Chapter 11 The Self

Key terms
social comparison
effectance motivation
locus of control
mastery orientation
learned helplessness
self-esteem
identity crisis
self-regulation
self-control
delay of gratification

THE SELF AND SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING

Three major areas:

Thinking about the self

Thinking about others

Thinking about relationships among people.

Cooley and Mead: sociologists (1930s) first
conceived of
the self as the result of what others reflect back to
us about
us (mirror self). E.g. Youre a pretty girl, youre a
nice
boy, I like being with you, etc. any feedback
about us.
Generalized other: Mead. Refers to a composite of

THE SELF AND SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING (Contd)

Wm. James (psychologist, early 1900s)
distinguished between:
I-self and me-self.
I-self: the active side I do, therefore I am.
Includes, eventually:

self-awareness: Im separate from others

self-continuity: same over time

self-coherence: single entity

self-agency: feeling of control

THE SELF AND SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING (Contd)

Me-self: reflective self, object of knowledge and
evaluation. Encompasses physical and
psychological characteristics. E.g. Im tall,
Im brave, I like candy, as well as
sociological characteristics Im Tommys
older sister, Im the new kid at school.
I-self starts by acting on the environment and
watching the results. Starts first year.
Me-self: second year? Depends on methodology
used. Mine! not universal, its cultural.

THE SELF AND SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING (Contd)

Categorical self: based on salient
characteristics (sex, height, etc.)
Remembered self: autobiographical
memory, from info supplied by adults
Inner self: beginning of theory of mind: how own
and others minds work.
Relationship between belief, desire and action.

THE SELF AND SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING

(Contd)

Variables that create a theory of mind:

early communication
imitation
make-believe play
language
social interaction

THE SELF AND SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING (Contd)

Sense of agency: knowing they can do things to the
envaironment, e.g. drop a spoon hear noise, many
repetitions, great glee. Starts very early.
Caution: sense of self bound up with
possessions: cultural value. Opposite
value e.g. !Kung.
Correlation between mirror self and self-recognition
with empathy and prosocial behaviour. Probably a
third
variable involved (cognitive development).

THE SELF AND SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING (Contd)

Categorical self: e.g. girl, age 5, blue-eyed
Theory of mind: ideas about how own and
others mind works.
Early self-concept: acting on the
environment (Piaget): I do, therefore I am.
Self-concept: set of characteristics, traits,
abilities, attitudes and values.

THE SELF AND SOCIAL UNDERSTANDING (Contd)

Social comparisons: comparing ourselves to others,
increases in school, driven by system. Increasing
sophistication with age.
Cognitive influences on the self-concept:
Perspective taking skills: from others point
of view, inferences.
Cultural influences p. 450

SELF-ESTEEM
Part of the self-concept, evaluative,
judgment about self: whats my worth
as a
person? Plus the feelings attached to
the
evaluation.
Self-esteem affects every area of our
lives.

SELF-ESTEEM (Contd)
Four areas of competence by age 6-7:

academic
social
physical performance
physical appearance

How important each one is varies from child

to
child. This is influenced by parents and
society.

SELF-ESTEEM (Contd)
In adolescence, add:

job performance
friendships, popularity (although starts
earlier)
sex appeal

Individualistic vs. collectivistic societies.

Competition vs. cooperation.
In our society, low self-esteem associated
with
depression and antisocial behaviour.

SELF-ESTEEM (Contd)
How can we encourage self-esteem?
Important: read pp. 450-455.
Attributions: mastery oriented vs. learned
helplessness
Expectations of success start as early as the
second year of life, leads to persisting at
challenging tasks (achievement motivation)
See cultural differences, gender differences.

SELF-ESTEEM (Contd)
Influence of child rearing:
conditional love (loss of touch with
real self)
unnecessary meddling (inadequacy)
overly tolerant or indulgent
(hyperinflated) lead to problems
with self-esteem.
general compliments not based on
performance

SELF-ESTEEM (Contd)
Best approach:
encourage children to persist at
worthwhile goals
good performance enhances selfesteem
self esteem fosters good
performance
importance of realistic goals, vary
with child, age, etc.

SELF-ESTEEM (Contd)
Achievement motivation:
Tendency toward trying hard to succeed at
tasks.
Implies making the distinction

too easy, no satisfaction or sense of

accomplishment.

challenging but doable, sense of mastery

too difficult, easy to justify failure

High achievers choose the middle, low achievers
the
extremes.
Attribution: what causes we think resulted in the
observed
effect.

SELF-ESTEEM (Contd)
Can be external (environmental), not in
our control) or internal (intrinsic to the
person).
Internal attributions can be due to
ability (unchangeable) or
effort (under a persons control).
An ability attribution leads to not trying
hard: can
result in learned helplessness.
An effort attribution leads to trying hard:
mastery
oriented attribution.

SELF-ESTEEM (Contd)
Children high in achievement
motivation
develop mastery attributions:

belief that their success is due to

ability + effort
if they fail at a task, they try harder
or realistically appraise the task as
too hard
not afraid of challenge

SELF-ESTEEM (Contd)
Non-mastery or learned helplessness kids:

ability cannot be improved by effort, you either

have it or you dont: they give up easily.
afraid of challenge
it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy
success more likely attributed to external
factors (easy task, luck)

See p. 454: Ways to foster a mastery-oriented

approach to learning (good for parents and
teachers).

IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT
Erikson: adolescent development task: find
ones identity. (Identity crisis).
Marcia: 4 types of identity:
1. Diffuse: very unsure who one is, constant
changes, typical in early to midadolescence, goals and beliefs not
clearly defined.
2. Foreclosed: accept without question
parental/cultural beliefs, values and
lifestyle. Used to be the norm until 20th
century.
3. Moratorium: in search mode. Today a
necessary step in establishing identity.

IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT (Contd)

4. Achieving: after exploring different
alternatives, settled on one: knowing
self, goals, preferences, values.
Ethnicity: minority adolescents have extra
task.
Conflict between identity of origin and
majority
culture.

IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT (Contd)

IDENTITY: clear knowledge of who you are,
your goals, values and beliefs.
Until adolescence, identity or self-concept
derived from parents. Usually, in
adolescence we search for our very own
identity (Erikson: crisis of identity vs.
confusion) Lifelong quest.

IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT (Contd)

Four types of identity (Marcia)
1. Diffused identity: typical of early
adolescence, when parental goals and
values are no longer totally accepted,
but there is either no active search or a
haphazard search for a new identity.
Some people stay in this identity for a
long time, in which case its maladaptive.
Likely to use drugs, go with the crowd, be
apathetic and without inner direction.
Risk of depression and suicide. Very
vulnerable to failure and rejection.

IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT (Contd)

2. Foreclosed identity: Adopt parents
goals and values without looking at
alternatives. Used to be the rule.
Locked in early, rigid, intolerant of
differences in others there is only
one right way to live, think, etc.
Obedience to authority.

IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT (Contd)

3. Moratorium identity: In active
search of a possible identity, trying
different possibilities, typical of
todays healthy adolescent, might
try some unpalatable alternatives
at some point.

IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT (Contd)

4. Identity achieving: Found a set of
goals and values, knows own
strengths and weaknesses, sense of
purpose and direction. May end up
being quite close to the parents,
but preceded by active search its
not rigid. High self-esteem, good
moral reasoning, ready for the
world.

IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT (Contd)

These identity types are more typical
of
complex, post-industrial societies.
Identity status is important for how
successful people are in romantic
relationships.

Person perception:
Follows cognitive development, i.e.
1. Concrete perceptions (he can kick a
ball far)
2. Abstract perceptions (she is caring
and understanding)

Intentionality of behaviour:
Ability to figure out other peoples
intentions,
sincerity of verbal statements.
Deficits in aggressive children.
Perspective taking:
Putting yourself in the other persons place
(empathy)

Selmans five stages, ages 3 to adult.

Also related to cognitive development.
Recursive thought: thinking about
what
another person is thinking.

Selmans stages in perspective-taking:

When and how do we learn to understand
what others are thinking and feeling?
3-6 years: they realize its different from
their
own, but still some confusion.
4-9 years: understand that what information
they
and others have results in different
perspectives.

7-12 years: ability to see how others view

them and their thoughts and feelings.
10-15 years: ability to view self and second
party from a neutral position.
15-adult: understand the social and moral
context in which a situation is taking place.
(See Hollys story in text)

Recursive thinking:
thinking about what someone else is
thinking, a form of perspective taking.
Social problem-solving:
Information processing approach about
conflict resolution in a social situation.
Affects
social competence. Ability to create a winwin
situation.

Information-Processing Model of Social

Problem-Solving
1.
2.
3.
4.

Encode social cues

Interpret social cues
Formulate social goals
Generate possible problem solving
strategies
5. Evaluate probable effectiveness of
strategies
6. Enact response