2. Self and Identity Flashcards
(29 cards)
What is the self?
- symbolic construct reflecting consciousness of our own identity and an awareness that we exist as a being separate from other beings
What did Brewer & Gardener suggest the 3 types of self are?
- collective self: attributes shared with ingroup members and distinct from out group members e.g societies
- individual self: attributes that make us unique relative to others e.g goals
- relational self: relationships one has with specific other people
What is self awareness?
- a psychological state in which people are aware of their traits, feelings and behaviours
How did Lewis and Brooks assess what age we become self aware?
- put a spot of rogue on the nose of babies and put them infront of a mirror
- babies between 9 and 12 months treated mirror image as another child showing no interest to the spot on their nose
- around 18months they recognised that it was their reflection
What is the difference between public and private self-awareness?
public: how you may be judged by others, evoked when…
- giving a presentation
- being photographed/filmed
private: how you are aware of yourself, evoked when…
- looking in a mirror
- experiencing arousal
What are the consequences of private self-awareness?
- intensified emotional response: focussing on ourself also makes us focus on our state of mind, intensifying our emotions
- clarification of knowledge: focussing on internal events meaning we can report them with greater accuracy
- adherence to personal standards of behaviour: true beliefs become emphasised and less susceptible to external forces
What are the consequences of public self-awareness?
- evaluation apprehension
- makes us understand others observe us
- fear of negative evaluation > nervousness and reduced self esteem
- larger audiences increases anxiety during public speaking - adherence to social standards of behaviour
- more likely to conform to group norms even if this goes against personal opinions
What is self-consciousness?
- the extent to which an individual is chronically aware of their traits, feelings and behaviour
What is private self-consciousness?
- experience more intense emotions
- greater tendency to suffer from depression and neuroticism due to rumination on feelings of unhappiness/discomfort
- act in line with personal beliefs
- less likely to suffer ill health due to noticing symptoms earlies
What is public self-consciousness?
- concerned with others perceptions of them
- adhere to group norms
- avoid embarrassing situations
- more concerned with their appearance and judge others according to their appearance
What is self-concept?
- complete set of beliefs that people have about themselves, which form their understanding of who they are
What are self schemas?
- how we expect ourselves to think, feel and behave in particular situations
- consist of: perception of ourselves and our experiences on this dimension
What is the hierarchy in importance of the 3 self schemas?
- self schematic: traits that are highly important aspects of the self
- somewhat schematic: traits that describe the self to some extent
- aschematic: traits which are irrelevant to the self
What theories explain how we maintain our sense of self?
- theory of self comparison
- theory of social comparison
- theory of group comparison
- inter-dependence theories
What is Higgins self discrepancy theory? (theory of self comparison)
the self consists of…
- actual self
- ideal self
- ought self
- individuals compare their ‘actual’ self to internalised standards of the ideal and ought self
- we are motivated to ensure match between all 3 selves
- if this is incongruent, it cab lead to psychological discomfort
What is Festingers social comparison theory? (theory of social comparison)
- we learn how to define the self by comparing ourself to others
- two types of comparisons:
1. upward (to someone better)
2. downward (to someone worse) - the aim is to gain accurate representation of self
What is Tajfel & Turners social identity theory? (theory of group comparison)
- social identity = individuals self concept deriving from their knowledge of their membership of a social group
- we have multiple social identities
- ones that are active at given times are context dependent
- some may even be contradictory
- socially constructed: we each belong to some and not others
What are interdependence theories?
- look at the role of other people and how they ‘shape’ who we are/would like to become (ideal self)
What is Rusbult et als michelangelo phenomenon? (interdependence theories)
- michelangelo = italian sculptor, painter and artist
- like how he sculpted art forms out of rock, close partners can also sculpt our real self
- parter = sculptor
- ideal self = sculpted
What evidence is there for the michelangelo phenomenon?
- Rusbult et al found that partner affirmation of eachothers ideal goals is related to personal growth and movement towards the ideal self and partner well being
What is self-esteem?
- evaluative component of self concept
- a persons subjective appraisal of themselves as intrinsically positive/negative
- can vary from time to time, context dependant
How does parenting style effect self-esteem?
- authoritative: high
- authoritarian: low
- permissive: low
What are the consequences of low self-esteem?
mood regulation and mental health
- actively dampen positive feelings
- feel worse after a negative event
- make fewer goals/plans to improve mood after failure
- associated with higher levels of depression/anxiety
What are the consequences of high self-esteem?
narcissism
- extremely high self-esteem
- unstable/fragile
- reliant on validation
