The Self Flashcards
What is ,,The Self’’?
self is a socially-constructed entity : our sense of self is built upon the life-long experience of seeing ourself through the eyes of others
- high point of individuality
- shaped by social interactions
- includes traits, preferences, social roles, self-categorization
- Together, identities make up one’s self-concept (the self) - variously described as what comes to mind when one thinks of oneself.
William James (1842-1940) definition of Self
- > self as an object can be observed ,,me’’
- > self as an agent doing the observing ,,I’’
Psychodynamic Self
by Freud:
people repress unsocialized and selfish impulses
-> once in a while they come to the surface
-> you can only know yourself or others if special procedures such as hypnosis or psychotherapy are employed to reveal repressed thoughts
Individual Self and
Collective Self
Individual Self (independent self) : defining one's identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identification Collective Self (interdependent self ) : out of interactions with others there arose a ,,group mind'' - you share descriptions with other peoples self
symbolic interactionist self
- self emerges and is shaped by social interactions
- Self is not an inherent property of human nature but rather a socially-constructed entity: our sense of self is built upon the life-long experience of seeing ourselves through the eyes of others (“looking-glass self ”)
Looking-glass self :
- people see themselves the way they think other people see them
- truth is that people are mostly unaware of what other people think of them
- people normally overestimate their good points, their control over events and are unrealistically optimistics
there are two types of self that you can be aware of
private self: your private thoughts, feelings and attitudes
public self: your public image and how others see you
Deindividuation
Process whereby people lose their sense of socialized individual identity and engage in unsocialized often antisocial behavior
-> key component is reduced self awareness
Self-discrepancy theory
Higgins suggests that we have three types of self-schema
1 actual self- how we currently are
2 ideal self- how we would like to be
3 ,,ought’’ self- how we think we should be
- > ideal and ought self act as self guides
- discrepancies can motivate you to get rid of them
- > when we fail to resolve an actual to ideal self we feel generally dejected (deprimiert)
Self-regulation
strategies that we use to match out behavior to an ideal
Self-perception theory
we gain self-knowledge only by self-attribution : we infer our own attitudes from our own behavior
- how we perceive ourselves can also be based on simply imagining ourselves behaving in a particular way
Over justification effect
Leistungsabnahme sobald Belohnung aus gezahlt oder versprochen wurde
Social comparison theory
Comparing our behavior and opinion with those of others in order to establish the correct or socially approved way of thinking and behaving
- we like to compare ourself with those who are worse tham us -> downward comparison -> positive self concept
Self evaluation maintenance model
people who are forced to make esteem-damaging comparison can underplay or deny similarities to the target, or they can withdraw from their relationship to the target
BIRGing
Basking ( schwelgen) in reflected glory = to link yourself with desirable people or groups and thus improve other peoples impression of you
