Aubrey Nicole A.

Cañete September 16, 2019

Block A - BS Psychology Understanding the Self

PERSONAL THEORY

“There am no me for I am many of me.”

In accordance to the lessons and information that I have gathered and pondered

from the previous discussions not just from one subject but also from two other

subjects, I came up to this personal theory out of all those integrated altogether, from

Science to Psychology to Philosophy.

First off, I would like to cut the concept of my personal theory which is in

sentence form to its independent clauses. In that sentence, there are two independent

clauses: “There am no me” and “I am many of me.” The first clause would serve as my

standpoint with regard to understanding the self; the second clause would be my reason

and support to my standpoint. To initially start my further explanation, I would like to

expound the meaning of “There am no me.” My standpoint is that the self is not just one,

it is not definite, and it is not concrete. We as human dwell into the world and deal with

different people and go to different places with different environment, customs, norms,

beliefs and practices. In order for us to survive, the self we portray in our family is not

the similar self we portray in the circle of our friends or even in our workplace, or at

school. We adjust and we adapt; in short, we change in order to survive and to live.

Therefore our self is of many selves – my explanation links to the meaning of “I am

many of me.” Those selves of ours are products of change influenced from different

factors in our lives (e.g. family, school, community, friends, environment, etc.).
Nevertheless they are what I call as “sub-selves” and can be termed as “versions” of our

holistic self.

In relation to science in the Theory of Evolution by Charles Darwin, our changing

self would be equivalent to the idea of evolution which refers to organisms that are

adapted to their environment, including their behavior. Adaptation means that an

organism is able to live through growing, acquiring or inheriting a new trait that would

significantly function, necessary for its survival. In a nutshell, the genetic mutations that

are beneficiary to an organism which aid their survival are preserved whenever an

organism’s genetic code experience genetic mutations – this process is known as

“natural selection.” Beneficial mutations accumulate significant results which is an

entirely different organism, an entirely different creature and not just a variation of the

original. Relating to my concept of the self, from one environment or circumstance we

face to another, we become wholly different persons depending on how we choose to

select who we want to be and what to act in that situation that would help us to survive.

Through time we acquire new characteristics and new traits base on our experiences

that would change our self into an entirely new person.

Moreover, with regard to behavior in the Functionalism theory of psychology, we

develop certain behaviors for a purpose that would help us function accordingly in order

to survive and continue to live. Our behavioral adaptions are our survival instincts in

response to the environment we are in. According to William James, the founder of

Functionalism as well as the Father of American Psychology, the theory considers a

person’s environment as one factor that affects mental life and behavior in terms of

active adaptation. To achieve a complete understanding of the human psyche (or self),
it is essential to gain knowledge concerning the function of psychological aspect

affecting the human evolution. Connecting this knowledge in understanding the self,

knowing how our selves change is an ability and power of one’s self; and one main

machine that aids the self to do it is our brain. We have this ability of adapting into the

situation we are in for the sake of living a life that is convenient for us to survive which is

unique among all the other species on earth. Functionalism theory stems from the

notion that the information processor (which I refer to as our brain) has a power to

evolve to better the survival of its carrier. The self with its own consciousness and

system of processing information has the ability to learn and analyze inputs from our

senses or stimulus received from the environment which the brain then commands to

execute an adjustment and adaptive response to the environment. Wherever we go, we

change and change and change to live; we are composed of changing selves.

I would like to narrate an accurate example of my explanation to better

comprehend my point. There is a teenager named Cana, she is a very cheerful and jolly

child in front of her parents. As she starts her high school year, her classroom holds a

very competitive environment surrounded by classmates who are smart and brilliant

people; she began to think that she has to be serious and diligent in listening to her

teachers as well as studying in order to graduate high school. She turns out to be very

studious and diligent in her studies. However, in her circle of friends who have vices like

smoking and drinking. She also acts differently compared to her family and studies but

chooses to conform to her friends’ lifestyle in order to be part of them and to feel a

sense of belongingness. I can say that the famous quote, “You are who your friends

are” is the best way to describe the self in that situation.

 Through time, we experience different situations; those are our “experiences”.

And I always believe that our experience is our best teacher because it corrects our

mistakes and gives us lessons and morals in life. Every day, we gain many different

experiences and in those experiences are our sub-selves doing their jobs operating

accordingly for survival. After facing those experiences we also go through a process of

self-reflection in which we throwback those past encounters and reflect our actions on it;

this way it shapes us into changing again and becoming better than before. To borrow

and use Immanuel Kant’s idea on the philosophy of the self, we construct our self. As I

have mentioned earlier, it depends on how we choose and who we choose to become –

either for good or for bad. It is in our mind and consciousness that has the ability to

organize those experiences which will serve as basis in creating the self that would be

of use in a particular situation.

I have one exact statement that would explicitly clarify my personal theory;

“There is simply no true self.” You might be undergoing identity crisis; you might be

experiencing problems or issues about yourself because you think that you are not

yourself when in fact you really are. It’s not about being great pretenders, being

pretentious; who we are, why we act differently in specific situations is not pretention.

We are not pretending, we basically choose to be that and to create that persona to

survive in that situation – that is our self, a part of our self, our sub-self. And if ever

some of us are still searching for the true self or still in the pursuit of knowing who we

are, it is not really what you are looking for. We just have this thing that we call as a

“concept of the self” or “self-concept”; it is how we perceive ourselves as a whole – an

idea of who we are. What we continue searching the whole time is “self-enlightenment”
and “self-actualization” (based on Abraham Maslow’s Theory of Hierarchy of Needs”).

We have this need that only we are the only ones who can provide, who can meet this

particular need. As what Siddharta Gautama Buddha has mentioned that the greatest

achievement or the highest achievement of life is the “enlightenment”, which I think is

similar to the concept of Abraham Maslow’s.

As conclusion, my personal theory is purely inspired from my experiences, from

the significant individuals who once have been my mentor in the past and from the

knowledge I gained throughout my years of being a student which have led up to this

kind of me in the present. I have reached up to this point of self-realization after all the

experiences I’ve encountered which taught me and shaped me. I know that my

knowledge in understanding the self is still lacking and that I can still understand more

as time passes but I am hopeful that in the near future, there are still new experiences,

different places and people I will have to deal that would affect myself, changing me and

molding me into becoming the best version among all my selves.