The Social Self Flashcards
The self
The ‘I’; the self which reflects upon the self
The ‘me’; the self which experiences
We are both the ‘I’ and ‘me’
Differs across social situations
Highly influenced by culture
Both conscious & unconscious
Product of genetics partially
Interactive; all aspects of self combine in unique ways that make it more than the sum of its parts
Very social
Has needs for positivity, control, meaning & security
William James
I, me and I & me
We don’t just have things happen to us & feel then, we reflect
We experience life as our self & reflect on it, alters our self from that point, but we still feel & experience
self-concept consists of many self-schemes
Have wide variety of factors we use when describing ourselves, considering who exactly we are (self-schemas)
The totality or these factors is the self-concept
The self & culture
Berger & Luckmann
We are born into a culture influences us on an implicit level
This is the highest form of socialisation as you do not even consider alternatives
Individualist vs collectivist
Eastern cultures, collectivist; self-concept more highly overlaps with relationships
Boundary of self is permeable (for family, friends, groups etc)
Western cultures, individualist; groups matter but we are still independent in our self
Self across situations
Who we are in one situation is not identical to who we are in another
Our active self-concepts can influence us one way or another
Genetic/culture interaction
Genetics often interact with culture uniquely
If you are born in one culture vs another, those genes get expressed in different ways
But if you are born into that culture & you have different genes, you will have different traits
Implicit & explicit self
The self is influenced by processes outside of conscious awareness
The self is also represented at an implicit level
E.g. flashing words that threaten the self below consciousness still influences behaviour, the implicit self is being activated
Self-awareness
Public self-awareness; worries about how the self will be judged by other people in a given situation or across time
Private self-awareness; worries about the authentic & true nature of the self
Can be conflicts between the 2
Self-perception theory
People infer their character/who they are by looking at past behaviour
When external cues cannot explain behaviour, people will infer more about who they are from their behaviour
Difficulties due to self awareness
Humans have the highest level of self awareness
This can make us aware of the future, past etc
Cab help us define our personalities, give us hope, create nostalgia etc
However, it reminds us of death, can lead us to think our shortcoming & to regret
Self-discrepancy theory
Ideal self; best possible self that you would want to be
Actual self; actual self-concept rn
Ought self; self you feel you should be
If actual doesn’t match with ideal, feel sad & dissapointed
If actual doesn’t match with ought, we feel anxious
Larger the gap (discrepancy), stronger the negative emotion & more likely to attempt to escape self-awareness rather than close gap
Particularly if person has low self-esteem & do not think they can resolve gap
Self-esteem
How positively we feel & think about ourselves
Consists of several aspects, both self-liking & self-competence
Contingent self-esteem; if you value something a lot you will be especially wounded by insults to it
Self-complexity
The more selves a person has, the better their physical & mental health
Self-complexity; the total number of social roles/identities & the clarity of those social roles/identifies
Also associated with less need to restore the self when the self is threatened or challenged
Self-verification theory
People have a need to believe that other people see them as they see themselves, that their true self is known
Also have a need to view themselves positively
Low self esteem conflict; I’m not great but I want other people to know me for me, this means I’m not viewed positively
More likely to seek out & feel close to info & partners that verify their negative self concept
High self esteem; I’m great, I want other people to know me for me, viewed positively
Psychological threat
When our self-concept, identity, emotional security, self-esteem or sense of meaning is challenge
May feel uncertain
