Notes on The Self: "Me" and "I"
The Self: Understanding "Me" and "I"
William James's View of the Self (1890)
Personality Definition: Implies the continuous presence of two fundamental elements:
An objective person, which is known by a passing subjective Thought and is recognized as persisting over time.
Hereafter, these elements are referred to as "Me" and "I".
"Me": Represents the empirical person.
"I": Represents the judging Thought.
The "Me" Component: Self as Object
Content of the Self: This refers to the objective aspects of who you are.
Qualities: What qualities you believe you possess.
Memories and Narratives: The stories and experiences you have about yourself.
Imagined Future Selves: The person you envision yourself becoming (or not becoming).
Self-Evaluations: Your assessment of your own qualities and worth.
Self-Concept
Definition: A person's entire body of knowledge about themselves, encompassing traits, social identities, and personal experiences.
Key Components of Self-Concept (Who are you?):
Self-Schema: Organized mental structures that summarize information about the self.
Roles: The various social positions and identities a person holds (e.g., gender roles).
Traits: Enduring personal characteristics, as outlined by theories like George Kelly's theory of personal constructs (an early cognitive personality theory).
Self-Complexity: The degree to which one's self-schema is differentiated and compartmentalized.
Narrative: The coherent story one constructs about their life experiences.
Self-Schema Details
Conceptual Link: Fundamentally similar to the concept of "schemas" in social cognition (e.g., "hippies" schema encompassing anti-war, flowers, drugs, Woodstock, free love).
Content: Includes various aspects of identity:
Roles
Gender
Ethnicity
Traits (e.g., creative, patient)
Behaviors
Processing Efficiency: Individuals tend to:
React faster to information that is relevant to their self-schema.
Have better memory for information consistent with their self-schema.
May use their self-schema-relevant attributes to interpret the actions of others (e.g., quickly inferring a new officemate lacks creativity if creativity is a strong self-schema element).
Self-Schema Complexity
Low Complexity: Occurs when there is significant overlap among traits across different roles, or when a person has few distinct roles.
Consequence: Failure or negative experiences in one role can have a widespread impact, affecting perceived failure in other roles or overall self-worth (e.g., if roles like "Mom," "Kindergarten Teacher," and "Caregiver for elderly parent" share many similar traits).
High Complexity: Characterized by less overlap among roles or a greater number of distinct roles.
Benefit: Increased complexity can serve as a protective mechanism for the self, buffering the impact of failure in one domain (e.g., if roles like "Mom," "Math Professor," "Caregiver for elderly parent," and "Mountain biker" are distinct).
How We Acquire Knowledge About the "Me"
Reflected Appraisals:
Definition: Our beliefs about how others view us.
Contemporary Research: Often referred to as "meta-perceptions" (perceptions of others' perceptions).
Bias: Our own self-views typically guide and bias our meta-perceptions.
Overestimation: We may overestimate how much others use information that is exclusive to us.
Influencing Factors: Meta-perceptions can be:
Undercut by a strong motivation for accuracy.
Exacerbated by directional motivations (e.g., desire to be seen a certain way).
Default Assumption: Generally, we assume others see us as we see ourselves.
Challenges: This assumption can be challenged by others' behaviors or specific situational factors.
Kaplan et al. (2009) Study: Investigated meta-perceptions.
Methodology: Participants' self-esteem was measured. They interacted with a confederate/interviewer asking disclosing questions. Participants were then randomly assigned to either a boring solo task or a condition where the interviewer selected a fun task for them.
Key Condition: In the fun task condition, the interviewer held power over the participant's outcomes.
Finding: Meta-perceptions involved deliberate, conscious effort, especially when outcomes were dependent on the interviewer's choice. The graph illustrates that in the outcome-dependent condition, the relationship between self-esteem and metaperception ratings was stronger. Specifically, individuals with low self-esteem reported lower meta-perceptions, while those with high self-esteem reported higher meta-perceptions, suggesting that when others have power, our beliefs about their perceptions of us become more aligned with our actual self-esteem.
Social Comparison:
Definition: The process of evaluating one's abilities, opinions, and traits by comparing them to others.
Direction: Can be upward (comparing to someone better) or downward (comparing to someone worse).
Application: Particularly used for dimensions that lack objective metrics (e.g., competence, popularity).
Example: The movie "The Devil Wears Prada" can illustrate downward social comparison.
Social Media Impact: Frequent social media use often leads to comparing one's life to others, potentially affecting self-esteem.
Vogel et al. (2014) Study: Social Comparison, Social Media, Self-Esteem:
Frequency of Facebook Use was negatively correlated with Self-esteem ().
Social comparison mediated this relationship:
Frequency of Facebook Use was positively correlated with Upward Social Comparison () and Downward Social Comparison ().
Upward Social Comparison was negatively correlated with Self-esteem ().
Downward Social Comparison was not significantly correlated with Self-esteem (). (Note: While is presented, its lack of statistical significance markers often implies it's not a strong or reliable effect in this context, or it became non-significant after controlling for other variables.)
When upward and downward social comparisons were included as mediators, the direct effect of Frequency of Facebook Use on Self-esteem was reduced and became non-significant ( n.s.), indicating that social comparison processes (particularly upward comparison) explain why Facebook use is associated with lower self-esteem.
The "I" Component: Executive Function
Role: This is the subjective, active aspect of the self that:
Thinks and plans.
Executes goals.
Observes and monitors the content of the "Me" (the objective self).
Key Functions of the "I":
Goals and Possible Selves:
Involves comparing the current self with various future selves.
Positive and achievable future selves can serve as significant motivators for personal growth (as discussed on page 207 of a theoretical text).
Ideal Self: The person you aspire or hope to be.
Ought Self: The person you feel you should be, often driven by duties, obligations, or others' expectations.
Self-Regulation and Self-Monitoring: The ability to control thoughts, emotions, and behaviors to achieve goals or conform to standards.
Maintaining Self-Consistency: Striving to align one's beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors to maintain a coherent sense of self.
The Will and Limited Resource: The idea that self-control (willpower) is a finite resource that can be depleted.
Ironic Processes in Attention: The phenomenon where trying not to think about something makes you think about it more.
I-Sharing: The subjective experience of feeling that one shares the same subjective experience or internal state with another person.
Self-Discrepancy Theory / Regulatory Focus Theory
Core Idea: discrepancies between one's actual self and one's ideal or ought selves lead to specific emotional and motivational states.
Ideal Self (Promotional Focus):
Goals: Represents who you hope to be, your aspirations and wishes.
Emotions for Discrepancy: Sadness, disappointment, frustration (when not meeting ideal).
Emotions for Congruence: Happiness, joy (when meeting ideal).
Motivation: Primarily focused on achieving positive gains and accomplishments ("approach-focused" motivation).
Application: Applies to diverse areas such as health, learning, and work, and is associated with chronic individual differences in regulatory styles.
Ought Self (Prevention Focus):
Goals: Represents who you feel you should be, your duties, obligations, and responsibilities.
Emotions for Discrepancy: Guilt, anxiety, fear (when not meeting ought).
Emotions for Congruence: Pride, relief (when meeting ought).
Motivation: Primarily focused on minimizing negative outcomes, avoiding losses, and fulfilling obligations ("avoidance-focused" motivation).
Application: Also applies broadly to health, learning, and work, and reflects chronic individual differences in regulatory styles.
Self-Regulation Mechanism: Regulating the self effectively depends on:
Awareness of one's self (both actual and imagined).
Clear goals.
The capacity for mental "time travel" (thinking about past and future selves).