SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

THE SELF : LEARNING ABOUT THE

SELF
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The Nature of the Self
Who are you?

How did you come to be this person you call
myself?

The self is composed of our thoughts and beliefs
about ourselves, or, more simply, the me.

The self-concept is the sum total of a persons
beliefs about their own personal attributes.

The act of thinking ourselves is self-awareness.


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The Nature of Self
We are not only species with a sense of self.
Some animals also have self-concept.

Ex : The Mirror and the Dolphins &
Chimpanzees
They realize that the image in the
mirror is themselves and not another
animal.

When someone alters their
appearance, they recognize that they
look different from how they looked
before.
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Self-Concept
As we grow older self-concept becomes more
complex.

Typically, a childs self-concept is concrete,
easily observable characteristics like age
,gender, neighborhood, and hobbies.

As we mature, we place less emphasis on
physical characteristics and more on
psychological states

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The Working Self-Concept
Prominent and notable aspects of the self-
concept in a particular situation.

In a classroom Academic self
In a party Social self
In school life Not requires so much
authoritative manner
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Self Image-what you see in yourself
This does not necessarily
have to reflect reality. Indeed
a person with anorexia who is
thin may have a self image in
which the person believes
they are fat.
A person's self image is
affected by many factors,
such as parental influences,
friends, the media etc

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Self Image-what you see in
yourself
1) Physical Description: Im tall, have blue eyes...etc.

2) Social Roles: Such roles as student, housewife, or
member of the football team

3) Personal Traits: These are a third dimension of our
self-descriptions. Im impulsive...Im generous...I tend
to worry a lot...etc.

4) Existential Statements (abstract ones): These can
range from "Im a child of the universe" to "Im a
human being" to "Im a spiritual being"...etc.


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Self-Complexity
One college school girl may think herself as a
student.

Other college girl may think as a student,a
daughter,a girlfriend
Other one may think as a both student and a
part time employee,and a member of X
team/club.
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Functions of the Self

Researchers have found that the self serves both:
An organizational function :We use self-
schemas to orgizanize our knowledge about
ourselves.

An executive function: We regulate our
behaviour,choices in optimal way.



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Self-Schema
Many beliefs people have about themselves
Self
Occupation
Stubborn
Uncle
Family
Friend
Significant
Other
Short
Cautious
Religion/
Values
Self-Concept
The sum total of a persons thoughts and feelings defining
the self as an object
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Self-Schemas aspects of self-
knowledge
You might refuse to take money from others
You might do your own laundry and do not
want help from your roommate
The schema help you to identify the situations
in a relevant condition.
If you are independent person,you do not
depent on or behave according to other
peoples thoughts.
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Possible Selves
Possible selves are
goal or roles which
we aspire that is not
self-descriptive now
but may become
so.
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Actual Self & Ideal Self

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Self-Discrepancy
When we perceive a discrepancy between
what we ideally like to be (ideal self) and what
we are (actual self),we become dissappointed
and sad. It also reduce our self-esteem.

Ex : Wanting to be editor in
school magazine but fail
to attain to that position
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Where Does Self-knowledge
Come From?
Socialization : During the childhood we are
treated in particiular ways by parents,teachers
and friends.We partcipate in religious or cultural
activities

Reflected Appraisal: Our percetion
of how other people react to us.
It is our self-evaluation based on
others perceptions of us.



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Where Does Self-knowledge
Come From?
Feedback from Others : Sometimes people give
us explicit feedback about our qualties.This
process often begins in socialization,when our
parents tell us not to be shy,that math is not our
good point or that we are good readers.

Later feedback from our peers become more
important.
Froom peerspopularity.From Teachers
good academic ability

People prefer objective feedback
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Where Does Self-knowledge
Come From?
Self-Perception: People also infer their personal
qualities from observing their own behaviour.

Environmental Distinctiveness : In a reserach,when
students were askes Tell about yourselves,they tend
to talk about their distinctive aspects. Also a
woman in men group,an African American women in
relatively few African American people.

Social Identity : Part of an individuals self concept
that derives from his or her membership in a social
group (For ex: TEGV).
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Comparative Self-Assessments : We
evaluate ourselves through comparing our
abilitites,opinions,emotions with others.

This is social comparison.

Where Does Self-knowledge
Come From?
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Social Comparison-Knowing Ourselves by
Comparing Ourselves to Others

If you donate $50 to charity and find out your
friend Sue donates $10, you can feel generous.
If you find out Sue donated $100, you might not
feel like youve been generous.

Social Comparison Theory
The idea that we learn about our own
abilities and attitudes by comparing
ourselves to other people.
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Self-Efficacy
Sense of capability to master challenges and
achieve goals
An individuals estimate of his ability to cope
with a situation

Ex : A smoker will not stop smoking unless she
believes she can do it
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Self-Awareness
How often do we think about ourselves?






We become objective,judgemental observers
of ourselves.
Self-Awareness Theory
The idea that when people focus their
attention on themselves, they evaluate
and compare their behavior to their
internal standards and values.
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For example,
You believe it is important to be honest.
One day,while chatting with a friend,you tell a lie.
You catch sight of your freind staring at you

In this situation,you might stop being self-aware
by avoiding your friends stare.

Self-awareness will be pleasant when we meet or
exceed our standards
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Charles Cooley (1902) described the looking
glass self, by which he meant that we see
ourselves and the social world through the
eyes of other people and often adopt those
views.


Looking-glass self: a self concept based on
what you
believe others think of you

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The looking-glass self is a 3 step process
that constantly takes place :
1. We imagine how we appear to others
(our perception of how others see us)
2. We imagine the reaction of others to our
(imagined) appearance
3. We evaluate ourselves according to how we
imagine others have judged us
This process is not a conscious process and
the stages can occur quickly. The results can
be positive or negative self-evaluation


Looking-glass Self
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A Distorted Glass?
Because the looking glass comes from
our imagination, it can be distorted
The mirror may not accurately reflect others
opinion of us
Unfortunately, regardless of whether or not we are
correct or incorrect about their perception the
consequences are just as real as if it were
I dont think they liked me; therefore they dont
like me

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Significant Others
Significant Others: People whose judgments
are most important to our self-concept
Depending on your age your significant others
can change
Children: parents, grandparents, siblings
Teenagers: peers
Adults: spouses, parents, friends, and employers

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Do YOU dress/ get ready for yourself or for
how others see you?

Who are YOUR most important significant
others?


No one can make you feel inferior without
your consent Eleanor Roosevelt
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Cultural Differences in Defining the
Self
In many Western cultures, people have an
independent view of the self.






Independent View of the Self
A way of defining oneself in terms of ones own
internal thoughts, feelings, and actions and not
in terms of the thoughts, feelings, and actions of
other people.
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Interdependent View Of The Self
In contrast, many Asian and other non-
Western cultures have an interdependent
view of the self.
Interdependent View of the Self
A way of defining oneself in terms of ones
relationships to other people; recognizing that
ones behavior is often determined by the
thoughts, feelings, and actions of others.
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Self -Esteem
Self-Esteem is the evolution we make
ourselves.That is we are concerned not only what
we are but how we value ourselves.

Self esteem always involves a degree of
evaluation and we may have either a positive or a
negative view of ourselves.

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High & Low Self-Esteem
HIGH SELF ESTEEM i.e. we have a positive
view of ourselves. This tends to lead to
Confidence in our own abilities
Self acceptance
Not worrying about what others think
Optimism

LOW SELF ESTEEM i.e. we have a negative
view of ourselves. This tends to lead to
Lack of confidence
Want to be/look like someone else
Always worrying what others might think
Pessimism

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Self-Esteem
People with high self-esteem have a clear
sense of what their personal qualities are.

They think well of themselves, set
appropriate goals, savor their positive
experiences and cope succesfully with
difficult situations.

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People with low esteem
have less clear self-conceptions,
think poorly of themselves,
often select unrealistic goals,
tend to be pessimistic about the future,
remember the past more negatively,
have more adverse reactions to criticism,
more vulnerable to depression and stress.
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Argyle (2008) believe there are 4 major
factors that influence Self-Esteems
1) THE REACTION OF OTHERS. If people admire
us, flatter us, seek out our company, listen
attentively and agree with us we tend to develop a
positive self-image. If they avoid us, neglect us,
tell us things about ourselves that we dont want
to hear we develop a negative self-image.

2) COMPARISON WITH OTHERS. If the people we
compare ourselves with (our reference group)
appear to be more successful, happier, richer,
better looking than ourselves we tend to develop a
negative self image BUT if they are less
successful than us our image will be positive.


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3) SOCIAL ROLES. Some social roles carry
prestige e.g. doctor, airline pilot, TV. presenter,
premiership footballer and this promotes self-
esteem. Other roles carry stigma. E.g. prisoner,
mental hospital patient, refuse collector or
unemployed person.

4) IDENTIFICATION. Roles arent just out there.
They also become part of our personality i.e. we
identity with the positions we occupy, the roles we
play and the groups we belong to.

Argyle (2008) believe there are 4 major
factors that influence Self-Esteems
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Social Comparison & Self Esteem
Real Example :
Morse and Gergen (1970) showed that our self
esteem may change rapidly.

Subjects were waiting for a job interview in a
waiting room. They were sat with another in one
of two conditions:

A) Mr Clean - dressed in smart suit, carrying a
briefcase opened to reveal a slide rule and books.
B) Mr Dirty - dressed in an old T-shirt and jeans,
slouched over a cheap novel.
Self-esteem of subjects with Mr Dirty increased
whilst those with Mr Clean decreased!
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Self-Esteem Scale
1. I feel that I have number of good qualities.
2. I feel I do not have much to be proud of.
3. At times I think Iam no good at all.
4. I feel I am a person of worth, at least on an
equal basis with others.
5. All in all,I feel that I am a falilure.
6. On the whole,Im satisfied with my self.

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Self-Enhancement
The tendency to focus on and present
positive information about oneself and to
minimize negative information .

Positive Illisons :
People see themselves more positively than it is.
If one wins a match,it is our own ability,but if one
loses,it is a bad day or there is a poor team
condition (!).

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What is the difference between
Self-Esteem and Self-Enhancement ?
Self-enhancement is a type of motivation that works
to make people feel good about themselves and to
maintain self-esteem.

This motive becomes especially prominent in
situations of threat, failure or blows to one's self-
esteem.

There are a variety of strategies that people can use
to enhance their sense of personal worth. For
example, they can downplay skills that they lack or
they can criticise others to seem better by
comparison. These strategies are successful, in that
people tend to think of themselves as having more
positive qualities and fewer negative qualities than
others
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Downward Social Comparison is a
Self-Enhancing Strategy
If we want to know the
top level to which we
can aspire, we
engage in upward
social comparison:
comparing ourselves
to people who are
better than we are
on a particular ability.
Youll feel better about
yourself if you
engage in
downward social
comparison:
comparing yourself
to people who are
worse than you on a
particular trait or
ability.
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Self-Presentation
Delibearte (planned) efforts to act in ways that
creates a particiular impression of that self.
To obtain a desired outcome
Self-presentational activites can become
automotic. For ex.one may represnt himself as
fun loving boy that doesnt take work seriously.
Especially in job interviews

Ineffective Self Presentation
Embrassement !
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Self-Handicapping
Self-handicapping is engaging in actions that
provide obstacles to success, so that failure can
later be attributed to those obstacles.

It is the process by which people avoid effort in
the hopes of keeping potential failure from hurting
self-esteem.

Self-handicapping can be seen as a method of
preserving self-esteem but it can also be used for
self-enhancement and to manage the impressions
of others.
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Self-Handicapping
A student who stays up all night can attribute
his/her low grade to the fatigue but not lack of
ability.
An alcholic can attribute the loss of his job to
his drinking,not to poor performance.
A golfer who practice rarely can attribute her
low performance to the lack of practice,but not
the lack of skill.
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CONCEPTS
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SELF-CONCEPT
SELF-
AWARENESS
SELF-ESTEEM
SELF-
PRESENTATION
SELF-
HANDICAPPING
THE WORKING
SELF-CONCEPT
SELF-SCHEMA
SELF-IMAGE
SELF-
COMPLEXITY
POSSIBLE SELF
ACTUAL & IDEAL
SELF
SELF-
DISCREPANCY
SELF-
KNOWLEDGE
SOCIALIZATION
REFLECTED
APPRAISAL
SELF-
ENHANCEMENT
SELF-
PERCEPTION
ENVIRONMENTA
L
DISTINCTIVENES
S
SOCIAL
IDENTITY
SOCIAL
COMPARISON
SELF-EFFICACY
SELF-
AWARENESS
LOOKING
GLASS SELF
INTERDEPENDE
NT VIEW OF THE
SELF
INDEPENDENT
VIEW OF THE
SELF
HIGH-SELF
ESTEEM
LOW SELF
ESTEEM

Thank you for listening !

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