The Self

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• Chapter 5
• The Self

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Self-Concept

• The Nature of the self-concept.
• Self-concept is an organized collection of
  beliefs about the self.
• These beliefs are also called self-schemas and
  include personality traits, abilities, physical
  features, values, goals, social roles (see
  Figure 5.1).
• Possible selves refer to ones conceptions
  about the kind of person one might become in the
  future.

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• Figure 5.1. The self-concept and self-schemas.
  The self-concept is composed of various
  self-schemas, or beliefs about the self. Jason
  and Chris have different self-concepts, in part,
  because they have different self-schemas.

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Self-Discrepancies

• Individuals have the following self-perceptions
• An actual self (qualities people think they
  actually possess).
• An ideal self (qualities people would like to
  have).
• An ought self (qualities people think they
  should possess).

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Self-Discrepancies, continued

• Self-discrepancies involve mismatches between
  the actual, ideal and/or ought selves.
• These can cause various effects Figure 5.2.
• When the actual self falls short of the ideal
  self, we feel dejected and sad.
• When the actual self falls short of the ought
  self, we feel irritable and guilty.
• See Figure 5.2

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• Figure 5.2. Types of self-discrepancies, their
  effects on emotional states, and possible
  consequences. According to E. Tory Higgins
  (1989), discrepancies between actual and ideal
  selves produce disappointment and sadness,
  whereas discrepancies between actual and ought
  selves result in irritability and guilt. Such
  self-discrepancies can make individuals
  vulnerable to more serious psychological
  problems, such as depression and anxiety-related
  disorders.

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Factors Shaping the Self-Concept

• Festingers (1954) social comparison theory
  states that we compare ourselves with others in
  order to assess and/or improve our abilities.
• A reference group is a set of people against
  whom individuals compare themselves.
• If we want to improve, we choose reference groups
  of superior quality, but
• If we want to boost self-esteem, we choose
  inferior groups.

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Factors Shaping the Self-Concept, continued

• Generally, our self-perceptions are distorted in
  a positive direction.
• Feedback from others is important in balancing
  our own observations.
• Early in life, parents and family members are the
  primary influences.
• As children age, peers become progressively more
  important.
• Later in life, close friends and marriage
  partners play dominant roles.

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Factors Shaping the Self-Concept, continued

• Cultural values and self-concept.
• In cultures that value individualism putting
  personal goals ahead of group goals, identity is
  defined more in terms of personal attributes.
• In cultures that value collectivism putting
  group goals ahead of personal goals, identity is
  defined more in terms of the groups one belongs
  to.

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Factors Shaping the Self-Concept, continued

• Individualism vs. Collectivism, continued
• People raised in individualistic cultures
• Have an independent view of the self.
• View themselves as unique, self-contained, and
  distinct from others.
• People raised in collectivist cultures
• Have an interdependent view of the self.
• View themselves as more connected to others (see
  Figure 5.5).

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• Figure 5.5. Independent and interdependent views
  of the self. (a) Individuals in cultures that
  support an independent view perceive the self as
  clearly separated from significant others. (b)
  Individuals in cultures that support an
  interdependent view perceive the self as
  inextricably connected to others.
• Adapted from Markus, H.R., Kitayama, S.
  (1991). Culture and the self Implications for
  cognition, emotion, and motivations.
  Psychological Review, 98, 224-253.

"No further reproduction or distribution is
permitted without written permission from the
American Psychological Association."
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Self-Esteem

• Self-esteem refers to ones overall assessment
  of ones worth as a person.
• It is a global evaluation of many aspects of the
  self (see Figure 5.6).
• Self-esteem can be construed two ways
• Trait self-esteem (an enduring sense of
  confidence in a person)
• State self-esteem (dynamic feelings about the
  self that change with the situation)

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• Figure 5.6. The structure of self-esteem.
  Self-esteem is a global evaluation that combines
  assessments of various aspects of ones
  self-concept, each of which is built up from many
  specific behaviors and experiences. (Adapted from
  Shavelson, Hubner, Stanton, 1976).

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Self-Esteem, continued

• Self-esteem and adjustment.
• Self-esteem is strongly and consistently
  connected to happiness.
• People with high self-esteem also feel more
  likeable and attractive, have better
  relationships and make better impressions on
  others.
• People with high self-esteem persist longer in
  the face of failure and cope better with
  setbacks.
• Self-esteem has not been linked to achievement,
  however.

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Self-Esteem, continued

• High self-esteem versus narcissism.
• Feeling too good about oneself is not desirable,
  however.
• Narcissism the tendency to regard oneself as
  grandiosely self-important - is pathological and
  different from high self-esteem, a healthy trait.

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Self-Esteem, continued

• High self-esteem versus narcissism, continued
• Narcissistic individuals
• Are preoccupied with fantasies of success.
• Believe they deserve special treatment.
• React aggressively when their view of themselves
  (ego) is threatened.

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The Development of Self-Esteem

• Parents play an important role in shaping
  self-esteem early in life.
• Two dimensions of parenting are important
• Parental acceptance.
• Parental control.
• Together, these dimensions yield four parenting
  styles Authoritative, Permissive, Neglectful,
  and Authoritarian
• The authoritative style is associated with the
  highest self-esteem scores.

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• Figure 5.10. Baumrinds parenting styles. Four
  parenting styles result from the interactions of
  parental acceptance and parental control, as
  theorized by Diana Baumrind.
• Adapted from Baumrind, D. (1971). Current
  patterns of parental authority Monograph.
  Developmental Psychology, 4(1, Part 2), 1-103.
  American Psychological Association. Adapted by
  permission of the author.

"No further reproduction or distribution is
permitted without written permission from the
American Psychological Association."
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The Development of Self-Esteem, continued

• Teachers, classmates and close friends also
  influence childrens self-esteem.
• Children with perceived support from significant
  others have the highest self-esteem.
• Children also use reference groups as a basis for
  self-judgments.
• Those who feel competent, relative to others,
  have the highest self-esteem.

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Ethnicity, Gender and Self-Esteem

• Ethnicity and gender interact in complex ways
  with regard to self-esteem.
• White males have higher self-esteem than do white
  females,
• but minority males have lower self-esteem than do
  minority females.
• Overall, males score slightly higher on
  self-esteem than do females,
• and white females have lower self-esteem than do
  minority females.

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Basic Principles of Self-Perception, continued

• Self-attributions are inferences that people
  draw about the causes of their own behavior.
• One key dimension of attributions is
• Whether they are internal or external.
• Internal attributions behavior is caused by
  personal dispositions.
• External attributions behavior is affected by
  the situation.

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Basic Principles of Self-Perception, continued

• Explanatory style refers to the tendency to
  use similar causal attributions for a wide
  variety of events in ones life.
• People who use an optimistic explanatory style
  attribute setbacks to external, unstable and
  specific factors, whereas
• People who use a pessimistic explanatory style
  attribute setbacks to internal, stable and global
  factors (see Figure 5.12).

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• Figure 5.12. The effects of attributional style
  on expectations, emotions, and behavior. The
  pessimistic explanatory style is seen in the top
  row of boxes. This attributional style, which
  attributes setbacks to internal, stable and
  global causes, tends to result in an expectation
  of lack of control over future events, depressed
  feelings, and passive behavior. A more adaptive,
  optimistic attributional style is shown in the
  bottom row of boxes.

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Basic Principles of Self-Perception, continued

• Methods of self-enhancement.
• Downward social comparison a defensive
  tendency to compare oneself with someone whose
  troubles are more serious than ones own.
• Self-serving bias tendency to attribute ones
  successes to personal factors and ones failures
  to situational factors.

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Basic Principles of Self-Perception, continued

• Methods of self-enhancement, continued
• Basking in reflected glory tendency to enhance
  ones image by publicly announcing ones
  association with those who are successful.
• Self-handicapping tendency to sabotage ones
  performance to provide an excuse for possible
  failure.

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Self-Regulation

• Self-regulation is the process of directing and
  controlling ones behavior.
• According to the ego depletion model, people
  have a limited amount of self-control.
• For example, if you successfully resist
  temptation to indulge yourself with sweets today,
  it is more difficult to do so tomorrow.

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Self-Regulation, continued

• Self-efficacy ones belief about ones ability
  to perform behaviors that should lead to expected
  outcomes - is very important to healthy
  adjustment.
• Fortunately, self-efficacy can be learned and
  changed.
• This is important to adjustment because
  increasing self-efficacy is beneficial to ones
  physical and mental health.

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Self-Presentation

• A public self is - an image presented to others
  in social interactions.
• Public selves can vary according to the
  situation, or role, that people are in. Thus, we
  have multiple public selves.
• However, adjustment is best when there is
  considerable overlap, or integration, in the
  various public selves (see Figure 5.16).

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• Figure 5.16. Public selves and adjustment.
  Person 1 has very divergent public selves with
  relatively little overlap among them. Person 2,
  whose public selves are more congruent with each
  other, is likely to be better adjusted than
  Person 1.

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Self-Presentation, continued

• Impression management refers to usually
  conscious efforts by people to influence how
  others think of them.
• Research on impression management has identified
  the following patterns of behavior
• People try to make positive impressions when
  interacting with strangers,
• but shift toward modesty with those who know them
  well.