Self Awareness, Psychology and Social

Roles

THE SELF
 PURPOSE OF THE PRESENTATION
To understand :
• The concept of Self
• How we know our own
characteristics
• How self-conception is
used to guide selection of
activities
• Development of Personal
beliefs
• Interactions with people
 Content
• What is Self?
• Where does Self-Knowledge come from?
• Aspects of Self-Knowledge
• Self Regulation
• Motivation and the Self
• Social Comparison Theory
• Self-presentation
• Culture and the Self
 WHAT IS THE SELF?
• Collection of beliefs that we hold about
ourselves
• The individual as perceived by the
individual
• People’s private personal views of who
they are and what they think and feel
SELF ESTEEM
 Self- Esteem
• Evaluation we make of ourselves

• People with high self-esteem:

 Have a clear sense of what their personal
qualities are
 Think well of themselves
 Set appropriate goals
 Use feedback in a self-enhancing manner
 Cope successfully with difficult situations
 Self- Esteem
• People with low self-esteem:
 Think poorly of themselves

 Often select unrealistic goals or

 Shy away from goals altogether
 Pessimistic about the future
 Adverse emotional or behavioral
reactions to criticism or negative
feedback
Sources Of Self Knowledge

• Where does Self-Knowledge

Come from?
 1. Socialization

• Much of our Self-knowledge comes from

socialization

• Socialization is defined as the process by

which a person acquires the rules, standards
and values of his/her family group and culture
 Socialization
• During childhood we are treated in
particular ways by parents, teachers
and friends.
• We participate in religious, ethnic or
cultural activities
• All of these socialization processes later
come to be significant aspects of
ourselves
Feedback from Others
 2. Feedback from Others

• People sometimes give us explicit

feedback about our qualities

• This feedback is an important element

to get knowledge about ourselves
 Feedback from Others

• The process of socialization begins when our

parents tell us not to be so shy, how good we
are at playing a piano, how math is our
strong point, or what a good reader we are.

• There is a strong relationship between how

parents think about their children’s abilities
and children’s own self-conceptions
(Felson & Reed, 1986)
 Feedback from Others
• In later childhood and early adolescence, feedback
from peers become more important

• Adolescent brings with it additional sources of direct

feedback

• Students get direct feedback from teachers on their

academic abilities in the form of comments and
grades which becomes important part of a child’s self
concept.
 Feedback from Others
• Research suggests that people prefer
objective feedback about their personal
attributes (Festinger, 1954)

• It is regarded as less biased and more fair

than personal opinion

• But the opinions of others also count

particularly when they are shared by a
number of people.
3. Self-Perception
• People also infer their personal qualities by
observing their own behavior

• In observing ourselves, we see ourselves

consistently preferring certain qualities over
another, certain foods over others or certain
people over others

• From observing these regularities we may

gain self-knowledge
4. Environmental Distinctiveness
• The self-concept is also heavily
influenced by factors that make you
distinctive
• People often explain their selves on the
basis of the aspects that make them
different
•
5. Comparisons with others
• Sometimes we see our personal qualities by
comparing ourselves to other people

• Social comparison may be helpful when we

can not find information about certain aspects
of ourselves

• We may then compare ourselves to others to

get information about our self
6. Social Identity
• Social identity is the part of an individual’s self-
concept which derives from her/his
membership in a social group together with the
value and significance attached to that group

• We are born in a family having particular

values and beliefs these values become a part
of our self concept, as we grow older we pick
our social groups according to these values.
 Social Identity
• Our association with these social groups
becomes an important element of our social
identity

• So self-concept and social identity mutually

determine and shape each other
ASPECTS OF SELF
KNOWLEDGE
 Self-schemas
• A Schema is an organized, structured
set of cognitions about some concept or
stimulus.
• Just as people hold schemas about the
nature of other people and events, they
also hold schemas about themselves
• Self-schema describe the dimensions
along which you think about yourself
• People are schematic on the dimensions that
are important to them, on which they think of
themselves as extreme, and on which they are
certain that the opposite is not true.

• For example if independence is important to

you and you think of yourself as extremely
independent and not at all dependent, this
means that you have accumulated
considerable knowledge about yourself on that
domain
 EXAMPLE
• You may be very concerned about
maintaining and displaying your
independence – having a strong
independence schema
• You may refuse to accept help and take
your choices alone.
• On you might consider yourself more
dependent and think a lot about ensuring
security for yourself by surrounding
yourself with people you can depend on..
Self-Schemas
• Not all Self-Schemas are positive
• People also hold well-articulated , highly
organized beliefs about themselves on negative
qualities
• For example someone who is over-weight will
quickly notice that eating situations are
relevant to him, he might plan what he will eat
and may count the calories that he consumes
• He may also notice others around him who are
weight schematic and those who are not
Self-Schemas
Possible Selves:
• People hold self-conceptions not only about
their current qualities, but also about traits
that may become self-descriptive at some time
in the future.
• Most possible selves tend to be positive; people
think of themselves in the future primarily in
good terms.
• However, some possible selves represent fears
concerning what one might become in the
future
Self-Schemas
• Possible selves function in much the same
way as self-schemas, they help people to
attain their goals and develop behaviors that
will enable them to fulfill those goals.
• Possible selves provide focus and
organization for the pursuit of goals
Functions of Self-Schemas
• Knowing about personal qualities enables us to
identify quickly whether situations are relevant
to us or not
• Self-Schemas help us to remember schema
related information
• They help us to make inferences about the
meaning of past behaviors and to make
decisions and judgment that guide our
future behavior
• Relating other material to ourselves makes
that material more memorable
SELF DISCRIPENCIES

• Sometimes there are discrepancies between

how we actually are and how we ideally
want to be or think ought to be.
• Psychologist Tory Higgins suggests that
these self-discrepancies produce strong
emotions
• When we perceive a discrepancy between
our personal qualities and what we would
ideally like to be (ideal self), we experience
disappointment, dissatisfaction or sadness,
what are called dejection related emotions
• Discrepancies between our actual self and
what we think we ought to be produce
agitation related emotions such as fear or
anxiety
 SELF REGULATION
• Self-regulation refers to the ways in
which people control and direct their
own actions
• People store enormous quantities of
information about themselves, including
their personal characteristics, their
goals and desires and their conceptions
of themselves in the future.
• How conceptions of the Self regulate
thoughts, emotions, feelings and
actions in social situations?
THE WORKING SELF-CONCEPT
• Which aspect of the self influences our
thoughts and ongoing behavior
depends in large part on what aspect of
the self-concept is relevant to a
particular situation
• The aspect of the self-concept that is
accessed for a particular situation is
called the working self-concept
For Example
• In a classroom situation, the academic
self is likely to be dominant determinant
of our thoughts and feelings, whereas if
we are reminded about a party coming
up on Friday, the social self may be
accessed
• The working Self concept is important
because it draws on our overall self-
concept but guides social behavior in
specific situations and is, in turn,
modified by what goes on in the situation
Working Self-concept Vs Stable Self-
Concept

• The working self-concept can

sometimes be at odds with the stable
self-concept.
For Example
• Think about a time that you had an argument
with your friend and you yelled at her
• Afterward, you probably didn’t feel very good
about yourself and she probably think much of
you either
• Yet you probably have a stable sense of yourself
as a nice person who is easy to get along with.
• After that particular incident you may not have
thought of yourself for at least several hours or
few days. Overtime however your stable self
concept won out and you again thought of
yourself as pleasant and easy to get along with
Working Self-concept Vs Stable Self-
Concept

• Changes in the working Self-concept

produce changes in the permanent self-
concept only when the working self
concept is stable overtime
For Example
• While in college you may not think of yourself as
particularly authoritative. Yet upon graduation, if you
get a job supervising several other people in a bank
and you do this day in and day out for months or
even years, you may come to think of yourself as
authoritative and that may become an important part
of your stable self-concept.
• It was not so before but it became so because you
are now consistently in a situation that requires an
authoritative manner.
• The working self in this case became part of the
stable self-concept
Self-Complexity
• Another aspect of the self that
is important for self-regulation
involves self-complexity.

• Some people think of

themselves in terms of one or
two predominant ways,
whereas others think of
themselves in terms of a
variety of qualities
Self-Complexity
• One college student may think of herself
primarily as a student, focusing her attention
and beliefs about herself on how well she
does in her courses.

• Another may think of herself as in more

complex ways as a student, a friend, a
member of sports team and a part time
employee
Simple Vs Complex Self-Concepts
• People with simple self concepts may have
success in their particular area of importance
but are very vulnerable to failure
• For example, a student who is focused
primarily on her grades and who receives a
bad grade may feel very upset and depressed
because of it.
• But a student having a complex self may turn
away her attention from academic failure and
prepare for other areas hence coping with the
setback
Simple Vs Complex Self-Concepts

• Self-complexity then can act as a buffer

against stressful life events.
• It may help people from becoming depressed
or ill in response to setbacks
• A setback in one area of life is less
devastating when other aspects of our lives
are rewarding and satisfying than when we
derive most of our identity from one aspect
of the self.
Self-Efficacy and Personal Control
• Another aspect of the self that influences self-
regulation include self-efficacy beliefs, that is,
the expectations that we hold about our abilities
to accomplish certain tasks (Bandura, 1986)
• Whether or not we will undertake a particular
activity, attempt to do a particular task, or strive
to meet a particular goal depends on whether or
not we believe we will be efficacious in
performing those actions
For Example
• The smoker will not stop smoking unless
she believes she can do , however much she
may want to stop.
• Faced with a challenging paper, the student
who believes he has the capabilities to do a
good job will be more likely to start it and
persist at it than the student who has doubts
about his ability to complete it successfully
SELF AWARENESS
• Self-Regulation is also influenced by our
attention, specifically, whether attention is
directed inward toward the self or outward
toward the environment.
• Usually our attention is focused outward
toward the environment, but sometimes our
attention is focused inward on ourselves
• Certain experiences in the world automatically
focus attention inward, such as catching sight
of ourselves in the mirror, having our picture
taken or when being evaluated by others.
SELF AWARENESS
• Self-awareness leads people to evaluate
their behavior against a standard and to set
an adjustment process in motion for
meeting the standard.
• Self-awareness causes people to compare
themselves to standards, such as physical
appearance, intellectual performance, athletic
prowess, or moral integrity.
• We attempt to conform to the standard, evaluate
our behavior against that standard, decide that it
either matches the standard or does not and
continue adjusting and comparing until we meet
the standard or give up.
• This process is called feedback and the theory is
called the cybernetic theory of self-regulation.
• Public Self-Consciousness
People high on public self-consciousness are
concerned with autonomy and issues of identity,
concerned with what other people think about
them, the way they look, and how they appear to
others
• Private Self-consciousness
People high in private self-consciousness try to
analyze themselves, think about themselves a
great deal and are more attentive to their inner
feelings
• Public and private self-consciousness are
not opposites of each other. People can be
high in both, low in both, or high in one or
the other.
MOTIVATION AND THE SELF

• People are inherently motivated to seek out

possibilities to develop an accurate stable
and positive self-conception and seek out
situations or behave in ways that further
those aspects of the self.
 MOTIVATION AND THE SELF
• THE NEED FOR AN ACCURATE SELF-CONCEPT

To make future outcomes predictable and controllable,

we need to have a fairly accurate assessment of our
abilities.

Having an accurate sense of self is an important

determinant in the selection of a task

Accurate self-assessment enables us to anticipate and

control our future performance
 MOTIVATION AND THE SELF

• THE NEED FOR A CONSISTENT SELF-

CONCEPT

Related to the need for accuracy is the need to have

a sense of self that is consistent

We do not want to think of ourselves as changing

dramatically from situation to situation; rather we
need to believe that we have certain qualities that
remain relatively stable overtime
SELF-VERIFICATION

• People tend to seek out and interpret

situations that confirm their already existing
self-conceptions and they avoid or resist
situations and feedback that are at odds with
their existing self-conceptions. This process
is called Self Verification.
FOR EXAMPLE
• Imagine that a class ended and a class
fellow comes to you and comments that
you don’t talk much. Perhaps you didn’t
talk in that particular class but you think
of yourself as an active student
• You may find that during the very next
class you talk more than usual in order
to convince yourself and your class
fellow that you are an active class
participant
 SELF-IMPROVEMENT

• In addition to wanting an accurate

sense of self, people are motivated by
the desire to improve
• Many self-regulatory activities serve the
need of the desire to improve
 SELF ENHANCEMENT
• In addition to having an accurate self concept
people are heavily determined by the need to
feel good about themselves and to maintain
self-esteem
• One way in which people satisfy their self-
enhancement needs is by holding self-
perceptions that are falsely positive and
somewhat exaggerated with respect to their
actual abilities, talents and social skills
• These false perceptions are known as
POSITIVE ILLUSIONS
SELF ENHANCEMENT

• We remember positive information about

ourselves, but negative information often
slips conveniently from our mind
• Most of us would have more difficulty
recalling information about when we have
failed than when we have succeeded.
Self-Affirmation
• Psychologists believe that self-enhancement
needs become especially important under
conditions of threat.
• When people have received some blow to
their self-worth brought about by a failure
at some important task, they may try to
emphasize positive features of themselves
in order to compensate for the setback.
Self-Affirmation
• For example an attractive student who fails
an exam may seek out female classmates
who will flatter his ego
• Or the college student who is not making
friends easily may proudly display high-
school trophies.
• Self-affirmation theory explicitly predicts
that people will cope with specific threats to
their self-worth by affirming unrelated
aspects of themselves
SOCIAL COMPARISON THEORY
• In 1954 a pioneer in modern social
psychology Leon Festinger developed social
comparison theory
• Festinger believed that people are motivated
to make accurate assessments of their level
of ability and the correctness of their
attitudes
• To do this they assess their own standing in
comparison to others like themselves
• Festinger’s theory can be summarized
in 3 points
1. People have a drive to evaluate their
opinions and abilities accurately
2. In the absence of direct physical
standards, people evaluate themselves
through comparisons with others
3. In general people prefer to compare
themselves to similar others.
The Goals of Social Comparison
1. Accurate Self-evaluation
Festinger suggested that people
sometimes desire truthful knowledge
about themselves, even if the
feedback is not favorable
For example, learning that you are the
worst player on the volleyball team
may spur you to greater effort or
encourage you to change sports
• Self-enhancement:
• Rather than seeking truthful self-
evaluation, people may seek
comparisons that show themselves in a
favorable light.
• A desire for self-enhancement can lead
people to make downward social
comparisons with others who are less
fortunate, less successful or less happy
than they are.
• Self-improvement:
The desire for self-improvement can
lead people to make upward social
comparisons with people who are more
successful