Midterm Discussion PDF

MIDTERM DISCUSSION  CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHERS ON UNDERSTANDING THE SELF Gregor Mendel, through his work on pea plants, discovered the fundamental laws of inheritance. He deduced that genes come in pairs and are inherited as distinct units, one from each paren...

MIDTERM DISCUSSION  CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHERS ON UNDERSTANDING THE SELF Gregor Mendel, through his work on pea plants, discovered the fundamental laws of inheritance. He deduced that genes come in pairs and are inherited as distinct units, one from each parent. Tabula Rasa is a Latin phrase meaning "blank slate." It is a philosophical concept most famously associated with John Locke, an Enlightenment thinker. Locke proposed that the human mind at birth is like a blank slate, free from pre-existing ideas or knowledge, and that all knowledge comes from experience and sensory input. This idea contrasts with nativist theories, which suggest that certain ideas or knowledge are innate. The psychologist who authored Good Enough Parenting and contributed to the idea of raising resilient individuals anchored in their true self is Donald Winnicott.  Eurocentrism is defined as the belief system that positions Europe as the central force in shaping world history, promoting universal values, and representing progress and development. Lookism is the construction of a standard for beauty and attractiveness, and judgments made about people on the basis of how well or poorly they meet the standard.  Anorexia nervosa is a psychiatric disease in which patients restrict their food intake relative to their energy requirements through eating less, exercising more, and/or purging food through laxatives and vomiting.  The philosopher you are referring to is Jean-Paul Sartre, a prominent existentialist philosopher. Sartre believed that a person's essence is not predetermined; rather, individuals define themselves through their actions, choices, and expressions. This idea aligns with his famous assertion that "existence precedes essence"—humans exist first and create their identity and meaning through movement, expression, and engagement with the world.  Sir Edward Burnett Tylor (born Oct. 2, 1832, London—died Jan. 2, 1917, Wellington, Somerset, Eng.) was an English anthropologist regarded as the founder of cultural anthropology. His most important work, Primitive Culture (1871), influenced in part by Darwin’s theory of biological evolution, developed the theory of an evolutionary, progressive relationship from primitive to modern cultures. Tylor was knighted in 1912. He is best known today for providing, in this book, one of the earliest and clearest definitions of culture, one that is widely accepted and used by contemporary anthropologists.  The body is the innermost part of the material Self in each of us; and certain parts of the body seem more intimately ours than the rest. The clothes come next. The old saying that the human person is composed of three parts - soul, body and clothes - is more than a joke. We so appropriate our clothes and identify ourselves with them that there are few of us who, if asked to choose between having a beautiful body clad in raiment perpetually shabby and unclean, and having an ugly and blemished form always spotlessly attired, would not hesitate a moment before making a decisive reply. Next, our immediate family is a part of ourselves. Our father and mother, our wife and babes, are bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. When they die, a part of our very selves is gone. If they do anything wrong, it is our shame. If they are insulted, our anger flashes forth as readily as if we stood in their place. Our home comes next. Its scenes are part of our life; its aspects awaken the tenderest feelings of affection; and we do not easily forgive the stranger who, in visiting it, finds fault with its arrangements or treats it with contempt. All these different things are the objects of instinctive preferences coupled with the most important practical interests of life. We all have a blind impulse to watch over our body, to deck it with clothing of [p. 293] an ornamental sort, to cherish parents, wife and babes, ad to find for ourselves a home of our own which we may live in and 'improve.'  A man's Social Self is the recognition which he gets from his mates. We are not only gregarious animals, liking to be in sight of our fellows, but we have an innate propensity to get ourselves noticed, and noticed favorably, by our kind. No more fiendish punishment could be devised, were such a thing physically possible, than that one should be turned loose in society and remain absolutely unnoticed by all the members thereof. If no one turned round when we entered, answered when we spoke, or minded what we did, but if every person we met 'cut us dead,' and acted as if we were non-existing things, a kind of rage and impotent despair would ere long well up in us, from which the cruellest bodily tortures would be a relief; for these would make us feel that, however bad might be our plight, we had not sunk to such a depth as to be unworthy of attention at all.  Properly speaking, a man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him and carry an image of him in their mind. To wound any one of these his images is to wound him. But as the individuals who carry the images fall naturally into classes, we may practically say that he has as many different social selves as there are distinct groups of persons about whose opinion he cares. He generally shows a different side of himself to each of these different groups. Many a youth who is demure enough before his parents and teachers, swears and swaggers like a pirate among his 'tough' young friends. We do not show ourselves to our children as to our club-companions, to our customers as to the laborers we employ, to our own masters and employers as to our intimate friends. From this there results what practically is a division of the man into several selves; and this may be a discordant splitting, as where one is afraid to let one set of his acquaintances know him as he is elsewhere; or it may be a perfectly harmonious division of labor, as where one tender to his children is stern to the soldiers or prisoners under his command.  By the Spiritual Self, so far as it belongs to the Empirical Me, I mean a man's inner or subjective being, his psychic faculties or dispositions, taken concretely; not the bare principle of personal Unity, or 'pure' Ego, which remains still to be discussed. These psychic dispositions are the most enduring and intimate part of the self, that which we most verily seem to be. We take a purer self-satisfaction when we think of our ability to argue and discriminate, of our moral sensibility and conscience, of our indomitable will, than when we survey any of our other possessions. Only when these are altered is a man said to be alienatus a se. According to William James, the difference between the I and the Me selves lies in their roles in self-perception and consciousness: I-Self (Subjective Self) 1. The I refers to the self as the knower or the subjective aspect of self. 2. It is the part of the self that is aware, experiences, and reflects on life. 3. This is the active, thinking, and perceiving aspect, the one that says, "I am." 4. It represents the self's sense of continuity and identity across time. Me-Self (Objective Self) 1. The Me refers to the self as the known or the objective aspect of self. 2. It includes all the elements of self that can be observed and described, such as physical traits, social roles, and personal characteristics. 3. The Me is divided into three components: 1.Material Self: The physical body, possessions, and tangible aspects of one's life. 2.Social Self: The roles and relationships a person has with others. 3.Spiritual Self: The inner, subjective thoughts, emotions, and values. TYPES OF CULTURES Material culture is the totality of physical objects and belongings of members of a group of people. Examples of material culture include money, tools, weapons, utensils, machines, clothing, ornaments, art, buildings, and monuments. Nonmaterial culture refers to the abstract ideas and ways of thinking that make up a culture. Examples of nonmaterial culture include traffic laws, words, and dress codes. Unlike material culture, nonmaterial culture is intangible. Customs Culture are often employed in discussing culture. A custom is a widely accepted way of doing something, specific to a particular society, place or time, and that has developed through repetition over a long period of time. THE SELF BY CARL ROGERS Carl Rogers was an extremely influential researcher in the field of humanistic psychology whose theories we will examine more closely in a later section. Here, however, it is necessary to look at some of the concepts that he (and others) proposed that are linked to the self and what these actually mean: Self-image Self-esteem Ideal self Self-actualisation Congruence Incongruence Self-image In simple terms, a person’s self-image is how they see themselves but this does not necessarily have to reflect reality. For example, someone who has an eating disorder may have a self-image that they are fat but, in reality, this is not the case. Self-image can be determined by many factors, such as parental or peer influence or the media, and these influences can be both positive and negative. Self-image is also linked to how others reflect back to us, which is highlighted when parents are told that if they tell their children something enough times, they will believe it. This is great if a child is continually told “you can do it!” but has very negative effects if they are continually told “you are hopeless, don’t even bother trying.” Self-image has been investigated by asking people to write out statements about themselves that begin ‘I am…’ (just as in your first activity) in answer to the question ‘who am I?’ The types of answers that are commonly found are: Physical descriptions: I am tall, I am thin, I have brown hair Social roles: I am a mum, I am on a football team, I am a student Personality traits: I am very emotional, I am happy, I worry about everything. Self-esteem Self-esteem can be summed up as a measure of how much a person values themselves. It also refers to how much we approve of ourselves and how accepting we are of ourselves. Self-esteem must involve some form of self-evaluation because it measures how much value a person places on themselves; therefore, self- esteem is usually described as being high or low. Someone who has high self-esteem places great value on themselves and has a positive view of who they are. This can lead to: Confidence in abilities Confidence in decision-making Self-acceptance Little worry of being judged by others Ideal self – congruence and incongruence The ideal self is who someone would like to be and it is thought that if there is a mismatch between who you think you are (your self-image) and your ideal self then this is what leads to low self-esteem. The bigger the discrepancy between who someone thinks they are and who they would like to be then the lower their self-esteem will be. Obviously, this also works the other way around and someone whose self-image is identical or very close to their ideal self will experience high self-esteem. When a person’s self-image (also referred to as their ‘actual experience’) and ideal self do not match, this is referred to as incongruence. For example, if someone wants to be an air traffic controller but they do not have the relevant qualifications because they did badly at school, they would be incongruent in terms of their self-image and ideal self because the two do not match. When a person’s ideal self and actual experience are consistent or very similar, a state of congruence exists, although this is very rare as most people consistently experience some level of incongruence. The development of congruence is dependent on unconditional positive regard (this is discussed in a later section) and Rogers argued that for a person to achieve self- actualisation they must be in a state of congruence. Self-actualisation Self-actualisation is a concept which refers to how a person can become the best possible version of themselves. In other words, it is how they achieve their unique potential. Rogers argued that people will always have a tendency to work towards being their ideal self, but in order to do this they need the help and support of others. When we are made to feel good by other people, this leads to an increase in our self-esteem because the gap is closed between who we perceive ourselves to be and our ideal self. The smaller the gap between ideal self and self-image, the closer we are to self-actualisation. Maslow developed what he referred to as a ‘hierarchy of needs’, which is shown in the diagram below. This will be discussed more clearly in the next section but it is worth looking at now so that you can familiarise yourself with its levels.  MEAD DEVELOPMENT STAGES George Herbert Mead, a prominent sociologist and philosopher, introduced a theory of social development that emphasizes the role of social interaction in shaping the self. Mead identified three key stages in the development of the self, which he explained as part of a child's socialization process. These stages highlight how individuals come to understand themselves and their roles in society. 1. Preparatory Stage (Imitation Stage)This stage occurs in infancy and early childhood.Children mimic or imitate the behaviors, actions, and words of others around them without understanding their meaning.There is no developed sense of self at this stage, as children are merely copying what they observe in their immediate environment. 2. Play Stage In this stage, children begin to engage in role-playing and take on the roles of specific others, such as parents, teachers, or fictional characters.Through play, children start to understand the concept of a role and develop the ability to see things from the perspective of others.For example, a child playing "parent" might pretend to cook or care for a doll, showing their emerging ability to understand roles in a social context.3. Game StageThis stage marks the development of a more complex sense of self.Children begin to take into account the perspectives of multiple others simultaneously, as seen in structured activities like games.They understand the rules of the game and recognize how their actions affect others in the group.This stage leads to the development of the generalized other, which represents an internalized sense of the expectations and attitudes of the broader society. 3. Game Stage This stage marks the development of a more complex sense of self.Children begin to take into account the perspectives of multiple others simultaneously, as seen in structured activities like games.They understand the rules of the game and recognize how their actions affect others in the group.This stage leads to the development of the generalized other, which represents an internalized sense of the expectations and attitudes of the broader society.  Erik Erikson Stages of Physical Self Erik Erikson, a developmental psychologist, emphasized the importance of the physical self in his psychosocial theory of development. While his theory primarily focuses on psychosocial stages, the physical self plays a significant role in shaping an individual's identity and experiences across these stages. Erikson recognized that physical growth and changes influence how individuals interact with their environment and perceive themselves. Physical Self in Erikson's Stages of Development Infancy (Trust vs. Mistrust) Physical needs, such as feeding, touch, and warmth, are central.A caregiver's ability to meet these needs establishes trust. If the physical self feels nurtured and cared for, the child develops confidence in the world and in their physical self. Early Childhood (Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt)Physical abilities like walking, climbing, and toilet training are key milestones.Success in mastering these tasks fosters a sense of autonomy and confidence in the physical self, while failure or excessive criticism can lead to shame and self-doubt. Preschool (Initiative vs. Guilt) Children begin using their physical selves to explore and engage in activities like running, drawing, or playing.Positive experiences reinforce initiative and creativity, while physical limitations or scolding can lead to guilt.School Age (Industry vs. Inferiority)Physical self-awareness increases as children engage in sports, academics, and other skill-based activities.Mastery of physical tasks, such as coordination and strength, builds a sense of industry. Struggles in these areas may result in feelings of inferiority. Adolescence (Identity vs. Role Confusion) Rapid physical changes during puberty significantly impact self-image and identity formation.Adolescents often compare their physical selves with peers, influencing their self-esteem and overall identity. Acceptance of one's physical self is a critical component of achieving a stable sense of identity.Adulthood (Intimacy, Generativity, Integrity)While the focus shifts to emotional and social relationships, physical health and appearance continue to affect self-perception.A healthy physical self can contribute to intimate relationships, productivity, and overall life satisfaction.  JOSE VILLA’S RESEARCH ON GENERATIONAL FOCUS José "Pepe" Villa's research on generations focuses on understanding the unique characteristics, behaviors, and values that define different generational cohorts. As a researcher in generational studies, Villa explores how societal, cultural, and technological changes influence the way each generation thinks, communicates, and interacts with the world. His work often involves analyzing the relationships between generations and their impacts on various domains such as education, workplace dynamics, and family structures. Key Focus Areas in José Villa’s Research 1.Generational Identity and Values Villa examines how historical events, technological advancements, and cultural trends shape the identity and core values of generations. For instance, Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and Gen Z each exhibit distinct traits based on the societal contexts they grew up in. 1.Intergenerational Relationships 1. His research highlights the interactions between different generations in families, workplaces, and communities. 2. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for addressing generational conflicts and fostering collaboration. 2.Technological Impact on Generations 1. Villa investigates how exposure to technology at different developmental stages affects generational preferences, particularly in communication and information consumption. 2. For example, Millennials and Gen Z are often seen as "digital natives," while older generations have adapted to technological changes later in life. 3.Generational Impact on Society and Business 1. Villa's work often informs organizations on how to engage different generational groups effectively. 2. By identifying generational trends in consumer behavior and workplace preferences, his research helps shape marketing strategies and human resource policies. Sigmund Freud's id, ego, and superego are key components of his psychoanalytic theory of personality. These three elements interact dynamically to shape human behavior and personality, reflecting the complex interplay between instinctual desires, societal norms, and individual decision-making.1. IdDescription: The id represents the primitive, instinctual part of the mind. It operates entirely on the pleasure principle, seeking immediate gratification of basic drives, such as hunger, thirst, and sexual desires, regardless of consequences.Characteristics:Present from birth.Unconscious and impulsive.Driven by biological instincts (Eros, the life drive, and Thanatos, the death drive).Example: A hungry baby crying for milk or an adult feeling an urge to impulsively lash out in anger.2. EgoDescription: The ego is the rational, conscious part of the personality. It operates on the reality principle, mediating between the unrealistic demands of the id and the moral constraints of the superego.Characteristics:Develops around the age of 1-3 years.Functions in the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious mind.Uses logic, planning, and problem-solving to delay gratification in socially acceptable ways.Example: Instead of stealing food when hungry, the ego might persuade the person to wait until they can purchase a meal.3. SuperegoDescription: The superego is the moral conscience of the mind, representing internalized societal norms, values, and parental guidance. It strives for perfection rather than pleasure or practicality.Characteristics:Develops around the age of 3-5 years.Operates in the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious mind.Has two subsystems:Conscience: Guilt for unethical actions.Ego Ideal: Standards for moral and ideal behavior.Example: Feeling guilty for lying or a strong sense of pride after doing something honorable.Interaction of Id, Ego, and SuperegoFreud viewed personality as a dynamic equilibrium resulting from the interaction of these three forces:Id pushes for instant gratification.Superego imposes moral judgment and social rules.Ego mediates between the two, finding realistic and socially acceptable solutions.Example of Interaction:A person sees a delicious cake (id: "I want it now"). Their superego might say, "You shouldn’t take it; it’s someone else's," while the ego mediates by suggesting, "Let’s ask if we can share it or wait until we buy our own."  Sigmund Freud's id, ego, and super ego Sigmund Freud's id, ego, and superego are key components of his psychoanalytic theory of personality. These three elements interact dynamically to shape human behavior and personality, reflecting the complex interplay between instinctual desires, societal norms, and individual decision-making. 1. Id: The id represents the primitive, instinctual part of the mind. It operates entirely on the pleasure principle, seeking immediate gratification of basic drives, such as hunger, thirst, and sexual desires, regardless of consequences. Characteristics:Present from birth. Unconscious and impulsive. Driven by biological instincts (Eros, the life drive, and Thanatos, the death drive).Example: A hungry baby crying for milk or an adult feeling an urge to impulsively lash out in anger. 2. Ego : The ego is the rational, conscious part of the personality. It operates on the reality principle, mediating between the unrealistic demands of the id and the moral constraints of the superego. Characteristics:Develops around the age of 1-3 years.Functions in the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious mind.Uses logic, planning, and problem-solving to delay gratification in socially acceptable ways.Example: Instead of stealing food when hungry, the ego might persuade the person to wait until they can purchase a meal. 3. Superego : The superego is the moral conscience of the mind, representing internalized societal norms, values, and parental guidance. It strives for perfection rather than pleasure or practicality. Characteristics:Develops around the age of 3-5 years.Operates in the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious mind.Has two subsystems: Conscience: Guilt for unethical actions.Ego Ideal: Standards for moral and ideal behavior. Example: Feeling guilty for lying or a strong sense of pride after doing something honorable.Interaction of Id, Ego, and Superego Freud viewed personality as a dynamic equilibrium resulting from the interaction of these three forces:Id pushes for instant gratification. Super ego imposes moral judgment and social rules.Ego mediates between the two, finding realistic and socially acceptable solutions. Example of Interaction: A person sees a delicious cake (id: "I want it now"). Their superego might say, "You shouldn’t take it; it’s someone else's," while the ego mediates by suggesting, "Let’s ask if we can share it or wait until we buy our own."  FUNCTIONS OF RELIGION IN PSYCHOLOGY In psychology, religion serves various functions that help individuals cope with life's challenges, find meaning, and maintain social cohesion. The four primary functions of religion in psychology are: 1. Cognitive Function Religion helps individuals make sense of the world by providing explanations for life's big questions—such as the origin of the universe, the meaning of life, and the purpose of suffering. It offers a framework for understanding existence and provides answers to existential queries. Example: The belief in a divine creator who made the universe and everything in it gives individuals a sense of understanding about how the world came into being and their role within it. 2. Emotional Function Religion provides emotional support by offering comfort, hope, and solace in times of distress, grief, or anxiety. It helps people manage negative emotions and find peace, often through prayer, meditation, or participation in religious rituals. Example: People often turn to their faith during times of personal loss, illness, or uncertainty, finding emotional reassurance in the belief that they are supported by a higher power or divine plan. 3. Social Function Religion fosters a sense of community and belonging. It creates social bonds through shared beliefs, rituals, and values, promoting social cohesion and helping individuals feel connected to a group or society. Example: Religious congregations or communities often provide a support network, where members gather for worship, mutual support, and collective activities that strengthen their social ties. 4. Moral/Behavioral Function Religion provides moral guidance by offering a set of ethical standards and values. It shapes behavior by defining what is considered right or wrong, influencing individuals' actions and decision-making processes. Example: Religious teachings often emphasize the importance of compassion, honesty, and justice, helping individuals align their behavior with these moral principles in their daily lives.