PSY415 Psychology of the Self

PSY415Psychology of the SelfWeek 1IntroductionWho am I?“Imagine you want someone to know who you are really like. You can tell this person 20 things about yourself.…

PSY415Psychology of the SelfWeek 1IntroductionWho am I?

“Imagine you want someone to know who you are really like. You can tell this person 20 things about yourself. These can include … anything that helps the person know what you are really like. What would you tell them?” (Brown, 1998, p. 20)

What did you ask yourself in your mind and/or considered in writing these statements?

Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.The I and ME

I see the BOARD vs. I see ME

The self as I is the agent of action, the subject

It is not only the mental processes involved in knowing or our affection toward ourselves, but the awareness of this process of knowing and feeling

ME is the object of one’s attention or knowledge of himself / herself

Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.What Psychologists Mean by Self

ME is also subjective

It refers to people’s ideas, beliefs, thoughts about themselves about

WHO THEY ARE &

WHAT THEY ARE LIKE

These ideas or beliefs are called self-referent thoughts

Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.What Psychologists Mean by Self

There are two aspects of the ME

The way we think about ourselves is the cognitive component of the self, which is called the self-concept

The way we feel about ourselves is the affective component of the self, which is called the self-esteem

The self is both the I and the ME

Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.Self-Concept vs. Self-Esteem“Self-concept is the totality of the individual’s thoughts and feelings with reference to himself as an object, which eventually explains himself, and the world at large, to himself.”(Rosenberg, 1979, p. ix; Steele, 1988, p. 262)“Self-esteem ... is a positive or negative attitude toward a particular object, namely, the self.”(Rosenberg, 1965, p. 30)Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.What is the Self?

There is no consensus on a conceptual definition

Baumeister (1998) highlights three roots of selfhood

Reflexive Consciousness

Interpersonal Aspect

Executive Function

Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.Reflexive Consciousness

It is the subjective experience of “conscious attention turning back toward its own source and gradually constructing a concept of oneself” (Baumeister, 1998, p. 680)

The self has unity and temporal continuity

Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.Interpersonal Aspect

The self is not only constructed subjectively, but it is affected by the social context as well

Self is “vital for making interpersonal relationships and interactions possible” (Baumeister, 1998, p. 680)

Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.Executive Function

The self is the agent of all actions and the decision-maker (Baumeister, 1998)

Original meaning of the self, as first appeared as a noun in the 14th century English, is “sinner” (Danziger, 1997)

What do you think about why it meant so?

Volution, Agency, Responsibility

It is the essential source of motivation to activate or inhibit actions

Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.Self-Psychology and Personality: The Difference

Self-psychology is concerned with subjective experience, whereas personality psychology is more concerned with the objective experience

“I think I am an extraverted person”vs.“My BFI score indicates that I am extraverted”

Asch (1952)

Ego is the representation of the organism

Self is the awareness of ego

Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.Self-Psychology and Personality: The Similarities

What we really are influences how we think about ourselves – not always!

Self-aggrandization

What we really are influences how we feel about ourselves

Temperament

Self is one aspect of personality

cf. individual differences

Self-report is often used to measure personality

Rosenberg (1965) Self-Esteem Scale

Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.Self-Psychology and Phenomenology

Not the objective but the subjective reality determines our consciousness at a given moment

Wertheimer’s (1912) Apparent Movement Experiment

Lewin (1951) argued that objective world is important to the extent that it affects our subjective perceptions

Our thoughts and feelings about ourselves are subjective as well – the self as perceived

Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.The Study of Self in American Psychology

The Behaviorist Movement

Psychology is an experimental branch of natural science which aims at predicting and controlling behavior by carefully observing phenomena objectively

Positivism and mechanism led the rejection of self as a legitimate subject matter of psychology

Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.The Study of Self in American Psychology

The Decline of Behaviorism

Cooley (1902) – The Looking-Glass Self

Others serve as mirrors from which we see ourselves reflected – perspective taking

Mead (1934) – Symbolic Interactionism

It is the socialization process in which the self develops – perspective-taking

Maslow (1954) – Self-Actualization

There is an inborn striving in humans for growth, which lead to realize the potential

Personality Theorists – The Concept of Ego

Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.The Study of Self in American Psychology

The Cognitive Revolution

“Behavior reeks of purpose.” (Tolman, 1932, p. 12)

Whereas behaviorism emphasized the past history of reinforcement as a determinant of behavior, cognitivism emphasized future planning, choice, and expectations

Self became a legitimate subject matter

Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.Is there a Self?

Hilgard (1949) proposed that all (defense) mechanisms imply self-reference (p. 375)

Defense mechanisms are defenses against anxiety – guilt feelings – self as an agent of good or bad choices

Defense mechanisms are self-deceptive – bolstering self-esteem as through self-deception

Self can be investigated in awareness introspectively

Self can be investigated as an external object – Inferred Self

“… a pattern of existing habits and attitudes” (p. 378)

Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.The Functions of the I

Our awareness of ourselves is functional in

distinguishing ourselves from others

motivating behavior, exerting control over environment and other people

providing us with a sense of continuity and unity

Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.The Functions of the ME

Our thoughts about ourselves has

a cognitive function and influence the way we perceive and process information

a self-regulatory function and guide our behaviors

a motivational function and helps us to direct our behaviors to achieve certain ends

Kürşad Demirutku, Ph.D.