Psychology Group 2 PDF

PSYCHOLOGY GROUP 2  Introduction We may only have one physical body, but it may feel like having several selves all at once. In our little corner, this might not be bothersome. Nevertheless, to be asked in public, "Who are you?" could be stressful. This question seems to force...

PSYCHOLOGY GROUP 2  Introduction We may only have one physical body, but it may feel like having several selves all at once. In our little corner, this might not be bothersome. Nevertheless, to be asked in public, "Who are you?" could be stressful. This question seems to force us to come up with a satisfying answer that we might begin to feel unsatisfied after saying it. Questioning who we are or engaging in self- reflection to figure out and understand why we behave in a certain way is normal (Weiten et al., 2014) and is beneficial in increasing self- awareness. This chapter will let you think about you, your thoughts, feelings, and behavior. The theories in Psychology will help you understand why you feel and behave that way. Psychology may focus on the individual and the cognitive functions, but it does not discount the context and other possible factors that affect the individual. To help us understand ourselves a bit clearer and somehow ease the pressure of coming up with a definite answer to who we are, let us look into some of the theories and concepts in psychology regarding the self.  Theories and Concepts in Psychology Psychology is the science that deals with human behavior and mental processes. Many people misunderstand psychology as simply 89,750 120,890 mind reading or stating the obvious. 2,508 75,600 As you read through the module, however, you will soon realize how these notions are misconceptions. As a field that focuses on the human being, Psychology draw findings based on empirical data. The self in psychology pertains to how one creates a schema of his/her person. Awareness of the self is similar to having a conception of the self. A schema describes a pattern of thought or behavior that organizes categories of information and the relationships among them. Self is "the sense of personal identity and of who we are as individuals" (Stangor, Jhangiani & Tarry, 2014).  Individual Self: The Biological Foundations of Behavior The center of all our bodily activities is the brain. It is composed of billions of specialized cells called neurons that receive and send the signal from the central nervous system (brain) to different parts of the body. These signals or neural impulses are the messages that are being carried for the brain to interpret the external stimulus coming from the environment. Depending on the stimulus, a corresponding signal will be sent, which will cause certain types of responses or behavior. Aside from the signals coming from the environment, chemicals in our brains also affect our responses or Subtitle behavior. These brain chemicals are called neurotransmitters (Prasad, Kumar, & Ali, 2020; Passer & Smith, 2007). The following neurotransmitters are known to have a direct influence on human behavior. However, this influence does not mean that they are the direct and sole cause of such behavior. What needs to be understood in this section is that human behavior can also be explained through the inner workings of the brain (Prasad, Kumar, & Ali, 2020). Especially in the discussion regarding mental disorders, explaining an imbalance in brain chemicals will help people understand that having a mental condition does not equate to being weak or not having faith. In some instances, vulnerability to developing mental disorders can be attributed to our genetic disposition and the composition of these chemicals in our brains. Individual Self: Stages of Human Development There are theories that explain the development of a human being throughout the life span. The most popular among them are the Psychosexual Stages as proposed by Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson's Psychosocial Stages. Both theories believe in the influence of the unconscious mind in the development of an individual. The two approaches differ in the number of stages that they have. As Freud believed that childhood experiences primarily shape the adult personality, his stages are limited only up until the puberty stage. Erikson expanded this belief to include the later years of life. Furthermore, while Freud emphasized the sexual drive as the main reason for our behavior, Erikson believed that interpersonal relationships take the central role in the development of the individual (Knight, 2017). The following figures summarize the Psychosexual and Psychosocial Stages of Development: Freud's 5 stages of Psychosexual Development Pleasure center is on the mouth - sucking, biting and chewing. If oral needs are not met, the person may develop thumb sucking, fingernail biting or pencil chewing in childhood and overeating or smoking in later life. Satisfaction focuses on the expulsion of bowel and bladder elimination; coping with demands for control. If they are trained before they are ready or not trained on time, it may result to extreme orderliness or messiness as part of the individual's personality. Pleasure zone is the gentelt dealing with incestuous asual leeing towards opposite sex parent. To avoid punishment to the incest feelings, they adapt the same sex parent's characteristics or values. Dormant sexual feelings. The child acquires new social values and spends time with same sex peers. Maturation of sexual interest Sexual impulses reappear If development in earlier stages is successful, it can lead to mamlage, mature sexuality and bearing of children. Erikson's 8 Stages of Psychosocial Development If needs are dependably met, they develop a sense of trust. Toddlers learn to exercise will and do things for themselves or they doubt their abilities. Pre-schoolers learn to initiate tasks and carry out plans or they feel guilty about their efforts to be independent. Children learn the pleasure of doing tasks or they feel Inferior. Teenagers work at refining a sense of self by testing roles and integrating them to form a single identity or they become confused of who they are. Young adults struggle to form close relationships and to gain the capacity for intimate love or they feel socially isolated. The middle aged discover a sense of contributing to the world, usually through their work, are they may feel lack of purpose. When reflecting his/her life, the older adult may feel a sense of satisfaction of failure. Individual Self: The Subjective Being Freud (1905) believed that the human mind is divided into three levels: The conscious mind comprises all those thoughts that you are aware of. The subconscious mind on the other hand are thoughts that are not currently in present awareness but could easily be remembered when needed. For example, you may not be thinking about your favorite teacher's name while reading but when someone asks for his/her name, you will be able to give them this information easily. The unconscious mind resides in the deepest and the hard to access part of our mind. It nurses our unwanted memories, deep-seated guilt feelings, unacceptable thoughts, and desires. Freud stressed that conscious thoughts are already Source filtered with the influence of society's expectations and are not the accurate representation of the self. If we want to understand the seff, we should not be looking into what we are conscious of, but instead, look into the dark realm of our unconscious mind because it is where our most primitive instincts lay (McLeod, 2019, Feist and Feist, 2008). Just like an iceberg, only a small portion of the mind is exposed to reality. A more significant portion of it is submerged and is unaware of reality (Mcleod, 2019). Freud (1905) further noted that the mind has three provinces and the interaction between these three is Air detates human behavior. The three provinces of the mind are as follows: the id which follows the pleasure principle. the superego follows the morality principle. the ego follows the reality principle. The id, which is totally submerged in the unconscious mind, only considers what it wants. Although partly aware, the supper ego is not exempted from the shadows of the unconscious mind, prompting it to make unreasonable demands often in conflict with id. The ego, aware of the situation, is the one that make sense of the situation. It often acts according to the balance of the id, supergo and reality (Feist & Feist, 2008). Further Carl Jung (1921) who was a former colleague of Sigmund Freud, just like Freud, believed that the unconscious mind should be the center in the study of the self. In fact, he thought that just as how genes are passed from one generation to another, the term the called collective unconscious are the ideas or thoughts we have inherited from our ancestors. In the collective unconscious, we can find the archetypes (Jung. 1921/1948). Lesson 2: Me-Self and I-Self: William James James (1890) identified two understandings of the self, the self as "Me" and the self as "I". This distinction was initially based on the idea that the "Me" self refers to the self as an "object of experience" (self as object), and the "I" self reflects the self as a subject of experience (self as subject). (Woźniak, 2018) James (1890) categorization of the Me-self and I- self can be seen through the table below:  ME-SELF I-SELF Material Self Individual Self (mine, "my arm, my bag) (Individual traits, abilities, Tangible objects, people, or and possessions) - places that carry the Spiritual self and aspects designation of mine Bodily of the material self (body, self and extracorporeal self possessions, initials) (beyond the body, e.g., Example: I am shy. I am emotional Investment) tall.  ME-SELF I-SELF Social Self Relational Self (ours eg, our parents, (Other people with whom siblings, romantic partners) we have a personal -How we are regarded and relationship) recognized by others. -Aspects of the social self -Relational Self: -Example: I am my parents interpersonal relationships child.  ME-SELF I-SELF Collective Self Spiritual Self (Socal roles, social (inner or psychological self categories, and social subjective being) group membership) Self-perceived abilities, -Aspects of the social self attitudes, emotions, -Example. I am a Filipino interests, values, motives The "ME" can be considered as a separate individual or object a person can refer to when narrating his/personal experience. Meanwhile the "I" is the one who knows who he/she is and what he/she has done in his/her own life.  Lesson 3: Real and Ideal Selves 3.1. Tenets of Karen Horney's Theory (1950) ✔Idealized self is created when individuals feel alienated from self. ✔An idealized self-image is an extravagantly positive picture of themselves ✔The Real Self can only be achieved through self-realization ✔Incongruence of ideal self and real self leads to self-hatred. Ideal Self Real Self person we want to who we actually are be Idealized version of ourself how I see me how I should be also called actual self  3.2. Carl Rogers' Theory of Self Concept Carl Rogers (1959) asserted that self- concept has three (3) different components: 1. Self-image how you view yourself influenced by external factors such as expectations from significant others. 2. Self-esteem or self-worth is the value you assign to yourself. 3. Ideal-self-is what you desire or expect of the 'self." He further added that we have two selves: Ideal self and Actual self. At this point, you already have an idea of your ideal and real self. Looking into your ideal and real self, how aligned are they? According to Rogers, the congruence or incongruence between the ideal and real self affects our self-esteem.  Congruence Self-concept meshes well with experience Self-concept Experience (some incongruence is probably unavoidable) Incongruence Actual Self-concept does not overlap with experience Self-concept experience  When we feel good about ourselves, it is said that there is congruence or alignment or there is a small gap between our real self and ideal self. When there is congruence, we feel more confident, satisfied and become self-actualized, leading to a high self-esteem. There is incongruence' if there is misalignment or a big gap between the real and ideal self. In effect, we become distressed and anxious, leading to a low self-esteem or self- worth and be defensive in our actions. Experiencing incongruence could happen from time to time. In situations like this, we need to reflect, evaluate our behavior, and be reminded of our ideal self to put us back on track. We have to learn to separate behaviors from the totality of one's being. We may have misbehaved but it does not mean that we are automatically an entirely bad person.  Lesson 4: Self-Esteem and Self-Efficacy Self-esteem refers to one's overall assessment of one's worth as a person (Weiten Dunn & Hammer, 2014). People with high self-esteem succeed more, have better relationships, and are happier than those with low self-esteem (Orth, Robins, & Widaman, 2012). Our self-esteem refers to how much we value ourselves and perceive our worth as a person Self-efficacy is directly correlated with self-esteem. When our performance improves our self-esteem improves which lead to congruence. However, an increase in self-esteem does not always lead to increase self-efficacy most especially if no effort was exerted to enhance performance (Frank, Plunkett & Otten, 2010) It is crucial that we continuously remind ourselves to be motivated and put that motivation into action. Rogers believed that a fully functioning person is one who is, "in touch with the here and now, his or her subjective expenences and feelings, continually growing and changing" (McLeod, 2014). Prepared by: ANALIZA MAY M. PLABA REY MACASIL AHRON VINCE FRANCO MARJORIE DEVANADERO