S1W1 Self and identity

S1W1 Self and identity

1. Self and identity

   • Freud- aspects of self as hidden
   • William james 'I' and 'Self'
   • Behaviourism- self as unknowable
   • Behaviorism: Self as unknowable

2. Self knowledge

   • Taylor & Brown (1988)- Tendency to overestimate positive aspects
   • Depressive realism- Moore & Franco 2012)
   • Zuckerman, 1979: Self serving bias, retain positives, forget negatives

3. Self esteem

   • Rosenberg (1965) Self esteem scale
   • Positive self esteem peaks at 50-60- (Orth and Robins 2014)
   • Baumeister- Is self esteem shaped by life events?
   • Gentile (2010)- some evidence of increase over time due to cultural factors

4. Self regulation

   • Delayed gratification is a good predictor of lifespan self-control from as early as 4 years.
     • Marshmallow test- Mishcel et al 1989, Casey et al 2011)
     • Ideas of self as thermostat - Bauermeister
   • Influential in health psychology- dominated by Theory of Planned Behaviour
   • Fails under conditions of distress - Drunkennness

5. Self-monitoring:

   • Snyder 1974: High S-M: sensitive to situations , Low S-M: More consistent with basic personality
   • Closely related to 'social role' theory (Goffman 1959- Presentation of self in Everyday life

6. Domains of the self:

   • Markus & Nurius (1986)-Possible selves
   • Higgins (1987): Self-discrepancy theory: Mental health regulated by relations between: Actual self, Ideal self, Ought self
   • Carver et al 1999- effects depend on distance from the actual self

7. How do we know what the actual self is?

   • Winnicott (1971) - True self develops through mother's responses to infant - False self: 'mask' to cope with social demands.
   • Laing: False self dominates in schizophrenia
   • Problems occur when considering self as bounded, unique, constant and knowable

8. Historical Issues

   • Self not same in earlier historical periods
   • Privacy non existent in pre-17th century Europe (Aries 1962) - Self tied to God, family, social order 0 No sense of mobility, or aspiration other than afterlife,
   • Changes with industrialisation and Urbanisation

9. Cross-cultural issues

   • Sampson(1993) 'A most peculiar self'
   • Geertz (1973/75): anthropological study of Java and Bali - individualism associated with immodesty - Self insuperable from social environment
   • Difference between 'individualist' and 'collectivist' societies

10. Self-contrual in East and West

    • Markus & Kityama(1991): Self contrual as either 'idiocentric' or 'allocentric' - Significant differences between Far East and US
    • Cross & Madson (1997): male-female differences across cultures
    • Clancy & Dollinger (1993): female inclusion of others in photos of self

11. Identity

    • Personal identity: Who I am , Erikson (1968): development through lifespan
    • Social identity- How others see us (often as group members)
    • Perhaps best to think of several identities