SOCPSYCH PREFI-FINALS

• The Self


  Our sense of personal identity and of who we are as individuals
• An understanding of the self is so important, it has been studied for many years by psychologists
• Self


  • It is at the foundation of all human behavior
• Cognitive Self


  The self-concept - a knowledge representation that contains knowledge about us, including our beliefs about our personality traits, physical characteristics, abilities, values, goals, and roles, as well as the knowledge that we exist as individuals
• Self-concept


  • It is a rich and complex social representation of who we are, encompassing both our internal characteristics and our social roles
  • It includes thoughts about our past self, our present self, and our future self
• Self-complexity


  The extent to which individuals have many different and relatively independent ways of thinking about themselves
• Self-concept clarity


  The extent to which one's self-concept is clearly and consistently defined
• Self-awareness


  The extent to which we are currently fixing our attention on our own self-concept
• Infants recognize themselves in a mirror by about 18 months of age
• The child's knowledge about the self continues to develop as the child grows
• Individuals differ in the complexity and clarity of their self-concept
• Self-concept complexity


  The extent to which individuals have many different and relatively independent ways of thinking about themselves
• Aspects of individual differences in self-awareness

  • Self-concern
  • Other-concern
• Private self-consciousness


  The tendency to introspect about our inner thoughts and feelings
• Public self-consciousness


  The tendency to focus on our outer public image and to be particularly aware of the extent to which we are meeting the standards set by others
• There are clearly individual and cultural differences in the degree to and manner in which we tend to be aware of ourselves
• Self-discrepancy


  Perceiving a discrepancy between our actual and ideal selves, which is distressing
• Self-affirmation theory


  People try to reduce the threat to their self-concept posed by feelings of self-discrepancy by focusing on and affirming their worth in another domain, unrelated to the issue at hand
• Self-awareness is more powerful for the person experiencing it than it is for others who are looking on, and the fact that self-concept is so highly accessible frequently leads people to overestimate the extent to which other people are focusing on them
• Self-esteem


  Positive (high self-esteem) or negative (low self-esteem) feelings that we have about ourselves
• Self-esteem


  • Determined by how well we view our own performance and appearance, and how satisfied we are with our relationships with other people
• Explicit and implicit measures

  Ways to measure self-esteem
• Most people tend to view themselves positively
• Maintaining and Enhancing Self-Esteem


  1. Being successful at what we do

  2. Building connections with others
• Narcissism


  Personality trait characterized by overly high self-esteem, self-admiration, and self-centeredness
• Narcissistic statements


  • "I know that I am good because everybody keeps telling me so"
  • "I can usually talk my way out of anything"
  • "I like to be the center of attention"
  • "I have a natural talent for influencing people"
• Teachers, parents, school counselors, and people in many cultures frequently assume that high self-esteem causes many positive outcomes
• Baumeister and colleagues (2003) conducted an extensive review of the research literature to determine whether having high self-esteem was as helpful as many people seem to think it is
• Baumeister and colleagues found that people with high self-esteem sometimes delude themselves
• Todd Heatherton and Kathleen Vohs (2000) found that when people with extremely high self-esteem were forced to fail on a difficult task in front of a partner, they responded by acting more unfriendly, rudely, and arrogantly than did those with lower self-esteem
• Despite the many positive variables that relate to high self-esteem, Baumeister and his colleagues found little evidence that high self-esteem caused these positive outcomes