THE SELF (CONTINUED):Development of Self awareness, SELF REGULATION

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Social Psychology (PSY403)

Lesson 10

THE SELF (CONTINUED)

Aims

Introducing the concept of the self as the subject and object of awareness

Objectives

Discuss development of self awareness

Understanding consequences of self consciousness

To understand the concept of self through Journal writing

Understanding self regulation as the activity of "I", an active agent.

Describing self schemas

Understanding the development of gender schemas

Understanding how Culture shapes the structure of self-concept

Development of Self awareness

Not inborn

Infants (9-12 months) take their mirror image as of another child. They must first develop internalized

identity to recognize their external mirror image

Later stage of infancy: one recognizes that one is a separate individual around 18 months. Perhaps it

develops with the growth of spindle cells of anterior cingulate, which are not present at birth.

Childhood: one labels personal qualities and abilities

Adolescence: the self becomes critically important as a basis for making life decisions

Middle & Late Adulthood: the self continues to change, though generally not as extensively

Effects of Private self awareness

Intensification of affect: Any negative or positive feelings experienced when privately self aware will be

exaggerated. For example person privately self aware can become very happy or unhappy on some event.

Clarification of knowledge:: Private events become more clearer and distinct, thus increasing our ability

to report on them

Greater adherence to personal standards of behaviour: You are more likely to act in line with your

personal beliefs than to conform to social pressures

Effects of public awareness

Evaluation apprehension: You may experience greater apprehension when you realize that you are

the object of others' attention. We know through experience that public scrutiny results in either

positive or negative outcomes.

Temporary loss of self-esteem: Temporary loss of self esteem may occur when there is greater

discrepancy between ideal and actual public self; that explains why we feel bad after a failed

presentation.

Greater adherence to social standards of behaviour: A heightened sense of conformity is expected

from a public self-aware person.

As far as comparison between personal and public self awareness are concerned, some scientists

believe that People are motivated by a desire to meet personal goals, while other believe that we

are largely a reflected image of our social group. Both are good in their own limited fashion.

Self-consciousness as a personality trait

Individual differences in self reflection: When we are self aware, the focus is only temporary. But

some people spend more time in self reflecting than others. Habitual tendency to engage in self

awareness is known as the personality trait of self-consciousness

Social Psychology (PSY403)

Private self-consciousness and public self-consciousness: Tendency to be aware of private aspects

of self, and tendency to be aware of publicly displayed aspects of self.

Advantages of private self-consciousness

Self-disclosure improves relationships

The physical health is less likely to be adversely affected as people notice early signs of illness and

thus are more likely to take precautionary measures

Negatives of private self consciousness

Habitual tendency can contribute to depression and neuroticism. Neuroticism is the trait of chronic

unhappiness. There is some debate whether private self consciousness can make one a better person.

Some people argue that yes it does. However, others warn that one should not analyze one's feelings so

much as it can drive one crazy. Studies have suggested reducing self-awareness by engaging in

distracting activities (Moskalenko & Heine, 2003). When people's performance fall short of their

expectations, the resulting frustration is aggravated by prolonged attention to private self. It intensifies

one's emotional reactions.

Studies have suggested reducing self-awareness by engaging in distracting activities (Moskalenko &

Heine, 2003). Distracting attention from self can improve well-being, like watching TV, gardening, etc.

Public self-consciousness effects

More concerned about how others judge us

More conforming to group norms

More likely to withdraw from embarrassing situations

More concerned about our physical appearance

SELF REGULATION

Self regulation is the most important function of self, which is associated with the "I" aspect of

self. During the course of our every day life, we perform countless activities in which we don't

have to think as they have become habits. But we have to sometime consciously control and exert a

lot of cognitive effort in the process. It refers to the way in which people control and direct their

actions.

It provides us with the capacity to forgo the immediate gratification of small rewards to later attain

larger rewards.

Study of Shoda et al. (1990) showed the survival value of self regulation. They found out that

people who learn how to delay gratification in childhood are better adjusted later in life.

Self Control Theory: Test-Operate-Test-Exit: TOTE: We test us against some standard, when we

find that we are falling short of some standard, then we operate to change ourselves (study more),

in the second phase we test us again, then exit when there is no or less difference between our

behaviour and the standard, then we are happy and exit.

Emotional consequences of not meeting the standard

Self-discrepancy is the distance between our self concept and ideal self, or how we believe/others

think we should be (ought self);

Discrepancy produces strong emotions (Higgins, 1987):

Dejection-related emotions: Dejection: frustration, depression; with ideal self, e.g., I wish I was more

physically attractive

Social Psychology (PSY403)

Agitation related emotions are anxiety, guilt which arise as a result of discrepancy with ought self,

e.g., I should help my family with more money but I can't

Self-Regulation failure

Negative emotions hinder the type of self-regulation necessary for achieving long-term goals. For

example, you are dieting but when depressed start eating more.

At any given time we have limited energy to self regulate. Each exercise depletes this energy.. So

after exercising one activity of self regulation, we find it hard on other unrelated activity.

Baumeister et al. (1998) maintained that self-regulating on one task makes it harder to immediately

self regulate on unrelated tasks. They concluded that exertion of self control causes a subsequent

decline in activity. For example, you did not go to party because of exams, and found it difficult to

control anger when your brother was noisy later in the evening. Hence, exertion of self control

causes a subsequent decline in activity

Self schemas

Schemas are ingredients of self-concept. They are how knowledge about us is organized in memory.

Computer metaphor: the subjective self "I" consists of programs components, and the objective self

"me" in other words schemas are the data aspect of the computer.

A schema is a cognitive structure that represents knowledge about some stimulus. The term schema has

been borrowed from cognitive psychology.

Based on our experience; we can have schemas about things, people, and events.

We may be self-schematic or a schematic toward some thing. The qualities that are important to us, we

are self-schematic about them. In contrast things which are not central to our self-concept we are a

schematic for them.

Activity: Your self concept

Below are given 14 adjectives, read and encircle whichever apply to you or central to your self concept

Adaptable

Courageous

Romantic

Humorous

Bold

Kind

Shy

Nervous

Organized

10.

Warm

11.

Honest

12.

Diplomat

13.

Truthful

14.

Artistic

A simplified representation of self-schemas

Length of lines in this diagram show the

A simplified representation of self-schemas

importance to the self concept of this

female. Highly valued self schemas are

embedded into the self. She is highly

schematic to being religious, daughter,

athletic

student, creative and honest.

creative

intelligent

honest

dependable

student

Self

daughter

religious

insecure

nice

singer

Social Psychology (PSY403)

GENDER SCHEMA

This self-labeling , known as gender identity, is the identification of oneself as a male or a female and the

internalization of this fact into one's self-concept. Knowing that "I am a girl" or "I am a boy" is one of the

core building blocks in a child's developing self-theory (Bussey & Bandura, 1999).

Once gender identity fully develops around the age of 6 or 7 little if anything can change it (Money &

Ehrhardt, 1972).

When children develop gender identity they strive to act in ways consistent with this identity. According to

Sandra Bem (1981), if a culture emphasizes distinctions between women and men, then children growing

up in that culture learn to process information about themselves, other people, and even things and events

according to their perceived gender associations. In other words, they develop a gender schema, which is a

cognitive structure for processing information based on its perceived female or male qualities.

For example, in North American culture, personal characteristics such as physical attractiveness

cooperation and empathy, activities such as skipping rope and cooking, or even animals such as cats and

birds come to be perceived as having a female connotation.

The fact that, in most cultures, masculine activities are more highly valued than feminine activities may

largely explain why men score slightly higher than women on standard measures of global self-esteem

(Kling et al.,1999).

Culture Shapes the Structure of Self-Concept

At the beginning of this chapter I asked you to contemplate who you are by describing yourself twenty

times. Sociologists Manford Kuhn and Thomas McPartland devised this Twenty Statements Test (TST) in

1954 to measure self-concept. A common technique used to analyze 1ST responses (see Hartley, 1970) is

to code each response into one of four categories; physical self-descriptions identify self in terms of

physical qualities that do not imply social interaction ("I am a male"; "I am a brunette"; "I am overweight");

social self-descriptions identify self in terms of social roles, institutional memberships, or other socially

defined statuses ("I am a student"; "I am a daughter"; "I am a Jew"); attributive self-descriptions identify

self in terms of psychological or physiological states or traits ("I am intelligent"; "I am assertive"; "I am

tired"); global self-descriptions identify self so comprehensively or vaguely that it does not distinguish one

from any other person ("1 am a human being"; "I am alive"; "J am me"). Return to your own TST responses

and code each into one of these four categories. Which category occurs most frequently for you?

Readings

Franzoi, S.L. (2006). Social Psychology. New York: McGraw Hill. Chapter 3.

Lord, C.G. (1997). Social Psychology. Orlando: Harcourt Brace and Company. Chapter 5.

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