THOUGHTS AND COMMENTARY
A Book Excerpt From
The Road to Neuroplasticity and Change to Heal Trauma, Improve Cognitive Capacity and Maximize Performance
ABOUT THE BOOK
See Also:
Thoughts and Awareness of Self
Anatomy Of the Self: Part 1 ~ Part 2 ~ Glossary
Your Memory Holds the Secrets
The Power of Positive Thought - Neuroplasticity
Practice Positive Self Affirmations Thoughts, Perceptions and Delusions Complexity of Human Emotion
Thoughts and Awareness of Self
Anatomy Of the Self: Part 1 ~ Part 2 ~ Glossary
Your Memory Holds the Secrets
The Power of Positive Thought - Neuroplasticity
Practice Positive Self Affirmations Thoughts, Perceptions and Delusions Complexity of Human Emotion
Anatomy of the Self
PART 1
The psychology of self is the study of the cognitive representation of our identity or experience. The earliest form of this concept in psychology is made from the distinction between the self as “I” (the subjective knower) and the self as “Me” (the object that is known).
The self is composed of motivation, cognition, affect, and social identity. Within these qualities are pieces that form integrity. These include self-awareness, self-esteem, self-knowledge, and self-perception. All these parts may be modified or altered, changed, added to, or removed.
These factors compose our "selfhood" and include biological habits (nature) and socio-cultural habits (nurture). Biological habits are our genetic traits and socio-cultural are habits learned from role models, education, our responsibilities and the choices we make.
Jungian Theory
In Jungian theory, the Self is the central archetype of several responding to the world in particular ways. The Self is composed into a “coherent whole” made up of both the consciousness and unconscious mind. The Self, according to Jung, is the most important and difficult archetype to understand. It is what he described as “individuation”, which is the process of integrating one's personality.
Jungian psychology theorizes that there are two centers of the personality.
The Self, besides being the center of the psyche, is autonomous, meaning that it exists outside of time and space. Jung called the Self an imago dei. The Self is the source of dreams and often appears as an authority figure in dreams with the ability to perceive the future or guide one in the present.
Psychological Theory
The Composition of the Self
The self is a part of every human being and enables us to relate to others. The self is made up of three main parts that when integrated allow the self to maintain its function.
The parts of the self include:
Self-knowledge
Self-knowledge is sometimes referred to as self-concept. This enables us to collect information and beliefs about ourselves. Our self-awareness, self-esteem, and self-deception are all part of self-knowledge.
We learn about ourselves through
The Looking Glass Self
The looking glass self describes what we learn about ourselves through other people. In the looking-glass self paradigm we visualize how we appear to others, we imagine how other people judge us, and then we develop our response to that judgment. The response can be viewed as pride or shame. The looking-glass self has been proven to be both partially accurate and inaccurate. For example, our self-concept does not solely depend on how others view us. We can view ourselves as friendly; however we may appear to be quiet and uptight to someone who may not know us very well.
Introspection
Introspection refers to the manner in which we gather information about ourselves through cognition and emotions. Although we might not know why we think or feel a certain way we are still able to know what it is we are feeling. Introspection is a way of gaining knowledge about yourself through your inner emotions and thoughts, 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
Social comparisonis the way in which we compare ourselves to other people around us. By looking to other people, we can rate our own work and behavior as good, neutral, or bad. The most useful comparisons are of those people 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 baseball player and not a Major League Baseball player. An upward social comparison refers to comparing ourselves to a person who is perceived as “better” than us in a certain circumstances. This can be either motivational or discouraging. A downward social comparison refers to comparing ourselves to a person perceived as worse than us, which can make us feel better about ourselves.
The Self Perception Theory
The self-perception theory is when we infer something about ourselves through our behavior. Our behavior can give us insight into our feelings and emotions. If we regard ourselves as smart, yet we continuously receive bad grades, we have to rearrange our thinking to assume we are not as smart as we previously thought. This helps readjust our thoughts in order to match our behavior better.
Self Knowledge
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
The appraisal motive describes the desire to learn the truth about ourselves in general. The self-enhancement motive is the desire to learn about our good qualities only. The consistency motive is the desire to receive reinforcement of any preconceived notions that we have about ourselves. This feedback will verify the thoughts and beliefs we already have relating to our self.
Self Awareness
Self-Awareness can be divided into two categories: private self-awareness and public self-awareness. Private self-awareness is the self looking inward - this includes emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings. None of these can be discovered by anyone else. Public self-awareness is defined by gathering information about yourself through the perceptions of others. The actions and behaviors that others show towards you will help you establish a sense of how others perceive you.
Self Esteem
Self-esteem describes how we evaluate ourselves positively or negatively. Four factors that contribute to self-esteem are the reactions we get from other people, how we compare ourselves to others, our defined social roles, and our self identification. Our social roles can be indicative of higher intelligence or ability, such as a mathematician or a symphony pianist. Other social roles might be stigmatized as negative like a criminal. Clinical psychologists have studied depressed people with low self-esteem to see if their perceptions were fabricated or not. 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 theorized by psychologists Shelley Taylor and Jonathon Brown that the majority of people in normal-functioning mental states display and are instilled with positive illusionslike overestimating their own good qualities, their control over happenings in their life, or have an unrealistic portrayal of optimism. Positive illusions remain constant for the majority of one's life due to self-deception.
Self Deception
Self-deception is a set of mind tricks that disguise the truth and form our false beliefs. Due to self-deception, we are able to obtain resiliency through negative events in life. This also reinforces ideas or thoughts that we wish and hope for. The self-serving biasis a strategy in we acknowledge success and reject blame for failure. For example, a person who wins a track meet would glorify ability as an athlete. In contrast if that person came in last they would put blame on other factors such as a muscle cramp or previous injury. Another strategy that we 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 happen for a situation that got good feedback.
Interpersonal Self
Interpersonal self can also be referred to as your public self. This facet is for social connection to others. With the interpersonal self, we are able to display ourselves to people around us. Interpersonal self is obvious in situations of self-presentation, being a group member, a partner in a relationship, in a person's social roles, or through reputation. For example, we might show confidence and determination in our work atmosphere, but show more of a emotional and nurturing side in our romantic relationship.
Social Roles
Social roles are defined as the parts that we play in different situations and with others. Our roles change in order to fit the "expected" behaviors in different scenarios. For example, a person may be a mother, a doctor, a wife, and daughter. She would be different as a doctor than as a mother.
Social Norms
Social norms constitute the "unwritten rules" that we live by. For example, when you are in a lecture you are more likely to be quiet and attentive but at a party, you are more likely to be socially engaged. Norms act as guidelines that shape our behavior. Without norms, we would not have order.
The Agent Self
The agent self is known as the executive function that drives actions. This is how we make choices and utilize our control in situations. The agent self resides over all decision making and self-control, it takes charge in situations, and actively responds. A person might desire to drink excessive amounts of sugary drinks, however it is their agent self that drives that person to choose water as a healthier choice instead to avoid weight gain, tooth decay or diabetes.
The Future Self
The future self examines the thinking about ourselves in the future. We think about our future selves similarly to how we think about other people. The extent to which we feel psychologically connected to our future self influences how well we treat our future self. When people feel connected to their future self, they are more likely to save for retirement, make healthy decisions, and avoid getting in trouble. Interventions that increase feelings of connectedness with future selves can improve future-oriented decision making across these domains.
Theories of the future self have foundations in the work of philosopher Derek Parfit. Parfit theorized that people might differ in the extent to which they feel similar and connected to themselves in the future. Under Parfit's paradigm, people act rationally based on how connected their present self is to their future self. According to Parfit, it is rational for people with little connection to behave negatively (like smoking or other risky behaviors).
Possible Selves
Possible selves are specific ideas about who one might become in the future. Possible selves include the ideal selves people hope to become, other selves who people could become, and selves people are afraid of becoming. Possible selves can guide individuals from where they are in the present to where they imagine being in the future. When the possible selves are unattainable fantasies rather than rational expectations, effort and performance are lower.
Want/Should Conflicts
Want-should conflicts refer to internal conflicts between one's “wantself” and one's “should self.” The theory assumes people simultaneously hold two sets of preferences; one describing their “want self”(present-focused) and one associated with their “should self”(future-focused). Interventions meant to increase patient decision making use treatments to ensure people act on their “should” preferences and not the “want” preferences.
The self is composed of motivation, cognition, affect, and social identity. Within these qualities are pieces that form integrity. These include self-awareness, self-esteem, self-knowledge, and self-perception. All these parts may be modified or altered, changed, added to, or removed.
These factors compose our "selfhood" and include biological habits (nature) and socio-cultural habits (nurture). Biological habits are our genetic traits and socio-cultural are habits learned from role models, education, our responsibilities and the choices we make.
Jungian Theory
In Jungian theory, the Self is the central archetype of several responding to the world in particular ways. The Self is composed into a “coherent whole” made up of both the consciousness and unconscious mind. The Self, according to Jung, is the most important and difficult archetype to understand. It is what he described as “individuation”, which is the process of integrating one's personality.
Jungian psychology theorizes that there are two centers of the personality.
- The ego is the center of conscious identity.
- The self is the center of the total personality; composed of consciousness, the unconscious, and the ego.
The Self, besides being the center of the psyche, is autonomous, meaning that it exists outside of time and space. Jung called the Self an imago dei. The Self is the source of dreams and often appears as an authority figure in dreams with the ability to perceive the future or guide one in the present.
Psychological Theory
The Composition of the Self
The self is a part of every human being and enables us to relate to others. The self is made up of three main parts that when integrated allow the self to maintain its function.
The parts of the self include:
- Self-knowledge
- The interpersonal self
- The agent self
Self-knowledge
Self-knowledge is sometimes referred to as self-concept. This enables us to collect information and beliefs about ourselves. Our self-awareness, self-esteem, and self-deception are all part of self-knowledge.
We learn about ourselves through
- Our looking-glass selves
- Introspection
- Social comparisons
- Self-perception
The Looking Glass Self
The looking glass self describes what we learn about ourselves through other people. In the looking-glass self paradigm we visualize how we appear to others, we imagine how other people judge us, and then we develop our response to that judgment. The response can be viewed as pride or shame. The looking-glass self has been proven to be both partially accurate and inaccurate. For example, our self-concept does not solely depend on how others view us. We can view ourselves as friendly; however we may appear to be quiet and uptight to someone who may not know us very well.
Introspection
Introspection refers to the manner in which we gather information about ourselves through cognition and emotions. Although we might not know why we think or feel a certain way we are still able to know what it is we are feeling. Introspection is a way of gaining knowledge about yourself through your inner emotions and thoughts, 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
Social comparisonis the way in which we compare ourselves to other people around us. By looking to other people, we can rate our own work and behavior as good, neutral, or bad. The most useful comparisons are of those people 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 baseball player and not a Major League Baseball player. An upward social comparison refers to comparing ourselves to a person who is perceived as “better” than us in a certain circumstances. This can be either motivational or discouraging. A downward social comparison refers to comparing ourselves to a person perceived as worse than us, which can make us feel better about ourselves.
The Self Perception Theory
The self-perception theory is when we infer something about ourselves through our behavior. Our behavior can give us insight into our feelings and emotions. If we regard ourselves as smart, yet we continuously receive bad grades, we have to rearrange our thinking to assume we are not as smart as we previously thought. This helps readjust our thoughts in order to match our behavior better.
Self Knowledge
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
- The self-enhancement motive
- The consistency motive
The Appraisal Motive
The appraisal motive describes the desire to learn the truth about ourselves in general. The self-enhancement motive is the desire to learn about our good qualities only. The consistency motive is the desire to receive reinforcement of any preconceived notions that we have about ourselves. This feedback will verify the thoughts and beliefs we already have relating to our self.
Self Awareness
Self-Awareness can be divided into two categories: private self-awareness and public self-awareness. Private self-awareness is the self looking inward - this includes emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings. None of these can be discovered by anyone else. Public self-awareness is defined by gathering information about yourself through the perceptions of others. The actions and behaviors that others show towards you will help you establish a sense of how others perceive you.
Self Esteem
Self-esteem describes how we evaluate ourselves positively or negatively. Four factors that contribute to self-esteem are the reactions we get from other people, how we compare ourselves to others, our defined social roles, and our self identification. Our social roles can be indicative of higher intelligence or ability, such as a mathematician or a symphony pianist. Other social roles might be stigmatized as negative like a criminal. Clinical psychologists have studied depressed people with low self-esteem to see if their perceptions were fabricated or not. 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 theorized by psychologists Shelley Taylor and Jonathon Brown that the majority of people in normal-functioning mental states display and are instilled with positive illusionslike overestimating their own good qualities, their control over happenings in their life, or have an unrealistic portrayal of optimism. Positive illusions remain constant for the majority of one's life due to self-deception.
Self Deception
Self-deception is a set of mind tricks that disguise the truth and form our false beliefs. Due to self-deception, we are able to obtain resiliency through negative events in life. This also reinforces ideas or thoughts that we wish and hope for. The self-serving biasis a strategy in we acknowledge success and reject blame for failure. For example, a person who wins a track meet would glorify ability as an athlete. In contrast if that person came in last they would put blame on other factors such as a muscle cramp or previous injury. Another strategy that we 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 happen for a situation that got good feedback.
Interpersonal Self
Interpersonal self can also be referred to as your public self. This facet is for social connection to others. With the interpersonal self, we are able to display ourselves to people around us. Interpersonal self is obvious in situations of self-presentation, being a group member, a partner in a relationship, in a person's social roles, or through reputation. For example, we might show confidence and determination in our work atmosphere, but show more of a emotional and nurturing side in our romantic relationship.
Social Roles
Social roles are defined as the parts that we play in different situations and with others. Our roles change in order to fit the "expected" behaviors in different scenarios. For example, a person may be a mother, a doctor, a wife, and daughter. She would be different as a doctor than as a mother.
Social Norms
Social norms constitute the "unwritten rules" that we live by. For example, when you are in a lecture you are more likely to be quiet and attentive but at a party, you are more likely to be socially engaged. Norms act as guidelines that shape our behavior. Without norms, we would not have order.
The Agent Self
The agent self is known as the executive function that drives actions. This is how we make choices and utilize our control in situations. The agent self resides over all decision making and self-control, it takes charge in situations, and actively responds. A person might desire to drink excessive amounts of sugary drinks, however it is their agent self that drives that person to choose water as a healthier choice instead to avoid weight gain, tooth decay or diabetes.
The Future Self
The future self examines the thinking about ourselves in the future. We think about our future selves similarly to how we think about other people. The extent to which we feel psychologically connected to our future self influences how well we treat our future self. When people feel connected to their future self, they are more likely to save for retirement, make healthy decisions, and avoid getting in trouble. Interventions that increase feelings of connectedness with future selves can improve future-oriented decision making across these domains.
Theories of the future self have foundations in the work of philosopher Derek Parfit. Parfit theorized that people might differ in the extent to which they feel similar and connected to themselves in the future. Under Parfit's paradigm, people act rationally based on how connected their present self is to their future self. According to Parfit, it is rational for people with little connection to behave negatively (like smoking or other risky behaviors).
Possible Selves
Possible selves are specific ideas about who one might become in the future. Possible selves include the ideal selves people hope to become, other selves who people could become, and selves people are afraid of becoming. Possible selves can guide individuals from where they are in the present to where they imagine being in the future. When the possible selves are unattainable fantasies rather than rational expectations, effort and performance are lower.
Want/Should Conflicts
Want-should conflicts refer to internal conflicts between one's “wantself” and one's “should self.” The theory assumes people simultaneously hold two sets of preferences; one describing their “want self”(present-focused) and one associated with their “should self”(future-focused). Interventions meant to increase patient decision making use treatments to ensure people act on their “should” preferences and not the “want” preferences.
STARLIGHT POETRY BY KAI
View Me on Twitter @kairosoflife
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© 2019-2020 Copyright Starlight Poetry
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View Me on Twitter @kairosoflife
See Creativity Chaos - a Creativity Blog by Kai
About | Reprints & Copyrights | Home
© 2019-2020 Copyright Starlight Poetry
VIEW FULL SITE DIRECTORY