Lecture 3 Flashcards
What is a self schema?
- Past experience of ourselves, everything we know and attribute towards ourselves
- Our largest, most elaborate schema (Markus 1977)
What do self schemas consist of/ what are self schemas used for?
- Knowledge: memorized and retrieved, all relating to us
- Self schemas allow us to predict behaviours across contexts; how we think we will behave or feel
–> our understanding of our identity
How so self schemas process information?
- Processed as system 1 (fast and automatic)
- We make judgements based on whether information is relevant to us or not
–> We are faster to recognise things that align/misalign with who we think we are - We can imagine how we may act in certain situations (generate behaviours)
- When faced with information incongruent with our self schemas, we engage in knowledge defence (cognitive conflict)
Identity formation: Erik Erikson
Who is Erik Erikson and what did he suggest about identity formation?
- psychologist, originally clinician working with returning war veterans
–> people’s sense of identity had been shattered by their actions at war; e.g. teacher shot a 14 year old enemy and doesn’t know how to feel. - Suggested that we only realise we have an identity when it is threatened
–> moving from system 1 to system 2
Identity formation
How are identities formed and developed?
- 8 stages of development
- Ever single stage was characterized by crisis
–> begins with a sense of ego, feeling like we are separate from others - Identity crisis in late adolescence: ‘what roles will I adopt in society? Where do I fit in?’
–> leads to experimenting with lifestyles - Identity crisis resolved by fidelity
–> we commit to a role, reducing anxiety and increasing confidence
Identity persistence
What is identity persistence
The understanding that
1) we perceptually change
–> we change with time
2) we must also stay the same
–> we must maintain moral responsibility
–> we must maintain our commitment(s) to the future
Identity persistence
What 2 strategies do we use to maintain a persistent identity?
Essentialism
- When faced with crisis we identify something about oneself that doesn’t change
Narrativity
- Life is an evolving story; we rationalise referring to what things about us have unity and what our purpose is
Identity persistence: essentialism
What is essentialism and how does it allow us to maintain a persistent identity?
- We identify things about us that dont change
e.g. DNA, spirit, soul - We compare this to peripheral changes
-Argue that change is an illusion, we never really change
Identity persistence: essentialism in development
How might a child vs an adolescent use essentialism to explain identity persistence?
Level 1 (child): simple inclusionist accounts
- explain DNA, fingerprints etc dont change, therefore they are the same despite external change
Level 4 (adolescent): Frankly essentialist
- Explain that concepts such as personality and soul are permanent
Identity persistence: Narrativity
What is narrativity and how does it allow us to maintain a persistent identity?
- The self is the centre of the story we are telling about our own life (narrative gravity)
- Internalised and ever changing story
- Our narratives are made up of unity and purpose:
Unity- what are my enduring aspects?
Purpose- what’s the point of my story? - Means that changing events are predictable and stable.
Identity persistence: Narrativity in development
How might a child vs an adolescent use narrativity to explain identity persistence?
Level 1 (child): Episodic accounts
- Explains a series of events linking past and present (no purpose/progress)
Level 4 (adolescence): Frankly narrative
- Self discover, talks about influential forces
Identity persistence: Narrativity and Essentialism in development
How might late adolescents use narrativity to explain identity persistence?
Essentialist level 5: Revisionist accounts
- Core essense is provisional or ‘theory like’
- Working hypothesis
Narrativist level 5:
- Enduring story is ‘revisable’
- Personality, soul, etc.
Identity unity
How do essentialists and narrativists explain behaviours when facing different situations
Essentialist: call up aspects of stable self knowledge to account for situational behaviours (i.e. lazy at home not at work)
Narrativist: changing behaviours are predictable and stable.
Identity unity: intentions
How are intentions different to genera
Identity unity: Intentions
How did Proulx and Chandler look at change across contexts
Structured interviews with secondary school and university students
- Edited Jekyll and Hyde comics (Same person? How?)
- Describe yourself behaving like a good or bad person (Same person? How?)
- Describe someone you know behaving like a good/bad person (Same person? How?)
