Self competence

Self competence

1. Self concept: How we see ourselves (private)

   • Self as narrative
     • We ae the main characters in our story
     • Our bonding experiences influence the emotional tone of our story
     • Themes and images impact our story
     • Recurring motives impact our story
     • Psychosocial moratorium: trying on new identities without keeping them
     • Our stories are shaped and reshaped in the retelling of them
     • Accuracy is not important as long as it makes sense to us
   • Self as cognitive schema
     • Self-schemata: cognitive structures that guide the processing of self-related information
       • Life script: fixed way of thinking about self and others
         • I'm OK, You're OK
         • I'm OK, You're not OK
         • I'm Not OK, You're OK
         • I'm not OK, You're not OK
         • Influence how we perceive social situations
         • Self-Handicapping strategy: excuses to avoid future failure
     • The human brain organizes information in patterns that are easily predictable
   • Self as behavior
     • Self Identity vs Communication
     • Self Perception Theory: we understand who we are by observing our own behavior
   • Self as Relationships
     • Self identity we display in a relationship
       • How we think we appear to other people
         • How we think that person judges our appearance
           • How we feel about ourselves in reaction to other's perception of us
       • Usually stable: I tend to feel the same with friends and parents
         • We have this image of who we are and tend to surround ourselves with people who reinforce that image
   • Self as internal dialogue
     • Self talk: intrapersonal conversations
     • The individual self is a system of selves
     • Presenting Self: self that steps forward in any interaction

2. "Reflexive"

   • What we understand in a situation affects how we communicate, and vice versa