Group 2: Levels of the Self

By:

Leader: Aluzaimea, Bader G.

Asst. Leader: Talens, Louise Gabrielle

Members:

Belaro, John Paul

Bona, Justine Mae G.

Guiang, John Alcy A.

Martinez, Joliebeth

Mazo, Escolastico Jr.

Ortega, Exequiel

Parinas, John Christopher

Saronay, Kimra

1. Origin and Development of the Self

2. Inner Cognitive Map
3. Psychological Views on the Self
The psychology of self is the study of either the cognitive, conative or affective representation of
one's identity or the subject of experience. The earliest formulation of the self in modern
psychology derived from the distinction between the self as I, the subjective knower, and the self
as Me, the object that is known.

Current views of the self in psychology position the self as playing an integral part in human
motivation, cognition, affect, and social identity. It may be the case that we can now usefully
attempt to ground experience of self in a neural process with cognitive consequences, which will
give us insight into the elements of which the complex multiply situated selves of modern
identity are composed.

The self has many facets that help make up integral parts of it, such as self-awareness, self-
esteem, self-knowledge, and self-perception. All parts of the self enable people to alter, change,
add, and modify aspects of themselves in order to gain social acceptance in society. "Probably,
the best account of the origins of selfhood is that the self comes into being at the interface
between the inner biological processes of the human body and the sociocultural network to
which the person belongs."

Memory and the Self

Memory and the self are interconnected with each other that, combined, can be defined as the
Self-Memory System (SMS). The self is viewed as a combination of memories and self-images
(working self). Conway proposes that a person's long-term memory and working self are
dependent on each other. Our prior knowledge of our self puts constraints on what our working
self is and the working self modifies the access to our long-term memory, as well as, what it
consists of.

One view of the Self, following from John Locke, sees it as a product of episodic memory. It has
been suggested that transitory mental constructions within episodic memory form a self-memory
system that grounds the goals of the working self, but research upon those with amnesia find
they have a coherent sense of self based upon preserved conceptual autobiographical
knowledge, and semantic facts, and so conceptual knowledge rather than episodic memory.

Both episodic and semantic memory systems have been proposed to generate a sense of self-
identity: personal episodic memory enables the phenomenological continuity of identity, while
personal semantic memory generates the narrative continuity of identity. "The nature of personal
narratives depends on highly conceptual and story-like' information about one's life, which
resides at the general event level of autobiographical memory and is thus unlikely to rely on
more event-specific episodic systems."

Implicit Theories and Self-Concepts

A two-step process for recalling past states, proposed by Ross, suggests that:

1. The current state of attribute or belief is assessed

2. A theory of stability or change is invoked

3. Steps 1 and 2 are combined to infer the earlier state of attribute or belief

This theory suggests that recollection of past states would be biased if a person's state has
changed but they expect no change to have occurred, or if the state has remained constant when a
change was expected.

For example, an implicit theory of stability is often invoked when assessing political allegiances,
therefore if this allegiance actually changes, recollection of past allegiance will be incorrect, and
assumed to be the same as the current political identification.

An implicit theory of change is invoked when a change in an attribute over time is expected. One
example of this is a study by Conway and Ross, which demonstrates that if a change in skill is
expected, but there is no actual improvement, people will believe that their past skill state was
worse than it was.

Recalling Pain

In general recollection of pain is fairly accurate, although differences are seen between
recollection of acute and chronic pain. Research suggests that recall for acute pain is more
accurate than recall for chronic pain.

An interesting phenomenon seen in recollection of pain in the self is the peak-end phenomenon.
Research has shown that when enduring painful experiences, people will 'prefer' more drawn out
experiences that end with lower levels of pain, over shorter experiences that end with higher
levels of pain, even though the shorter experiences provide less pain overall.
Recalled ratings of pain are more closely related to a combination of the peak pain in the
experience, and the end pain of the experience. Whilst the length of the experience factors in
very little, there is a 'duration neglect' when recollecting painful experiences.

Social Psychology

Symbolic interactionism stresses the 'social construction of an individual's sense of self' through
two main methods: 'In part the self emerges through interaction with others....But the self is a
product of social structure as well as of face-to-face interaction'.
Social psychology acknowledges that 'one of the most important life tasks each of us faces is
understanding both who we are and how we feel about ourselves'. However, rather than absolute
knowledge, it would seem that 'a healthy sense of self calls for both accurate self-knowledge and
protective self-enhancement, in just the right amounts at just the right times.'
Self as an emergent phenomena
In dynamical social psychology as proposed by Nowak et al., the self is rather an emergent
property that emerges as an experiential phenomena from the interaction of psychological
perceptions and experience. This is also hinted in dynamical evolutionary social psychology by
Douglas Kenrick et al. where a set of decision rules generates complex behaviour.

Parts of the Self

The self is an automatic part of every human being, in which enables people to relate to others.
The self is made up of three main parts that, incorporated, allow for the self to maintain its
function. The parts of the self include: Self-knowledge, interpersonal self, and the agent self.

Self-knowledge

Self-knowledge is sometimes referred to as self-concept. This feature allows for people to gather
information and beliefs about themselves. A person's self-awareness, self-esteem, and self-
deception all fall under the self-knowledge part of self. We learn about ourselves through our
looking-glass selves, introspection, social comparisons, and self-perception.

The looking glass self is a term to describe a theory that people learn about themselves through
other people. In the looking-glass self proposal, a person visualizes how they appear to others,
the person imagines how other people will judge them, and they then develop a response to the
judgment they receive from other people. The response will likely be something viewed as pride
or shame about themselves. The looking-glass self has proved to be partially accurate and
inaccurate. A person's self-concept does not solely depend on how others view them. A person
can view themselves as friendly; however they may appear to be quiet and uptight to another
person that may not know them very well.[3]

Introspection refers to the manner in which a person gathers information about oneself through
mental functions and emotions. Although a person might not know why they are thinking or
feeling in such a way, they are able to know what it is they are feeling. However, developmental
stages in life might affect introspection. In a Rosenburg study, children up to a certain stage in
development showed that they knew that their parents actually knew them better than they knew
themselves. Also, studies done by Nisbett and Wilsonuncovered the fact that people might not
actually know what they are thinking all of the time. In one particular study, they discovered that
many people bought the first stockings that they saw and gave the reasoning behind their choice
for buying being based on the color or softness. So, in conclusion, introspection is a way of
gaining knowledge about yourself through your inner emotions and thinking, however it is a
conscious part of the brain. The automatic part of the brain can make us do a lot of unconscious
acts that people have no reasoning for.

Social comparison is regarded as the way in which we compare ourselves to other people
around us. By looking to other people, we can rate our work and behaviors as good, neutral, or
bad. The most beneficial or useful comparisons are those of people that are in the same category
as ourselves. For example, a high school football player would be more appropriate in comparing
himself to an all-star high school football player, rather than a Super Bowl-winning football
player with over 10 years of experience. An upward social comparison refers to a person
comparing themself to a person that is perceived as better than them in a particular area. This can
be either motivational or discouraging to the person comparing themself. A downward social
comparison refers to a person comparing themself to a person that is perceived as worse than
them, which can make that person feel better about their self.

The self-perception theory is another theory in which a person infers about themselves through
their behavior. Their behavior can give them insight as to how their feelings and emotions truly
are. If a person regards their self as being smart, however they continuously receive bad grades
over the years, that person might rearrange their thinking that they are not as smart as they
previously thought. This helps readjust a person's thoughts in order to match their behavior
better.
Self-knowledge is a desire for the majority of human beings. In knowing about ourselves, we are
more capable of knowing how to be socially acceptable and desirable. We seek out self-
knowledge due to the appraisal motive, self-enhancement motive, and consistency motive. The
appraisal motive describes the desire to learn the truth about oneself in general. The self-
enhancement motive is the desire to learn about one's good qualities only. The consistency
motive is the desire to receive reinforcement of those preconceived notions that a person has
about their self. This feedback will verify the thoughts and beliefs they already had relating to
their self.

Self-awareness can be divided into two categories: private self-awareness and public self-
awareness. Private self-awareness is defined as the self looking inward at oneself, including
emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings. All of these cannot be discovered by anyone else.
Public self-awareness is defined by gathering information about your self through the
perceptions of others. The actions and behaviors that others show towards a person will help that
person establish a sense of how others perceive them. For example, if a person likes to sing,
however many other people discourage their singing, that person can conclude that they might
not be the best at singing. Therefore, in this situation, they are gaining public self-awareness
about an aspect of themselves.
Self-esteem describes how a person evaluates their self positively or negatively. Four factors that
contribute to self-esteem are the reactions we get from other people, how we compare people to
ourselves, social roles, and our identification. Our social roles can sometimes be conceived as
higher intelligence or ability, such as an Olympic athlete or biotechnologist. Other social roles
might be stigmatized as being negative, such as a criminal or homeless person. People with high
self-esteem view their selves as containing positive traits. They are more willing to take more
risks and aim for success. People with high self-esteem tend to be confident, gain self-
acceptance, do not worry as much about what others think about them, and think more
optimistically. In contrast, people with low self-esteem view their selves as containing few or no
positive traits, rather than viewing their selves as containing negative traits. It is rare for a person
to rate their overall self as being terrible. People with low self-esteem typically:

do not wish to fail

 are less confident in their success rate

have confused and diverged notions about their self (self-concept confusion)

focus on self-protection more so than self-enhancement

are more prone to emotional imbalances

are less confident about their success than high self-esteemed people

worry what others think about them consistently

have more pessimistic thinking

desire to resemble others more than high self-esteemed people

Our self-concept entails the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that each of us uniquely foster.
However, many psychologists have questioned whether our self-concept is more realistic or
filled with illusions about ourselves and the world around us. Clinical psychologists have studied
depressed people with perceived low self-esteem in order to observe if their perceptions were
fabricated or not. Contrary to their hypothesis, they found that depressed people have a more
realistic view of the world, the qualities they obtain, and the control they have over situations in
their life. It was proposed by psychologists Shelley Taylor and Jonathon Brown that the majority
of people in normal-functioning mental states display and are instilled with positive
illusions including:

overestimating their own good qualities

their control over happenings in their life

an unrealistic portrayal of optimism

Positive illusions remain constant for the majority of one's life due to self-deception.
Self-deception strategies are mental tricks of a person's mind that hide the truth and constitute
false beliefs. Due to self-deception, people are able to obtain resiliency upon negative events that
might occur throughout life. This also can reinforce different ideas or thoughts that the person
wishes and hopes for. The self-serving bias is a strategy in which a person titles acknowledgment
for success and rejects blame for failure. For example, a person who wins a track meet would
glorify their ability as an athlete. However, if that person were to come in last in the meet, the
person would most likely put blame on constituting factors such as a muscle cramp or previous
injury preventing a good performance. Another strategy that people use is greater criticism
involving bad feedback rather than good. A person would judge a situation more harshly when
they did worse, while the opposite would occur for a situation that entailed good feedback.

Interpersonal self

Interpersonal self can also be referred to as your public self. This feature allows for social
connection to others. With the interpersonal self, a person is able to display themselves to the
others around them. Interpersonal self is apparent in situations of self-presentation, being a group
member or partner in a relationship, a person's social roles, and their reputation. For example, a
person might show confidence and determination in their work atmosphere, whereas they show
more of their emotional and nurturing side in their romantic relationship.

Social roles are defined as the parts that a person plays in different situations and with other
people. Our roles change in order to fit the "expected" behaviors in various scenarios. For
example, a person may be a mother, a doctor, a wife, and daughter. Her behavior would most
likely change in her transition from being a doctor to coming home to her daughter.

Social norms constitute the "unwritten rules" that we have about how to act in certain scenarios
and with various people in our lives. For example, when a person is in a classroom, they are
more likely to be quiet and attentive; whereas at a party, they are more likely to be socially
engaged and standing. Norms act as guidelines that shape our behavior. Without them, there
would not be any order, as well as lack of understanding in situations in society.

Agent self

The agent self is known as the executive function that allows for actions. This is how we, as
individuals, make choices and utilize our control in situations and actions. The agent self resides
over everything that involves decision making, self-control, taking charge in situations, and
actively responding. A person might desire to eat unhealthy foods, however it is their agent self
that allows that person to choose to avoid eating them and make a healthier food choice.
4. Self-Dimension
5. Confidence and Competent

The more COMPETENT you are at something, the more CONFIDENT you will be at
performing that function. However, recently I was asked which is more important
COMPETENCE or CONFIDENCE and I had to take a step back and analyze the two. Lets look
at the definition of each below.

COMPETENCE: The quality of being competent; adequacy; possession of required skill,

knowledge, qualification, or capacity.

CONFIDENCE: Full trust; belief in the powers, trustworthiness, or reliability of a person or

thing. Belief in oneself and ones powers and abilities. Self confidence, self reliance, assurance,
certitude.
Now, having learned the definition of each I have seen some CONFIDENT people that were not
very COMPETENT but confidently stood by their incompetence no matter how wrong they were
and were believed by their subordinates because of their displayed confidence. What this creates
is a false sense of trust and belief in the confident individual by those that are less competent and
has the potential of destroying an individual, team, or organization. So, having shed some light
on these two important subjects I still believe COMPETENCE builds CONFIDENCE but am at
odds with these two words because of their potential positive or negative impact on an
individual, team, or organization depending on how they are used.
6. Self Esteem - describes how a person evaluates their self positively or negatively. Four
factors that contribute to self-esteem are the reactions we get from other people, how we
compare people to ourselves, social roles, and our identification. Our social roles can
sometimes be conceived as higher intelligence or ability, such as an Olympic athlete or
biotechnologist. Other social roles might be stigmatized as being negative, such as a criminal
or homeless person. People with high self-esteem view their selves as containing positive
traits. They are more willing to take more risks and aim for success. People with high self-
esteem tend to be confident, gain self-acceptance, do not worry as much about what others
think about them, and think more optimistically. In contrast, people with low self-esteem
view their selves as containing few or no positive traits, rather than viewing their selves as
containing negative traits. It is rare for a person to rate their overall self as being
terrible. People with low self-esteem typically:

do not wish to fail

are less confident in their success rate

 have confused and diverged notions about their self (self-concept confusion)

focus on self-protection more so than self-enhancement

are more prone to emotional imbalances

are less confident about their success than high self-esteemed people

worry what others think about them consistently

have more pessimistic thinking

desire to resemble others more than high self-esteemed people

Our self-concept entails the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that each of us uniquely foster.
However, many psychologists have questioned whether our self-concept is more realistic or
filled with illusions about ourselves and the world around us. Clinical psychologists have studied
depressed people with perceived low self-esteem in order to observe if their perceptions were
fabricated or not. Contrary to their hypothesis, they found that depressed people have a more
realistic view of the world, the qualities they obtain, and the control they have over situations in
their life. It was proposed by psychologists Shelley Taylor and Jonathon Brown that the majority
of people in normal-functioning mental states display and are instilled with positive
illusions including:

overestimating their own good qualities

their control over happenings in their life

an unrealistic portrayal of optimism

Positive illusions remain constant for the majority of one's life due to self-deception.