L2 Understanding the Self: Self-Concept and Self-Schema (PSYC2050)

The Self

• It constitutes our sense of identity and who we are.
• The sense of self is seen to emerge in infancy
• Infants pass a self-recognition test around 18-24 months old.
• The rudimentary self-concept becomes more complex as it grows via an increase in qualities and level of abstraction.
• The self-concept organizes into a self-schema.
• A schema is a cognitive structure of knowledge associated with a concept or thing.
• Self-schema is one's self concept i.e. about you.
• It comprises of attributes and identities central to thinking of ourselves.
• The most complex type of schema we have.

Self-Schema

• Self-schemas organize information, beliefs, and impressions of ourselves
• They guide attention and memory
• The self-reference effect means that we encode and remember information better when it relates to ourselves
• It shapes behavior e.g. occupations

Pursuit of Self-Knowledge

• How do reach an understanding of our self?
• Via Self-Perception Theory
• Via Looking-Glass Self
• Via Social Comparison Theory
• Social Identity Theory

Self-Perception Theory

• We gain self insight by observing, interpreting meanings, and drawing inferences on our behavior (Bem, 1972)
• Core statement- "I am what I do"
• Operates when behavior cannot be attributed to external factors like reward or pressure

Looking-Glass Self

• We gain self insight by observing and reflecting other people's reaction to us
• We see ourselves as others seem to see us or how we imagine they see us

Social Comparison Theory

• Attributes and abilities are learnt by comparing with others (Festinger, 1954)
• Social comparisons offer information
• Learn relative to others
• There exists a drive to evaluate ourselves relative to others
• Comparison occurs with or without objective information
• Social comparisons can be upward or downward triggering diverse emotions of the self

Social Comparison Theory - Upward Comparisons

• Negative self-perceptions and affect
• Discouraging
• May sometimes be motivating

Social Comparison Theory - Downward Comparisons

• Positive self-perceptions and affect
• Ego boost
• Encouraging

Sense of Self

• There is a drive to maintain and achieve a positive one
• One way to do this is to strategically compare downwards
• Comparing upwards may be unavoidable

Social Media and Social Comparison Theory

• The rise of social media (e.g., Facebook, Instagram)
• Social media disproportionately elicits upward comparisons which can negatively affect psychological wellbeing
• Information shared tends to be positive

Social Media & Self-Perception

• Increased Facebook use predicts increased upward social comparisons, decreased self-perceived social competence, and decreased self- perceived physical appearance (de Vries & Kühne, 2015)

Social Media Use and Well being

• Umbrella review of meta-analyses, systematic reviews, and narrative reviews about social media use and wellbeing(Valkenburg, 2022)
• Increased use is associated with depression, anxiety, and negative affect
• Decreased use is associated with happiness, life satisfaction, and positive affect

Social Comparison Theory in Organizational Contexts

• Workplaces are conducive environments
• Colleagues are comparison sources in workplace performance related scenarios
• Downward comparisons in the workplace, leading to organizational citizenship behaviours
• Upward comparisons in the work place related to sabotage like harming high-performing team members
• Causing social undermining of future "rivals" plus supervisory abuse of high-performing subordinates

Social Identity Theory

• There are as many social identities as there are groups to which we feel we belong.
• It is the sense of self that is derived from groups (Tajfel & Turner, 1979)
• Self-categorisation depends on group memberships or identification with the group
• Identities are psychologically salient when they explain why we are behaving in a way (normative fit) and why we can account for similarities or differences between us and others (structural fit)

Group-Based Social Comparison

• Comparisons also exist in groups
• Esteem of the group influences personal esteem.
• There is individual motivation to achieve and maintain a positive, distinct social identity (positive distinctiveness)

Self Motives

• These influence the pursuit of knowledge about the self
• Self-assessment involves desire to have true, accurate and valid information, plus preference for reliable information
• Self-enhancement is the desire for positive information and a tendency to accept positive feedback, but dismiss negative.
• Self-verification is the want of information confirming beliefs and a tendency to accept consistent and dismiss disconfirming.

Self Motives - The Power of Self-Verification

• (Robinson & Smith-Lovin, 1992)
• Participants evaluated their social abilities and were split into negative/low and positive/high self-evaluators
• Participants presented speech in front of two raters behind one-way mirrors, and then received either positive or negative feedback
• It was found that participants with positive self-evaluations are more likely to choose the rater who gave positive feedback while those with negative self-evaluations tend to choose a rater who gave negative feedback

Self-Discrepancy Theory

• Self-concept contains self as is plus possible selves.
• Three selves- the actual, outght, and ideal selves (Higgins, 1987)
• Actual Self is how we think we currently are
• Ought Self is how we think we should be (self-imposed, others' expectations)
• Ideal Self is how we would like to be (hopes and wishes)
• Discrepancies can emerge: actual versus ideal self elicits dejection-related emotions while actual versus ought self elicits agitation-related emotions

Resolving Discrepancies in Self-Discrepancy theory

• Self-regulation is deployed to shift our perceived ideal or ought self
• Or to engage in efforts to change the actual self
• Discrepancies can be motivators triggering extreme behaviours
• Discrepancies may be accurate Self appraisals, achievable ideal or ought selves or they can distort perceptions of actual selves and become unrealistic

Self Esteem

• This involves how we feel about, and evaluate the self.
• It can vary from low to high
• Some people have stable self-esteem, others fluctuate
• Types are global and domain-specific
• Self-esteem does not imply accuracy on anything

Measuring Self-Esteem

• There are Explicit measures like the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale
• https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/RSE.php
• plus Implicit measures like name-letter effect (high self-esteem shows greater preference for letters from name, especially initials) and Signature size (high self-esteem shows larger signature)

Consequences of Self Esteem

• High self esteem is adaptive, being important component of psych wellbeing and predicts happiness
• BUT self-esteem that is too high may be negative, creating arrogance or overconfidence
• Low self esteem is maladaptive, creating self-doubt, self-defeating behaviours, proneness to depression and anxiety and social issues

Improving Self Esteem

• May include
• Cognitive behavioural therapy (modifying self beliefs: negative to positive)
• Psychoeducation (teaching about cognitive processes behind self-esteem)
• Support groups
• Positive psychology like self-compassion skills training
• Reminiscence that is recalling positive memories and reframing negative ones
• Evaluative conditioning with positive stimuli.
• Art therapy or regular physical activity

Factors Influencing Self-Esteem

• Social Comparison Theory
• Self-Discrepancy Theory
• Sociometer Theory which is social acceptance/rejection

Sociometer Theory

• Self-esteem is seen as a psychological gauge of the degree to which people perceive they are valued & accepted by others

Self-Esteem and Alcohol

• Alcohol consumption alters drinkers’ self-image.
• Inhibits mental processing necessary to recognise personal flaws, facilitating focus on favourable characteristics.
• Alcohol can leads engagement in activities or social situations that makes them nervous or uncomfortable/sober
• Alcohol is effective for those low in self-esteem

Alcohol and Self-Esteem, The Drunk Flirting Study (Monahan & Lannutti, 2000)

• Female participants with low versus high self-esteem were allocated to consume alcohol versus no alcohol.
• Then they engaged in interaction with attractive, flirtatious man in a video conference
• DV's were anxiety (rated by participant) and self-disclosure (rated by observers).

The Drunk Flirting Study Results

• Those who had alcohol were less anxious than those who did not
• Alcohol had no effect on anxiety for high self-esteem participants
• Low SE female participants who had alcohol self-disclosed more than those who did not
• Alcohol had no effect on self-disclosure in high SE female participants.

Self Determination Theory

• This underpins conditions where the self can thrive.
• When three basic psychological needs are supported
• Competence i.e. sense of mastery & effectiveness in environment/activities
• Autonomy meaning a sense of control & choice over behaviours/goals
• Relatedness meaning a sense of belonging & connectedness
• Support of these needs impacts motivation, performance, wellbeing, and other functioning

Self Presentation

• Private self - how you actually are, how you see yourself
• Public self - how you (think you) come across to others, how (you think) others see you
• They will sometimes match, and sometimes not

Self Presentation Considerations

• We care what others think and believe of it a lot
• Due to phenomenon of spotlight effect where we think we are being noticed when not
• So, drive to create a positive image (public self)
• Utilise impression management strategies to monitor & control behaviors

Impression Management Strategies

• These are: -
• Ingratiation that is getting others to like you
• Self-promotion that is getting others to respect you ,to think of you as competent
• Intimidation that is getting others to fear you and think that you are dangerous
• Supplication that is getting others to take pity on you and think of you as helpless and needy
• Exemplification that is getting others to regard you as morally respectable

Does Impression Management Work

• (Higgins et al., 2003)
• Interviewer assessments - Ingratiation positive; Self-promotion -positive
• Supervisor assessments - Ingratiation positive; Self-promotion -negative
• Extrinsic success (e.g., salaries, promotions) - Ingratiation positive

Self-Monitoring (Snyder, 1974)

• Relates to self-presentation and the adjustment of that presentation to be in response to social/situational cues.
• Low: Consistent across situations, less effected by situation, public and private self the same.
• High: Act like chameleons and much better at this art

Self Serving Strategies

• Success versus failure will impact our sense of self and the presentations to get others to like us
• Attributional strategies are used to foster/ bolster after success or to protect face in failures
• Self-enhancing bias is tendency to attribute success to internal factors
• Self-protecting bias is a tendency to attribute failure to external factors

Self Handicapping

• Claiming or creating an impediment to performance if failing is anticipated to attribute that event to the handicap i.e facilitates either self-protecting or serving biases
• Bolsters sense of self performing well even with the external impediment

Culture and the Self

• Differences are described in the extent to which they incorporate others (Markus & Kitayama, 1991)
• Independent self construal is self separate from context prioritizing uniqueness and demonstration of traits -Self esteems depend on this ability
• Interdependent self construal: Self is seen to be tied to context prioritizing belonging, fitting in and restraint, and harmony
• Self esteems depend on this ability

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Social & Emotional Wellbeing

• (Gee, Dudgeon, Hart, & Kelly, 2013)
• The conception of self is grounded within a collectivist/interdependent perspective that views self as inseparable from, and embedded within, family and community
• Connection to spirit
• Social & emotional wellbeing, health depends on strength of these connections