UNDERSTANDING THE SELF Flashcards
- Thinkers for centuries have searched for the explanations and reasons for everything that exist around him.
Philosophy
2 Idea of Permanence
Pro Permanence
Pro Changeability
According to Parmenides, Everything in existence is permanent and unchangeable. Something exist because it is permanent
Pro Permanence
Everything flows”, “ you can never step on the same river twice”
-Heraclitus
“You cannot step on the same river even once”
-Cratulus
Pro Changeability
- One of the big three (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle)
Mentor of Plato
Stone mason with a sharp mind
Great debater
Angered Sophist who brought him to trial where he was finally sentenced to death.
Sophist- people skilled in discussion and debate.
Socrates
- This method involves the search for the correct/ proper definition of a thing.
The Socratic Method
- He did not lecture, instead ask questions and engage people in a discussion.
The Socratic/ Dialectic Method
- Using this method the questioner should:
- be skilled at detecting misconceptions
- revealing misconceptions by asking the right questions.
The goal is to bring the person closer to final understanding.
The Socratic Method
- He believed that his mission in life was to seek the highest knowledge and convince others who are willing to seek this knowledge with him.
Socrates’s View of Human nature
- Socratic Method allowed him to question people’s beliefs and ideas, exposing their misconceptions and get them to touch their souls.
Socrates View of Human Nature
- Aristocles (428-348 BCE)
- Born in Athens to one of Greece’s aristocratic families.
- Nicknamed ____ because of his physical built which means wide or broad.
- Left Athens for 12 years after the death of Socrates.
- Established “The Academy”
- Both Socrates and ____ believed that Philosophy is more than analyses but rather a way of life.
- Plato wrote more than 20 Dialogues with Socrates as protagonist in most of them.
Plato
- refers to what are real.
- not encountered with the senses
- can only be grasped intellectually
Theory of Forms
- Forms are ageless and therefore are eternal.
- Forms are unchanging and therefore permanent.
- Forms are unmoving and indivisible.
Characteristics of Forms
2 types of Plato’s Dualism
The Realm of Shadows
The Realm of Forms
is composed of changing, “sensible” things which are lesser entities and therefore imperfect and flawed.
The Realm of Shadows
is composed of eternal things which are permanent and perfect. It is the source of reality and true knowledge.
The Realm of Forms
- ______ made use of Socratic Method
- He believed that knowledge lies within a person’s soul.
- Considered human beings as microcosms of the universal macrocosms
- Humans have immortal rational soul, which ________ believed is created in the image of the divine.
Plato’s View of Human Nature
3 Components of Soul
The Reason
The Spirited
The Appetites
is rational and is the motivation for goodness and truth.
The Reason
in non-rational and is the will or the drive toward action. This part of the soul is initially neutral but can be influenced/ pull in two directions.
The Spirited
are irrational and lean towards the desire for pleasures of the body.
The Appetites
what people see in the cave are only shadows which they believe are real things and represents knowledge.
Allegory of the Cave
- Only forms are real.
Once the people get out of the cave and into the light, what they will see are the Forms which is the real knowledge is. - In knowing the truth, the person must become the truth. – Theory of Being
- To know is to be.
- The more a person knows, the more he is, and the better he is.
- Each individual has in his immortal soul a perfect set of Forms that he can recall which constitutes true knowledge.
- To recall/ remember the Form = to know the truth and become just and wise.
PLATO’S THEORY OF LOVE AND BECOMING
- Plato and other Greek philosophers see man as basically good and becomes evil through ignorance of what is good.
St. Augustine, Descartes & Locke
– sees man as sinners who reject/go against a loving God’s command
- Christianity
- Christian philosophy became so powerful that the church ordered Plato’s Academy in Athens closed.
- Christian philosophers held faith supreme over reason and logic. A question is raised then as to whether reason and logic could/should be used to understand Christian truths (Price, 2000)
St. Augustine, Descartes & Locke
- From Hippo, Africa
- Initially rejected Christianity for it seemed to him then that Christianity could not provide him answers to questions that interested him.
- Wanted to know about moral evil and why it existed in people, his personal desire for sensual pleasures and questions about all sufferings in the world.
St. Augustine (354-436)
2 types of St. Augustine’s view of Human Nature
God as the source of all reality and truth
The Sinfulness of Man
- Man searches for happiness.
- Real happiness can only be found in God.
- For God is love and he created man for them to also love.
- Problems arise because of the objects humans choose to love.
- Disordered love results when man loves the wrong things.
- Love of physical objects leads to sin of greed.
- Love for other people is not lasting and excessive love for them is a sin of jealousy.
- Love for self leads to sin of pride.
- Love for God is the supreme virtue and only through loving God can man find real happiness.
- All things are worthy of love but they must be loved properly.
Role of Love
- Father of modern Philosophy
- One of the rationalist philosophers in Europe.
Rene Descartes (1596- 1650)
- group of philosophers who considered truth as a universal concept and reason is superior to and independent of sensory experience. They are impressed by the scientific method and mathematics that they aimed to apply it in their philosophy
Rationalist
2 types of Descartes System
Intuition
Deduction
- the ability to apprehend direction of certain truths
Intuition
- the power to discover what is known by progressing in an orderly way from what is already known. Truths are arrived using a step by step process.
Deduction
2 types of Descartes View of Human Nature
I think, therefore I am
The Mind- Body problem
To doubt is to think.
- A thinker is a thing that doubts, understands, affirms, denies, wills, refuses, imagines and feels (Price, 2000)
I think, therefore I am
- Descartes considered the soul/mind as a substance that is separate from the body.
- All bodily processes are mechanical.
- The body is like a machine that is controlled by will and aided by the mind.
The mind body problem
- Interested in the workings of the human mind, particularly the acquisition of knowledge.
- Believed that knowledge results from ideas produced a posteriori or by the objects that were experienced.
- The process involves two forms:
- objects were experienced through the senses and reflection - by which the mind looks at the objects that were experienced to discover relationships that may exists between them.
John Locke (1632- 1704)
3 Laws according to Locke
Law of Opinion
Civil Law
Divine Law
where actions that are praiseworthy are called virtue and those that are not are called vice.
Law of Opinion
where right actions are enforced by people with authority (ex. Courts, police)
Civil Law
set by God on the actions of man. The true law for human behavior. It is eternally true and the one law that man should always follow.
Divine Law
Ideas are not innate but rather the mind at birth is a blank slate.
Tabula Rosa
Ideas can also be the result of reflection which demonstrate the power of thinking and volition or will.
Tabula Rosa
Simple ideas are repeated and compared to become complex ideas.
Tabula Rosa
is one of the disciplines in the social sciences which aims to discover the ways by which the social surrounding/environment influences people’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
Sociology
The main focus is understanding human societies, the need to know and be aware of social processes may make people see themselves better when they realize how the social world impacts on their existence.
Sociology
- He wrote and published many articles and book reviews, but did not publish any book. It was his students who put together his numerous writings and edited them for publication.
- Died due to heart failure in 1931.
George Herbert Mead
- According to Mead the Self is not there from birth, but is developed over time from social experience and activities. And self cannot be separated from society.
MEAD’S SOCIAL SELF THEORY
is based on the perspective that the self emerges from social interactions, such as observing and interacting with others, responding to other’s opinion about oneself and internalizing external opinions and internal feelings about oneself.
The social self theory
the approach Mead used to describe the power of the environment in shaping human behavior. At the center of the theorizing concept is the Self
Social Behaviorism
of personality that is made-up of the individual’s self-awareness and self-image.
Self Dimension
3 types of Mead’s social Self
The social self theory
Self Behaviorism
Self Dimension
3 types of Development of Self
Language/ Preparatory Stage
Play Stage
Game Stage
develops self by allowing individuals to respond to each other through symbols, gestures, words, and sounds. Language conveys others’ attitudes and opinions toward a subject or a person. Emotions such as anger, happiness and confusion, are conveyed through language.
Activity: Express different emotions by saying the word “ANO”
Language
develops self by allowing individuals to take on different roles, pretend and express expectation of others. Play develops one’s self-consciousness through role-playing. During role-play a person is able to internalize the perspective of others and develop an understanding of how others feel about themselves and others in a variety of social situations.
Play
develops self by allowing individuals to understand and adhere to the rules of the activity. Self is developed by understanding that there are rules in which one must abide in order to win the game or be successful at an activity.
Games
term Mead used to explain the behavior of the person when he sees/considers other people in the course of his actions. Through the generalized other, the person realizes that people in society have cultural norms, beliefs and values which are incorporated to the self. This realization forms the basis of how the person may evaluate himself (self-evaluation).
Generalized Other
The self is not present at birth but begins as a central character in a child’s world. Children can see themselves as the center of their universe and is having difficulty understanding others around them. As these children, there is a change in the self. They begin to see other people and is now concerned about people’s reactions. People around him, particularly his family, play a major role in the formation of the self. They are the significant others who strongly influence his development (Schaefer, 2012)
Mead’s theory of the Self
Mead explained that the person’s capacity to see the self through others implies that the self is composed of two parts:
I self
Me self
When the person initiates or performs a social action, the self functions as a subject. The subjective element of the self is I.
I self
Example: I will go on a date.
I self
– when the person takes the role of the other, the self functions as an object. The objective element of the self is Me.
Me self
Example: The students around school voted for me.
Me self
He was an American Sociologist who used sociopsychological approach to understand how the society works.
He earned his doctorate at the University of Michigan and taught at the same university as sociology professor until the end of his life.
He discussed the formation of the self through interaction in his written work “Human Nature and Social Order (1902)”
Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929)
3 Phases of the Process of Developing the Self
- People imagine how they present themselves to others.
- People imagine how others evaluate them.
- People develop some sort of feeling about themselves as a result of those impressions.
Cooley stated that people will learn who they truly are, through social interaction with other people. The view of the self is significantly influenced by the impression and perception of others.
He coined the term “looking-glass self” or the self that is the product of social interaction.
Charles Horton Cooley (1864-1929)
He was an a Canadian-American sociologist known for his role in the development of Modern American Sociology.
Goffman used the phrase face-work to describe another aspect of the self, usually observed in situations where face-saving measures are resorted to in maintenance of a proper image of the self in frustrating or embarrassing situations (Schaefer,2012)
Erving Goffman (1922-1982)
Goffman observed that there is similarities between real social interaction and theatrical presentation.
Dramaturgical Approach
the process of altering how the person presents himself to others .
Impression Management
is a field of social sciences that focuses on the study of man.
Anthropology
From the Greek words Anthropos (human) and logia (study), it is the study of human kind from past up to present.
It looks into man’s physical/biological characteristics, social relationships and influences of his culture from the dawn of civilization to present.
Anthropology
4 subfields of Anthropology
Archeology
Biological Anthropology
Linguistics
Cultural Anthropology
Discoveries made people realize the most important aspect of human nature:
survival
explains how the biological characteristics of human beings affected how they lived their lives.
Biological Anthropology
Focus primarily on how the human body adapts to the different earth environments.
Looks at probable causes of disease, physical mutation and death.
Biological Anthropology
Human survival is primarily linked to their ability to communicate. An essential part of human communication is language.
Linguistic Anthropology
Language identifies a group of people. The words, sounds, symbols, writings and signs that are used are reflections of a group’s culture.
Linguistic Anthropology
focuses on using language as a means to discover a group’s manner of social interaction and his worldview. They aim to discover how language is used to create and share meanings, to form ideas and concepts and to promote social change.
Linguistic Anthropolgy
Story of Babel
Linguistic Anthropology
is the study of human ways of life in the broadest possible comparative perspective.
Cultural Anthropology
human nature is determined by ideas, meanings, beliefs, and values learned as members of a society. Who or what a person is maybe determined by the kind of culture he is born into and grew up.
Theory of Determinism
are interested in knowing what makes one group’s manner of living particular to that group and forms an essential part of the member’s personal and social identity. An individual is a product of his culture.
Cultural Anthropologists
Anthropologists suggest that there is no universal or right way of being a human : (2 items)
Positive
Negative
Human beings can be shaped or formed to have the kind of life they prefer.
Positive
People have no control over what they learn.
Negative
4 Ways Culture Manifest itself on People
Symbols
Heroes
Rituals
Values
are the words, gestures, pictures or objects that have a recognized/accepted meaning in a particular culture. It can be shared or copied by other culture who find them also fitting for their own culture.
Example: Rings signify commitment which may also be copied/imitated by other cultures.
Colors have meanings that are similar in many culture
Symbols
are persons from the past or present who have characteristics that are important in a culture. They may be real or fictitious and are models for behavior.
Example: Real: Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio
Fictitious: Spiderman, Darna
Heroes
are activities (may be religious or social) participated in by a group of people for the fulfillment of desired objectives and are considered to be socially essential.
Example: Religious ceremonies: baptism and weddings
Social ceremonies: birthday and graduation
Rituals
considered to be the core of every culture. Values are unconscious and can neither be discussed nor be directly observed but can only be inferred from the way people act or react to circumstances and situations. It involves human tendencies/ preferences towards good or bad, right or wrong.
Examples: respect for elders, hospitality, nationalism
Values
derived from the Greek words ‘psyche’ which means ‘soul’ and ‘logos’ which means ‘the study of’
scientific study of human behavior and mental processes
Psychology
4 Goals of Psychology
Describe
Explain
Predict
Control
the longstanding controversy over the relative contributions that genes and experiences make to the development of psychological traits and behaviors
Nature vs. Nurture controversy
an integrated approach that incorporates biological, psychological, and socio-cultural levels of analysis
Biopsychosocial Approach
Psychiatrist and Psychoanalyst
Carl Gustav Jung
a theory which assumes that occult phenomena can and do influence the lives of everyone
Analytical Psychology
it refers to the idea that a segment of the deepest unconscious mind is genetically inherited and is not shaped by personal experience.
Collective Unconscious
ancient or archaic images that derive from the collective unconscious
Archetypes
8 Types of Archetypes
Persona
Shadow
Anima
Animus
The Great Mother
The Wise old Man
Hero
Self
represents the side of personality that people show to the rest of the world.
Persona
the archetype of darkness and repression, represents those qualities we do not wish to acknowledge but attempt to hide from ourselves and others.
Shadow
the feminine side of men and is responsible for many of their irrational moods and feelings.
Anima
the masculine side of women, is responsible for irrational thinking and illogical opinions in women.
Animus
the archetype of fertility and destruction
The Great Mother
archetype of wisdom and meaning, symbolizes humans’ preexisting knowledge of the mysteries of life.
The Wise old Man
the unconscious image of a person who conquers an evil foe but who also has a tragic flaw
Hero
is the archetype of completeness, wholeness, and perfection.
Self
American Philosopher and Psychologist
First educator to offer Psychology in the United States (Father of American Psychology)
William James (1842-1910)
an individual’s mental picture of the self is divided into two categories: the “Me” and the “I”
Theory of the Self
considered as a separate object or individual that the person refers to when discussing or describing their personal experiences.
Me self by William James
also called empirical ME (3 items)
By William James
Material Self
Social Self
Spiritual Self
it is the self that knows and recognizes who they are and what they have done
also called the Pure Ego
similar to the person’s soul or mind
I Self
it represents the overall value that a person places upon himself
the product of all experiences that a person had in the society which accounts for the kind of person he presently is
Global Self
coined by an American Psychiatrist, Murray Bowen
Self- Differentiation
the process of freeing yourself from your family’s processes to define yourself
Self - Differentiation
conceptualized by Carl Rogers, an American Psychologists who proposed the personality theory “Person-Centered Theory”
how a person thinks about or perceives himself/herself
Self Concept
refers to all information and perception the person has about himself
Real Self Concept
model version the person has of himself/herself
one’s view of self as one wishes to be
Ideal Self Concept
developed by Edward Tory Higgins in 1987
Self - Discrepancy Theory
individuals compare their “actual” self to internalized standards or the “ideal/ought self” or self-guides.
Self- Discrepancy Theory
your representation of the attributes that you believe you actually possess, or that you believe others believe you possess
Actual Self
your representation of the attributes that someone (yourself or another) would like you, ideally, to possess
Ideal Self
your representation of the attributes that someone (yourself or another) believes you should or ought to possess
Ought Self
this suggests that there exists in the individual different aspects of the self
Multiple Selves Theory
integration of the different and conflicting aspects of the self
Unified Self
came from an English Pediatrician and Psychoanalyst, Donald Woods Winnicott (2 items)
True and False Selves
a sense of being alive and real in one’s mind and body, having feelings that are spontaneous and unforced
True Self
a defense, a kind of mask of behavior that complies with others’ expectations
False Self
Albert Bandura, a Canadian-American psychologist, is well-known for his _______________ (holds that portions of an individual’s knowledge acquisition can be directly related to observing others within the context of social interactions, experiences, and outside media influences).
“Social Cognitive Theory”
Assumptions of SCT (3 Items)
Plasticity
Triadic Reciprocal Causation Model
Agentic Perspective
the core of observational learning; it involves adding and subtracting from the observed behavior and generalizing from one observation to another.
Modeling
or reciprocal determinism, is a model composed of three factors that influence behavior: the environment, the individual, and the behavior itself.
it suggests that an individual’s behavior influences and is influenced by both the social world and personal characteristics.
Triadic Reciprocal Causation Model
Core Features of Human Agency (6 Items)
Intentionality
Forethought
Self - Reactiveness
Self - Reflectiveness
Self - Efficacy
Self - Regulation
refers to acts a person performs intentionally
Intentionality
refers to the person’s anticipation of likely outcomes of their actions
Forethought
refers to the process of motivating and regulating our own actions
Self - Reactiveness
refers to the examining our own functioning; thinking about and evaluating our motivations, values, life goals, and the actions of other people have on us.
Self- Reflectiveness
refers to people’s belief that they are capable of performing those behaviors that can produce desired outcomes in a particular situation
Self - Efficacy
ability to monitor and manage your energy states, emotions, thoughts, and behaviors in ways that are acceptable and produce positive results such as well-being, loving relationships, and learning
Self - Regulation
can occur when a person attempts to minimize the discrepancies between what a person already accomplished and what the person still wants to achieve
Self - Regulation
