Chapter 16 The Self What You Know About

Objectives • Discuss two types of self-knowledge: declarative and procedural • Discuss how self-knowledge

The I and the Me • • William James The me The I Recent

The Contents and Purposes of the Self • Psychological self – Influences behavior – Organizes memories – Influences impressions and judgments of others – Organizes knowledge © 2016 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 3

The Contents and Purposes of the Self • Jobs and purposes of the self

The Contents and Purposes of the Self • Declarative knowledge • Procedural knowledge –

The Declarative Self • Self-esteem – Low self-esteem – Attempts to increase self-esteem may be detrimental – Self-esteem can be too high – How to legitimately increase self-esteem © 2016 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 6

The Declarative Self • The self-schema – Where the declarative self resides – Can be assessed with S data or B data – Consequences for how one processes information – Not based only on memories of specific events © 2016 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 7

The Declarative Self • Self-reference and memory – Self-reference effect • Increases accessibility • Explains why your most meaningful memories stay with you the longest – Depends on culture • Self-efficacy – Sets the limits for what we attempt to do © 2016 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 8

The Declarative Self • Possible selves – Possible future selves may affect goals – Evidence that it affects mate preferences – Want future selves that fulfill the needs for selfesteem, competence, and meaning – Want similar future selves © 2016 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 9

The Declarative Self • Self-discrepancy theory – The interactions between possible selves and the actual self determine feelings about life – Ideal self • Discrepancy leads to depression – Ought self • Discrepancy leads to anxiety © 2016 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 10

The Declarative Self: Accurate Self-Knowledge • A hallmark of mental health • Process for gaining accurate self-knowledge – Realistic Accuracy Model: relevance, availability, detection, utilization © 2016 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 11

The Declarative Self • Self-knowledge versus knowledge of others – Important differences in perceiving ourselves versus others – We know our emotional experience better than do others – Others know our behaviors better than we do © 2016 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 12

The Declarative Self • Improving self-knowledge – Introspection – Seek feedback – Observe own

The Procedural Self • Not conscious and not possible to explain to others • Learned by doing and watching others • Relational selves – Relational self-schema – Deeply ingrained and difficult to change © 2016 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 14

The Procedural Self • Implicit selves – Includes the relational self – Measure with

The Procedural Self: Implicit Selves • Self-esteem – High implicit self-esteem: respond more quickly when “me” and “good” are paired than when “me” and “bad” are paired – Predicts responses to success and failure – Only weakly related to declarative self-esteem – Implications for narcissism • Shyness • Implication © 2016 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 16

The Procedural Self • Acquiring and changing procedural knowledge – Practice and feedback – Does not requires a teacher who is good at what is being taught – Acquire experiences of what you want your new procedural self to be © 2016 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 17

How Many Selves? • Some theorists think each person has many declarative and procedural selves – The active self – Working self-concept • Problems with this theory – A unitary and consistent sense of self is associated with mental health – Deciding which self to be – Where does one stop fractionating the self? 18 © 2016 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

The Really Real Self • “The sense of being the same person persists across the entire lifespan” (p. 610) – Even with brain damage, memory loss, and mental illness © 2016 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 19

Clicker Question #1 Self-knowledge can be increased by a) practice and feedback. b) thinking about what your personality is like. c) watch yourself behaving in several situations. d) all of the above. © 2016 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 20

Clicker Question #2 When you describe yourself as hard-working and friendly, you are describing the a) declarative self. b) procedural self. c) implicit self. d) most important self. © 2016 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 21

Clicker Question #3 The procedural self a) is easy to change. b) predicts behavior differently from what is predicted by the declarative self. c) is measured with self-report data. d) can be used to increase memory for new information because of the self-reference effect. © 2016 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 22