Self and identity Flashcards
(35 cards)
What were social relations like in medieval times?
Fixed and stable, rules laid down by religion
People mostly stayed in one place, within set social rankings etc
No real need for portable identities, simply tied themselves to their circumstances
What were 3 forces for change in views of the self from the 16th century onwards?
Secularisation - idea that fulfilment only in afterlife started to be challenged and people started actively seeking fulfilment while living
Industrialisation - people moving more for work, requiring portable identities not locked to social structures and family ties
Enlightenment - ability to organise and construct better identities and lives, overthrowing old orthodox values and oppression of high social ranks
What did Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis suggest?
We can’t fully know all details of our inner selves because much is unconscious - we have an unsocial, libidinal ID kept in check by internalised societal norms (superego) but repressed impulses could surface e.g. during psychotherapy
Strongly challenged prevailing views about identity and the self
What is meant by theory of social representation?
theory that novel ideas can entirely change the way people think about their world
How does the concept of the self develop, and what are two examples of evidence?
During childhood
Red smudge study - only 25% of one-yr olds touched own nose when looking in mirror, but 75% of 2-yr olds
When asked “who are you?”, a younger child usually answers using physical and observable characteristics e.g. I am tall, while an older child defines themselves with deeper and more meaningful psychological traits e.g. I am generous (more highly developed sense of self)
What is meant by the individual self?
Freud and others viewed the self as an individual construct, features and traits distinguishing one unique person from another
View that generally prevails - groups simply seen as groups of interacting individuals rather than individuals with one kind of shared identity
What is meant by the collective self?
The self draws its properties from a group, and the idea of a GROUP MIND - out of interactions with others there arises a group mind which is qualitatively different from the individuals making up the group e.g. Sherif’s norms which arise from social interactions and are internalised to influence behaviour
Collective self consists of those aspects of self that are based on membership to a social group - perception of self as interchangeable exemplar for a group rather than as a unique person, and based on IMPERSONAL bonds to other derived from shared identification within a group (don’t necessarily require close personal relationships between group members)
Collective self is composed of shared attributes of an ingroup, aspects of self-concept that differentiate ingroups from outgroups
What is an example of a collective self?
A person may self-identify as being an environmentalist]When this collective self-aspect becomes relevant, similarities with other environmentalists are emphasised whereas a person’s unique characteristics e.g. being honest move to the background
Close personal relationships not essential for self-definition - collective identity is based on common identification with a group
What are the 3 aspects of Gardner and Brewer’s framework of self definition?
PERSONAL SELF - Individual level, traits and behaviours unique to person
RELATIONAL SELF - interpersonal level e.g. being a daughter, derived from relationships with significant others
COLLECTIVE SELF - representation at group level, may include people who you’ve never met but with whom you share common attributes
What can be predicted from elements of collective identity?
Variety of behaviours and reactions towards others, especially members of other groups
Important role in group perception and behaviour, prejudice, inter-group stereotyping and discrimination
What is meant by social interactionism?
Theory of how the self emerges from social interaction, involving the trading of symbols that are usually consensual and represent abstract properties
What was William James’s distinction between “I” and “me”?
The “I” as a stream of consciousness, our individual response to society’s view of us
The “me” as an object of perception, the social self, society’s view of us
The self emerges from social interactions, determined by our society, and we can vary our “me” depending on the need; reflexive knowledge is possible i.e. “I” can be aware of “me” (although it isnt always accurate - we can reconstruct our social self concept without being aware we’ve done it)
What was Mead’s belief about social interactions?
Largely symbolic, mainly interacting in terms of words/non-verbal cues rich in meaning
Society influences individuals through the way they think about themselves, and self-conception arises from and is modified by social interactions involving symbols that must have shared meanings that all involved in the interaction can understand and respond to e.g. “lets eat out tonight” opens up a variety of commonly appreciated choices
What is an example of how meanings can determine our actions?
Someone coming from a culture where being outspoken is a good thing - that person will learn to be outspoken to boost self-esteem by engaging in socially accepted behaviour
If they move to a culture where being outspoken is frowned upon, however, the same behaviour now has a different meaning and through symbolic interactionism they may adopt this new meaning and allow it to alter their self-concept and behaviour
What does interacting effectively involve?
Taking on the role of the other person i.e. seeing yourself as a social object i.e. your “me”
Outsiders will often see us through the lens of a particular schema as a member of a category so the “me” is probably more often seen as a collective concept
What is meant by the looking glass self?
Through symbolic interactions with others we are essentially trading representations we and our society have of the world - we are only effective when seeing ourselves from society’s perspective, and in this way we construct a self-concept that reflects that society i.e. we are SOCIALLY CONSTITUTED
This process is known as reflective appraisals and is the main process in development of the self
Looking glass self predicts that our view of ourselves and society’s views of us should map closely together
What did Schrauger and Schoeneman find?
We actually see ourselves as we THINK others see us, so there is usually a considerable difference between our actual and constructed self which is based on what we think others see of us, and it is this that commonly changes in different circumstances
May be because we don’t actually take the role of the other when constructing our sense of self i.e. we make assumptions, or it might be because communication during social interactions are so noisy and inaccurate and influenced by a range of self-construal motivations
What is the self-enhancing triad?
Our concept of self is strongly linked to how we go about enhancing our self-image - we have a tendency to overestimate our good points, overestimate control we have over events, and are unrealistically optimistic
What is meant by self-awareness?
State in which you are able to reflexively appraise your “me” as an object - objective self-awareness
Involves making comparisons between how actually are and how want to be, and this analysis often highlights shortcomings and associated negative emotions –> motivated to do something to bring actual self more in line with ideal self
What is the difference between private and public self-awareness?
Private=thoughts and feelings which lead us to try to match our behaviour to our internalised standards
Public=how others see us, orientated towards presenting self to others in a positive light
What is meant by reduced objective self-awareness?
Result of finding awareness to be too stressful
Key component of DEINDIVIDUATION i.e. when someone doesn’t think of themselves as a distinct individual so fails to monitor their own actions, often behaving impulsively
What is self-knowledge?
Addresses what it is we are actually aware of when we are self-aware, constructed in much the same way as we construct representations of others - we have many self-schemas which are more complex than those for others, utilising many aspects of ourselves so if one schema fails in a given context we can use another to bolster our self-esteem
People are generally more self-schematic on dimensions that are important to them, on which they think they are extreme and on which they are certain the opposite doesn’t hold and these become part of the self-concept
What is a problem with rigidly compartmentalised self-schemas?
If some are negative and some positive, events may cause extreme mood swings according to whether a positive or negative self-schema is primed
It is better to have more integrated self-schemas where boundaries are less clear and effects on mood less
What is Higgin’s self-discrepancy theory?
Self-schemas don’t just describe how we ARE but we have an array of possible selves, future-oriented schemas
ACTUAL SELF - how we currently are
IDEAL SELF - how we would like to be
OUGHT SELF - how we think we SHOULD be
