Unit 1 Flashcards
“Know thyself”
“An unexamined life is not worth living.”
Dualistic Reality: Body and Soul
“Our soul strives for wisdom and perfection.”
Socrates
What are the 3-Part Soul/Self (Psyche) according to Plato?
Reason
Physical Appetite
Spirit/Passion
The mind (self) is a tabula rasa (a blank tablet)
Self is composed of matter and form
The Process of Completion is through experiences
Aristotle
Apathy or indifference to pleasure
Embracing Adversity
It’s a philosophy designed to make us more resilient, happier, more virtuous and more wise-and as a result, better people, better parents and better professionals
Stoicism
“Eat, drink, and be happy. For tomorrow, you will die.”
They believe that pleasure is the only good in life, and pain is the only evil, and our life’s goal should be to maximize pleasure and minimize pain
Hedonism
Moderate pleasure
Being content with the simple things in life ensures that you will never be disappointed
Epicureanism
From the scientific investigation on nature and search for happiness to the question of life and salvation in another realm, in a better world (i.e., the afterlife)
There was an aim to merge philosophy and religion (Christian, Jewish, Muslim)
Theo-centric
Integrates Platonic ideas with the tenets of Christianity
The self strives to achieve union with God through faith and reason
St. Augustine
Self-knowledge is dependent on our experience of the world around us (objects in our environment)
The labels we attribute to ourselves are taken from the things we encounter in our environment
“The things that we love tell us what we are”
Experiencing that something exists doesn’t tell us what it is
Knowing and learning about a thing requires a long process of understanding; same with the mind and the self - with experience and reason
St. Thomas Aquinas
Thinkers began to reject the scholastics’ (medieval thinkers) excessive reliance on authority
Period of radical, social, political and intellectual developments
Anthropocentric
The self is a thinking thing, distinct from the body
Rene Descartes
Personal identity is made possible by self consciousness
John Locke
There is no “self,” only a bundle of constantly changing perceptions passing through the theater of our minds
David Hume
The self is a unifying subject, an organizing consciousness that makes intelligible experience possible
Immanuel Kant
The self is the way people behave
Gilbert Ryle
The self is the brain. Mental states will be superseded by the brain states
Paul & Patricia Churchland
Both Husserl and Merleau-Ponty agree that our living body is a natural synthesis of mind and biology
Embodied Subjectivity
Describe the phenomena of the lived experience (reducing biases) by describing what your immediate responses are - physically, emotionally, cognitively
Phenomenological Approach
We experience our self as a unity which the in mental and physical are seamlessly woven together
Edmund Husserl
The self is embodied subjectivity
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
A person’s self grows out of a person’s social interactions with others
The view of ourselves comes from the contemplation of personal qualities and impressions of how others perceive us
Actually, how we see ourselves does not come from who we really are, but rather from how we believe others see us
The Looking Glass Self (Charles Horton Cooley)
Technique used to enhance the individual’s perception on self and others
Johari Window (Joseph Luft & Harrington Ingham)
The self is created and developed through human interaction
“I and the Me” self
Symbolic Interactionism
2 Aspects of Self-Awareness:
The “me” is the socialized aspect of the person
The “I” is the active aspect of the person
Father of Psychoanalysis
Sigmeund Freud
refers to those thoughts and feelings that we are aware of
Conscious
experiences that are unconscious but could become conscious with little effort
Preconscious
contains all drives, urges or instinct that are beyond our awareness but motivate our feelings, thoughts and behavior
Unconscious
Pleasure Principle
Natural part of the self
Animalistic nature of man
Pleasure seeking part of the personality
Determined by the genetic code
Providing the raw materials
Setting the boundary conditions for development
Represents the basic need of man
If properly controlled, it could bring warmth and comfort
If angered/provoked, it could destroy not only himself but also his surrounding
ID (Biological Self)
Idealistic Principle
The superego incorporates the values and morals of society which are learned from one’s parents and others
Superego (Social Self)
Reality Principle
The only region of the mind that is in contact with reality; it operates to fulfill the reality principle
The ego constantly tries to reconciles the irrational wants of the id and the superego with the realistic demands of the world
EGO (Psychological Self)
When the scale is out of balance, it is the responsibility of the ________ to mediate the conflict between the ________ and ________
EGO
ID
SUPEREGO
Weak ego will lead to ________
Anxiety
To protect the ego from anxiety, we use ________________
DEFENSE MECHANISMS
When the ego is threatened, it unconsciously forgets or block unpleasant feelings
Pushes painful or stressful ideas into the subconscious
Repression
Redirecting unacceptable urges to less threatening people or objects
Displacement
The ego may revert back to an earlier stage during times of stress or anxiety
Regression
Attributing the unwanted impulse to another person
Projection
Suppression of unwanted impulses by substituting it with a creative cultural accomplishments
Sublimation
Converting of unwanted or dangerous thoughts, feelings or impulses into their opposites
Expressing the opposite feeling to what is actually felt
Reaction Formation
Adolescents are thought to believe that others are always watching and evaluating them, and that they are special and unique
Imaginary Audience
One’s perception at herself, including ability-related perceptions and feelings about these ability related perceptions
Mental Representation
Self-Concept
An overall evaluation of the self as a person of worth
Used to describe a person’s overall sense of self-worth or personal value
In other words, it refers to how much you appreciate and like yourself
Self-Esteem
perceived capabilities for learning or performing actions at designated levels
Self-Efficacy
Carl Rogers believed that for a person to achieve self-actualization they must be in a state of ________
congruence
Considering your present condition in relation to how you were in the past
Temporal Comparison
Evaluating yourself in comparison to others - using others as a basis for evaluating your attributes
Social Comparison
Two Modes of Social Comparison
Upward
Downward
When we compare ourselves with those who we believe are better than us
Often focus on the desire to improve our current level of ability
Upward Social Comparison
When we compare ourselves to others who are worse off than ourselves
Often centered on making ourselves feel better about our abilities
A person who i unhappy or is unmotivated usually engages in this to feel better about himself/herself
Downward Social Comparison
Two Modes of Downward Social Comparison:
Passive Downward Comparison
Active Downward Comparison
Happens when a person takes into consideration the previous condition in making comparison
Passive Downward Comparison
Happens when a person compares himself/herself with others by demeaning or causing harm to them
By derogating the target or causing him/her, this person generates a situation in which target is worse off than him/her, therefore giving him/her the chance to make a downward comparison
Active Downward Comparison
Occurs when someone looks for positive traits in himself/herself based on the person he/she compares himself/herself with
Self-Evaluation
Occurs when the person questions which aspects of himself/herself need to be improved to reach the level of goodness of the person he/she is comparing himself/herself with
Self-Enhancement
A group to which an individual or another group is compared
Reference Group
Autonomous and egocentric
Western Self
Identity shared with others and derived from a culture instead of a “self”
Non-Western/Eastern Self
A human being has an individualistic nature and is an independent part of the universe and the society
Individualism
A human being is an integral part of the universe and the society
People are fundamentally connected
Duty towards all others is a very important matter
Collectivism
Traits of Individualistic Cultures:
Uniqueness
Autonomy
Independence
Self-Sufficiency
Traits of Collectivistic Culture:
Social rules focus on promoting selflessness
Working as a group
Doing what’s best for society
Families and communities have a central role
The self is the source of all sufferings. It is our quest to forget about the self, forget the cravings of the self, break the attachments you have with the world, and to renounce the self in order to attain the state of Nirvana.
Buddhism (Siddharta Gautama)
Hindus believe that an individual’s action (karma) - the bad or good actions that the individual performed in a previous life determines his or her caste
Hinduism (Fusion of Various Indian Cultures and Traditions)
Self does not exist without the existence of the other. Self as a separate identity is supported by the equal and opposite sensation of otherness
Taoism (Lao-Tzu)
Filial piety is a foundational concept in the thought of Confucius. It teaches how one should properly act according to their relationship with other people; focused on having a harmonious social life.
Confucianism (Confucius)
