PSYC 2130: The self

Me

observed the described epistemological the self you know (knowledge)

I

observing and describing (ontological=the self you experience)

Contents and purpose: robins proposed the self has four jobs

1. Self-regulation

2. Information processing

3. Relation to others:

4. Identity: to form an identity, to formulate a sense of self

Declarative self

consists of facts and impressions

• Self-esteem is very important regarding this: profound impact on one’s overall wellbeing as well as a number of important outcomes

  • Mental health

  • Relationship satisfaction

  • Delinquency 

Inflated sense of self is not good

Going what your good at and what you are accomplished is more healthy, instead of fixating on objective goals 

Promoting self-esteem isn't done by just changing beliefs

Must increase legitimately: through accomplishments that are specific to the self (getting out and getting dressed when you are depressed)

Self-esteem often exists outside the self

Social influences such as Social media and body standards

Self-schema

Includes all of one’s ideas about the self, organized into a coherent system. 

• Memory of the self: How necessary is it to our self-concept?.

  • Case studies: College student who lost a year of her memory in college, was able to still account for her experience and sense of self and elderly patient

  • Elderly patient could describe their sense of self

Self influencing memory

grounding material and knowledge to the self, to memorize 

Declarative self: self-discrepancy theory

There are two kinds of desired selves: the difference between them and your actual self determines how you feel

Ideal self: who you are at your best: grounded in goals for instance such as being a professor 

The ought self: who you ought to be, related to obligation as a human such as kindness

Failure to attain the ideal

Results in Depression. My ideal version of myself, i did not accomplish

Failure to attain the ought

Results in anxiety. I am not good at my job, I ought to be better, resulting in anxiety

The procedural self:

Procedural knowledge has to do with knowing how - it is not conscious and it is not easy to explain like knowing how to ride a bike

Relational self-schema

based on past experiences that direct how we relate to important people in our lives. Patterns replicating to adulthood like helicopter parents

Procedural self

implicit selves which work unconsciously and powerfully like the IAT test (bias)

Changing the procedural self

Cannot be done through knowledge, just knowing things does not change what you do. Only achieved via feedback through our automatic feedback system. For instance, when you’re upset, you yell. You receive feedback to not yell repeatedly

Narrative self

the story we tell about ourselves. Whether or not you tell the story explicitly, your narrative identity is implicitly there serving as a guide to make a sense of your life 

The idea of many selves

• Working self-concepts: Different environments and people bring out different selves

• Consequence of Authenticity (being real) vs inauthenticity (being fake)

• Too much self-concept differentiation has poor psychological outcomes

Rejection of the ideas of many selves

• Most personality psychologists reject multiple selves

• Once one starts fractionating the self, where does one stop?

  • For instance, an athletic self being divided to sport, and keep going reductional dividing