Lecture 1: Self-Awareness Flashcards
Who investigated types of identity?
- Tajfel and Turner 1979
- Brewer and Gardner 1996
What did Brewer and Gardner suggest?
- 3 types of self
- individual self (personal traits that distinguish you from others)
- relational self (dyadic relationships that assimilate you to others)
- collective self (group membership)
What did Tajfel and Turner differentiate between?
Social and Personal Identity
What is self-awareness?
a psychological state known as the realisation of being individual, and ability to look inwards and understand your own perspective and those of others (reflexive thought)
What is the mirror test?
A study involving putting toddlers in front of a mirror with a dot on their face to see if they reached out to the mirror or themselves
Who performed the mirror test?
Gallup 1970
What did the mirror test reveal?
- humans are not born with self-awareness but it is developed from ages 1.5-2 years old
Who studied the types of self?
Carver and Scheier 1981
What did Carver and Scheier theorise?
- 2 types of self
- private self (thoughts, feelings and attitudes)
- public self (how other people see us, adhering to social standards, wanting success and admiration)
What are the downsides to chronic self-awareness?
- stress
- constant awareness of shortcomings
- avoidance behaviour (ie. drinking, drugs)
What are the downsides of reduced self-awareness?
- deindividuation (losing ones sense of self)
- lack of monitoring own behaviour
- impulsive, reckless
What differs mindfulness from self-awareness?
while it incorporates self-awareness, mindfulness additionally includes acceptance and not being reactive or judgemental
What does Kabat-Zinn say about mindfulness?
“Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally”
Who describes mindfulness?
Kabat-Zinn 1991
What is chronic self-awareness?
self-consciousness
What does a heightened private awareness cause?
- more intense emotions
- accurate self-perception
- adherence to personal beliefs
- depression
- neuroticism (a personality trait associated with negative emotions)
- less stress-related illness
What does a heightened public awareness cause?
- focus on perception by others
- nervousness
- loss of self-esteem
- adherence to group norms in an attempt to avoid embarrassment
- concern with physical appearance (self and others)
What is a self-schema?
a highly structured cognitive network used to make sense of ourselves. It features how we act, think, feel and behave
What does self-schematic mean?
this branch of the schema is an important part of the self concept
What does aschematic mean?
this branch is not a very important part of the self-concept
Who created theories on how self-schemas develop?
- Carver and Scheier 1981
- Higgins 1987
- Festinger 1954
- Tesser 1988
- Tajfel and Turner 1979
- Turner et al. 1987
What three branches do theories discussing self-schema development come under?
- how we think we should be
- comparisons with other individuals
- how we fit in with other groups
What did Carver and Scheier 1981 theorise?
- Control Theory of Self regulation
- different private and public standards
- relies on assessment of goals
- we set goals, test to see if they are met, create changes if necessary and test again.
- this is a theory based on what we think we should be
What did Higgins 1987 theorise?
- Self-Discrepancy theory
- we have three types of self-schemas: actual, ideal(want) and ought(should)
- we are motivated to change by the differences between these
- failure to match actual and ideal produces dejection and disappointment
- failure to match actual and ought produces agitation and anxiety
