What is "the I" in Psychology?

In psychology concepts such as "I", "Ego" or "Self" are often used to designate the self-referential dimension of human experience. The perception of continuity and coherence, and therefore the development of the sense of identity, depends on our conceiving a part of ourselves as the subject that stars in our life.

Since at the end of the 19th century William James (1842-1910) distinguished between the "I" as an observer and the "Me" as the object of experience, a large number of theories that try to define what the I is. Below we will describe the most relevant ones through a brief historical tour.

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The self in psychoanalysis

In the theory of Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) the Self is understood as the conscious part of the mind, which must satisfy the instinctual and unconscious impulses of the Id, taking into account the demands of the external world and of one's own conscience - the superego, constituted by social norms internalized.

The I or identity would therefore be an intermediate instance between the biology of an individual and the world that surrounds him. According to Freud, its functions include perception, information management, reasoning and the control of defense mechanisms.

His disciple Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) defined the Self as the core of consciousness; every psychic phenomenon or life experience that is detected by the I becomes conscious. Thus, the sense of self is understood as a complex structure with a double component: somatic and psychic.

Furthermore, for Jung, the I, the center of identity, is immersed in the Self (“Self”), which constitutes the nucleus of the personality in general; the Self includes the unconscious, in addition to the conscious part of the experience. However, we are unable to fully experience the Self since we are anchored to the Self and consciousness.

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The social roles of the self

In the social sciences of the first half of the twentieth century, symbolic interactionism, a current theory that posited that people interpret the world and its elements from the meanings that are given to them socially. The Self is built from face-to-face interaction and of the social structure.

If we talk about the Self and identity, within symbolic interactionism it is worth highlighting the dramaturgical model of Erving Goffman (1922-1982). This author believed that people, as if we were actors, try to appear consistent before others by adopting roles. For Goffman the I It is nothing more than the set of roles that we play.

Later the social psychologist Mark Snyder (1947-) developed his theory of self-observation or self-monitoring. This model affirms that people high in self-observation adapt their roles, and therefore their identity, to the situation in which they find themselves; on the contrary, those who self-monitor little more show the "I" with which they identify.

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Multiplicity and complexity of identity

Among the recent advances in the conception of the Ego from social psychology, two theories stand out. in particular: Patricia Linville's model of self-complexity and the self-discrepancy theory of AND. Tory Higgins. The central aspect of both models is that the Ego is understood as mental representations we make of ourselves.

The model of self-complexity proposes that identity depends on our social roles, relationships interpersonal skills, core personality traits, and the activities we do, such as running professional. The concept "self-complexity" refers to the number of representations that make up the Self, as well as their degree of differentiation.

According to Linville, people with high self-complexity are more resistant to negative life eventsSince even if a part of their identity is questioned or weakened by experiences, there will always be other parts of the Self that they can use as a psychological anchor.

Higgins' self-discrepancy theory

In his theory of self-discrepancy, Higgins also states that the Ego is not a unitary concept, although he defines the different components of identity based on two parameters: the domains of the self and the points of view of the self. In this last criterion we find the perspective of the person on himself, as well as the one that he believes that significant people have.

In the realms of the self, which can be associated with one's own perspective or that of others, we find the real I (how I am), the ideal I (how I would like to be), the I that should be, the potential I (how it could become) and the future I, which is the identity that we expect to be.

Higgins believes that the real I, both from the point of view of oneself and from the point of view we assume that significant people have, is the basis of our selfconcept. By contrast, the rest of the aspects are the guides of the self, which they serve as a model and a reference to act and to evaluate our behavior.

Posttrationalist cognitive theories

Vittorio Guidano (1944-1999) is considered the main pioneer of posttrationalist psychology. This theoretical orientation arises as a reaction to the predominance of positivist and rationalist philosophies, which affirm that there is an objective reality that can be accurately perceived and understood through the senses and logic.

Cognitive-constructivist psychological theories defend the fundamental relevance of language in the way we interpret the world around us and share these perspectives. Through language we organize our experiences in the form of narratives, from which memory and identity emerge.

Thus, the Self is not conceived as a defined entity, but as the constant process of construction of a coherent autobiographical narrative that allows us to give meaning to our experiences. From the posttrationalist perspective the identity problem it becomes a linguistic-narrative question.

Guidano also distinguished between the I and the Me. While he defined the self as the bodily-emotional dimension From experience, predominantly unconscious, for this author the Me is the part of the Self that observes and generates meanings through language. The union of the I and the Me results from the creation of coherent narratives that are intended to be explanatory.