The self is a symbol-using, self-reflective, social being.
Selves develop only in a social context.
Contemporary theories are based on the insights of George Herbert Mead and William James.
Both theorists draw the distinction between the "I" and the "me."
Mead and the development of the self.
Mead asserted that the self emerges as a result of social interaction.
Symbolic interaction and reflected appraisal are crucial to the development of the self.
The process of self-development occurs in three stages: preparatory, play, and game stages. By the end of the game stage, children have internalized the perspective of a generalized other and have a fully formed self.
James and the self as a process of identification.
Emotional identification with objects causes them to be integrated into the "me."
Thus, the self is constantly changing as emotional ties to components of the self change.
What we emotionally identify with will serve as the basis for judging our own self-worth.
Shadows of our past in contemporary research.
Despite different orientations, both James's and Mead's theories revolve around a common theme: as human beings we are aware of our self-aspirations and how our appearance and behavior are seen and judged by others.
In discussions of contemporary research, the distinction between subjective self ("I") and objective self ("me") remains useful. The "I" can be thought of as the executive function of the self, whereas the "me" is referred to as the self-concept.
II. The Self as a Target of Attention and Active Agent
Self-awareness is a temporary psychological state that has both private and public components.
Self-awareness development.
Is measured in infants by testing their self-recognition.
It appears to develop at about 18 months.
Chimpanzees, orangutan, and gorillas have also been shown to have self-awareness.
Private and public self-awareness effects.
Private self-awareness is the temporary state of being aware of hidden or private self-aspects.
It results in intensification of affect, clarification of knowledge, and greater adherence to personal standards of behavior.
Public self-awareness is the temporary state of being aware of public self-aspects.
Self-consciousness is a personality trait.
Private self-consciousness is the tendency to be aware of the covert, private aspects of the self.
The effects are similar to those of private self-awareness.
Those high in public self-consciousness have more complex self-concepts that more accurately represent their actual behavior and others' perceptions of them, compared to those low in private self-consciousness.
Public self-consciousness is the tendency to be aware of publicly displayed self-aspects.
The effects are similar to those of public self-consciousness.
People high in this trait place a relatively stronger emphasis on physical appearance than those low in the trait.
Self-regulation is the self's most important function.
Self-regulation refers to the ways in which people control and direct their own actions.
Self-awareness allows us to assess how we are doing in meeting our goals and ideals.
Self-discrepancies between the actual self and various self-guides result in specific patterns of emotional responses.
Right after engaging self-regulation in one activity, we will find it harder to regulate our behavior in an unrelated activity.
III. The Self as a Knowledge Structure
Self-schemas are the ingredients of self-concept.
Schemas (or schemata) are organized systems of beliefs about some stimulus object, which are built up from experience and which guide the processing of new information.
Self-schemas are the many beliefs people have about themselves that constitute the ingredients of self-concept.
People are self-schematic for qualities that are important to them, on which they think of themselves as extreme, and on which they are sure the opposite does not hold.
Self-schemas influence information processing and memory recall.
The spontaneous self-concept is the aspect of the self-concept that becomes salient and is activated in a particular setting; context is a major determinant in activating a particular self-schema as the spontaneous self-concept.
Gender identity and gender schemas are important aspects of self-concept.
Gender identity is the identification of oneself as female or male and the internalization of this fact into one's self-concept.
Gender schema: a mental framework for processing information based on its perceived female or male qualities.
Culture shapes the structure of self-concept.
The Twenty Statements Test (TST) can be used to investigate the self-concept; this test has been used extensively to investigate the individualist and collectivist cultures.
As cultures change over time, the content of the self-concept changes as well.
Culture shapes not only the configuration of the self-concept, but also beliefs about how self-development should proceed and what a mature self looks like.
Some superficial similarities exist between United States women and people from collectivist cultures, but the substantive similarities are fewer.
Biculturalists who blend aspects from both cultures into their self-concepts will have optimal adjustment.
IV. Self-Enhancement and Self-Verification
Self-enhancement and self-verification can be conflicting motives.
Self-enhancement is the "hot" perspective in which people are motivated to maintain high self-esteem.
Self-verification is the "cold" perspective in which people are motivated to maintain consistent beliefs about themselves.
For people with low self-esteem, these two motives conflict.
It appears that the self-enhancement motive operates in response to a person's feelings, while self-verification operates in response to a person's thoughts.
The two motives operate on different time courses.
The two motives serve as "checks and balances" on each other; only in cases of maladjustment does one motive strongly dominate the other.
Self-esteem influences willingness to take risks.
People with low self-esteem are more concerned about protecting themselves from threat, and are less inclined to take risks, than people with high self-esteem.
There is a dark side to high self-esteem.
People with high self-esteem tend to react with greater aggression than others when someone challenges their favorable self-assessments. This may be especially true for those with unstable high self-esteem.
V. The Self as a Social Being
Social identities establish "what" and "where" we are as social beings.
Social identities are the aspects of a person's self-concept that are based upon his or her group membership.
Ethnic identity of minority groups.
One of the consequences of group identification is an internalization of the group's view of social reality. When the group in question is devalued by the dominant culture, there are consequences for self-esteem.
Ethnic identity is a type of social identity. It is an individual's sense of personal identification with a particular ethnic group.
Ethnic identity is developed in three stages: unexamined ethnic identity stage; ethnic identity search; achieved ethnic identity.
Group performance and social identification.
As people categorize themselves as members of certain groups, they also categorize others in terms of membership in ingroups or outgroups. Performance of ingroup and outgroup members can affect a person's self-esteem.
Basking in reflected glory (BIRGing) is the process of identifying with and embracing another's success to increase self-esteem.
Cutting off reflected failure (CORFing) is a type of psychological distancing. When a close other fails, the self tries to "disidentify" to protect the self-evaluation.
In social relationships, self-esteem is maintained through social reflection and social comparison.
We compare ourselves to others to gain information and to provide motivation.
When we do this, self-esteem is maintained through two processes: social reflection and social comparison.
When a close other performs well in a domain that is not relevant to our own self-concept, or one in which we are certain of our own skills, self-esteem is enhanced through social reflection.
When a close other performs well in a domain that is relevant to our own self-concept, self-esteem is threatened through social reflection, especially if we are uncertain of our own abilities.
The threat may be addressed by changing the degree of closeness with the other, changing the evaluation of the performance, or changing the importance of the task to the self-concept.
To deal with a threat to self-esteem, people may engage in downward social comparison (comparisons with others less capable). This process improves the mood of those with low self-esteem but not those with high self-esteem, even though both kinds of people engage in the process.
VI. Application: Do You Engage in Binge Drinking or Eating to Escape from Yourself?
After a negative personal experience, people generally engage in self-awareness in order to better understand what happened.
When the event is so severe that we cannot find answers through self-awareness, depression may result.
Depressed persons may engage in self-destructive acts such as binge drinking or eating as a way of reducing self-awareness and thus temporarily relieving depression.
Ironically, self-awareness is required in order to stop self-destructive behaviors.
