Self-Concept
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Definition – overall thoughts & feelings about
ourselves.
 Fixed?
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Importance?
 “How you perceive yourself greatly affects the
way you perceive your world…& behave in it.”
 What is a self-fulfilling prophecy?
 “Who am I, really?” – Carl
Rogers
 Existential Angst – Victor
Frankl
 An onion – Tony Campolo
 Thoughts & Actions
Reflected Appraisal – evaluation
(assumption) of how others see us.
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Significant others (George Herbert Mead) are
valued for their opinion.
Carl Rogers view of the phenomenal self
▪
▪
Definition: Your perceived reality. It is your ever
changing world of experiences, both internal and
external.
Self concept becomes filter for all experiences
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“I love you not only for what you are, but for
what I am when I am with you. I love you not
only for what you have made of yourself, but
for what you are making of me. I love you for
the part of me that you bring out.” - Elizabeth
Barrett Browning
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Mad About You
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“I can tell you like it
when I imitate you.”
“I love it when you
laugh when I hold this
finger like this and
curse! You look so
proud!”

Individuals have the following selfperceptions:
 An actual self (qualities people think
they actually possess).
 An ideal self (qualities people would like
to have).
 An ought self (qualities people think
they should possess).
More on the role of Parents – parenting styles.
 Two dimensions of parenting are important
1. Parental acceptance.
2. Parental control.
 Together, these dimensions yield four parenting
styles (see Figure 6.11).
 The authoritative style is associated with the
highest self-esteem scores.
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Figure 6.11. Baumrind’s four parenting styles. Four parenting styles result from the interactions of parental
acceptance and parental control, as theorized by Diana Baumrind.
Adapted from Baumrind, D. (1971). Current patterns of parental authority [Monograph]. Developmental
Psychology, 4(1, Part 2), 1-103. American Psychological Association. Adapted by permission of the author.
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Other sources:
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Teachers, classmates, and close friends
Those who feel competent, relative to
others, have the highest self-esteem.
Festinger’s (1954) social comparison theory
states that we compare ourselves with others in
order to assess and/or improve our abilities.
 A reference group.
 If we want to improve, we choose reference
groups of superior quality, but
 If we want to bolster self-esteem, we choose
inferior groups.
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Cognitive processes affect the ability to maintain a view
of the self.
Two different types of processes are at work:
1. Automatic processing – default mode
2. Controlled processing – active thinking required for
important decision-making and analysis.
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MAKING THE AUTOMATIC
CONTROLLED – MINDFULNESS
Awareness of Mental Distortions
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Self-attributions – are “inferences that people
draw about the causes of their own behavior”.
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Three key dimensions of attributions:
1. Whether they are internal or external.
– Internal attributions – “ascribe the causes
of behavior to personal dispositions, traits,
abilities, and feelings”.
– External attributions – “ascribe behavior to
situational demands”.
Dimensions of attributions, continued
2. Whether they are stable or unstable.
– Stable attributions – the cause of behavior
is unlikely to change over time.
– Unstable attributions – the cause of
behavior is variable, or subject to change.
Dimensions of attributions, continued
3. Whether they are controllable or
uncontrollable.
– This dimension simply considers whether or
not the individual has any control over the
behavior.

Explanatory style – refers to the “tendency to use
similar causal attributions for a wide variety of
events in one’s life”.
 People who use an optimistic explanatory
style attribute setbacks to external, unstable,
and specific factors.
 People who use a pessimistic explanatory
style attribute setbacks to internal, stable, and
global factors (see Figure 6.13).
Figure 6.13. The effects of attributional style on expectations, emotions, and behavior. The pessimistic
explanatory style is seen in the top row of boxes. This attributional style, which attributes setbacks to internal, stable
and global causes, tends to result in an expectation of lack of control over future events, depressed feelings, and
passive behavior. A more adaptive, optimistic attributional style is shown in the bottom row of boxes.
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Self-efficacy – “one’s belief about one’s ability “
 can be learned and changed.
 increasing self-efficacy is beneficial to one’s
physical and mental health.
Mastery experiences
– Learning new skills increases self-efficacy.
2. Vicarious experiences
3. Persuasion and encouragement
4. Interpretation of emotional arousal
– When we try new things, we may become
nervous.
– It is important to attribute this to normal
arousal needed to do well, rather than fear.
1.
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LOOKING AT AUTOMATIC THOUGHTS
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Four motives guide self-understanding.
1. Self-assessment – desire for truthful
information about oneself.
2. Self-verification – preference for feedback that
matches our self-view.
3. Self-improvement – looking to successful
others in order to improve ourselves.
4. Self-enhancement – desire to maintain positive
feelings about oneself.
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Methods of self-enhancement
1. Downward social comparison – a “defensive
tendency to compare oneself with someone
whose troubles are more serious than one’s
own”.
2. Self-serving bias – “tendency to attribute one’s
successes to personal factors and one’s failures
to situational factors”.
Methods of self-enhancement, continued
3. Basking in reflected glory – “tendency to
enhance one’s image by publicly announcing
one’s association with those who are
successful”.
4. Self-handicapping – “tendency to sabotage
one’s performance to provide an excuse for
possible failure”.
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3 Primary needs in significant relationships
 Genuineness
 Empathy
 Acceptance: Unconditional positive regard
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These promote Self Actualization
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Relationships
Conscious Choice
 Behaviorist (Skinner) & Humanist (Rogers &
Maslow) believe we consciously decide what
information to incorporate.
 Answering the BIG questions
▪ Who am I, really? – Carl Rogers
▪ Why am I here? Existential Angst – Victor Frankl
▪ Who’s the real me? An onion – Tony Campolo
Are you 2,3,4…faced?
If so, when?
If so, is that a bad thing?
Selves:
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Actual self
Ideal self
Ought selves
Possible selves
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Self-Discrepancy – different views are
inconsistent
 Cognitive Dissonance
 Discrepancy between actual & ideal = depression
(hopeless)
 Discrepancy between actual & ought = anxiety
(guilt)
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1.
Commitment & Crises
Identity Diffusion
 No commitment or crises
2.
Identity Foreclosure
 No crises, inherited commitment
3.
Identity Moratorium
 Crises without commitment
4.
Identity Achievement
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Relationships
Conscious Choice
Unconscious Sources
 Freud & Jung believed self concept was
unconscious
 Jung believed in innate personality traits.
 The Myers-Briggs test is based on Jung’s trait
descriptions and help you understand your innate
tendencies.
Self-consistency – perceiving experiences in a
manner consistent with self-concept.
Cognitive Conservatism – we tend to manage new
information so that it accords with what we
already know or think we know.
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Discounting positive or negative contradictions.
▪
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Even when a situation positively contradicts our selfconcept we tend to minimize or deny its implications.
Self-concept = I’m bad at math
Result = Did good on test
Response = Teacher made a mistake or dumb luck.
Self-serving bias (attributions)
 Internalize positive
 Externalize negative
• Beneffectance (Greenwald) – our tendency to take
credit for what proves good but not the
responsibility for what proves bad.
• Egocentrism – we tend to overestimate our influence
in a situation or the extent to which we are the
target of attention.

• Self-enhancement Theory – try to get positive
feedback about our qualities.
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Self-verification Theory – we want to be known and
understood by others according to our firmly held
beliefs and feelings about ourselves.
▪ We act and communicate in ways to shape
other’s evaluation of us.
 Comparison to similar others
▪ may distort and deny the similarities.
▪ Deny similarities with people who have problems due to
similar behavior (AIDS).
 Comparison to less adequate to feel better
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Rationalization - Creating false but plausible excuses to
justify unacceptable behavior.
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Identification - Bolstering self-esteem by forming an
imaginary or real alliance with some person or group.
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Displacement - Diverting
emotional feelings (usually
anger) from their original
source to a substitute
target.
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Regression - A reversion to
immature patterns of
behavior.
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Repression - Keeping
distressing thoughts
and feelings buried in
the unconscious.

Projection - Attributing
one’s own thoughts,
feelings, or motives to
another.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Identify causes of low self-esteem
Identify domains of competency
Demonstrate achievement
Actively cope with challenge
Promote social support & approval
Mr. Clean & Mr. Dirty Study (Gergen, 1970)
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Dress for success
Self-esteem can change with comparisons
Self-esteem can very smaller amounts
depending on strength
High esteem parenting
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Low esteem parenting
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very accepting
express affection
set firm but reasonable rules.
either overly strict, overly permissive, or
inconsistent.
Dweck (1999) praise children for their efforts
rather than intelligence increases children’s
desire for more challenges.
1. Preencounter
 Eurocentrism
2. Encounter
 I’ll never fit
3. Immersion/Emersion
 Ethnic Pride
 Guilt
4. Internalization/Commitment
 Incorporation without reactionism
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http://www.self-esteemnase.org/research.shtml#crime
http://www.jrf.org.uk/pressroom/releases/281
101.asp