Chapter 3 The Self
- 2. The Concept of Self • Self can be described in terms of three main features (Baumeister & Bushman, 2009). The first is to do with how aware an individual is about his/her own self. The second feature is related to how self is understood in the context of a social situation when we relate with others. The third is the behaviour and decisions that are largely determined by self. • Willian James, 1890, was one of the first proponents of ‘self’ (Gerrog & Zimbardo, 2006). He stated that anything and everything with which an individual associates himself/herself with, becomes part of his/her self. He proposed three elements of self-experience: the material me, that deals with self related to one’s body as well as physical objects present in his/her environment; the social me, that has to do with the awareness of an individual about how others view him/ her; and the spiritual me, that deals with personal thoughts and feelings of an individual.
- 3. The Concept of Self Cont... • Freud also considered the concept of self as significant, as insight in one’s self is an important aspect of psychoanalysis. • Jung was yet another proponent who focused on the relevance of acceptance and integration of conscious and unconscious aspects of an individual, in order to promote complete development of self. • There are two main views of self, especially when cultural difference with regard to self are discussed: independent view of self and interdependent view of self. In self as independent view, the individual’s identity is seen as not dependent on the interaction with others. In fact, self is determined by attributes that are internal to an individual. These attributes are relatively consistent across situation and period of time. Individual differences exist with regard to these attributes. This view was referred to as self-contained model by Markus and Kitayama (1991).
- 4. Self-concept Self-concept can be described as a multifaceted entity and is nothing but how you see yourself. It can be described as the collection of beliefs that an individual has about his/her own self. R. F. Baumeister (1995) defined self concept as 'the total organised body of information that any given person has about himself/herself‘. There are two main aspects of self concept as suggested by William James (1980). 1. Self as subject of experience also denotes as ‘I’. This develops early in our life and is followed by development of self as an object of experience. 2. Self as object of experience also denoted as ‘me’. Self concept develops as we become more aware about self as an object of experience. Self concept can be categorised into working self concept, a term introduced by Hazel Markus to describe the self concept that can be retrieved at any moment or at any given time, and looking glass self concept, a term introduced by Cooley (1902) that explains how our self concept is determined by evaluation of others or how others view us. The development of self concept can be understood with the help of terms such as self-regulation, self-description and autobiographical memory (Eyesenk, 2013).
- 5. Self-recognition: We develop self concept very early in life and this is apparent in the self-recognition expressed by infants. Self-recognition occurs when an infant recognises itself, for example, when they recognise their mirror image. It also indicates the presence of self-awareness amongst infants. Various researches in this regard have been carried out that confirm the development of visual self-regulation that indicates existence of self-awareness (Courage, Edison & Howe, 2004; Lewis and Brooks-Gunn, 1979). Self-description: As the name suggests, self-description has to with how an individual depicts himself/herself. Research in this regard was carried out on older children, and it was found that they often distorted information in order to create a positive impression on the researcher, but at the same time they had a tendency to ignore relevant facets of self concept (Eyesenk, 2013). Based on the descriptions given by these children, there are four main categories of self-description as stated by Damon and Hart, 1998 (Eyesenk, 2013). 1. The first category has to do with the physical characteristics, for example, height and weight. Self-concept Cont….
- 6. Self-concept Cont…. The second category is related to various activities that are carried out by the child, for example, studying, playing and watching cartoon. 1. The third category is that of social aspect of the person, for example, how he/she describes self in relation to others. 2. The last category is that of psychological features or the characteristics that are internal to an individual, for example, being honest, friendly etc. The psychological features can also be categorised into two: one is a relatively permanent aspect that can be termed as disposition and the other is internal states which are temporary (Wellman & Gelman, 1988). Autobiographical memory: This deals with memories with regard to events in our lives. For example, we easily remember events such as weddings, get-togethers, and so on. Addis and Tipette, in 2004, found that individuals with impaired autobiographical memory about childhood and early adulthood had a weaker self concept (Eyesenk, 2013). Autobiographical memory promotes social relationships, influences ones behaviour and actions in the future and also leads to development of a sense of self-continuity over a period of time. Thus, it is of relevance when we speak about self concept. Self concept and autobiographical memories are also interrelated as to a greater extent; self concept will influence which autobiographical memory is relevant for us.
- 7. Theories of Self-concept Management and Maintenance 1. Control theory of self-regulation: This theory states that self-regulation involves four main phases (test phase, operate phase, test phase and exit phase) 2. Self-discrepancy theory 3. Social comparison theory 4. Self-evaluation maintenance model 5. Social identity approach
- 8. Factors That Influence Self-concept 1. An individual’s observation of his/her own self 2. How others perceive the individual 3. Social set-up 4. Cultural aspects
- 9. Self-esteem Self-esteem, in simple terms, can be described as one’s attitude towards oneself. It deals with the evaluation of his/her own self worth. It can be described as a feeling that one has about one’s confidence and value. Self-esteem can also be understood in the following manner: 1. Trait self-esteem 2. State self-esteem: 3. Domain specific self-esteem Self-esteem develops mainly during early childhood. Though self-esteem is considerably high during the middle childhood, by adolescence, girls especially display lower self-esteem, that later increase during adulthood, which may again decrease during old age (Weiten, Hammer & Dunn, 2012).
- 10. Self-esteem Cont… Parenting plays an important role in development of self-esteem, and the parental styles along with involvement, attachment support etc. can have an impact on the self-esteem of the child. Gender difference also exists in self-esteem, and women and men show differences in how negative evaluation of self-esteem affects them. Men on one hand display, lowered self-esteem when they are rejected on the basis of their capabilities and status, and women on the other hand, display lowered self-esteem when they are rejected on the basis of their physical attractiveness. Self-esteem also differs according to whether the culture is individualistic or collectivistic. High self-esteem is most often appreciated in individualistic culture like that in United Stated of America, but it is not seen as desirable in collectivistic cultures like that of Japan as it may interfere with the interdependence that is valued in these cultures.
- 11. Self-efficacy The term self-efficacy was proposed by Albert Bandura as he discussed the social learning theory (Ashford & LeCroy, 2010). Self-efficacy can be described as the perception and belief about whether an individual can achieve his/her goal and whether he/she has the capabilities and necessary skills to deal with the activities at hand. Self-efficacy refers to 'one’s belief about one’s ability to perform behaviours that should lead to expected outcomes' . Sources of Self-efficacy Four sources of self-efficacy have been suggested by Bandura (2000). These are discussed as follows: 1. Developing and mastering new skills 2. Improving skills by observing others perform those skills 3. Encouragement from others 4. One’s interpretation of physiological responses and emotional arousal
- 12. Introspection and Self-perception • Introspection can be defined as 'looking internally at the self to examine who we are, how we feel and so forth' (Barrett, 2017, p. 116). Aronson et al (2014, p. 131) defined introspection as 'the process whereby people look inward and examine their own thoughts, feelings and motives‘. • Self-perception theory was proposed by Bem, where attitudes can be inferred in a way that a third person would infer. Thus, the theory involves observation of one’s own behaviour. Self-perception theory has been described by Barrett (2017, p. 119) as ‘[an[ idea that peoples sometimes infer their own attitudes in the same way that a third party might infer their attitudes by watching their behaviour'.
- 13. Other Concepts Related to Self Self-awareness: Self-awareness can be described as awareness about one’s own feelings, behaviours and characteristics. Self-awareness can be categorised as private self-awareness and pubic self-awareness. Self-monitoring behaviour: Self-monitoring can be defined as 'the degree to which individuals regulate their behaviour on the basis of the external situation and the reactions of others (high self monitors) or on the basis of internal factors such as their own beliefs, attitudes and interests (low self monitors)' (Baron & Byrne, 1995). Self-focusing: Self-focusing can be described as centrality with reference to an individual’s sense of self (Baron & Byrne, 1995). Self-motives: Self motives can be described as drives within ourselves. The can be described in terms of three main motives (Crisp & Turner, 2010).