Week 3 The self Flashcards
What is the Self?
Baumeister (1998) argues for 3 components:
- Reflexive Consciousness (we are aware of our Selves as objects)– The “Me” of William James (1892)
- Interpersonal Nature (we learn who we are from others and change across contexts)The Many Me’s of William James
How we a different in different contexts
- Executive Function (the Self is an active agent and decision maker).– The “I” of William James
3 TYPES OF SELFS: Think of that cultural assessment:
Individual self
unique characteristics of the person that distinguish the self from others; e.g., “athletic”, “hard-working’, “tall”, “like reading”
Relational self
one’s relationship with a particular other; e.g., “a good husband”, “the first child of my parents”, “help my sick friend”
Collective self
the person’s memberships in groups; e.g., “a La Trobe student”, “Australian”
Functions of self-schemas
- GUIDE ATTENTION
- ASSIST INTERPRETATION
- FACILITATE RECALL
- Schemas can be incorrect
- Chronic accessibility – schemas thinking about negative thing can lead to depression
- You can predict what you will be like in other contexts due to your own knowledge on your schemas
- Can be hard to change self-views
- Frequent thought can direct schemas – guide how you will think throughout the day
Three Main Motives (for pursuing self-knowledge)
- To know oneself (Appraisal motive; search for accurate information; Trope, 1983)
- To feel good about oneself (Self-Enhancement motive; search for positive information; Sedikides & Strube, 1997)
- To confirm what one already knows about oneself (Consistency motive; search for verifying)
Behaviour motivations
Behaviour is
FREELY CHOSEN
(intrinsic motivation)
or
CONTROLLED
(extrinsic motivation)
Social Comparison Theory
People have a “drive” to evaluate their opinions and
abilities.
In the absence of “objective” bases for comparison
(e.g., when we are uncertain), we can satisfy our
“drive” by comparing ourselves to other people.
More accurate information is gained by comparisons
with SIMILAR others (Festinger, 1954)
Suls, Martin & Wheeler (2002) say that we need to
find appropriate others depending upon whether we
are comparing abilities (effort, attributes) or opinions
(similarity, expertise, past experience)
What is basking in reflective glory ?
- This is when you tell others about someone you know who is successful.
- This makes that individual feel good
- Telling someone you got a famous friend
Overall comparison can make you feel bad or good
Reading notes:
- Self-schemas were are useful in guiding their thoughts about themselves
- Self-Schematic = Self schema is important to you
- Self aschematic = Schema is not important to you
- Given these meanings it could guide thoughts and behaviour differently due to how the individual feels about their self schema
- Such people, for whom body weight is a significant daily concern, may experience visits to the supermarket, reading fashion magazines and shopping for clothing differently than those who are aschematic on that dimension
- Self-schemas have the ability to organize thought and motivate action means that they can become all-consuming and lead to counterproductive behaviours
- For example, if we feel self-schematic for being disorganized and find this aspect of the self-disappointing, then we may choose to focus instead on our conception of self as being creative, because this makes us feel better and compensates for aspects of the self we think are lacking
Multiple role theory:
Theory asserting that it is beneficial for a person’s health and wellbeing to have multiple self-identities. - If people’s schemas can be aligned with each other, for example if working women think of themselves as a positive role model for their children, they are likely to prosper
- The need for the various parts of the self-concept to ‘gel’ is at the heart of self-concept clarity (Campbell et al., 1996).
Self-concept clarity:
- This is when you have clarity on all the variables of your self concept where they do not clash and are stable
Self-discrepancy theory
Theory that focuses on people’s perceptions of the discrepancies between their actual self and their perceived and ought selves. The theory examines emotional responses to these discrepancies.
- Actual self:
how a person sees the self at the present time - Ideal self:
how a person would like to see the self - Ought self:
how a person thinks they ought to be, based on ideals of duty and responsibility.
incongruity
lack of consistency or appropriateness, as in inappropriate affect or as when one’s subjective evaluation of a situation is at odds with reality.
- as defined by Carl Rogers , a lack of alignment between the real self and the ideal self.
SELF-PRESENTATION - High and low self monitors
SELF-PRESENTATION
High self-monitors:
Research suggests that people who are high self-monitors tend to shape their behaviour to project the self they think is appropriate to their audience or situation. They are, therefore, strategic in their self-presentation.
Low self-monitors:
On the other hand, low self-monitors are less sensitive to situational demands and do not shape their behaviour in this way. Instead, they tend to be more expressive and less concerned with the perceived expectations of the audience.
Self-Perception Theory (Bem, 1972)
“Individuals come to ‘know’ their own attitudes, emotions, and other internal states partially by inferring them from observations of their own overt behavior and/or the circumstances in which this behavior occurs. Thus, to the extent that internal cues are weak, ambiguous, or uninterpretable, the individual is functionally in the same position as an outside observer
Social comparison Theory
Social comparison
Theory involves viewing the self-compared to other people or the self at another time.
