CHAPTER 4
Seeking Selfhood
Chapter Overview
Seeking
Selfhood
What Is Self-Concept?
Self-Image
Ideal Self
Multiple Selves
The Self-Concept and
Personal Growth
The Self You’d Like to Be
Our Social Selves
Learning from Criticism
Greater Self-Direction
Core Characteristics of
Self-Concept
Self-Consistency
Self-Esteem
Self-Enhancement and Self
Verification
CHAPTER SUMMARY
What Is the Self-Concept?
Self-Image
Ideal Self
Multiple Selves
Chapter Summary cont’d
Core Characteristics
of the Self-Concept
Self-Consistency
Self-Esteem
Self-Enhancement and
Self Verification
Chapter Summary cont’d
The Self-Concept
and Personal Growth
The Self You’d Like to Be
Our Social Selves
Learning from Criticism
Greater Self-Direction
What Is the Self-Concept?
Introduction
• Self-concept: the overall image or
awareness we have of ourselves. It
includes all those perceptions of “I” and
“me,” together with the feelings, beliefs,
and values associated with them.
• …provides a personal identity or sense
of who you are.
• Most people actively manage their selfconcepts so as to maintain a positive view
of themselves.
Introduction cont’d
• Most people adopt self-serving biases-positive attributions about themselves.
• Attribution--the process of ascribing the
cause of some event.
• Self-serving attribution--glorifying the self
or conceiving of the self as causing the
good outcomes that come to us.
• Self-concept is comprised of many
components: body image, ideal self, selfimage, social self
Self-Image
• Self-image--the self “I see myself
as”… the self you think you are.
• …acquired through many selfperceptions over the years that
combine.
• … shaped by significant others.
• People with a sturdy self-image
cope better than those without one.
• We continually revise our selfimage because of experiences.
Ideal Self
• Ideal self--the self you would like to be,
including your aspirations, moral ideals,
and personal values.
• … derived from the “shoulds” and “oughts”
we learned as children.
• When it differs from the way we believe
others see us, the result may be social
anxiety--extreme shyness that interferes
with daily life.
• If ideals seem unattainable, it is wise to
revise!
Multiple Selves
• Self-complexity--the extent to which one’s selfconcept is comprised of many differentiated selfaspects.
• Many different experiences, interactions, successes,
failures can lead to a high level of self-complexity.
• Culture affects self-concept; cultural variations in self,
self-complexity exist.
• People with highly fragmented/incoherent selfconcepts have difficulty adjusting.
• In extreme cases, people may develop mental
disorders.
Core Characteristics
of the Self-Concept
Self-Consistency
• … our tendency to perceive our
experiences in a manner consistent with
our self-concept.
• Self-concept is not always consistent with
all of our experiences…, as Carl Rogers
stated, we have had conditions of worth
placed on us.
• Conditions of worth--conditions placed
on us such that we only feel loved IF we
meet the conditions.
Self-Consistency cont’d
• …we may selectively allow only certain
experiences into our reality.
• Experiences that do not mesh might be
distorted to fit our reality.
• …comparable to what Freud called denial.
• Another tactic for coping : Self-immunization-trivializing threatening information by making the
behavior seem less important. And…
• Mnemonic neglect--poor recall (or forgetting)
of negative feedback that is inconsistent with
core aspects of the self-concept.
Self-Esteem
• …our evaluation of ourselves and the resulting
feelings of worth associated with self-concept.
• …may be the most important component of self in
terms of our mental health, coping abilities, and
personal growth.
• Influences on self-esteem: our achievements, rejection
by others, estimations of our intelligence, personal
appearance, and other attributes.
• Overall self-esteem is a complex combination of
factors.
Self-Esteem cont’d
• Most people enjoy moderately high levels of selfesteem.
• …it is powerful influence on expectations we have
for ourselves.
People with high self-esteem:
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Like what they see in the mirror
Feel comfortable with themselves
Regard failures as opportunities
Give credit to others when it is due
Make realistic demands of themselves
Accept compliments graciously
Self-Esteem cont’d
People with low self-esteem:
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Feel discontented most of the time
Brag about or apologize for their achievements
Make excuses for failures
Try to convert others to their viewpoints
Envy others or “put them down” with sarcasm
Expect too much or too little of themselves
Reject compliments or “qualify” them
Withhold affection out of fear of being hurt
Fortunately, self-esteem is an acquired
trait: it can be modified or improved!
Self-Enhancement and Self-Verification
Two competing theories:
Self-enhancement theory
People will try to get positive feedback that affirms
their own ideas about their positive qualities.
Self-verification theory
People want to preserve their own images (positive
and negative) and therefore elicit feedback from
others that verifies or confirms their own selfperceptions.
In summary, people generally prefer positive
personal feedback that also confirms selfperceptions.
Self-Enhancement and Self-Verification cont’d
WOMEN AND MEN:
Gender role-a social and cultural expectation about what is
appropriate for males or females.
• Masculinity/femininity? Neither necessarily
contributes more to self-esteem.
• If the attribute being judged is associated with
one’s sex role, it is more crucial to self-worth.
Self-Enhancement and Self-Verification cont’d
WOMEN AND MEN CONT’D:
For Example:
• The feminine sex role promotes social
relationships: feminine women with many friends
probably have higher esteem.
• The masculine sex role is more task-oriented;
masculine men who accomplish many tasks may
have higher esteem than men who don’t.
• …women possess self-clarity--the extent to which
one’s individual self-beliefs are clearly defined,
internally consistent, and stable.
• Overall, men’s and women’s self-esteem levels are
similar….
Self-Enhancement and Self-Verification cont’d
MINORITIES
Minority groups--relatively small or have less
power as compared to the majority group.
• Overall, no differences in self-esteem
compared to majority.
• Minorities use the same self-protections for
maintaining self-esteem as do Whites.
• For example, minorities sometimes attribute
their failures to prejudice or discrimination…
• …or minorities compare themselves to each
other rather than to the White majority.
The Self-Concept
and Personal Growth
The Self You’d Like to Be
• Self concept is ever-evolving; self-image
changes based on our experiences.
• New friends, a different job, changes in family
circumstances or finances can impact selfconcept.
• Americans spend billions of dollars trying to
improve themselves.
• One “free” method: visualization or guided
imagery–a procedure that helps a person
shut off the outside world and bypass the
censor we call the brain, enabling the person
to see, experience, and learn from an
intuitive, feeling, unconscious nature.
Our Social Selves
Social self--the impressions we think others
have of us.
• We have as many social selves as there are
groups of people we know.
• Errors in social self-perception can occur
because of the spotlight effect--we
overestimate the salience of our behaviors and
our effects on others.
• Others shape our self-perceptions and our
own self-perceptions shape what others think
of us!
• We can change our self-perceptions by
changing who we choose to be with!
Learning from Criticism
• Most people don’t like to be criticized.
• We waste energy and feel anxiety when
we worry about criticism.
• Accepting and managing criticism may
provide opportunities for growth.
• Criticism can also provide new and
needed information.
• Criticisms that are repeated may have
some kernel of truth to them and merit
our attention.
• If the criticism is worthy of consideration,
take positive steps toward self-change.
Greater Self-Direction
• We also need to listen to ourselves.
Underneath it all, we may be asking “Who
am I, really?”
• As we become more comfortable with
ourselves, we proceed from “otherdirectedness” (letting others guide us) to
“self-directedness” (creating our own
future).
• For example, as other-directed children
become self-directed adolescents, they
search for a self-identity. The search may
be what adults perceive as negativity!
• Later stages of self-fulfillment (or selfactualization), are filled with selfdirectedness.
Greater Self-Direction cont’d
Individuals who are actualizing or are
self-directed are MORE:
• Open to their own experiences
• Trusting of themselves
• Accepting of others
Greater Self-Direction cont’d
Individuals who are NOT selfdirected are:
• More dependent on others and feel
more obligated to them
• Likely to seek approval from others
rather than seek self-satisfaction
• Unlikely to self-correct harmful
behaviors and attitudes
• Apt to feel a sense of self-alienation
Conclusion
Personal growth:
• May be unsettling at times
• Involves moving away from the familiar
and comfortable
• Means seeing yourself as a different
and evolving person
• Is a never-ending journey!