THE SELF IN WESTERN AND EASTERN Ancient Greek philosophers see humans

THOUGHT as bearers of irreplaceable values.

WESTERN CONCEPT OF THE SELF St. Thomas Aquinas believed that the
body constitutes individuality
Self- concept: collection of beliefs you
have about yourself. Rene Descartes is famous for his quote “I
think, therefore, I am”
In order for you to be aware about
yourself, you need to have a certain
collective belief because sometimes we are Frank Johnson’s Four
not aware about our self. Categories of the Self:
Eastern: Aside from Filipino’s, there are 1. Analytical- Johnson's believes that the
others Asian’s, they are more likely to self-defined as an aggregate or a part or
describe themselves by talking about their combination of a part but at the same
relations, their relationships with other time the self must be viewed as an entity,
people around them: family oriented; or objects separate from other people. In
respect comes with honor. other words when we say analytical that is
Westerners: They are more likely to talk about me versus the other people. So even
about personal characteristics because though you're a child who can't play with
they highlights have separate they are your toys or parents the emphasis is that
from other people, They highlight the you should know that you are a separate
concept of being unique because for them being.
it invalidates more important than being 2. Monotheistic- One of our tendencies
connected to each other. For westerners, in understanding the self is that we
they are more likely to say think that “ I believe that the self-model after a so-
am smart”, “ I am intelligent”, “ I am called unitary omnipotent power. In other
responsible”. words, we are created by God in his
Perspective of the West in image. We believe that the man was
Conceptualizing the self: created by God in his image.

What makes you separate being is the fact 3. Indivualistic- in western thinking
that you have your own body. Westerners there is a higher impress on the self-
are more likely to emphasis separateness expression, self-actualization. These two
that even though you’re connected with terms are important base of establishing
other people you should maintain who one is. So, if you're from the west,
individuality, maintain responsibility, there's a heavy emphasis on the person
choices and freedom. you want to be. What's important is for
you to pursue your goals, not really do
So basically, in a western understanding what your parents told you. or what other
of the self, There’s heavy emphasis on the people told you.
recognition that you are separate entity,
even though you belong in a certain group 4. Materialistic/Rationalistic- They
of people. For them what’s important is for believe that people have reasons or
you to realize that you have your own rational, meaning to say we are all
identity even though you come from a capable of legalizing this analytical
certain family and certain culture. thinking skills using deductive modes of
thinking. Meaning to say, an individual is
You have the capacity to make choices rational, he or she can decide for himself.
therefore what is important to you is to No one is dictating you of what you should
become a unique person but that thought do because you have the power of your
may not be the case in the eastern own then you have to take responsibility
concept of the self. over your own behavior.
EASTERN CONCEPT OF THE SELF: Personality is achieved through moral
excellence.
 FOUR PILLARS OF INDIAN
PSYCHOLOGY The self is not something that is formed
o Dharma refers to rules that describe you up bringing and the environment.
goodness and appropriate behavior. They are more focused on personality that
o Karma refers to the movement from is achieved through moral excellence. In
past incarnations that affect the order for you to achieve moral excellence
present and the future. you need to be familiarize with the
o Maya refers to distorted perceptions of teachings of Confucius or Confucianism.
reality and experience that can be But they do believe that at the beginning
identified as such only with direct of your journey you will be able to be
attention to our own processes of equipped with this for a beginnings.
awareness that come about through
o FOUR Beginnings of the self:
internal concentration or meditation.
o Atman refers to a concept of o Jen – heart of compassion
universality in which the self is seen
o Yi – heart of righteousness
not as individual but as part of the
entire cosmos. o Li – heart of propriety
BUDDHISM o Chih – heart of wisdom
o In Buddhist traditions, the self is not an USING EASTERN PHILOSOPHY IN
entity, a substance or an essence. PSYCHOLOGY
o The self is a dynamic process and ever Naikan Therapy
changing.
• Views self-centeredness as a problem
o Anatta – a doctrine which is often that many people need to overcome.
defined as no-self or no-soul.
They view self-centeredness is the source
Buddhist relation where is the view the of all the problem; and this problem is
self not as an entity but rather as an ever- something that many people should learn
changing process. According to the to overcome. There is a heavy emphasis in
Buddhist relation if you emphasize that being aware of your thoughts and being
the self is an entity or a substance but able to connect with your self to the
rather it is something that changes from environment. So basically, did they give
time to time. Emphasize the person must importance at the mindfulness or having a
be able to let go of his materialistic needs meditation.
and he embarking is spiritual, journey,
worlds in life. Being connected to the The purpose of this therapy aims to teach
world. people how to relate better to others and
how to be more grateful to others. The
If you were a follower of Buddhism or a teacher or the sensei will be the one to
believer there is a heavy emphasis when it teach the trainees by using the three
comes in understanding your values in guide questions.\
your morals, basically is a journey. Here
they are emphasizing that the self is not Three guide questions:
eternal, not something that is fixed. The 1. What did I receive from this person?
south is ever-changing and more involved
in a continually changing process. 2. What did I return to this person?

CONFUCIANISM 3. What troubles and worries did I cause

this person?
o The self is something that is formed
through upbringing and the environment.
 Interdependent country: we don't want
egotism; we don't like people who don't
pay attention to others feelings; do you
want them to use the word "we" instead of
using "1".
CULTURE AND HAPPINESS
Japanese Students: happiness comes
with positive social engagement – with
feelingclose, friendly, and respectful.
American Students : happiness comes
with disengaged emotions – with feeling
effective, superior, and proud
MORE ABOUT CULTURE
Conflict in collectivist cultures often takes
place between groups; individualist
cultures breed more conflict between
individuals.
BAUMEISTER’S THREE ASPECT OF
THE SELF-CONCEPT

Individualism- The self is independent. 1. Private – mental processes that

Independent view of self- not in perceive one’s won traits or
connection with other people; Who are behaviors. For example: I think I
you truly want to be; uniqueness am responsible
2. Public – generalized view of the self;
Collectivism- The self is interdependent perceptions of how others view you.
Describing yourself from another
Interdependent view of self- define
perspective of specific person. For
yourself based on the relation on the
example: He or she thinks that I’m
people around you; The similar
kind
characteristics between me and other
3. Collective – view of self in the
people.
collective context. My parents think
Danger: if we are so close with each other that I am responsible daughter.
or the overlapping become big, we forget The core foundation of the understanding
our individuality, we forget our own of the self is the word ‘balance’
identity. Meaning to say we forget to be We can be collectivist, individualist, inter-
who we really want to be. dependent, independent depending of the
Group think- Group of people are very people or situation or the culture we have.
close to each other that is why it will lead
them to fail to see the loop holes of their
schema.
Devils advocate- will present the other
side of the equation.
Independent country: they don't want
others to change this fit to the group.
They want you to express yourself or who
you truly are.
PHYSICAL SELF  Francis Hutcheson – the perception
of beauty does depend on the
What Philosophers think about beauty?
external sense of sight.
 Beauty, traditionally, was among - beauty is something beyond what
the ultimate values along with we see sometimes; beauty is what
goodness, truth and justice. we feel, sense; can be describe as a
situation, feelings, emotions
Beauty- if something is nice then we will - "there are different ways to define
say what we have done is beautiful; if beauty as a virtue
someone has a beautiful character, we say
he/she has a beautiful character; other What did psychology discover about
word for perfect, pretty beauty?

-something that is being emphasized or • A person who is perceived as attractive

we try to preserve or enhanced; talking makes more money than a person of
about the beauty of the being or character below average looks.
of the person;
- correlational research; it is not
 St. Augustine asked whether things their looks that costs their high
were beautiful because it gave income, not direct relationship but
delight, or whether it gave delight rather if things are related to each
because it was beautiful. other then there are other factors
that we should consider; more
St. Augustine-he means that things are attractive looking, have more
not inherently delightful but rather things opportunities;
are inherently beautiful because of this
beauty, things became desirable • In politics, voters who are not actively
engaged in social and political issues
*we perceived the beauty of the character choose candidates based on “looks”.
first before we say that it is delightful
- when they don't know anything
 Plato connected beauty to love and about political issue, they're going
desire. to vote someone who's physical
Plato beginning of the thinking that attractive, drawn to someone who
something is beautiful than its worth of has good charisma, communicates
love and also desirable hence, we don't do well; being easily who's
things that are not desirable, that are not presentable, have good skills, be
lovable because they are not beautiful. confident because of you're like this
people will pay attention, more
 Aristotle asserted that the chief opportunities especially in career so
forms of beauty are order, symmetry, this happens because of
and definiteness. psychological phenomenon called
Beauty - can be characteristics of an halo effect
object, person, situation; can be HALO EFFECT
perspective, opinion hence it is subjective
• The tendency of people to rate attractive
What Philosophers think about beauty? individuals more favorably for their
 David Hume – beauty is no quality personality traits or characteristics
in things themselves; it exists compared to those who are less
merely in the mind which attractive.
contemplates them. Halo Effect - happens when we try to
- beauty is perceived by perceiver evaluate individuals; sample: if someone
where the definitions of beauty lies is physically attractive, you jump to
in the eyes of the beholder
conclusion that he is smart, capable, the amount of the body fat, differs from
perfect candidate; not all people are every culture regardless our culture,
conscious about this, we should always tradition may influence us to have
look presentable coz this will help you in negative or positive outlook in being a
preparing yourself because not all people beautiful; beautiful person might not be
are conscious about halo effect beautiful for us but beautiful to them;
example: having small foot in china is
Horn Effect - devil effect; vice versa of
being beautiful so they do foot-binding
halo effect; if someone is not presentable,
he can't present himself with people; we -we have different definitions of beauty
give low ratings compared to halo effect, based in our culture and sometimes we
we give negative feedback just because we want to think what we label as beautiful is
observed this negative attributes; if congruent with our culture that's why
someone doesn't know how to speak people experience Body Dissatisfaction -
English, you would think that his dumb, we're not satisfied with our body due to
not capable, confident; we should be the cultural standards, what we label as
aware of both concept because it teaches norms but in the end, we end up being
us not to be judgmental just because he's unhappy because there's an imbalance
smart or not good at English; we should coz we're trying to achieved the ideal
try to be more objective perception of beauty in comparison to the
real self/beauty
Culture and Perception of Beauty
-people don't stop even if it's already
Cultural traditions can either be a positive
unhealthy coz they are not yet satisfied
or negative influence on body image and
self-esteem. Imagined Ugliness:
- what we label as desirable, good is A preoccupation with some imagined
not desirable to other people and defect in appearance by someone who
culture but it affect what we label actually looks reasonably normal.
as beautiful;
BODY DYSMORPHIC DISORDER
- in various cultures, we have
different ideas to promote different - in his perception, his ugly hence he's
images, we try to certain going to do something about the
characteristics because we think imagined ugliness (it's not an
that the present of the objective but subjective) caused by
characteristics define what past experienced or trauma such as
characteristics beauty; this culture bullying
may promote certain ideal - they may do whatever they may
standards of body sizes and this resort to any method just to
maybe culturally specific. achieved that idealistic thinking, to
eliminate the perceived ugliness
Ideal standards of body sizes are
but they end up looking worst
culturally specific.
because of their misguided method;
 Americans have emphasized their method is not healthy, they do
thinness. these in order for them to make
 Filipinos emphasize dieting and themselves better
body appearance. - Example: when someone is
 People experience body disturbed by his many pimples, he
dissatisfaction due to cultural standards. grabs the nail cutter to cut and
remove all his pimples because he
example: a certain culture may pay
thinks that the pimples is making
attention to shape of the nose, lips and
him ugly
that is the standard of beauty to them or
 - Example: someone has a fat on his example: depression is occurring, this
body, he used a knife to remove person is prone to anxiety and depression,
those excess body fats -because the those disorders may have comorbidity
disturbance is not on physical but (they have this co- occurring disorder,
rather on psychological Eating there's an Overlapping, the disorders are
Disorders: connected to his anxiety being anxious on
weight gain)
Bulimia Nervosa:
Social influences- encountered bullying
Out-of-control eating episodes, or binges,
experiences; desired to be perfect, thin
are followed by self-induced vomiting,
excessive use of laxatives, or other *these three influences predict restrictions
attempts to purge (get rid of) the food. in eating, and if it continues , you will
develop eating disorders.
- even if they a lot of food, they stay
on their desired shape but it is not Continued restrictions type in anorexia:
healthy; doesn't have enough lower than 500 calories in a day: their way
nutrients because he's purging his of reducing their way which is very
foods out of his stomach; the unhealthy
situation is getting worst: can have
EATING DISORDERS
a normal weight
Anorexia Nervosa:
The person eats only minimal amounts of
food or exercises vigorously to offset food
intake so body weight sometimes drops
dangerously.
- people are underweight, body
weights drop dangerously in an
unhealthy manner, because to him
that's the perfect way of having a
perfect body.
Binge-eating disorder:
Individuals may binge repeatedly and find
it distressing, but they do not attempt to
purge the food.
- they always intake a lot food, they
feel distress if they can’t eat food,
that's why they continue eating a
lot; accompanied with stress-
related disorder
Biological Influences - their parents
may also suffer from psychological stress,
psychological disturbance and if u have
these parents, then you are also most
likely to be vulnerable; the patter was also
passed on you

Psychological influences - the person 1s

also suffering from another disorders;