the self

• the self


  refers to individuals own perception & understanding of themselves in relation of their social environment.
• self concept - Baumeister (1999)


  "The individual's belief about himself or herself, including the person's attributes and who and what the self is".
• self-concept helps organise thinking and guides social behaviour. the self has several departments.
• departments of self
• departments of self

  • comparisons you make
  • social identities you form
  • roles you play
  • culture
  • successes and failures
  • how other people judge you
• self schemas

  • ingredients in self concept
• self schemas

  constructs which help us to store and retrieve information about ourselves (Markus and Wurf, 1987)
• Your self schemas strongly affect how you perceive, evaluate, remember other people and yourself (Kihlstrom and Cantor, 1984
• self schemas

  • contain knowledge about the self
  • obtained by past generalisations
  • stored in cognitive generalisations
  • help us organise self related info
• self schemas as motivators and self-regulators


  •Markus and Nurius (1986): “possible selves” (a self you would like to be in the future)
• positive possible self = positive behaviours

  negative possible self = negative behaviours

  self fulfilling prophecy
• Chi-Hung Ng (2005) behavioural implications of self-schemas


  positive self schema for maths: more engaged, determined, better outcomes

  negative self schema for maths: less engaged, fearful of tasks, anxious, low achievement
• self reference effect

  • the tendency to process information related to oneself efficiently and quickly
  • people w/ depression focus on self-referent negative attributes more than other people (Swallow and Kuiper, 1987)
• Social Comparison Theory (Festinger, 1954)


  SCT proposes that there is a primitive drive within individuals to compare themselves with others in order to evaluate their own opinions and abilities.
• self esteem

  • your overall positive or negative self evaluation or sense of self worth
• Bottom Up Crocker and Wolfe (2001)

  A person who has a sense of self esteem which is dependent on doing well in school and looking attractive will feel high self-esteem when made to feel clever or beautiful.
• Top down Brown and Dutton (1994)

  People who value themselves in a general way (those with high self esteem), are more likely to value their looks, abilities, skills.
• self efficacy

  “Self Efficacy is the belief in one's capabilities to organize and execute the sources of action required to manage prospective situations."From Social Foundations of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory, 1986.
• Locus of Control

  “A person’s belief about who or what is responsible for what happens”
• Learned Helplessness


  •“The hopelessness and resignation learned when a human or an animal perceives no control over repeated bad events”

  •Linked to depressive feelings
• •Oaten and Cheng (2006): Students who engaged in daily self-control behaviours (daily exercise, study times, time management) became more capable of self-control in other settings too (exams, job interviews etc)