Key concepts

  • Self-concept
  • Self-esteem
  • Identity

Self-concept: Development

  • Self-perception (cognitive/descriptive knowledge) – Develops gradually in the first years of life.

 Increasing complexity and level of abstraction.

Self-concept starts to develop after around the first 18 months of life.

Self-recognition is important for:

  • More complex forms of self-awareness like those in ‘pretend plays’.
  • Use of words that refer to yourself.
  •  This develops after the self-awareness develops.

2-3 years of age:

  • Self-recognition in a group develops, as well as the realization that other children have certain expectations towards them.
  • Increasing importance in family relations. –  the self-concept expands.

3-12 years of age:

  • Self-definition in talent & skills
  • Private self-concept
  •  self-concept expands and becomes more idiosyncratic. Also, the content develops to be more psychological and complex.
  • (between 5-6 years the social comparison processes arise)

Adolescence (between puberty and adulthood):

  • Crucial for identity development.
  • Self-concept differentiates and expands to:
    • Personality traits
    • Abilities
    • Motives
  • Perspective taking is an important trait to develop (objective self-awareness) Self-concept: Self-schemata
  • Self-concept as a knowledge structure.
  • Self-concept and self-schemata are cognitive structures.

 Consequence: cognitive biases

  • Are a ‘compass’ for future  possible selves. (negative possible selves: Oyserman & Saltz, 1993)

Higgins: Possible selves

  • Ideal self
  • Ought self

Ideal and ought selves at the basis of different emotions:

Self-Esteem

  • An emotional evaluation of one’s own worth. Also, it is a judgement of and attitude towards the self.

Our self-evaluations are affected by:

  • Temporal fluctuations
  • Domain specificity

Global Self-Esteem

  • The general value that a person places his or herself on.

Development of self-esteem

  • Realizing that you have to live up to certain standards and expectations (childhood).
  • Self-esteem from social comparisons (later in childhood).
  • Internal standards to evaluate themselves.
  •  increasing internalization of self-esteem.

Self-esteem and negative feedback

–     People with low SE react differently to negative feedback than people with high SE.

Two ways to investigate the stability/fragility of self-esteem:

  1. Fluctuations in self-esteem.
  2. Contingencies in self-esteem.

(Social) Identity

  • In the book: switching back and forth between social identity and identity.
  • Social identity is about groups (ethnicity, nationality)

Personal Identity

–     Three core components

  • Continuity (Book)
  • Contrast (Book)
  • Coherence

Identity integration vs. identity diffusion

Marcia (1966): two dimensions:

  • Commitment
  • Exploration
tased on these two dimensions, four statuses:  
– Low E, Low C Diffusion Little identity development. (identity deficit)
– Low E, High C Foreclosure Short term benefits, long term problems?
– High E, Low C Moratorium Stressful for the time being (=identity crisis / identity conflict)
– High E, High C Achievement Desired endpoint.

When are identity crises common? –  Adolescence

  • Young adulthood / college period
  • Midlife