how people respond positively or negatively to their behaviors depending on how these behaviors measure up their personal standards.

It is also important to note that people practice self-regulation through moral agency. This means that people regulate their actions/behaviors based on moral standards.

Different Psychological Theories of Development

Psychoanalytic Theory

Sigmund Freud → one of the earliest proponents of psychology, the proponent of the psychoanalytic theory.

• His theory focuses on the interactions of unconscious urges and societal pressures with one’s ego (the controlling aspect of one’s personality).

Levels of Mental Life

→ Freud theorized three levels of mental life, viz., the unconscious, the preconscious, and the conscious.

• Unconscious → The unconscious contains all those drives, urges, or instincts that are beyond people’s awareness; it motivates most of our words, feelings, and actions. It is responsible for dreams, slips of the tongue, and repression (a type of forgetting).

• Preconscious → The preconscious level of the mind contains all those elements that are not conscious but can become conscious either quite readily or with some difficulty.

• Conscious → Consciousness, which plays a relatively minor role in psychoanalytic theory, can be defined as those mental elements in awareness at any given point in time. It is the only level of mental life that is directly available to us.

Provinces of the mind

• Id → The id has no contact with reality. It serves only to satisfy basic desires. It serves as the pleasure principle.

• Ego →  It is the only region of the mind in contact with reality, and it is governed by the reality principle. It is the decision-making branch of the personality. In doing so, it takes into consideration the incompatible but equally unrealistic demands of the id and superego.

• Superego → It represents the moral and ideal aspects of personality. It is guided by the moralistic and idealistic principles. It has no contact with reality, and it is unrealistic in its demands for perfection. It consists of the conscience (what we should not do) and the ego-ideal (what we should not do).

Psychosexual Development

Among the unconscious urges are those that are sexual in nature, hence Freud’s theory of development features sexual urges throughout the stages. His theory of the psychosexual stages of development consists of six stages:

• Oral stage – This stage is observed during the first year of one’s life, when a person focuses on oral gratification in the form of milk from the mother.

• Anal stage – This stage encompasses the second year of life. The infant develops a need for gratification in the rectal area because the focus of this period is on toilet training and learning to control one’s bodily functions (in relation to urinating and defecating).

• Phallic stage – This stage is observed during the third or fourth year of a baby. The genital area becomes the leading erogenous zone. Children develop sexual urges in relation to one’s genital area and begin to have incestuous desires for the opposite sex parent.

• Latency stage – At this stage, the child’s sexual energies are repressed. The child focuses instead on acceptable outlets, such as school activities (since this stage occurs during school age).

• Genital stage – During this stage, the child experiences maturation of their reproductive system since this stage (beginning in the teenage years) marks the start of the production of sex hormones. The genital zone becomes the leading erogenous zone again.

Stages of Psychosocial Development

The post-Freudian theory by Erik Erikson

→ These stages emphasize that each stage is accompanied by a conflict, and a person’s development depends on how they will address the concerns in each stage. For instance, failure in one stage can affect the next stage.

→ Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development are the following:

• Trust vs. Mistrust (birth to 1 year) – An infant can end up learning how to trust because of a caring parent, but if the infant does not end up having their basic needs met, the infant can learn mistrust.

• Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (2 to 3 years) – As infants grow, they become more autonomous, but they can also experience shame and doubt due to the lack of control that they have over their bodies. For instance, they can still experience this when they soil their pants or make a mess out of their food.

• Initiative vs. Guilt (4 to 5 years) – Children develop an initiative in selecting and pursuing their goals, but they can also experience guilt in having goals that must be repressed or delayed. An example of these goals is leaving home.

• Industry vs. Inferiority (6 to 11 years) – Since this happens during one’s school age, the child becomes busy with tasks. When they develop skills to finish the necessary tasks, they develop a sense of industry, but they can experience a sense of inferiority or incompetence if they are not able to accomplish much due to either the lack of purpose or the lack of skills.

• Identity vs. Role Confusion (12 to 18 years) – During this stage, a teenager starts to question who he/she really is. Some end up finishing this stage with a strong sense of who they are, but others remain confused about who they are.

• Intimacy vs. Isolation (Young Adulthood) – Intimacy refers to the capacity to fuse one’s identity with another person’s identity without the fear of losing the said identity. It involves trust, sacrifice, compromise, and commitment. However, some people end up experiencing isolation, which refers to the incapacity to be intimate with others.

• Generativity vs. Stagnation (Middle Adulthood) – Generativity refers to being able to bring new things/ideas/innovations for the new generation. This involves being a parent, working, or the creation of new things/policies/organizations. People in this stage become the ones who guide the next generation. However, some people experience stagnation, meaning that they become absorbed in themselves.

• Integrity vs. Despair (Old age) – Integrity refers to a feeling of wholeness and coherence. This can refer to the satisfaction of having been able to make connections in life and take care of both people and things. On the other hand, other people experience despair, which can manifest as disgust, depression, contempt for others, or any other attitude that shows a non-acceptance of the finite boundaries of life. Despair means the lack of hope, leading to the lack of meaning in life.

Stages of Cognitive Development

Jean Piaget

• a psychologist who focused on the cognitive side of psychology (the one that focuses on learning and thought processes). He developed a theory that shows the development of one’s cognitive functioning.

• He formulated the following stages:

  • Sensorimotor stage (birth to 2 years) – At this stage, children develop in terms of sensory functioning and motor movements. It means that they focus on honing their ability to sense their surroundings and move around.

  • Preoperational stage (2 to 7 years) – This stage shows how the child becomes capable of symbolic thought, but it is often illogical. Children find it difficult to account for the perspectives of other people.

  • Concrete operational stage (7 to 11 years) – At this stage, the children become capable of reasoning like an adult. They are able to grasp concrete ideas. However, they still find it difficult to grasp abstract concepts.

  • Formal operational stage (11 onwards)– At this stage, children reach adult-level thinking, meaning that they become capable of reasoning using abstract concepts.

Stages of Moral Development

Lawrence Kohlberg: a person’s sense of morality also develops.

• Kolberg formulated the theory of moral development, which consists of the following levels:

  • Level 1 Preconventional Morality – People focus on their concrete interests in terms of rewards and punishments as they assess the morality of the things that they do.

  • Level 2 Conventional Morality – People view moral problems through the lens of being members of society. This means that they want to please others by becoming good members of society.

  • Level 3 Postconventional Morality – People use general moral principles that are broader than those of any particular society.

Conclusion

In understanding the different theories on how people develop psychologically, one can have a deeper understanding of the different factors in the different stages of development that can end up having significant impacts on one’s psychological functioning. This can help one in dealing with psychological issues. However, the benefits of comprehending the theories of psychological development go beyond solving current issues. In essence, if a person knows these theories, he/she will find it easier to prepare for the challenges of future stages of development. Thus, a person who understands these stages is one step closer to mental wellness.