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Theories of self

- Self-perception theory (Bem):

. Learn about self by examining thoughts, feelings + behaviours

. Can occur by just imagining behaviour

- Self-discrepancy theory (Higgins):

. Awareness of discrepancies between actual self + perceived/ ought selves

. Actual self = how see self at present time

. Ideal self = how would like to see self

. Ought self = how think ought to be

. Psychological discomfort from discrepancies between actual + ideal self

. Self-regulation = attempt to match behaviour with ideal/ought standard of self

- Regulatory focus theory

. 2 distinct regulatory systems:

..Promotion: constructing self - motivate to seek ideal; pursuit of success

..Prevention: cautious + avoidant in doing so - think about oughts (ideals + expectations others set); focuses people on failures

Control theory of self-regulation

- Test self against private standards + regulate behaviour according to these

- Cognitive feedback loop - if don't meet self-schemas' standards, reattempt to address discrepancy

- Allows to improve self through self-apprasial + regulation

- Ego depletion - self-control + willpower are finite resource that can be used up

- Strength model of self-control - self-control can't be maintained for unlimited period

Social comparison theory

- Compare selves with others to learn about + define self

- Upward social comparison - compare to people better (neg effect)

- Downward social comparison - compare to people worse (pos effect)

- Temporal comparisons - compare with self from past/anticipated future self

Self-evalulation maintenance model

- Can maintains elf esteem when making upward comparisons by:

. exaggerating ability of better person - explains diff

. downward comparison - still better than some

. avoiding comparison person

. Devaluing dimension on which they're better - downgrade them on another factor