Outline of self

Last updated October 31, 2023

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the human self:

In general

Human
Human condition
Individuality (selfhood) – state or quality of being an individual; particularly of being a person separate from other persons and possessing his or her own needs or goals, rights and responsibilities. The exact definition of an individual is important in the fields of biology, law, and philosophy.
Person – being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, or legal responsibility.
Personhood – status of being a person. Defining personhood is a controversial topic in philosophy and law and is closely tied with legal and political concepts of citizenship, equality, and liberty. According to law, only a natural person or legal personality has rights, protections, privileges, responsibilities, and legal liability.
Philosophy of self
Psychology of self
Religious views on the self

Components of self

Personal identity

Personality

Personality traits

Personality trait

Big Five personality traits

Virtues

Virtue – characteristic of a person which supports individual moral excellence and collective well-being. Such characteristics are valued as a principle and recognized as a good way to be. This list is necessarily incomplete.

Virtues of self-control
- Ambition – self-control regarding one's goals
- Ataraxia – Concept in Stoic philosophy
- Brahmacharya – Motivated abstinence from worldly pleasures
- Calmness – Mental state of inner peace
- Chastity – Ethic concept of temperance related to sexuality
- Contentment – Emotional state
- Continence – self-control regarding unwise inclinations
- Diligence – Carefulness and persistent effort or work
- Discipline – Action or inaction that is regulated to be by a particular system of governance
- Endurance – Ability of an organism to exert itself and remain active for a long period of time
- Equanimity – State of psychological stability and composure
- Forbearance or Patience – Ability to endure difficult circumstances
- Good temper – Term used to indicate the mixture of the innate aspects of the personality
- Kshama – Sanskrit term meaning patience or forgiveness
- Kshanti – Buddhist concept of patience, forbearance and forgiveness
- Moderation – process of eliminating or lessening extremes
- Prudence – Ability of a person to regulate themselves with the use of reason
- Renunciation – act of renouncing something one previously enjoyed or endorsed
- Restraint – Aspect of inhibitory control
- Sobriety – Condition of not being affected by alcohol or drugs
- Temperance – Cardinal virtue of control over excess
- Thrift or Frugality – Being frugal in the consumption of consumable resources
Virtues of self-efficacy
- Adhiṭṭhāna – Resolute determination, in Buddhism
- Aptitude – Ability; competence to do a certain kind of work at a certain level
- Assertiveness – Capacity of being self-assured without being aggressive to defend a point of view
- Boldness – Vigour and valour in action
- Confidence – State of trusting that a belief or course of action is correct
- Conscientiousness – Personality trait of being orderly and following the rules
- Courage – Ability to deal with fear
- Craft – Skill performed manually
- Creativity – Forming something new and somehow valuable
- Determination – Positive emotional feeling
- Dhrti – Yama (ethical rule) in Hinduism
- Drive
- Enthusiasm – Intense enjoyment, interest or approval towards something
- Ganbaru – Japanese word
- Grit – Psychological concept
- Hardiness – in humans, the ability to endure stress without deleterious effects on health
- Health – Desirable level of functional or metabolic efficiency of a living being
- Liberty – Creation and experience of societal freedom
- Perseverance – ability to work steadily despite setbacks or difficulties
- Persistence – personality trait in psychology
- Physical fitness – State of health and well-being
- Preparedness – concrete set of actions taken as precautionary measures in the face of potential disasters
- Prosperity – Concept of economies regarding wealth, health, happiness, community and spirit
- Resilience – Ability to mentally or emotionally cope with a crisis or to return to pre-crisis status quickly
- Self-cultivation – Development of one's virtues
- Self-directedness – adaptability of one's own behavior to achieve personally chosen goals and values
- Self-help – Self-guided improvement
- Sisu – Finnish concept
- Tenacity
- Vīrya – Buddhist term
- Vitality – Capacity to live, grow, or develop
- Workmanship – human attribute relating to knowledge and skill at performing a task
Virtues of regard and respect
- Accountability – Concept of responsibility in ethics, governance and decision-making
- Asteya – Non-stealing, a virtue in Indian religions
- Authenticity – Concept in existential psychology and philosophy
- Empathy – Capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing
- Fair-mindedness – Principle of justice holding that decisions should be based on objective criteria
- Faithfulness, Fidelity, Fides
- Filial piety – Virtue and practice in Chinese classics and Chinese society at large
- Gratitude – Feeling or attitude in acknowledgement of a benefit that one has received or will receive
- Hospitality – Relationship between the guest and the host, or the art or practice of being hospitable
- Hrī – Buddhist term
- Humanitas – Latin noun meaning human nature, civilization and kindness
- Humanity – Virtue linked with basic ethics
- Humility – Quality of being humble
- Listening – Hearing what others are saying, and trying to understand what it means
- Loyalty – Faithfulness or devotion to a person, country, group, or cause
- Obedience – Yielding to instructions from an authority figure
- Politeness – Practical application of good manners or etiquette so as not to offend others
- Pride – Positive affect from the perceived value of a person
- Reciprocity – Repayment in kind
- Respect – Feeling of regard for someone or something
- Reverence – Attitude of deep respect tinged with awe
- Self respect – Human emotional need
- Solidarity – Unity of feeling or action on a common interest
- Tolerance – Allowing or permitting a thing, person, or idea of which one disapproveslow others to lead a life based on a certain set of beliefs differing from one's own
- Truthfulness/Honesty – Moral quality of truthfulness
- Social virtues:
  - Affection – Feeling or type of love
  - Agreeableness – Personality trait
  - Ārjava – Hindu philosophical concept
  - Charisma – Charm that can inspire devotion in others
  - Civility – Polite act or expression
  - Cleanliness – Abstract state of being clean and free from dirt
  - Compromise – Negotiation strategy
  - Conviviality – basic form of human interaction
  - Cooperativeness – Personality trait
  - Courtesy – Gentle politeness and courtly manners
  - Etiquette – Customary code of polite behaviour
  - Eutrapelia – The ability of a person to have pleasant conversation
  - Interpersonal attraction – The study of the attraction between people that leads to friendship or romance
  - Intimacy – Physical or emotional intimacy
  - Leadership – Quality of one individual or group influencing or guiding others based on authority
  - Playfulness – Voluntary, intrinsically motivated recreation
  - Rapport – Close and harmonious relationship
  - Sense of community
  - Sharing – Joint use of a resource or space
  - Social engagement – Degree of participation in a community or society
  - Social intelligence – Capacity to know oneself and to know others
  - Social responsibility – Ethical framework
  - Social skills – Competence facilitating interaction and communication with others
  - Sportsmanship – Ethos of fairness and enjoyment in sports
  - Sympathy – Perception of, understanding of, and reaction to the distress or need of another being
  - Tact
  - Teamwork – Collaborative effort of a team to achieve a common goal
  - Thoughtfulness
  - Trustworthiness – Assumption of and reliance on the honesty of another party
  - Unpretentiousness
Virtues of kindness
- Agape – Greco-Christian term referring to God's love, the highest form of love
- Ahimsa – Ancient Indian principle of nonviolence
- Altruism – Principle or practice of concern for the welfare of others
- Charity – Voluntary giving of help to those in need
  - Caritas – One of the seven theological virtues
  - Christian Charity – One of the seven theological virtues
  - Dāna – Concept of charity in Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism
- Clemency – Forgiveness of a crime and cancellation of the relevant penalty
- Compassion – Moved or motivated to help others
- Daya – fundamental teaching of Sikhism
- Forgiveness – Renunciation or cessation of resentment, indignation, or anger
- Generosity – Liberal in giving
- Gentleness – Personal quality
- Helpfulness
- Karuṇā – Sanskrit term translated as compassion or mercy
- Kindness – Behavior marked by ethical characteristics, a pleasant disposition, and concern for others
- Love – Emotion
- Philanthropy – Effort or inclination to increase the well-being of humankind, as by charitable aid or donations
- Service – Selfless service and volunteering in Indian religions
- Sevā – Selfless service and volunteering in Indian religions
Specific
- Nine Noble Virtues – Moral and situational ethical guidelines in certain groupings of Odinism and Ásatrú
- Prussian virtues – Ethical code associated with Prussian society
- Seven virtues – Seven virtues in Christian tradition
- Spanish chivalry – Knights in Medieval Spain
Intellectual virtues
- Attention – Psychological process of selectively perceiving and prioritising discrete aspects of information
- Awareness – State or ability to perceive, to feel, or to be conscious of events, objects, or sensory patterns
- Critical thinking – Analysis of facts to form a judgment
- Curiosity – Quality related to inquisitive thinking
- Deliberation – Process of thoughtfully weighing options, usually prior to voting
- Emotional intelligence – Capability to understand one's emotions and use this understanding to guide thinking and behavior
- Episteme – Philosophical term referring to systems of understanding (i.e. knowledge)
- Epistemic virtues – Branch of virtue ethics that focuses on the cultivation of epistemic responsibility
- Flexibility – Extent to which a person can cope with changes
- Foresight – Behavior-based backcasting & forecasting factors
- Imagination – Creative ability
- Insight – Understanding of a specific cause and effect in a specific context
- Intellectual courage
- Intellectual humility – a virtue; the characteristic of valuing one's own beliefs as one ought
- Intelligence – Human capacity or ability to acquire, apprehend and apply knowledge
- Intuition – Ability to acquire knowledge, without conscious reasoning
- Inventiveness – Concept in patent law
- Judgement – Decision making; evaluation of evidence to make a decision
- Justice – Cardinal virtue
- Knowledge – Awareness of facts or being competent
- Logic
- Open-mindedness – Receptiveness to new ideas
- Openness – Personality trait
- Originality – Aspect of created or invented works being new or novel
- Perspicacity – Great discernment or insight
- Philomathy – Lover of learning
- Philosophy – Study of general and fundamental questions
- Phronesis – Ancient Greek word for a type of wisdom or intelligence
- Prajñā – Buddhist term often translated as "wisdom" or "intelligence"
- Problem solving – Approaches to problem solving
- Rationality – Quality of being agreeable to reason
- Reason – Capacity for consciously making sense of things
- Rhetoric – Art of persuasion
- Seny – Form of wisdom in Catalan culture
- Scholarship – Body of principles and practices used by scholars and academics to make their claims
- Skepticism – Doubtful attitude toward knowledge claims
- Sophia – Personification of wisdom in philosophy and religion
- Understanding – Ability to think about and use concepts to deal adequately with a subject
- Wisdom – Ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense and insight
- Wit – Form of humour
Other
- List of emotions
- Acceptance – Person's assent to the reality of a situation
- Akrodha – Important virtue in Indian philosophy and Hindu ethics
- Amor fati – Latin phrase meaning "love of fate"
- Aparigraha – Philosophy that holds that no one or anything possesses anything
- Auctoritas – Roman prestige; contrast with power, imperium
- Autonomy – Capacity for control, discretion or political self-governance
- Awe – Emotion comparable to wonder
- Balance
- Benevolence
- Candor
- Cautiousness
- Chivalry – Traditional ideology and code of conduct of knights
- Citizenship
- Civil courage
- Commitment – Commitment to do or not do something
- Consideration
- Decorum – Principle of classical rhetoric, poetry, and theatrical theory
- Dependability – Measure in systems engineering
- Detachment – Philosophy of avoiding unnecessary pain
- Dignitas – Ancient Roman virtue
- Discernment – Ability to obtain sharp perceptions
- Duty – Commitment or obligation to someone or something or to perform an action on the behalf of
- Elevation (emotion) – emotion elicited by witnessing acts of remarkable moral goodness
- Fairness
- Faith – Confidence or trust in a person, thing, or concept
- Freedom
- Flourishing – positive psychology
- Giri – Duty as one of the Japanese values
- Glory – fame/admiration for an exploit, sometimes personified in art
- Good faith – Intention to be fair, open, and honest
- Goodness
- Gravitas – Ancient Roman virtue
- Happiness – Mental state, noted for pleasant emotions
- Heroism – Person or character who combats adversity through ingenuity, courage, or strength
- Honor – Abstract concept entailing a human quality of worthiness and respectability
- Hope – Optimistic attitude of mind
- Humor – Tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement
- Hygiene – Practices performed to preserve health
- Impartiality – Principle of justice holding that decisions should be based on objective criteria
- Independence – Condition of a nation with self-governance
- Individualism – Concept regarding the moral worth of the individual
- Innocence – Absence of guilt, also a legal term, and a lack of experience
- Integrity – Moral virtue and practice
- Interest – Feeling that causes attention to focus on an object, event or process
- Jing (philosophy) – Confucianist concept
- Joy – Feeling of happiness
- Li – Chinese philosophy concept
- Magnanimity – Virtue of being great of mind and heart
- Magnificence
- Meekness – Personality trait of being docile and avoiding violence
- Mindfulness – Buddhist concept of mindfulness or awareness
- Modesty – Mode of dress and deportment which intends to avoid encouraging of sexual attraction in others
- Moral courage – courage to take action for moral reasons
- Morality – Differentiation between right and wrong
- Mudita – Sympathetic or vicarious joy in Sanskrit and Pali
- Nimrata – Sikh virtue of humility or benevolence
- Nonattachment – Philosophy of avoiding unnecessary pain
- Nonviolence – Principle or practice of not causing harm to others
- Openness – Philosophical concept emphasising transparency and collaboration
- Optimism – Positive mental attitude
- Orderliness – virtue of planning of time and organizing of resources, as well as of society
- Parrhesia – In rhetoric, the obligation to speak candidly
- Patriotism – Love and attachment to one's country
- Peacefulness – Concept
- Philotimo – Greek notion of duty and honor
- Pietas – Ancient Roman virtue
- Piety – Religious devotion or spirituality
- Pity – Sympathetic sorrow evoked by the suffering of others
- Poise – it is being graceful, is the physical characteristic of displaying "pretty agility", in the form of elegant movement, poise, or balance.
- Potential
- Punctuality – Doing something at or before a previously designated time
- Purity
- Religion – moral virtue of worshipping God
- Remembrance – Greek goddess of memory
- Responsibility – Concept in ethics
- Righteous indignation – Man's version of commination
- Righteousness – State of being morally correct and justifiable
- Sadaqah – Charity in Islam
- Saddhā – Important element of the teachings of the Buddha
- Santokh – Contentment, one of five virtues that is promoted in Sikhism
- Satya – Sanskrit word and a virtue in Indian religions
- Shaucha – Cleanliness in Indic religions and yoga
- Self-esteem – Human emotional need
- Self-reliance – Concept regarding the moral worth of the individual
- Self-transcendence – psychological concept: expansion of personal boundaries
- Sensitivity – Process that distinguishes sensory information from an organism's body and environment
- Silence
- Sincerity – The virtue of honest and genuine communication
- Sophrosyne – Ancient Greek concept of an ideal of excellence of character and soundness of mind
- Śraddhā – Sanskrit term, meaning faith; used in Hinduism
- Spirituality – Philosophical and theological term
- Stability
- Subsidiarity – Principle of social organization
- Taste – Personal and cultural pattern of choice and preference
- Tranquility – quality or state of being calm, serene, and worry-free
- Trust – Assumption of and reliance on the honesty of another party
- Uniqueness – State or condition wherein someone or something is unlike anything else in comparison
- Unity
- Upekṣā – Concept of equanimity in Buddhism
- Virtus – Masculine virtue in Ancient Rome
- Vigilance – ability to maintain concentrated attention over prolonged periods of time, which could be improved through training and practices
- Wealth – Abundance of financial assets or possessions
- Yi – Concept in Confucianism
- Zest – Zest for living

Vices

Anger – emotional response related to one's psychological interpretation of having been threatened. Often it indicates when one's basic boundaries are violated. Some have a learned tendency to react to anger through retaliation. Anger may be utilized effectively when utilized to set boundaries or escape from dangerous situations.
Jealousy – emotion, and the word typically refers to the negative thoughts and feelings of insecurity, fear, and anxiety over an anticipated loss of something of great personal value, particularly in reference to a human connection. Jealousy often consists of a combination of emotions such as anger, resentment, inadequacy, helplessness and disgust.
Laziness – disinclination to activity or exertion despite having the ability to do so. It is often used as a pejorative; related terms for a person seen to be lazy include couch potato, slacker, and bludger.
Selfishness –
Seven Deadly Sins
1. Lust – emotion or feeling of intense desire in the body. The lust can take any form such as the lust for knowledge, the lust for sex or the lust for power. It can take such mundane forms as the lust for food as distinct from the need for food.
2. Gluttony – over-indulgence and over-consumption of food, drink, or wealth items to the point of extravagance or waste. In some Christian denominations, it is considered one of the seven deadly sins—a misplaced desire of food or its withholding from the needy.
3. Greed – also known as avarice, cupidity, or covetousness, is the inordinate desire to possess wealth, goods, or objects of abstract value with the intent to keep it for one's self, far beyond the dictates of basic survival and comfort. It is applied to a markedly high desire for and pursuit of wealth, status, and power. See also, Greed (deadly sin).
4. Sloth – spiritual or emotional apathy, neglecting what God has spoken, and being physically and emotionally inactive. It can also be either an outright refusal or merely a carelessness in the performance of one's obligations, especially spiritual, moral or legal obligations. Sloth can also indicate a wasting due to lack of use, concerning a person, place, thing, skill, or intangible ideal that would require maintenance, refinement, or support to continue to exist.
5. Wrath – also known as "rage", may be described as inordinate and uncontrolled feelings of hatred and anger. Wrath, in its purest form, presents with self-destructiveness, violence, and hate that may provoke feuds that can go on for centuries. Wrath may persist long after the person who did another a grievous wrong is dead. Feelings of anger can manifest in different ways, including impatience, revenge, and self-destructive behavior, such as drug abuse or suicide.
6. Envy – emotion which "occurs when a person lacks another's superior quality, achievement, or possession and either desires it or wishes that the other lacked it"
7. Pride – inflated sense of one's personal status or accomplishments, often used synonymously with hubris.
Vanity – excessive belief in one's own abilities or attractiveness to others.

Personal experience

Personal life

Self-preservation and self-maintenance

Individual rights

Individual rights – much of the western world values the concept of individual rights. These rights vary from culture to culture, and by very definition, from person to person, and appear mainly in individualist societies. In considering the self, the most intimate legal relation would be what is codified as 'sui juris', or what laws have a purposed place so far as they are derived of the self. In such cultures, it is generally considered that each and every individual has the following rights:

Security rights – protect people against crimes such as abuse, murder, massacre, and torture
- Security of person – liberty, including the right, if one is imprisoned unlawfully, to the remedy of habeas corpus. Security of person can also be seen as an expansion of rights based on prohibitions of torture and cruel and unusual punishment. Rights to security of person can guard against less lethal conduct, and can be used in regard to prisoners' rights.
Bodily and property rights – encompass "ownership" of your own body and choosing what to do with it, as well as the fruits of the labour that spring forth from using your own body. ("Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself," per John Locke, Second Treatise on Civil Government)
- Self-ownership – moral or natural right of a person to have bodily integrity, and be the exclusive controller of his own body and life. Also known as "sovereignty of the individual", "individual sovereignty", and "individual autonomy".
Liberty rights of the Classical era – protect freedoms in areas such as belief and religion, association, assembling, movement, and other self-determination (as an individual person), privacy from government and others, and freedoms from other paternalist meddling generally, whether by governments or others; also encompasses security, bodily and property, political, and due process rights, many group rights, some welfare rights, and (especially outside of the US in the Classical era) equality rights, as all of those categories appear in this list
Political rights – protect the liberty to participate in politics by expressing themselves, protesting, voting and serving in public office
Due process rights – protect against abuses of the legal system such as imprisonment without trial, secret trials and excessive punishments; often overlaps with the bodily rights, listed above
Equality rights – guarantee equal citizenship, equality before the law and nondiscrimination in regards to one's eligibility for all of the other rights in this list
Welfare rights (also known as economic or social rights) – require the provision of education and protections against severe poverty and starvation; generally an expansion of positive liberties
Group rights – provide protection for groups against ethnic genocide, and self-determination (as a group) and the ownership by countries of their national territories and resources; may overlap with the bodily and property rights, and Social equality rights, listed above