Transcript Document

PSY415
Psychology of the Self
Week 1
Introduction
Who am I?

“Imagine you want someone to know who
you are really like. You can tell this person 20
things about yourself. These can include …
anything that helps the person know what
you are really like. What would you tell
them?” (Brown, 1998, p. 20)
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What did you ask yourself in your mind
and/or considered in writing these
statements?
Spring 2010
Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.
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The I and ME
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I see the BOARD vs. I see ME
The self as I is the agent of action, the
subject
 It is not only the mental processes
involved in knowing or our affection
toward ourselves, but the awareness
of this process of knowing and feeling
 ME is the object of one’s attention or
knowledge of himself / herself
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Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.
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What Psychologists Mean by Self
ME is also subjective
 It refers to people’s ideas, beliefs,
thoughts about themselves about
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WHO THEY ARE &
 WHAT THEY ARE LIKE
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These ideas or beliefs are called self-
referent thoughts
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Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.
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What Psychologists Mean by Self
There are two aspects of the ME
 The way we think about ourselves is
the cognitive component of the self,
which is called the self-concept
 The way we feel about ourselves is the
affective component of the self, which
is called the self-esteem
 The self is both the I and the ME
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Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.
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Self-Concept vs. Self-Esteem
“Self-concept is the totality of the individual’s
thoughts and feelings with reference to
himself as an object, which eventually
explains himself, and the world at large, to
himself.”(Rosenberg, 1979, p. ix; Steele, 1988, p. 262)
“Self-esteem ... is a positive or negative
attitude toward a particular object, namely,
the self.”(Rosenberg, 1965, p. 30)
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Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.
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What is the Self?
There is no consensus on a conceptual
definition
 Baumeister (1998) highlights three
roots of selfhood

Reflexive Consciousness
 Interpersonal Aspect
 Executive Function
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Reflexive Consciousness
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It is the subjective experience of
“conscious attention turning back
toward its own source and gradually
constructing a concept of oneself”
(Baumeister, 1998, p. 680)
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The self has unity and temporal
continuity
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Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.
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Interpersonal Aspect

The self is not only constructed
subjectively, but it is affected by the
social context as well
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Self is “vital for making interpersonal
relationships and interactions possible”
(Baumeister, 1998, p. 680)
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Executive Function

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The self is the agent of all actions and the
decision-maker (Baumeister, 1998)
Original meaning of the self, as first
appeared as a noun in the 14th century
English, is “sinner” (Danziger, 1997)
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What do you think about why it meant so?
Volution, Agency, Responsibility
It is the essential source of motivation to
activate or inhibit actions
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Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.
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Self-Psychology and Personality:
The Difference
Self-psychology is concerned with subjective
experience, whereas personality psychology
is more concerned with the objective
experience
“I think I am an extraverted person”
vs.
“My BFI score indicates that I am extraverted”
 Asch (1952)
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Ego is the representation of the organism
Self is the awareness of ego
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Self-Psychology and Personality:
The Similarities
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What we really are influences how we think
about ourselves – not always!
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What we really are influences how we feel
about ourselves
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Temperament
Self is one aspect of personality
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Self-aggrandization
cf. individual differences
Self-report is often used to measure
personality
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Rosenberg (1965) Self-Esteem Scale
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Self-Psychology and
Phenomenology
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Not the objective but the subjective reality
determines our consciousness at a given
moment
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Wertheimer’s (1912) Apparent Movement
Experiment
Lewin (1951) argued that objective world is
important to the extent that it affects our
subjective perceptions
Our thoughts and feelings about ourselves
are subjective as well – the self as perceived
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The Study of Self in American
Psychology
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The Behaviorist Movement
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Psychology is an experimental branch of
natural science which aims at predicting
and controlling behavior by carefully
observing phenomena objectively
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Positivism and mechanism led the
rejection of self as a legitimate subject
matter of psychology
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The Study of Self in American
Psychology
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The Decline of Behaviorism
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Cooley (1902) – The Looking-Glass Self
 Others
serve as mirrors from which we see
ourselves reflected – perspective taking
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Mead (1934) – Symbolic Interactionism
 It
is the socialization process in which the self
develops – perspective-taking
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Maslow (1954) – Self-Actualization
 There
is an inborn striving in humans for
growth, which lead to realize the potential
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Personality Theorists – The Concept of Ego
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The Study of Self in American
Psychology
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The Cognitive Revolution
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“Behavior reeks of purpose.” (Tolman,
1932, p. 12)
Whereas behaviorism emphasized the
past history of reinforcement as a
determinant of behavior, cognitivism
emphasized future planning, choice,
and expectations
 Self became a legitimate subject matter
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
Is there a Self?
Hilgard (1949) proposed that all (defense)
mechanisms imply self-reference (p. 375)
 Defense mechanisms are defenses against anxiety
– guilt feelings – self as an agent of good or bad
choices
 Defense mechanisms are self-deceptive –
bolstering self-esteem as through self-deception
 Self can be investigated in awareness introspectively
 Self can be investigated as an external object –
Inferred Self
 “… a pattern of existing habits and attitudes” (p.
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The Functions of the I
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Our awareness of ourselves is
functional in
distinguishing ourselves from others
 motivating behavior, exerting control over
environment and other people
 providing us with a sense of continuity and
unity
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Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.
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The Functions of the ME

Our thoughts about ourselves has
a cognitive function and influence the way
we perceive and process information
 a self-regulatory function and guide our
behaviors
 a motivational function and helps us to
direct our behaviors to achieve certain
ends
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