PSYC1030 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: List Of Memory Biases, Social Forces, Know Thyself
PSYC1030 Lecture Two: The Self
• Many people today do all manner of things to accomplish understanding themselves
-personality tests
-ask for friends' feedback on how they look or think
-go into psychoanalysis
• "Know thyself" was carved into stone at the Ancient Greek oracle Delphi, and scholars
use that to suggest that people have always wanted to understand themselves. Others
argue that it was quite different back then—that "know thyself" meant more like "know
your place", "know what you're supposed to be doing and do it". There is no evidence
that they had identity crises or they searched inside to discover themselves
• The idea that there is a hidden self that is different from how you act, and that the real
self is buried inside and needs to be dug up and explored or discovered, is a fairly
recent and modern innovation in the last couple of centuries
• The human self is very competent at acting differently at different times
e.g. work self, home self, with friends and family self, etc.
• The self is highly aware of itself, critical even, often approving, able to moderate itself
to change itself
• Most other animals don't do this kind of thing, they live in the present, that's about it
Where does it come from?
• School of thought suggests that people create their own selves, that it's by choices
they make. Existentialism emphasises that people are defined by the decisions and
actions they make. Another take is that a person is born with predispositions and
tendencies that dictates that path they will take. Others say people are a product of
their times and circumstances, that society creates individuals. Society is a giant force,
while each individual person is a product of that, created by historical and social
forces, and there's not much to do about it
• Sociologists and historians are correct, to some degree, that one is product of their
circumstances. Yet circumstances can mould people in all different ways, people can
pick and choose, often rejecting the forces that are operating on them
• Society lays out the options so that one has to choose, but they still have to choose, so
the end product is a result of what society made possible, what was chosen from the
choices, and how they react within the framework
The Unique Self
• Humans make choices and incorporate all kinds of abstract principles into their
behavioural choices such as moral rules and responsibility, religious prescriptions and
financial calculations. No other animal does this
• The self is actively self-serving in their feelings, thoughts and deeds. Some of which is
true for most animals. Their brains take care of their bodies, but humans do this in a
very advanced way
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