Psychology is a scientific study of mental processes and

human behavior. It aims to describe, analyze, predict, control human

behavior in general. Self is an essential construct in psychology

because it fulfills the goals of the discipline in studying human and

the reason for their action. Many psychologists tried to define the

origin of mental processes and behavior but they all settle down with

numerous theories and assumptions. The following descriptions on

the formation of self were presented for you to have a clear picture on

the psychological perspective of self.

The Self as Cognitive Construction

 The cognitive aspect of the self is known as self-concept. Self-concept is defined as self-knowledge,

a cognitive structure that includes beliefs about personality traits, physical characteristics, abilities,

values, goals, and roles, as well as the knowledge that an individual exist as individuals. As humans

grow and develop, self-concept becomes abstract and more complex.

 According to the psychologist Dr. Bruce A. Bracken in 1992, there are six specific domains that

are related to self-concept these are:

1) the social domain or the ability of the person to interact with others;

2) the competence domain or the ability to meet the basic needs;

3) the affect domain or the awareness of the emotional states;

4) the physical domain or the feelings about looks, health, physical condition, and overall

appearance;

5) academic domain or the success or failure in the school; and

6) family domain or how well one function within the family unit.

William James and the Me-Self and I-Self

GED 101 UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

 William James is a well-known figure in Psychology who

is considered as the founder of functionalism. He brought

Principles of Psychology (1890) that made him more influential

than his contemporaries in the field.

 James made a clear distinction between ways of

approaching the self – the knower (the pure or the I – Self) and

the known (the objective or the Me – Self). The function of the

knower (I-Self) according to James must be the agent of

experience. While the known (Me-Self) have three different but

interrelated aspects of empirical self (known today as self-

concept): the Me viewed as material, the Me viewed as social,

and the Me viewed as spiritual in nature.

 The material self is consists of everything an individual

call uniquely as their own, such as the body, family, home or

style of dress. On the other hand, social self refers to the

recognition an individual get from other people. Lastly, spiritual

self refers to the individual inner or subjective being.

Real and Ideal Self

Carl Rogers

 Carl Rogers is best known as the founder of client-

centered therapy and considered as one of the prominent

humanistic or existential theorists in personality. His therapy

aimed to make the person achieve balance between their self-

 The real self includes all those aspects of one's identity

that are perceived in awareness. These are the things that are

known to oneself like the attributes that an individual possesses.

 The ideal self is defined as one’s view of self as one

wishes to be. This contains all the aspirations or wishes of an

individual for themselves.

 A wide gap between the ideal self and the self-concept

indicates incongruence and an unhealthy personality.

Psychologically healthy individuals perceive little discrepancy

between their self-concept and what they ideally would like to

be.

Multiple versus Unified Self

 According to Multiple Selves Theory, there are different aspects of the self exist in an individual. From

here, we can say that self is a whole consist of parts, and these parts manifest themselves when need

arise.

 Gregg Henriques proposed the Tripartite Model of Human Consciousness, wherein he described that

self is consist of three related, but also separable domains these are the experimental self, private self,

and public self.

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GED 101 UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

o The experiential self or the theater of consciousness is a domain of self that defined as felt

experience of being. This includes the felt consistency of being across periods of time. It is tightly

associated with the memory. This is a part of self that disappears the moment that an individual
enter deep sleep and comes back when they wake up.

o The private self consciousness system or the narrator/interpreter is a portion of self that verbally

narrates what is happening and tries to make sense of what is going on. The moment that you read

this part, there is somewhat like a “voice” speaking in your head trying to understand what this

concept is all about.

o Lastly, the public self or Persona, the domain of self that an individual shows to the public, and

this interacts on how others see an individual. Henriques’ Tripartite Model attempts to capture the

key domains of consciousness, both within the self and between others.

 Unified being is essentially connected to consciousness, awareness, and agency. A well-adjusted

person is able to accept and understood the success and failure that they experienced. They are those

kinds of person who continually adjust, adapt, evolve and survive as an individual with integrated,

unified, multiple selves.

True versus False Self

Donald Winnicott

 Donald Winnicott was a pediatrician in London who

studied Psychoanalysis with Melanie Klein, a renowned

personality theorist and one of the pioneers in object relations

and development of personality in childhood.

 According to him, false self is an alternative personality

used to protect an individual’s true identity or one’s ability to

“hide” the real self. The false self is activated to maintain social

relationship as anticipation of the demands of others.

Compliance with the external rules or following societal norms

is a good example of this. false self can be a healthy self if it is

perceived as functional for the person and for the society and

being compliant without the feeling of betrayal of true self. On

the other hand, unhealthy false self happens when an individual

 On the contrary, true self has a sense of integrity and

connected wholeness that is rooted in early infancy. The baby

creates experiences of a sense of reality and sense of life worth living. Winnicott claimed that true

self can be achieved by good parenting that is not necessarily a perfect parenting.

The Self as Proactive and Agentic

Albert Bandura

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GED 101 UNDERSTANDING THE SELF

 Albert Bandura is a psychologist and Professor Emeritus

of Social Science in Psychology at Stanford University. He

is known for his theory of social learning by means of

modeling. He is famous for his proposed concept of self-

efficacy.

 His personality theory, The Social Cognitive Theory

asserts that a person is both proactive and agentic, which

means that we have the capacity to exercise control over our

life. This theory emphasized that human beings are

proactive, self-regulating, self-reflective, and self-

organizing.

 Self as proactive means an individual have control in any

situation by making things happen. They act as agent in

doing or making themselves as they are. Agency is a

degree of ownership and control over things, both internally

(I control my own thoughts) and externally (I make things

happen in the environment). The ability of an individual to

pursue their goals in life is an example of agentic approach

to self.

 According to Bandura (1989), self-efficacy beliefs

determine how people feel, think, motivate themselves and

behave. Such beliefs produce these diverse effects through four major processes. They include

cognitive, motivational, affective and selection processes. A strong sense of efficacy enhances human

accomplishment and personal well-being in many ways.

 In contrast Bandura (1989) said that people who doubt their capabilities shy away from difficult tasks

which they view as personal threats. They have low aspirations and weak commitment to the goals they

choose to pursue. When faced with difficult tasks, they dwell on their personal deficiencies, on the

obstacles they will encounter, and all kinds of adverse outcomes rather than concentrate on how to

perform successfully. They fall easy victim to stress and depression.