Lesson 1 : Introduction Flashcards
(16 cards)
two fused together
What is autoethnography?
auto= “ourselves”
ethnography=”ascientificdescriptionof thecultureof asocietyby someone who haslivedin it” (that’s your description!)
In this case itis a form ofqualitative, ethnographic researchin which a researcher (myself) connects personal experiences to wider cultural, political, and social meanings and understandings (that’s what we will be learning about).
6 ideas
What is self concept?
- The set of beliefs we hold about ourselves, and how we define ourselves as individuals in the world.
- Awareness: our perception of ourself
- Reflection: How we conciously think about ourselves
- Body: self as an entity contained in a body, experiencing things
- Experience: how we experience the world impacts the self
- Agency: Considering ourselves as acting agents (or not) (agency is the capacity of individuals to have the power and resources to fulfill their potential).
How to find out what the person knows about themselves?
Study: Types of Research methods
- Interviews
- Focus groups
- Surveys
- Self Report
What are they unaware of
Research methods
- Experiments
- Sometimes natural recordings
What do they do out in real life
Research Methods
- Use observation
- Recording everyday life
Kuhn & McPartland’s (1954) The “twenty statements test” (TST).
Test given to 288 UG students in USA, studying Sociology and Anthropology in 1952. Given 12 minutes to complete the task.
Responses to the TST analysed (Content Analysis : Analytic Method)
- Social Groups, role relations and group memberships
- Ideological beliefs, like religious statements / philosophical/moral nature
- Interests (relating objects to the self)
- Ambitions (for the future)
- Self evaluations (Physical abilities, appearance, personal characteristics, physical/cognitive and emotional state)
5 of opposites…
Aspects of self-concept
- Real/Actual v Ideal
- Continuous over time vs changeable
- What does it mean when an identity changes? Example given, being a swimmer up to uni and then suddenly stopped, could be due to an injury or smth else, but what has caused this sudden change?- My example: Used to be a swimmer not anymore, used to hate cooking now I love it, used to read a lot but not nearly as much anymore
- Inclusive vs Exclusive
- Public vs Private
- Relational vs Social
Real vs Ideal Self
Self Discrepancy Theory plays a role: consequences of making comparisons between the 3 self-schemas:
FUTURE SELF: eg- most Western societies follow the ideology that they are responsible for the person they want to become / long lasting ideology and beliefs from a young age which they wish to become/ reach.
Self- Schema
The self-schema refers to a long lasting and stable set of memories that summarize a person’s beliefs, experiences and generalizations about the self, in specific behavioral domains
Coherence over time
A master-narrative (life story) provides overarching coherence to make sense of self
Temporary self image
Different aspects of our self concept may be more noticeable (salient) in a particular situation
Limiting the contexts of our ‘selves’, revising our autobiography and attrbuting changes to external factors enables us to weave our selves and idenities together
Goffman and Front/Backstage self
GOFFMAN LINK!!!
Impression Managment
- Public self
- The identity that we project to others… in front stage’ contexts.
- Private Self
- The person we know ourselves to be… which we may disclose to a few close acquaintances in ‘backstage’ contexts.
Impression Management
Impression Management (self- presentation) Goffman ‘59
The processes by which we attempt to influence the way in which other people view us.
- Can have short-term goals (e.g. express a stance, persuade someone to do something): approach someone with a chocolate bar and be like can you cat sit for me, or say you’ve been doing most of the work in a group assignment and you stand on business and say chip in and pull your weight to the rest of the group members
- Can have long term goals (to establish and protect your reputation).
- Can be concerned with aspects of our personal identity or our collective identity.
Strategic Self Presentation
- Self-promotion- motivated by a concern to ‘get ahead’ to gain respect and impress others
- Ingratiation- motivated by a concern to get along with others and be liked
- Intimidation- motivated by trying to get others to think you are dangerous
- Exemplification- motivated by trying to get others to regard you as morally respectable
- Supplication- motivated by trying to get others to take pity on you as helpless (”the dog ate my hmwk please give me some time” excuse)
Impression Managment Bandura
Self-regulation
- Impression management
- Bandura: Bobo doll
- Public actions eg facial expressions
-Concious inhibition of actions can be affected by how we act such as cognitive load. drugs. alc and tiredess even
Culture explained more :
Cultures can be broken down into individualist and collectivist cultures:
Individualist cultures: Values independence uniqueness, autonomy, self-determination, personal freedom, achievement
- Self-construalrefers to how individuals define themselves: as independent from others or as interdependent with others. Interdependent self-construal has two components: relational interdependence (defining oneself in terms of close relationships) and collective interdependence (defining oneself in terms of groups).
Collectivist Cultures: Values social relationships, group identification, social solidarity, shared goals
Examples: include Individualist cultures stating things like : ‘I am blonde’, I play squash etc
Collectivist will be more like ‘ I am from a large family’ ‘ I am part of a basketball team’ ‘I am Indian’
- Separate in terms of 1 being more about themselves and the other about the team they are in/ group they are in
