THE SELF 1

THE SELF 1

1. What is the self ?

   • cognitive/abstract/theoretical non observable concept
   • A person’s experience as a single, unitary, autonomous being that is separate from others, experienced with continuity through time and place
   • Totality of all mental and physical characteristics attributes, conscious and unconscious

2. Historical contexts ?

   • The self is new
     • Before social relations fixed and stable who u r and what u did was dictated by: Social rank/ order, family membership, birth order and place
     • changed by
       • industrialization
       • enlightenment
       • Secularisation
       • psychoanalysis
   • Freuds psychodynamic self
     • self (ego) result of checks and balances between ID and superego
     • Internal hidden deeply personal
     • only reached thro psychotherapy + hypnosis
   • The symbolic interactionist self
     • emerges and is shaped by social interactions
     • Willian James
       • I as a stream of consciousness, me as object I can observe
       • the material/social/spiritual self
     • George Mead
       • the individual mind can exist only in relation to other minds with shared meanings
   • Collective Self
     • Relationship with other individuals and other groups as a basis for identity
     • Tajfel & Turner, 1979, Social identity approach

3. Self Awareness (awareness of the self as an object)

   • Develops 18 months
   • private self
   • public self
   • comparisons between who you are and who you would like to be
     • discrepancies cause negative affective states leading to wanting to change
   • can be temporary/ chronic

4. schemas

   • info on self stored into one
   • Reflects how we expect we will act
     • context specific
     • concepts can be more or less central
     • can b more or less complex

5. social psych

   • sense of self through comparison to self/ individuals/ groups
     • Higgins, 1987 Self-Discrepancy Theory
       • actual self/ ideal self/ ought self
         • discrepancy = negative emotions
     • Festinger, 1954 Social comparison theory
       • provides benchmark (best when similar) / validation
         • upward&downward comparisons
     • Tesser, 1988, Self-Evaluation Maintenance Model
       • how we deal with others success
       • social reflection
         • self-esteem enhanced
           • domain irrelevant
             • confident in ability
       • upward comparison
         • domain relevant
           • uncertain of abilities
       • strategies
         • exaggerate ability of target
         • switch target of comparison
         • distance ourselves from target
         • devalue comparison