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Lesson Proper for Week 7

COL001-7- The Self as Cognitive Construct

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16:19

The Cognitive Self: The Self-Concept

Several nonhuman animals, including chimpanzees, orangutans, and dolphins, have
at least a primitive sense of self (Boysen & Himes, 1999). We know this information
because of several experiments that have been done with animals. In one study (Gallup,
1970), researchers painted a red dot on the forehead of anesthetized chimpanzees and
then placed the animals in a cage with a mirror. When the chimps woke up and looked in
the mirror, they touched the dot on their faces and not the dot on the faces in the mirror.
This action suggests that the chimps understood that they were looking at themselves
and not at other animals. Thus, we can assume that they can realize that they exist as
individuals. Most other animals, including dogs, cats, and monkeys, never realize that it is
they are looking at themselves in the mirror.
Infants who have similar red dots painted on their foreheads recognize themselves in
a mirror in the same way that chimps do, and they do this by approximately 18 months of
age (Asendorpf, Warkentin, & Baudonnière, 1996; Povinelli, Landau, & Perilloux, 1996).
The child’s knowledge about the self continues to develop as the child grows. By two
years of age, the infant becomes aware of his or her gender as a boy or a girl. At four
years old, the child’s self-descriptions are likely to be based on physical features, such as
hair color. By approximately the age of six, the child can understand basic emotions and
the concepts of traits and can make statements such as “I am a nice person” (Harter,
1998).
By the time children are in grade school, they have learned that they are unique
individuals, and they can think about and analyze their behavior. They also begin to show
awareness of the social situation, that is, they understand that other people are looking
at and judging them in the same way that they are looking at and judging others
(Doherty, 2009).
You: Through Other’s Eyes
How do you think others see you? “I am who I am.” The self can be defined in various
ways.
According to William James, who was one of the earliest psychologists to study the
self, the “I” is the thinking, acting, and feeling self; meanwhile, the “Me” is the physical
characteristics and psychological capabilities that makes who you are. Likewise, Carl
Rogers and his theory of personality used the same terms, with “I” as the one who acts
and decides, and “Me” as what you think or feel about yourself as an object.
Two types of self that we can be aware of according to Carver and Scheier:
1. the private self or your internal standards and private thoughts and feelings
2. the public self or your public image that is commonly geared toward having a good
presentation of yourself to others
Symbolic Interactionalism Theory
Theories generally see the self and identity as mental constructs, that is, created
and recreated in memory. Current studies point to the frontal lobe of the brain as the
specific area in the brain that is associated with processes concerning the self (Elmore,
Oyserman, and Smith 2017, 75).
Under the theory of symbolic interactionism, the following three reasons explain why
self and identity are social products (Elmore, Oyserman, and Smitch 2012, 76):
1. we do not create ourselves out of anything;
2. whether we like to admit it or not, we need others to affirm and reinforce whom we
think we are; and
3. what we value as important to us may also have been influenced by what is important
in our social or historical context.

The Self-Concept
Although each person has a unique self-concept, we can identify several
characteristics that are common across the responses given by different people on the
measure.
 Physical characteristics are important components of the self-concept, and they are
mentioned by many people when they describe themselves. If you have been concerned
lately that you have been gaining weight, then you might write, “I am overweight.” If you
think you are particularly good looking (“I am attractive”) or if you think you are short (“I
am short”), then those things might have been reflected in your responses. Our physical
characteristics are important to our self-concept because we realize that other people
use them to judge us. People often list the physical characteristics that make them
different from others in either positive or negative ways (e.g., “I am blond” and “I am
short”) in part because they understand that these characteristics are salient and are
likely to be used by others when judging them (McGuire, McGuire, Child, & Fujioka, 1978).
A second aspect of the self-concept that is related to personal characteristics is
made up of personality traits, that is, the specific and stable personality characteristics
that describe an individual (e.g., “I am friendly,” “I am shy,” and “I am persistent”). These
individual differences are important determinants of behavior, and this aspect of the self-
concept varies among people.
The remainder of the self-concept reflects its external social components, such as
memberships in the social groups that we belong to and care about. Common responses
for this component may include “I am an artist,” “I am Jewish,” and “I am a mother, sister,
and daughter.” Group memberships form an important part of the self-concept because
they provide us with our social identity, that is, the sense of our self that involves our
memberships in social groups.
Cultural differences in self-concept have even been found in people’s self-
descriptions on social networking sites. DeAndrea, Shaw, and Levine (2010) examined
individuals’ free-text self-descriptions in the About Me section in their Facebook profiles.
Consistent with the researchers’ hypotheses and previous research using the TST,
African American participants had the most independently (internally) described self-
concepts, and Asian Americans had the most interdependent (external) self-descriptions,
with European Americans in the middle.
The Difference between Self-Complexity and Self-Concept
Self-concept is a knowledge representation that contains knowledge about us,
including our beliefs about our personality traits, physical characteristics, abilities, values,
goals, and roles, as well as the knowledge that we exist as individuals.
Self-schema refers to a long-lasting and stable set of memories that summarize a
person’s beliefs, experiences, and generalizations about the self in specific behavioral
domains. A person may have a self-schema based on any aspect of himself or herself as
a person, including physical characteristics, personality traits, and interests as long as
they consider the aspect of their self-importance to their self-definition. (Wikipedia)
One way to learn about a person’s self-concept and the many self-schemas that it
contains is by using self-report measures. One of these is a deceptively simple fill-in-the-
blank measure that has been used by many scientists to get a picture of the self-concept
(Rees & Nicholson, 1994).

I am (please fill in the blank) __________________________________

 I am (please fill in the blank) __________________________________
I am (please fill in the blank) __________________________________
I am (please fill in the blank) __________________________________
I am (please fill in the blank) __________________________________
Self-complexity is the extent to which individuals have many different and relatively
independent ways of thinking about themselves. Some selves are more complex than
others, and these individual differences can be important in determining psychological
outcomes. Having a complex self means that we have different ways of thinking about
ourselves.
As we have seen, the self-concept is a rich and complex social representation of
who we are, encompassing both our internal characteristics and our social roles. In
addition to our thoughts about who we are right now, the self-concept also includes
thoughts about our past self— our experiences, accomplishments, and failures; and
about our future self— our hopes, plans, goals, and possibilities. (Oyserman, Bybee,
Terry, & Hart-Johnson, 2004)
The multidimensional nature of our self-concept means that we need to consider
each component in isolation and their interactions with each other and their overall
structure. Two particularly important structural aspects of our self-concept are
complexity and clarity. Although every human has a complex self-concept, individual
differences exist in self-complexity. Some selves are more complex than others, and
these individual differences can be important in determining psychological outcomes.
For example, imagine a woman whose self-concept contains the social identities of a
student, girlfriend, daughter, psychology student, and tennis player and who has
encountered a wide variety of life experiences. Social psychologists would say that she
has high self-complexity. Meanwhile, a man who perceives himself primarily as either a
student or as a member of the soccer team and who has had a relatively narrow range of
life experiences would be said to have low self-complexity. For those with high self-
complexity, various aspects of the self are separate because the positive and negative
thoughts about a particular self-aspect do not spill over into thoughts about other
aspects.
As we may differ in the complexity of our self-concept, we may also differ in its
clarity. Self-concept clarity is the extent to which one’s self-concept is clearly and
consistently defined (Campbell, 1990). Theoretically, the concepts of complexity and
clarity are independent of each other; a person can have either a more or less complex
self-concept that is either well-defined and consistent or ill-defined and inconsistent.
However, in reality, they each have similar relationships to many indices of well-being.

Self-Awareness
Self-awareness is having a clear perception of your personality, including strengths,
weaknesses, thoughts, beliefs, motivation, and emotions. It allows you to understand
other people, how they perceive you, your attitude, and your responses to them at the
moment. Similar to any other schema, the self-concept can vary in its current cognitive
accessibility. Self-awareness refers to the extent to which we are currently fixing our
attention on our self-concept. When our self-concept becomes highly accessible
because we are concerned about being observed and potentially judged by others, we
experience the publicly induced self-awareness known as self-consciousness (Duval &
Wicklund, 1972; Rochat, 2009).
Not all aspects of our self-concept are equally accessible at all times, and these
long-term differences in the accessibility of different self-schemas help create individual
differences in terms of, for instance, our current concerns and interests. You may know
several people for whom the physical appearance component of the self-concept is
highly accessible. They check their hair every time they see a mirror, worry whether their
clothes are making them look good, and do a lot of shopping for themselves. Other
people are more focused on their social group memberships; for example, they tend to
think about things in terms of their role as Muslims or Christians or as members of the
local tennis or soccer team.
Deindividuation refers to the loss of individual self-awareness and individual
accountability in groups (Festinger, Pepitone, & Newcomb, 1952; Zimbardo, 1969) and
becomes more attuned to themselves as group members and to the specific social norms
of the particular situation (Reicher & Stott, 2011).
Two Kinds of Self-Awareness
1. Conceptual self-awareness – what we think about ourselves, which may include
judgments, evaluations, logical conclusions, and things that are easy to put words to.
2. Embodied self-awareness – includes registering various types of inner states.
Interoception allows us to know if we are tired or hungry, excited or in pain, and so forth.
Body schema is our awareness of different body parts and their relationship with each
other and to the environment; it lets us be aware of our movements and coordination.
Embodied self-awareness also lets us know our responses and reactions to internal and
external events, such as our emotions, our impulses, our needs, and wants. Occasionally,
when we tune in to what we are experiencing inside, it is hard to come up with words.
To illustrate the difference between these two types of awareness, refer to the
following example:
First, think about your arm. For me, when I think about my arm, I notice that it is
small, it is hairy, and the flab in my upper arm jiggles slightly. I notice that I am critical of
my arm. The next directive is to feel your arm. When I switch to this mode, I almost well
up in tears: my arms are connected to my heart, and I desire to hold people—the world—
in my embrace. What wonderful arms!

The Benefits of Self-Awareness

Self-awareness can keep you from doing something dangerous. It can be too much
that we are concerned about being observed and criticized by others (self-
consciousness). For example, in a large crowd, you experience deindividuation, the loss
of self-awareness in groups, although this is a matter of contention (resistance).
Therefore, group identity and self-awareness have a considerable impact on our self-
esteem. One way that affects our self-esteem is through social comparison.
 Social comparison theory tells us that we learn about ourselves, the appropriateness
of our behaviors, and our social status by comparing aspects of ourselves with other
people.
Two Major Types of Social Comparison
1. Downward Social Comparison – comparing ourselves with others worse off than us to
create a positive self-concept and raise self-esteem.
2. Upward Social Comparison – comparing ourselves with those who are better off than
us.
While it may be a form of motivation for some, many people feel low self-esteem as
they highlight more of their weaknesses or inequities. Social comparison entails self-
evaluation maintenance theory.
Self-evaluation maintenance states that we can feel threatened when someone
outperforms us; thus, we react in the following three ways:
we distance ourselves from that person or redefine our relationship with them
we reconsider the importance of the aspect or skill in which we were outperformed
we strengthen our resolve to improve certain aspects of ourselves
However, to increase or maintain self-esteem, several people become narcissistic.
Narcissism is a trait that is characterized by overly high self-esteem, self-admiration, and
self-centeredness.
The Benefits of Self-Knowledge
"To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom." – Socrates
1. Happiness. You will be happier when you can express who you are. Moreover,
expressing your desires will increase the possibility that you will get what you want.
2. Better decision-making. When you know yourself, you can make better choices
about everything, from small decisions, such as which sweater you will buy, to huge
decisions, such as which partner you will spend your life with. You will have
guidelines you can apply to solve life’s varied problems.
3. Self-control. When you know yourself, you understand what motivates you to resist
bad habits and develop good ones. You will have the insight to know which values
and goals activate your willpower.
4. Resistance to social pressure. When you are grounded in your values and
preferences, you are less likely to say “yes” when you want to say “no.”
5. Tolerance and understanding of others. Your awareness of your weaknesses and
struggles can help you empathize with others.
6. Vitality and pleasure. Being who you truly are help you feel more alive and makes
your experience of life richer, larger, and more exciting.

Building Blocks of Self: Your VITALS

V = Values. Values are guides to decision-making and motivators for goals, such as
“helping others,” “being creative,” “health,” “financial security,” and so on.
I = Interests. It includes your passions, hobbies, and anything that draws your attention
over a sustained period. To determine your interests, ask yourself the following
questions: What do you pay attention to? What are you curious about? What concerns
you? The focused mental state of being interested in something makes life vivid and may
give you clues to your deepest passions.
T = Temperament. It describes your inborn preferences. Do you restore your energy from
being alone (introvert) or from being with people (extrovert)? Are you a planner or go-
with-the-flow type of person? Do you make decisions more based on feelings or
thoughts and facts? Do you prefer details or huge ideas? Knowing the answers to
temperament questions can help you gravitate toward situations in which you can
flourish and avoid situations in which you can wilt.
A = Around-the-Clock Activities. This refers to when you like to do things, that is, your
biorhythm. Are you a morning person or a night person? At what time of day does your
energy peak? If you schedule activities when you are at your best, then you are
respecting your innate biology.
L = Life Mission and Meaningful Goals. Ask yourself the question: “what have been the
most meaningful events of your life?” You may discover clues to your hidden identity, to
your career, and life satisfaction.
S = Strengths. It includes abilities; skills; talents; and character strengths, such as loyalty,
respect for others, love of learning, emotional intelligence, and fairness. Knowing your
strengths is one of the foundations of self-confidence; not being able to acknowledge
your superpowers can lower your self-esteem.
Reflection on the Self as Proactive and Agentic
According to Albert Bandura, agency is perceived as proactive agents of
experiences. It is the endowments, belief systems, self-regulatory capabilities, and
distributed structures and functions through which personal influence is exercised, rather
than reside as a discrete entity.
Main features of human agency:
Intentionality. It refers to the acts done intentionally. For example, I saw an old woman
who will cross the street; unfortunately, she cannot walk fast. What I did was to help
her, and my only intention is to cross her safe.
Forethought. It enables the person to anticipate the likely consequences of prospective
actions. For example, I will clean my room not only to make it clean and comfortable but
rather to have a good ambiance for me to study. I am thinking of a good consequence
that should I do.
Self-reactiveness. It involves making choices and choosing appropriate courses of
action, as well as motivating and regulating them. For example, I chose this course.
Thus, I must do my obligations to study, pass, and learn from my subjects. I must be
reactive toward the things and circumstances that may happen.
Self-reflectiveness. It gives the person the ability to reflect upon and the adequacy of
his or her thoughts and actions. For example, I did not study our lesson in Calculus, and
I got a failing grade. Essentially, I will reflect on what happened, and the best thing to
do is to do better and never let your professor or a certain subject bring you down.

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