Social Psychology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Social Psychology - Essay Example However, it is important to identify that at its root, the idea of constructing â€Å"the self† of the individual has roots in many other domains of knowledge (Danziger, 1997). As stated previously, the first thoughts of the idea of the self originated from that of philosophy and religion. The self was often described as the â€Å"soul† or consciousness of the individual. It was supposed to be something that could be observed. Locke was one of the first to develop this issue due to the high rates of development and increase in society. He had to make a distinguishing factor between the external self and the self-consciousness. As time progressed, ideas of the self began to change in develop. Cooley addressed this as a mirror principle in that the reaction to others is based on a mirror principle, which involves both internal and external judgment (Cooley, 1902). One of the key events in the development of the self in social psychology was through the humanist, Carol Rog ers. He postulated that the self constituted two components: the real and ideal selves. The real self was the true essence of who the individual is and the ideal self is what the person projects onto the world as a desire to be. The disunity in the real and ideal self is what causes the neuroticism and anxiety in the individual. The neuroticism can only go away once the real self and ideal self become integrated with one another. Being an American psychologist, he took the forefront in the development in this field of psychology, but moved the emphasis from awareness of self to the emotions and motivations, which play a part in the development of the self, both internally and externally. This represents the constructivist philosophy behind the social aspects in the influence in the psychology of the self. Another component of the self to observe is based on phenomenology, which goes into how does a person experience and interpret the external world. There are two aspects, which brin g these together: ‘being-in-the-world’ and ‘lifeworld’. These aspects argue that rather a considering the individual as a separate from the environment, it addresses it as a system of two identities in which the experiences taken from the environment shape the individual, which is a phenomenological effect. Edmund Husserl gave three criteria, which are used in describing the phenomenology of the self in society. The first step is to suspend expectations of the experience. The second step is to stay with the experiences, versus deductive reasoning and hypothesis testing. Lastly, the third step is in regards to treating everything equally. Again, as with Carol Rogers and humanism, the existential psychologists took up the task of providing constructs for phenomenology. The main characteristics where that each person is unique in that we all process situations differently, being actively engaged in the experience and having the freedom to choose as well as bei ng in the present moment. Psychoanalytic psychology, focused heavily on the development of the self. Psychiatrist Sigmund Freud pioneered in this field. He focused highly on the construction of the self; he was primarily focused on the consciousness. He often described the consciousness in reference to an iceberg. The largest portion of our self, the unconscious, is located in the recesses of our mind and we are often unaware of it, even