The Self

The Self (Who You Are)

Cognitive Construction: mental representation

+

Social Construction: interactions/experiences with others

= Self

which leads to….

• Self Concept

• Self Esteem

• Identity

Self-Concept During Infancy

• ~18 months

  • Pass rouge test

  • Before 18 months kids with dots on their nose will look at themselves in mirror and will rub the mirror to get the dot off them, but kids around 18 understand they are the ones with the dot on their nose and they are the person in the mirror

• ~2 years:

  • Recognize self in pictures;

  • Label self using own name/“me”

  • Use category labels for self (“categorical self”)

Self Concept During Early Childhood

• Can describe self

• Focus on concrete, observable, stable characteristics/features

  • e.g. I have brown hair, you have 10 fingers

• Unrealistically positive sense of self concept

  • E.g. I can be Simone biles

Self Concept During Middle Childhood

• More integrated; begin to refer to global characteristics

  • E..g I’m creative, i’m not good at sports, not just I have or you have

• More realistic and balanced

• Linked to actual competencies/evaluation

  • How am I doing compared to other people

• Social comparisons

Self Concept During Adolescence

• Nuanced view of self

• Understand role of situations, context, and perspective

  • My parents see me this way, my friends see me this way

• More abstract and psychological/internal

• Begin to think about the future; possible selves

• Begin to develop coherent/integrated self

  • Stress around this

Self Concept During Adolescence Part 2

False self behaviour: intentionally presents a false impression to others

• Least likely to do this with their friends, most likely with parents
  

Personal fable: belief that one’s own experience is unique and novel

Imaginary audience: the belief that everyone else is focused on you

Influences on Self-Concept

• Cognitive Development

  • Perspective taking, abstract thinking

• Parents

  • Warmth & Support

  • Family narratives (stories)

• Peers

• Culture

  • Individualistic vs collectivist

• Neurodivergence

  • Autistic individuals → Less focus on self as seen through others; less focus on possible selves

Organization vs Abstraction Self Descriptions (European America vs Chinese)

• Private vs Collective

• Specific vs Abstract

Organization

• Private descriptors more common in euro america

• Collective descriptors more common in chinese cultures

• Public descriptors second most common across the board

• Everyone from all cultures are doing pretty similar on all of this though, but think in terms of relativity of who uses it more

Abstraction

• Chinese Culture: Specific abstraction is much more common

• European America: Specific is ALSO used more

  • BUT Abstract abstraction is used more commonly in European America than China

Self Esteem

• Starts high, decline through childhood

• Overall, seems to increase beginning in mid-adolescence

  • But lots of individual differences?

  • 10 percent of individuals has a U shape trajectory of self esteem

Influences on Self-Esteem

• Gender

  • Higher for cisgender boys than girls

  • For transgender youth –> importance of gender-affirming care

• Culture

  • Different meanings of self esteem

    • Fairly consistent small increase in self esteem across cultures

    • Even pertaining to boys to girls, even with countries with strong/weak gender roles

    • Individualistic cultures: individuals accomplishments

    • Collectivistic volutes: self esteem from community

• Race

  • Black ppl have higher self esteem then bi/multiracial, then latino, then asian american

• Approval of others –> parents. peers, teachers

• Societal standards

  • Physical attractiveness

  • Strongest predictor of your overall self esteem is how good you feel about your physical appearance, stronger for girls

Impact of Self-Esteem

• High self-esteem → better in school, better well-being

• Low self-esteem → emotional and behavioural problems
  

• Self-Esteem Movement: programs designed to boost self-esteem in order to boost
  academic performance/well-being

  • Not effective!

Identity

• A description or definition of the self; a theory of oneself

• The extent to which individuals feel secure about who they are, who they were, who they can become

Ethnic racial socialization

where children learn about the values, attitudes, behaviours, and perceptions associated with race/ethnicity

Influences on ERI (Sladek et al details)

“So, like, it’s all a mix of one”: Intersecting contexts of adolescents’ ethnic-racial socialization

• Qualitative study → focus group interviews with teenagers

• Asked about how they experienced and learned about their ethnic-racial background

Influences on ERI (Sladek et al) RESULTS

• Learning about ERI through family → in connection with community, peers, media, school

• Learning about ERI from peers in context of school, community; from media in the context of school

• Teens discussed ERI development occurring within systems of racism/oppression

  • ERI comes from these broader systems and levels

Ethnic-racial identification

How someone labels their race and/or ethnicity

• labeling and knowledge seems to develop in childhood

Ethnic racial Identity

A persons thoughts and feelings about their race and ethnicity and the process of developing those thoughts and feelings

• Questions of identity seem to be heightened in adolescence

ERI Development in Multiracial Youth?

• May be particularly challenging!

  • More likely to report ERI exploration, but less affirmation/positive ERI, less ERI centrality

  • Parents may not have experience with all aspects of a child’s ERI; may have different attitudes in socializing multiracial children

  • May experience racial/ethnic invalidation

• May be more fluid, changing over situations and time

• May gain asset of learning to be reflective about identity

• May carry assets: reflection on identity; flexible thinking?

  • Cognitive benefits

• Limited research!

ERI Development in White Youth?

• White youth tend to discuss ERI as less important to their identity, and white parents engage in less ERI socialization
  

• White youth also tend to report less positive ERI → less exploration, affirmation, centrality
  

• Researchers have raised questions about the impact of “positive” and “negative” ERI in white youth

  • need to consider other dimensions of ERI (ie, “white guilt”, racial consciousness)

• More pride about whiteness is correlated with less positive feelings towards other race

LIMITED RESEARCH

ERI Development Outside of North American Contexts?

• Social stratification exists across societies!

• Which domains distinguish access to power/resources/etc. can vary → race, migration status, language, religion, skin colour, etc.

Should ERi be taught in school?

Identity Project Curriculum

• 8 week program developed for teachers

• Shows positive results

• 1 year later = kids are doing better in self esteem, grades, less depressive symptoms

  • this applies to kids from all races

ERI Development in Context

• The ethnic-racial context we grow up in matters!

  • How homogenous/heterogenous schools and communities are…

• Outside of North American

  • Social stratification exists across societies!

  • Which domains distinguish access to power/resources/etc. can vary → race, migration status, language, religion, skin colour, etc.

Identity pt 2 Erikson

• Erikson: adolescence a crisis of identity vs role confusion

Suggests the need/concept of:

• Psychosocial moratorium: time in which individuals are free from excessive obligations and can experiment with different roles

  • Not everyone experiences this because its a privilege to be able to have the space and time to explore this

Identity Status (James Marcia)

James Marcia: need to consider both exploration (Y) and commitment (X)

• Have you tested out, tried out different ways of being to see who you are?

• Have you committed to who you are, do you have a sense of your identity/how you define yourself?

4 Different Identity States: Moratorium, diffusion, achievement, foreclosure

Often a continuous process! It is common to move between statuses multiple times

• Across the lifespan too

• A lot of movement between moratorium and identity achievement

Identity Diffusion

Most common early in Adolescence (which is ok)

If identity confusion continues later on then:

• Associated with higher levels of behavioural and emotional problems, difficulties with relationships

• More likely to report low levels of parental warmth/support

Identity Foreclosure

More common in early adolescence

• Committed on who they are, yet haven’t tested it out to see if this is who you are

• e.g. becoming a doctor, mother

Outcomes:

• Tend to show low anxiety and general life satisfaction

• Associated with higher levels of prejudice, inflexibility, need for social approval, lower sense of autonomy

• More common with controlling or overly protective parents

Identity Moratorium

Most common for 17-19 year olds

Where you are searching to find out who you are

e.g. joining clubs, changing majors

If moratorium persists later in life:

• Can be associated with high levels of anxiety, conflict with authority

• Correlates may depend on the length of exploration, and amount of rumination about exploration

Identity Achievement

More common in young adulthood

“Ive taken these courses and classes and know what I want to do”

Outcomes:

• Associated with high achievement, maturity, intimacy

• Agency → a sense of control and responsibility for one’s own actions
  

Ethnic-Racial Identity Process

Unexamined ethnic identity: Starts as what does it mean to be this race?

Exploration: Then we begin to think about learning about our heritage and talking with others of a similar heritage

• Realization of “difference”

• Testing things out

Resolution: integrated into our sense of self

Ethnic-Racial Identity Context

Affirmation (private regard): how good/bad a person feels about being part of their ethnic/racial group

• Tends to be a protective factor
  

Public regard: how positively a person believes other people view their ethnic/racial group

Centrality: how important a person’s ethnic/racial group is to their identity

• High centrality may make you more vulnerable to facing stereotypes and discrimination
  

Salience: how important a person feels their ethnic/racial group is to a particular situation

Bottom 3: Affirmation may depend on other aspects of ERI, like if you have a high public regard and centrality and salient

Berry’s Model of Acculturation; Galan’s Multidimensional Model (Ethnic Racial Identity)

minority youth and their indemnity with the majority culture

• assimilation

• marginalized

• bicultural (integration)

  • associated with positive outcomes, but not always

• separated

  • For some, may be more ideal

  • Especially for indigenous youth because dominant Canadian culture tries to erase your culture/heritage

In adolescents and young adults, positive ERI tends to be associated with….

• Lower levels of depressive symptoms

• Higher self-esteem

• Positive academic outcomes

• Protection in the face of discrimination

Discrimination is pervasive for youth from ethnic-racial minorities/marginalized groups

• Linked to less ideal adjustment –> mental health, academic, social, etc.

  • Discrimination —> Maladjustment

• BUT, a strong ERI may be protective

  • Discrimination -/→ Maladjustment

    • ERI in the middle, blocking the two

Influences on ERI/ Developing a positive ERI

• Ethnic racial socialization: where children learn about the values, attitudes, behaviours, and perceptions associated with race/ethnicity

  • Much more common in marginalized groups

    • The “talk” in black families with their kids about police

  • Common themes:

    • Understanding/valuing ones’ culture

    • Dealing with racism

    • Succeeding in mainstream society