PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE OF THE SELF

• Psychoanalytic Theory

  • Sigmund Freud. The father of Psychoanalysis

  • The person’s levels of the mind which can be likened to an iceberg.

  • Self is directed and complicated by “UNCONSCIOUS” motives which we are not directly aware.

  • The person’s levels of the mind which can be likened to an iceberg.

  • Basic foundation of personality – 1-5 years old
• Level of Mental Life

  • Unconscious. - The main focus of psychoanalysis. These are feelings, memories, thoughts, and urges that cannot be easily brought into consciousness.

  • Preconscious. - Part of the unconscious where we can retrieve memories.

  • Conscious. - The seat of awareness
• Structure of the Mind

  • The Id. Pleasure Principle

  • The Ego. The Reality Principle. The representation of the self.

  • The Superego. The moral center of personality, containing the Conscience & Ego ideal
• ego strength or ability to manage conflicts between id and superego.
• According to Freud (1933/1964), the various drives can all be grouped under two major headings: Sex (Eros) and Aggressive or destructive drive (Thanatos).
• The aim of the sexual drive is pleasure, but this pleasure is not limited to genital satisfaction.
• The aim of the destructive drive, according to Freud, is to return the organism to an inorganic state.
• Fixation- stuck on the maturation process
• REPRESSION

  • The most basic defense mechanism, because it is involved in each of the others, is repression.

  • Whenever the ego is threatened by undesirable id impulses, it protects itself by repressing those impulses; that is, it forces threatening feelings into the unconscious.
• REACTION FORMATION

  • One of the ways in which a repressed impulse may become conscious is through adopting a disguise that is directly opposite its original form.
• DISPLACEMENT

  • Redirecting of unacceptable urges and feelings onto people and objects in order to disguise or conceal their true nature.
• FIXATION

  • When the prospect of growth becomes anxiety-provoking, the ego may remain at the present and more comfortable at current psychological stage. Universal to people.
• REGRESSION

  • Once the libido has passed the developmental stage, it may, during times of stress and anxiety, revert back to that earlier stage.
• PROJECTION

  • Can be defined as seeing in others those unacceptable feelings or behaviors that reside in one’s own unconscious.

  • When carried to extreme, projection can become paranoia, which is characterized by delusions of jealousy and persecution.
• INTROJECTION

  • Involves placing an unwanted impulse onto an external object, introjection is a defense mechanism whereby people incorporate positive qualities of another person into their own ego.

  • Hero worship might be a good example
• SUBLIMATION

  • The repression of the genital aim of Eros by substituting a cultural or social aim.

  • The sublimated aim is expressed most obviously in creative cultural accomplishments such as art, music, and literature, but more subtly,

  • It is part of all human relationships and all social pursuits
• Psychosocial Theory of Development

  by Erik Erickson
• Erikson used the term “ego identity” to describe the condition of experiencing loss of sameness and continuity in their lives.
• • Erikson uses the term epigenesis to describe the property of identity development.
• • It means etymological, “epi” which means upon or emergence, and genesis means the beginning(Evans, 1967).
• In Erik Erikson’s theory, the adolescence stage is a period of identity development.
• Identity formation

  • Is usually viewed as a process that requires adolescents to distance themselves from the strong expectations and definitions imposed by parents and other family member
• The ego is the positive force that contributes to identity formation and lays the foundation for certain ego strength and life virtues such as:

  • Hope

  • Will

  • Purpose

  • Competence

  • Fidelity

  • Love

  • Care

  • Wisdom
• Individual Psychology of Alfred Adler
• ADLER

  • Man is motivated by social influences & striving for superiority.

  • People are largely responsible for who they are. • Present behavior is shaped by the future.

  • People are usually aware of what they are doing and why.
• Person Centered Theory of Carl Rogers
• Humanistic view of the self

  • Focuses on traits that make people uniquely human Reaction against negativity of psychoanalysis and behavioral determinism.

  • Carl Rogers proposed that self-actualization depends on proper development of the self-concept.
• Real/ True self: One of the components of self-concept which consists of all the ideas, including the awareness of what is and what one can do.
• Ideal self: Another component of self concept which pertains to the person's conception of what one should be or what one aspires to be which includes one's goals and ambitions in life.
• The self-concept is based on what people are told by others and how the sense of self is reflected in the words and actions of important people in one’s life, such as parents, siblings, coworkers, friends, and teachers.
• • Positive regard is warmth, affection, love, and respect that come from significant others in one’s life.
• • Unconditional positive regard from important others in a person’s life helps the formation of the self-concept and the congruity of the real and ideal selves, leading to a fully functioning person..