The Psychological Self: My Favorite Mystery - Chapter 3 PDF

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SELF: MY FAVORITE MYSTERY CHAPTER 3 MOST OF THE TIME, WE ARE TOO HARD ON OURSELVES BECAUSE OF THE MANY EXPECTATIONS WE HAVE. WE ALWAYS WANT TO BE STABLE, IN CONTROL AND PLEASING OTHERS. “Possible selves are developed from past experiences, current...

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SELF: MY FAVORITE MYSTERY CHAPTER 3 MOST OF THE TIME, WE ARE TOO HARD ON OURSELVES BECAUSE OF THE MANY EXPECTATIONS WE HAVE. WE ALWAYS WANT TO BE STABLE, IN CONTROL AND PLEASING OTHERS. “Possible selves are developed from past experiences, current behavior, and future expectations”.  SELF/SELF-CONCEPT SELF/SELF-CONCEPT - an organized, consistent set of perceptions of and beliefs about oneself (Passer and Smith, 2007) SELF-SCHEMAS - are perceptions and beliefs that comprise our self- concept. - they are formed by numerous factors that we may be aware or unaware of, including: - past experience - social roles - personality traits - own observations - abilities - feedback from others - physical features - values - goals (Weiten et al, 2014)  Looking into each of the factors that affect our self-concept, what similar trait do you think maybe the reason why our self-concept can be fluid? One possible answer is that all factors are dynamic, ever-changing in a way that it grows, improves or lessens as we go through life every day and expose ourselves to various interactions and media content. Our self-schemas “influence not only current behavior but also future behavior” REAL AND IDEAL SELVES IDEAL REAL SELF SELF Who we Person we actually want to be are Idealized How I see version of me ourself Also called How I “actual should be self” Possible selves are one’s conceptions about the kind of persons one might become in the near future. The ideal self can be a helpful motivation in guiding the real self to strive and continue improving. Sometimes, however, possible selves are negative and represent what you might become. Though negative, this can still help us in figuring out the ideal self we want become. However, it is best to keep in mind to focus on the positive and the person or goal to be achieved and not the person or goal to be avoided. CONGRUENT AND INCONGRUENT SELVES When we feel good about ourselves, it is said that there is congruence or alignment or there is small gap between our real self and ideal self. This gives us confidence, satisfaction, and a sense of self-actualization or fulfillment leading to a high self- esteem.  However, when we are disappointed or frustrated about ourselves, it is said that there is incongruence, or misalignment or disparity or a huge gap between our real and ideal self.  This results to us being distressed, anxious, leading to a low self-esteem or self- worth and be defensive in our actions. In cases where in the gap between the real self and ideal self is immense, this may cause instability to one’s psychological well-being.  Changing our way of thinking may take a bit of getting used to since most of us may have been exposed to people who might be given us negative labels such as “bad, stupid, weak, fat, ugly, etc.”.  Negative labels could come from single failure or blunder. Sadly, a single, unintentional mistake is used to judge a person holistically.  We might have been a victim of this or we might be guilty of doing this to other people.  SELF ESTEEM  It refers to one’s overall assessment of one’s self- worth as a person.  It also refers to how we value ourselves and perceive our worth as a person.  People with high self-esteem succeed more, have better relationships and are happier compared to those with low self-esteem.  SELF-EFFICACY  It refers to how one performs.  It is directly correlated with self-esteem.  When our self-efficacy or our performance improves, our self-esteem improves which will lead to congruence.  However, an increase in self-esteem does not always lead to increase to self-efficacy, most especially if no effort was exerted to improve performance.  This is why we have to continuously remind ourselves to be motivated and put that motivation into action.  Some of the key characteristics of a fully- functioning person include: openness to experience, a flexible self-concept, unconditional [positive] regard for the self, and the ability to live in harmony with others.  Whether we feel it or not we have to understand and accept that we are very capable to help ourselves and attain the ideal self we intend to become.  Ideal does not always have to mean perfect.  Life may be imperfect but we can work with that and use it to our advantage.  We need to decide and choose to stop comparing ourselves to other people especially to those we see in social media We need to continue investing and valuing ourselves by learning something relevant everyday. Many people fail to comprehend that everything you learn and own always stays with you as priceless assets. These are the core ingredients that build you. QUIZ - MIDTERM 1. Write your analysis about the movie “The Matrix”. What could be considered as the material world and the world of forms. 2. Answer worksheets from page 66-68. Write your answer on a 1 whole sheet of paper. Copy and answer