Uts Lesson 5

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OUR LADY OF LOURDES COLLEGE FOUNDATION

Vinzons Ave., Daet, Camarines Norte, 4600 Philippines


COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

FIRST SEMESTER
S.Y. 2022-2023

GEC – UNDERSTANDING THE SELF


LESSON 5: THE SELF AS COGNITIVE CONSTRUCT

Introduction:
Understanding one’s self is a prime importance of this course. This chapter enables the students
to understand the construct of the self from various perspectives: philosophy, sociology, anthropology and
psychology. Several theories about self will explain how the self is formed or developed and will shed
light for better understanding of one’s self.

Overview:
As discussed in the previous lessons, every field of study, at least in the social sciences, have their own
research, definition, and conceptualization of self and identity. This lesson provides an overview of the
themes of psychology regarding individuals’ cognitive functions and other possible factors that affect the
individual.

Learning Objectives:
At the end of this module, the students are expected to:
1. Identify the different ideas in psychology about the “self”
2. Create your own definition of the “self” based on the definitions from psychology.
3. Analyze the effects of various factors identified in psychology in the formation of the “self”

Preliminary Test:

ACTIVITY: “You” Through Other’s Eyes


Answer the activity in a long bond paper
1. List down ten qualities or things that you think define who you are.
2. Look for 15 persons who may know you and ask them to give qualities who have based on how they
know you.
3. Analysis: Compare what you wrote about yourself to those written by your friends. What aspects are
similar and which are not? What aspects are always true to you? What aspects do you thinks are not really
part of your personality?

Lesson Proper:
In confidence or in an attempt to avoid further analytical discussions, a lot of people say, “I am who I
am.” Yet, this statement still begs the question, “if you are who you are, then who you are that makes you
who you are?”

There are various definitions of the “self” and other similar concepts in psychology. Simply put, “self” is
“the sense of personal identity and of who we are as individuals.”

William James was one of the earliest psychologists to study the self as having two concepts – the I and
the Me. The “I” is the thinking, acting, and feeling self.” The “Me” is the physical characteristics as well
as psychological capabilities that makes who you are.

Carl Roger’s theory of personality also used the same terms, the “I” as the one who acts and decides
while the “Me” is what you think or feel about yourself as an object.

Identity is composed of personal characteristics, social roles, and responsibilities as well as affiliations
that define who one is. Self-concept is what basically comes to your mind when you are asked about who
you are.

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Self, Identity, and Self-concept are not fixed in one time frame. For example, when you me asked about
who you are you can say, “I was a varsity player in 5 th grade” which pertains to the past “a college
student” which may be in the present, and” a future politician” which is the future.

Carl Rogers captured this idea in his concepts of self-schema or our organized system or collection of
knowledge about who we are. Imagine an organized list below.

Hobbies
Hobbies

Family SELF Religion


Family SELF R

Nationality

The schema is not limited to the examples above. It may also include your interests, work, course, age etc.

Under the theory of symbolic interactionism, G. H. Mead argues that the self is created and developed
through human interaction. Basically, there are 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
and even if we make our choices, we will still operate in our social and historical contexts in one way or
the other.
2. Whether we like to admit it or not, we actually need others to affirm and reinforce who we think we
are. We also need them as reference point about our personality.
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, therefore, are vital factors in creating our self-concept especially
in the aspect of providing us with our social identity or our perception of who we are based on our
membership to certain groups.

Our group identity and self-awareness also has a great impact on our self-esteem. According to social
comparison theory, we learn about ourselves the appropriateness of our behaviors, as well as social status
by comparing aspects of ourselves with other people.

However, in 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.” They are often
charismatic because of how they take care of their image. This makes them a bad romantic partners on
fried since they engage in relationships only to serve themselves.

Baumeister, Smart, and Boden in their research on self-esteem concluded that programs, activities, and
parenting styles to boost self-esteem should only be for rewarding behavior and other achievements and
not for the purpose of merely trying to make children feel better about themselves or to appease them
when that get angry or sad.

Supplementary Aids:
To know more about self-cognitive construct, kindly click the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWMsp-NSVgA
For our next lesson, we will discuss The Physical Self in terms of the following sub-topics:
1. Physical Development 3. Body Image and Self Esteem
2. Physical Attractiveness 4. Tips for improving body image

References: UNDERSTANDING THE SELF


LESSONG 5: THE
Alata, Eden Joy., et. al., Understanding the SELF AS COGNITIVE
self (Quezon CONTRUCT
City: Rex Book Store,2018)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWMzp-NSVqA

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Name: ___________________________ Course: _____________
Date of Submission: ________________ Rating: _____________

LEARNING ASSESSMENT:

Answer the following questions honestly.

1. Create your own concept of self-schema or organized list or diagram that you think really help you for
who you are right now. Explain briefly. (You can use the space below).
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

2. Do you sometimes become a narcissistic person? Why or why not?


_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

3. In your own words, how can you describe yourself as a social person?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________

YOUR OWN SELF-SCHEMA:

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