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Maria Castro

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Chapter 16

The Self: What You Know About You

Objectives

Discuss two types of self-knowledge: declarative and procedural
Discuss how self-knowledge can be acquired and changed

The I and the Me

William James
The me
The I
Recent research focuses on the me

The self can have two meanings:

The Me: an object that can be observed and described; statements about the self (I am friendly, I have brown hair); the main topic of this chapter because it can be more easily studied; also known as the ontological self

The I: a somewhat mysterious entity that does the observing and describing; experiences life and makes decisions; people differ in level of self-awareness; also known as the epistemological self

The Contents and Purposes
of the Self

Psychological self
Influences behavior
Organizes memories
Influences impressions and judgments of others
Organizes knowledge

Psychological self definition: our abilities and personalities; the central aspect of the self

Influences behavior because people are sometimes motivated to maintain their self-image

Organizes knowledge: one of the most important functions of the self

The Contents and Purposes
of the Self

Jobs and purposes of the self
Self-regulation
Information processing filter
Help us relate to others
Identity

Self-regulation definition: ability to restrain impulses and keep focused on long-term goals

Information processing filter: helps us focus on, remember, and organize the information that matters to us

Help us relate to others: helps with empathy, by imagining how we would feel

Identity: reminds us where we fit in our relations with others (position in the family and community)

The Contents and Purposes
of the Self

Declarative knowledge
Procedural knowledge
Relational self
Implicit self

Two types of self-knowledge

Declarative knowledge definition: the facts and impressions that we consciously know and can describe

Procedural knowledge definition: knowledge expressed through actions rather than words

Relational self: patterns of social skills and styles of relating to others; extraverted people are more likely to seek out social interaction and start conversations

Implicit self: unconscious self-knowledge; we are not aware of these characteristics, but they influence our behavior

The Declarative Self

Self-esteem
Low self-esteem
Attempts to increase self-esteem may be detrimental
Self-esteem can be too high
How to legitimately increase self-esteem

Declarative self definition: all of your conscious knowledge or opinions about your own personality traits; includes an overall opinion and a more detailed opinion about your traits and abilities

Self-esteem definition: your overall opinion about whether you are good or bad, worthy or unworthy, or somewhere in between

Low self-esteem: related to dissatisfaction with life, hopelessness, depression, loneliness, delinquency, lower satisfaction with relationships and one’s career, higher suicide rates; these might be warning signs that something is wrong (sociometer theory); may motivate people to restore their reputations

Attempts to increase self-esteem may be detrimental: by making people more aware that they do not have the positive perceptions of themselves that they would like

Self-esteem can be too high: self-enhancement is related to problems in relationships, worse mental health, and maladjustment; arrogant, abusive, and criminal behavior; and narcissism

How to legitimately increase self-esteem: accomplish important tasks

Activities: Sentence Completion About the Self, Self-Esteem Test

The Declarative Self

The self-schema
Where the declarative self resides
Can be assessed with S data or B data
Consequences for how one processes information
Not based only on memories of specific events

Self-schema definition: all of one’s ideas about the self, organized into a coherent system

B data: reaction times when determining whether a trait term was “me” or “not me”—schematics possessed faster reaction time to schema relevant traits

Consequences for how one processes information: easier to remember information about the self that fits with one’s self-schema; process information related to self-schema more quickly; limit seeing beyond one’s self-image or by viewing things in a rigid way that fits with one’s self-image

Not based on memories of specific events: Case studies of two people who lost memory of specific life events showed that they still knew what their personalities were like and had general knowledge of themselves; suggests the self-schema is not dependent on memories for specific events

The Declarative Self

Self-reference and memory
Self-reference effect
Increases accessibility
Explains why your most meaningful memories stay with you the longest
Depends on culture
Self-efficacy
Sets the limits for what we attempt to do

Self-reference effect definition: the enhancement of long-term memory that comes from thinking of how information relates to the self

Increases accessibility: because the knowledge structure related to the self is rich, well-developed, and often used

Depends on culture: the self-reference effect may work differently in different cultures; for Chinese people, information thought about in terms of one’s mother or father was remembered as well as information thought about in terms of the self, which suggests mother and father are included in the self-concept

Self-efficacy definition: one’s beliefs about the degree to which one will be able to accomplish a goal, if one tries

Activity: Demonstration of Self-Reference and Memory

The Declarative Self

Possible selves
Possible future selves may affect goals
Evidence that it affects mate preferences
Want future selves that fulfill the needs for self-esteem, competence, and meaning
Want similar future selves

Possible selves definition: the images we have, or can construct, of the other possible ways we might be

Possible future selves may affect goals: Who you think you will be or what role you will have may influence the goals you set.

Evidence that it affects mate preferences: People who were asked to imagine themselves as married with children and working as a homemaker preferred mates who were older and could provide for them (consistent with what women typically report, so women may be more likely to perceive homemaker as a future possible self than men).

Want similar future selves: People want their future self to be similar to how they are now (we want continuity of identity).

Activity: Possible Selves Exercise

The Declarative Self

Self-discrepancy theory
The interactions between possible selves and the actual self determine feelings about life
Ideal self
Discrepancy leads to depression
Ought self
Discrepancy leads to anxiety

Self-discrepancy theory: people have two kinds of desired selves, and the difference between these and one’s actual self determines how people feel.

Ideal self definition: view of what you could be at your best; focused on the pursuit of pleasure and rewards

Discrepancy leads to depression: because of disappointment at failing to achieve rewards

Ought self definition: view of what you should be; focused on avoiding punishments and other bad outcomes

Discrepancy leads to anxiety because of fear of not avoiding punishment.

The Declarative Self:
Accurate Self-Knowledge

A hallmark of mental health
Process for gaining accurate self-knowledge
Realistic Accuracy Model: relevance, availability, detection, utilization

A hallmark of mental health: people who are healthy, secure, and wise enough to see the world as it is tend to see themselves more accurately too; accurate self-knowledge allows people to make better decisions on important issues

Process for gaining accurate self-knowledge: based on assumption that we learn about ourselves in the same way that we learn about others

The Declarative Self

Self-knowledge versus knowledge of others
Important differences in perceiving ourselves versus others
We know our emotional experience better than do others
Others know our behaviors better than we do

Important differences in perceiving ourselves versus others: attending to the self is difficult; all you see is what you decide to do and not what others would do in the same situation (and so this is difficult to compare to what others do)

Others know our behaviors better than we do: People tend to think that others would behave the same way that they did, and therefore they do not learn as much about how their behaviors differ from others and are related to their personality. But time may put our own behavior in perspective because when people think about behaviors in the past, they are more likely to see their pattern of behavior and how it differs from others.

The Declarative Self

Improving self-knowledge
Introspection
Seek feedback
Observe own behavior

Introspection: look into your own mind and understand who you are; honestly evaluate your behavior

Seek feedback: especially helpful for aspects that are obvious to everyone but you; either through direct feedback or from reading subtle, nonverbal indicators of what people think of you

Observe own behavior: put yourself in different situations, try new things, and meet new people

This can be limited by where you live (small town), and family or culture (if self-expression is not encouraged).

Activity: Improving Self-Knowledge Exercise

The Procedural Self

Not conscious and not possible to explain to others
Learned by doing and watching others
Relational selves
Relational self-schema
Deeply ingrained and difficult to change

Procedural self definition: patterns of behavior that are characteristic of an individual and the behaviors through which people express who they are; the unique aspects of what you do; includes ways of doing things, or procedures

Relational self-schema definition: self-knowledge based on past experiences that directs how we relate to the important people in our lives

Difficult to change: probably because they are set early in life

The Procedural Self

Implicit selves
Includes the relational self
Measure with the Implicit Association Test (IAT)

Implicit selves definition: self-relevant behavioral patterns that are not readily accessible to consciousness

Measure with the Implicit Association Test (IAT): by testing the strength of associations in an individual’s cognitive system that the person might not be conscious of. (The IAT was discussed in Chapter 3.)

The Procedural Self:
Implicit Selves

Self-esteem
High implicit self-esteem: respond more quickly when “me” and “good” are paired than when “me” and “bad” are paired
Predicts responses to success and failure
Only weakly related to declarative self-esteem
Implications for narcissism
Shyness
Implication

Self-esteem: “Me” and “good” are implicitly associated for people with high self-esteem, so reaction time with this pair should be faster.

Narcissism: Implicit self-esteem is lower than explicit self-esteem.

Shyness: declarative predicts controlled behavior (speech, gestures), and implicit predicts spontaneous behavior (facial expressions, body movements)

Implication: We have attitudes and feelings about many things of which we are not entirely aware, and this influences our emotions and behaviors.

The Procedural Self

Acquiring and changing procedural knowledge
Practice and feedback
Does not requires a teacher who is good at what is being taught
Acquire experiences of what you want your new procedural self to be

How Many Selves?

Some theorists think each person has many declarative and procedural selves
The active self
Working self-concept
Problems with this theory
A unitary and consistent sense of self is associated with mental health
Deciding which self to be
Where does one stop fractionating the self?

The active self: depends on where you are and who you are with; means the experience of the self may change across situations

Working self-concept definition: the view that the self is continuously changing; strongly influenced by who a person is with

A unitary and consistent sense of self is associated with mental health: behaving in congruence with one’s personality traits is related to psychological adjustment; high self-concept differentiation is associated with poor psychological adjustment

Deciding which self to be: Is there a self that decides which self to be?

Where does one stop fractionating the self? There is no way to decide how many selves to break a person into; we are each really only one person

The Really Real Self

“The sense of being the same person persists across the entire lifespan” (p. 610)
Even with brain damage, memory loss, and mental illness

Clicker Question #1

Self-knowledge can be increased by

practice and feedback.

thinking about what your personality is like.

watch yourself behaving in several situations.

all of the above.

Correct answer: d (emphasize that self-knowledge can be increased in several ways; a applies to procedural self-knowledge; b (introspection) and c apply to declarative self-knowledge

Clicker Question #2

When you describe yourself as hard-working and friendly, you are describing the

declarative self.

procedural self.

implicit self.

most important self.

Correct answer: a

The procedural self

is easy to change.

predicts behavior differently from what is predicted by the declarative self.

is measured with self-report data.

can be used to increase memory for new information because of the self-reference effect.

Clicker Question #3

Correct answer: b