1 THE SELF EARLY THEORISTS OF ‘THE SELF’ William James, Charles Cooley SELF-CONCEPT & SELF-ESTEEM Pelham & Swann (1989) Gender differences? Self-objectification theory

2 EARLY THEORISTS OF THE ‘SELF’

3 WILLIAM JAMES ( ) “Principles of Psychology” Duality of Self: Self as object than can be observed I have property X “me” Self as agent doing the observing Self as the perceiver “I” Related to consciousness: the “I” does the perceiving, feeling,

4 CHARLES COOLEY ( ) “Human Nature and the Social Order” The Social Self: Self can’t be understood in isolation--must be studied in interaction with others Self is not an inherent property of human nature but rather a socially-constructed entity: our sense of self is built upon the life-long experience of seeing ourselves through the eyes of others (“looking-glass self”) James, Mead, Cooley --> SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM

5 SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM (Social) reality is an illusion, nothing is inherently real, only the meanings and symbols we collectively construct and use to describe reality are real; these symbols can be deconstructed to reveal who develop them and how they are useful to particular groups.

6 SELF-CONCEPT & SELF-ESTEEM

7 How do people move from having specific knowledge about their attributes to global evaluations of their self-worth? Augusto Pinochet (1915-?) Sylvia Plath ( ) Undeserved high self-esteem ? Undeserved low self-esteem ? PARADOX: Often there is no obvious relationship between people’s accomplishments and virtues and their global self-esteem

8 PELHAM & SWANN (1989) GLOBAL SELF-ESTEEM (GSE) General affective evaluation of own’s worth or importance. 2 components: (1) Affective component:COLOR Basic sense of pride/shame about oneself. Largely rooted in temperament (individual differences in basic tendency to feel positive and negative emotions) and early childhood experiences; stable, fuzzy, unconscious, hard to verbalize, spontaneous, irrational (“feeling is believing”) Also known as trait self-esteem (2) Cognitive component:CONTENT Known as self-concept (SC) Hierarchically organized set of specific mental self-views about one’s characteristics (roles, abilities, etc.) and their evaluation Dynamic, clear, verbalized, rational (“seeing is believing”) Framing factors: DYNAMICS 1. Attribute importance 2. Attribute certainty determine impact of SC on 3. Actual/Ideal/Ought Self discrepancyGSE

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10 POSITIVE & NEGATIVE AFFECT SELF- CONCEPT (COGNITIVE COMPONENT) TRAIT SELF-ESTEEM (AFFECTIVE COMPONENT) GLOBAL SELF-ESTEEM FRAMING FACTORS : 1. Attribute importance 2. Attribute certainty 3. Actual/Ideal/Ought discrepancy

11 Gender differences in global self-esteem ? Not reliable and/or sizable differences have been found in adults (Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974) Sources of global self-esteem associated to different things for men and women (Josephs, Markus, & Tafarodi, 1992) Differences in agency and communion

12 Girl’s self-confidence fairly high until age 11 or 12 –Assertive about feelings At adolescence –Many girls accept stereotyped notions of how they should be (behavior and looks) Repress true feelings Adopt a “nice” and woman-like self- presentation GIRLS SELF-ESTEEM (Gilligan, 1990)

13 PHYSICAL SELF IN YOUNG WOMEN

14 SELF-OBJECTIFICATION (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997) American culture socializes women to adopt observers' perspectives on their physical selves. This self-objectification is hypothesized to (a) produce body shame  restrained eating, and (b) consume attentional resources.

15 Highly recommended reading !! Fredrickson, Roberts, Noll, Quinn, & Twenge (1998). That swimsuit becomes you: Sex differences in self- objectification, restrained eating, and math performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

16 Question for the class: Why is self-esteem in (Caucasian) girls lower than for the other ethnic groups?