Lecture 12 - What is the self?

what were the three delphic maxims inscribed on the Temple of Apollo in Ancient Greece?

• I: Know Thy Self

• II: Nothing to Excess

• III: Surety Brings Ruin

How did William James (1890) define a basic duality of the self?

• The knower, the acting subject, the “I.” or self-awareness (the act of thinking about ourselves)

  • for example, listen to your current stream of thoughts . . .

• The known, the passive object, the “Me,” or self-concept (our knowledge of who we are)

  • for example, beliefs about your body, your name, gender, age, body characteristic, psychological traits, etc.

• what is the self-reference paradigm?

• how has it been used in research?

• what were the results of said research?

• Trait adjectives judged in one of three ways

  • Self: “does the trait describe you?”

  • Other: “does the trait describe a famous person?” (George W Bush)

  • Case: “is the trait presented in uppercase letters?”

• Research

  • Measurement: Assessing how many adjectives are recalled in all three conditions

  • Two Levels of Processing

    • Deep Encoding: ex. Self + happy OR Bush + stupid

    • Shallow Encoding: ex. Case + POLITE

• Results

  • Self > Other > Shallow

• what brain areas show the levels of processing effect?

• what brain areas show the self-referential encoding effect?

  • what does this suggest about the self-referential process itself?

• Levels of Processing Effect

  • Activation differences in left inferior prefrontal (around broca’s area)

  • No difference between Self and Other in a region associated with level of processing effect

• Self-Referential Encoding Effect

  • Significant different in Medial Prefrontal Cortex (MPFC) for “self” condition. Higher activity (no deactivation)

  • This suggests that self-referential processing is linked to a specific brain region

• what does the condition of the 76 year old patient w/ Alzheimer’s dementia tell us about the self?

  • what was he bad at, and what was he good at? what does his condition suggest about the self?

• Impaired World Knowledge:

  • Name simple objects such as batteries or pencils

  • Can’t remember simple things

  • Doesn’t know that lemon is sour

  • Can’t draw a clock to save his life

• Intact “me” (self-knowledge):

  • Asked whether certain traits describe him, and he can answer.

  • High test-retest reliability (r = .86)

  • High agreement with family member’s judgements

• Intact “I'“ (subjectivity)

  • Has likes/dislikes, preferences, choices, opinions, will, etc

Describe the two studies associated with the emergence of the self-concept.

• Gallup (1977). Mark + Mirror Studies

  • Apes (chimps, gorillas, orangs) are surprised by a change in their own appearance in the mirror

  • not monkeys and dogs

• Lewis and Brooks (1978). Rouge Test

  • How many kids touch a dot on their nose:

    • 25% of 9-12 months old

    • 75% of 21-25 months old

  • Suggests that humans develop physical self-recognition at about 2 years of age

• Describe the “who are you?” studies.

  • what do they tell us about the development of the self-concept of humans over time?

• Asked a 9 year old and 17 year old who they were

• Their answers suggests that self concept evolves from being concrete and focused on observable characteristics to being more abstract and focused on psychological characteristics

  • 9 years old: I am a boy. I have brown hair

  • 20 years old: I am a curious, friendly, pseudoliberal. I am unclassifiable”

• Describe the studies about unpredictability as an adult

• Study 1

  • Manipulation: Read about a competition or cooperation. Imagine playing a “wall street” or “community” game

  • After, participants are asked to draw a flight path of a moth

  • Results

    • “moth trajectories” are more complex in the competitive condition

• Study 2

  • Manipulation: Meet a potential “partner” or “opponent”

  • After, participants are asked to fill out the “unpredictability scale”

  • Result:

    • greater unpredictability in the competitive condition