This is the Chapter 13 of the book The Individual (de Bruin, E., 1st Edition). Which is content for the exam of the Theory component of Module 4 (The Individual) of the University of Twente, in the Netherlands

Chapter 13:

Approaches to the Self

• Components of the self: important in our day-to-day lives  --> helps understand how we perceive and act on the world surrounding us (influences our goals/methods to reach those goals)

• Self-concept: cognitive-descriptive knowledge we have of ourselves --> whole of cognitive schemas/knowledge structures used as personal resource

• Includes:

• Perceptions/evaluations of persona qualities/abilities
• Is a psychological need, cornerstone of personality

• High levels of self-concept predicts subjective well-being, less social anxiety and engagement at school
• Development:

• Awareness one’s body: distinction own body/everything else

• Mirror test: determines self-awareness (great apes/elephants/bottlenose dolphins/orcas/…)
• Self-recognition important development --> achievement that allows child to go on to more complex manifestations of self-awareness (pretend play/representation self in language)

• [2-3 years] Self first seen sex/age --> include reference to family
• [3-12] Self-concept based developing talents/skills

• Social comparison: evaluation oneself/one’s performance in terms of comparison with reference group
• Private self-concept: “Mummy doesn’t know everything about me”

5. Imaginary friend: attempt to communicate parents that they know there is secret part/inner part to their understanding of the self

• [childhood – adolescence] self-concept based concrete characteristics (physical appearance/possessions) --> based more abstract psychological terms

• Perspective taking: ability to take perspectives others/step outside oneself and imagine how one appears to other people (extreme self-consciousness during this time)
• Objective self-awareness: seeing yourself as object of others attention

• Self-esteem: how you feel about who you are

• Development:

• Sense of themselves relative to standards: good/bad behaviour evaluated against standards

• Social identity: as you present yourself to others

• Self-schema: cognitive representation of self-concept --> framework understanding past/present and guiding future behaviour

• Self-schemata: network of associated building blocks of self-concept --> guide processing of info about self, particularly in social interaction
• Possible selves: ideas influence person’s behaviour, to stay on schedule, to work towards self-improvement

• Self-guides: standards used to organize info and motivate appropriate behaviour

• Ought self: understanding of what others want them to be
• Ideal self: what person wants to be --> built upon own desires/goals

• Self-discrepancy: actual self doesn’t fir one’s ideal self

• Bodily self: experience oneself as embodied agent with a first-person perspective --> product of permanently ongoing interaction bodily stimuli

• Vestibular stimuli: originating inner ear, related to balance/spatial orientation
• Proprioceptive stimuli: info about body position/velocity movement limbs
• Visceral stimuli: originating from organs
• Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI): rubber hand “feel” touch that eyes see --> shows self-concept/bodily self are related
• Components bodily self:

• Body ownership: experiencing owing body
• Self-location: experience being body given location
• Perspective: first-person experience environment

Evaluative component of the self:

• Self-esteem development:

1. Identify standards/expectations for behaviours, live up to them
2. Self-esteem result of social comparison
3. Develop internal standards

• Rosenberg’s global self-esteem questionnaire: assesses person’s overall self-esteem --> evaluate how people react to criticism and negative feedback

• How high/low self-esteem persons affected by criticism/personal failure?

• Low self-esteem: perform poorly, give up earlier on subsequent tasks

• Brain: ventral anterior cingulate cortex/medial prefrontal cortex, increased activity in response to positive social feedback

• High self-esteem: failure feedback spurs them into action on subsequent tasks, less likely to give up
• Accept feedback consistent with their self-concept

• Coping with negative events:

• Tough love: parents pushed children to socialize --> children less shy

• Social anxiety: discomfort related to social interactions or anticipation social interactions

• Genetics
• Evaluation apprehension: learned, put too much value in other’s judgments of them
• Amygdala: section limbic/emotional system brain, responsible for fear (more reactive in shy people)
• Cortisol: stress hormone (shyness associated higher level of cortisol)

• Protective/enhancing self:

• Favourable construals: cognitive strategies construe world in positive/self-flattering ways
• Self-affirming reflections: recall one’s own strength/growth in order to self-affirm
• Positive embracement: seeking out positive feedback
• Defensiveness: avoidance negative feedback
• Mnemic neglect: selective forgetting of self-threatening info compared to the recall of self-affirming info
• Defensive pessimism: when facing a challenge, expect to do poorly --> lessened impact of failure
• Self-handicapping: process person deliberately does things to increase probability of failure

• Self-esteem variability: magnitude of short-term fluctuations in ongoing self-esteem

• Level of self-esteem: developmental changes over lifespan
• Variability self-esteem: changes across relatively short period of time --> susceptibility to depression

1. Stational factors
2. Individual differences in self-esteem

Social identity:

• Continuity: social identity remain relatively stable
• Contrast: differentiates you from others
• Personality coherence: perceived self as similar in various life domains (work/education/family/…)
• Identity by Erik Erikson: result from efforts to separate oneself from one’s parents --> achieving identity takes effort and experimenting various identities

• Role confusion: when identity achieved is undone

• Identity crisis: feelings of anxiety that accompany efforts to define/redefine one’s own individuality and social reputation

• Types:

• Identity deficit: adequate identity not formed, thus trouble making major decisions, particularly vulnerable to propaganda of various groups (recruiters for cults, terroristic actions)
• Identity conflict: incompatibility two/more aspects of identity

• Approach-approach conflicts: person wants to reach two mutually contradicting goals --> put aside a part of one’s identity to strike balance