Today’s Goals

  • Think about ‘the self’
  • Understand approaches to defining and measuring the ‘true self’
  • Understand when people are likely to feel authentic
  • Explore links between true-self and meaning
  • Exam/Proposals update

Ties to notion of eudomonia

 

Exam & Proposal Notes

  • Exam scores posted o Mean = 68.5% (including 4 bonus points) o Exam review in special office hours, TBA soon
  • Proposal documents returned o Grade + rubric & notes o Look at these closely now
    • Consider adjustments/clarifications as needed o (You may need to discuss with us) o Begin assessment/projects
    • Become familiar with final report requirements

 

The Self

  • Self-concept o Who am I?

Mental representation of “who am I”

Personal view of the selves – subjective

  • Need not be objectively accurate
  • Multiple selves o Actual, ideal, at different points in time
    • ‘Possible selves’

Think of the self in different ways

Actual vs. ideal selves & past vs. present selves

  • Help organize information, motivate

Whole collection – everything that comes along

  • We focus on the ‘True Self’ today

Might not be the ideal self – not always ‘better’

 

The True Self

  • Classic (and intuitive) ‘essentialist’ approach

The way philosophers and many psychologists (especially older ones) view the self

Essentialist Approach: our true self has an essence, it is this thing, concrete true self, clearly there – might not be obvious to us that it’s there

  • Recall Rogers, Maslow (and many others)

Humanistic approaches – being who you are meant to be

Self-actualization o Non-obvious, needs to be discovered o A personal ‘essence’

  • Internal

Have a sense through feeling/thoughts/intuitions

Knowledge of how individuals feel about their behaviour – peer pressure, etc. o Genetic (?); resistant or impossible to change

Early philosophers struggled with where else would this concept come from?

True to yourself – something that cannot be changed/created/made o Indicated more by feelings than behaviours

  • Attributions of source; informativeness in others

 

Deep Questions about the True Self

  • Strong intuitions (in West, anyway), but… Atomic Tune-Up

Are we the same person past vs. present in regards to the atoms that make us up? Answer: teeth, brain, and heart.. yes

  • Contrast intuition with SDT approach o ‘feeling’ autonomous, authentic o (& clear evidence of changes…)

Self Determination Theory

As long as the individual feels authentic and autonomous, they can behave at their will Nothing is so completely rigid or stable

 

Authenticity

  • g., trait Authenticity Inventory
  • Awareness
    • I understand why I believe the things I do about myself
  • Unbiased Processing
    • I find it very difficult to critically assess myself. (R)
  • Behaviour
    • I rarely if ever, put on a ‘‘false face’’ for others to see
  • Relational Orientation o I make it a point to express to close others how much I truly care for them

 

Other Approaches

  • ‘Objective’ consistency o g., across roles, ESM ratings/observations
  • State authenticity o ‘I felt like I was really being me during the last 20 minutes.’ Similar to SDT: ‘feelings’ of autonomy

Other ways in which people have attempted to ‘get at’ authenticity Subjective view that you are behaving in accordance with yourself

 

Authenticity and Well-Being

  • Generally positive associations

People who report high levels of authenticity also report more positive associations

  • Trait & state (ESM) self-reports
  • Across indicators, e.g., mood, SWL, Meaning What does this mean?
    • Correlation and causal direction o Content overlap?
    • Some questions about ‘objective’ measures

 

Curious sources of ‘Authenticity’

  • Positive moods cause state authenticity (Lenton et al., 2013) o Incidental (video) mood manipulations

Videos that had nothing to do with the true self – positive/happy videos seemed to increased feelings of authenticity

  • Fleeson & Wilt (2010):
    • Dispositions vs. momentary behaviour
    • g., When does an introvert feel authentic? o Recall vs. ESM

Regardless of trait: reported more authentic-ness when experiencing:

Bizarre as they are not dispositionally like these traits, and yet that is when they admit to be feeling higher rates of authenticity

  • Extraverted, Agreeable, Conscientious, Stable, & Open behaviour feels authentic (regardless)

Narrow way of looking at authenticity o Whelan, Zelenski, et al. find this with manipulated behaviour too (E & A)

Those who are not told what to do, they feel more authentic than those with behaviour instructions – those who are given instructions still report feeling authentic

 

Values & Authenticity

  • Benevolence Debate study:
  • Randomly assigned ‘pro’ or ‘con’ position on o “It is good and right to help and support the people around you.”
  • Debate a hypothetical other by responding, e.g., o “You should not help and support the people around you because it is arrogant to assume that you can ever know what another person really needs.”
  • Results: strong effect on state authenticity (and stronger if benevolence an important value)

When people were arguing for benevolence, they reported higher levels of authenticity (& vice versa)

Individual differences in the values – for those who said benevolence as their most important value, they reported an even higher result when compared to those who said benevolence is meh, where the differences were not quite as large

 

Values & Authenticity II

  • “Describe a time where you were able to [did not] care for a friend or family member in a [un]pleasant atmosphere”

When people behave in ways that are congruent to their values – report more authenticity

Congruent: positive atmosphere boosted authenticity a little bit more

Positivity + behaving in ways consistent with values – both seem to be required

 

Personality & Authenticity Summary

  • Not all ‘objective’ indicators follow intuitions o ‘trait-consistent’ vs. momentary behaviours
  • Yet, parts of personality probably still important o Values (other strong beliefs?)
  • More to authenticity than feeling good

 

Measuring Contents of the True Self

  • Difficult (impossible?) to measure ‘objectively’

Impossible to measure the true self in an objective way o Even behaviour consistency is ambiguous

  • Perceptions interesting either way, e.g.,
  • “Your true self is composed of the characteristics, roles or attributes that define who you really are – even if those characteristics are different than how you sometimes act in your daily life.“ Consistent with intuitive notion of the true self
  • Adjective Listing

Pick adjectives from a list that describe their true self

Can compared true vs. actual self adjectives

Assigned reading – attempts to measure contents of the true self

Asking ‘who do you think you really are’

 

True Self and Meaning

Idea: hard to know – kind of have to create a meaning

  • Self as a guide (especially when external guides diminishing)
  • Doing ‘for/as the self’ may make meaning
  • Measured contents of true self (cf. actual self) o IDs measured with RT (me/not me)

RT: response times o Faster ‘true self’ responses predict higher meaning

  • (Actual self RT unrelated to meaning)

The longer is takes an individual to respond to true self adjectives, the less fluid

How fast are you to identify your true self? – those who are fast report more meaning in life

Interpretation: if your true self is accessible (confident, salient, easy to identify) then you report/experience more meaning in your life

  • Manipulating true self salience o Choose actual & true self terms (pretest) o 1 month later, do lab study:
    • Lexical decision task w/ subliminal primes
  • Either actual or true self terms primed

Experimentally manipulation how salient that true self is

  • Results: true self primes increased meaning ratings (cf. actual self primes)
  • Knowing our true selves may create feelings of meaning Ease of listing true self correlates with meaning
  • Also, meta-cognitive ease manipulation:
  • List 5 [18] terms that describe true [actual] self.
    • (Embedded in other similar tasks) o Ratings of meaning in life follow

 

Limits & Questions

  • Is acting according to true self always best?
    • If not, how much? When?
  • What if true self (or perceived true self) is very negative, deviant? o for self or others?

Would that encouragement be good individually or for society?

Raised in the assigned reading

The Self II

 

Today’s Goals

  • Mini review: The true self & authenticity
  • Understand the construct of self-esteem and major issues in its large body of research
  • Understand the construct of self-compassion and how it relates to self-esteem
  • Consider cultural differences in the self, and how these may impact the issues we’ve been discussing

 

Mini-Review

  • What is the relationship between reports of authenticity and well-being?

Positive – higher level of happiness

Reports – subjective experience of authenticity

  • How are traits and values different when considering momentary reports of authenticity?

Trait – no correlation between acting the moment in accordance with your disposition and feeling authentic – surprising

Not matter your disposition, people tend to feel more authentic when they are acting the BIG 5

Values – benevolence – things people generally believe in, what they think is important

Strong correlation with values and authenticity – people feel more authentic when they behave in a way that is consistent with their values

  • How is the ‘actual self’ different from the ‘true self’ and the ‘ideal self’? Actual Self: how you see you actually being in the moment – subjective notion

True Self: consistent vs. deep-within void of external situations self

Ideal Self: most desirable potential self, incorporates social values

  • What facet of well-being is most associated with a clear sense of true self? Meaning in life

 

Self-Esteem

  • Primarily an evaluation of the self
  1. Rosenberg Self-Esteem scale o On the whole, I am satisfied with myself. o I feel that I have a number of good qualities. o I wish I could have more respect for myself. (R) o I certainly feel useless at times. (R) o I am able to do things as well as most other people. Not universally loved, but common
  • Typically trait-like, but can assess as ‘state’
  • Usually a global judgment, but can be assessed in domains (e.g., appearance, school) o Either way, its based more on personally valued domains Overall vs specific domains
  • A judgment of self, but also depends on how others view us, social feedback Subjective, our view about ourselves
  • Includes genuine positive evaluation, and potentially defensive, narcissistic views Those who are deceiving themselves are included in the reports and questionnaires
  • In general, SE seems high o Unrealistic evaluations, optimism o This might be helpful (but debate)
  • Is this increasing in younger generations?
    • Cross-temporal meta analyses, some debate still o Perhaps due to differences with aging?
  • Individual differences in SE correlate with lots of ‘good stuff’ o Happiness & less depression o Academic success o Persistence after failure
    • (not objectively better relationships or performance)
    • (not drugs, early sex, bullying)

Correlation does not mean causation

  • Correlation vs. causation

Self-esteem more result than the cause

  • Broad reviews suggest SE as an outcome, not cause of good things o Intervention studies very disappointing o Bulimia may be exception

If you can increase self-esteem of those with Bulimia – seems to be helpful o Non-contingent praise may increase narcissism

  • Striving for SE may add problems o Contingent, unstable SE
    • Distortion, aggression, derogation of others
  • To Summarize
    • Self-esteem seems positive, on balance, yet some less desirable aspects o Promoting self-esteem itself not very helpful o Need to distinguish healthy self-esteem from narcissism, entitlement, etc.
    • Neff argues self-compassion useful in this

 

Self-Compassion

  • Roots in Buddhism
  • A view of self that o treats self with kindness

Nice to ourselves vs. being overly critical/harsh o recognizes common humanity

As much as we are different from one another, there are common human traits o takes mindful approach to negative parts of self Mindfulness – non-judgmental

 

Self-Compassion Questionnaire

  • Self-Kindness vs. Judgment o I’m tolerant of my own flaws and inadequacies.
    • When I see aspects of myself that I don’t like, I get down on myself.
  • Common Humanity vs. Isolation o I try to see my failings as part of the human condition.
    • When I fail at something that’s important to me I tend to feel alone in my failure.
  • Mindfulness vs. Over-identification o When something painful happens I try to take a balanced view of the situation.
    • When I fail at something important to me I become consumed by feelings of inadequacy. Sample items

 

Exercise 1: How would you treat a friend?

  • First, think about times when a close friend feels really bad about him or herself or is really struggling in some way. How would you respond to your friend in this situation (especially when you’re at your best)? Please write down what you typically do, what you say, and note the tone in which you typically talk to your friends.
  • Now think about times when you feel bad about yourself or are struggling. How do you typically respond to yourself in these situations? Please write down what you typically do, what you say, and note the tone in which you talk to yourself.
  • Did you notice a difference? If so, ask yourself why. What factors or fears come into play that lead you to treat yourself and others so differently?
  • Please write down how you think things might change if you responded to yourself in the same way you typically respond to a close friend when you’re suffering.
  • Why not try treating yourself like a good friend and see what happens?

 

Self-Compassion

  • Many positive correlates o Life Satisfaction
    • Emotional Intelligence
    • Optimism o Curiosity o Social connectedness o Low depression, anxiety o Low fear of failure o Low perfectionism
  • [No downsides mentioned –ideas?]

 

Self-Compassion vs. Self-Esteem

  • Substantial correlation (.58), but not ‘same’
  • Feeling safe, secure vs. being ‘better’
  • Connects to others vs. distinguishing from them
  • Relevant/useful with failure vs. threatened by failure
  • Self-Compassion vs. Self-Esteem
  • Lab Research o Imagined screw-ups (sports, theatre)
  • Compassion related, but esteem not

Self-compassion is associated with not feeling quite as bad o Video introduction with positive/neutral feedback

  • Compassion OK, high SE upset & unaccepting o Manipulated SC vs. SE strategies
  • responses to recall of past failure

 

The Self Across Cultures

  • Independence vs. Interdependence o One of many potential dimensions of difference o Over-emphasizes group (vs. individual) differences

Recognize & keep in mind that individual differences do exist Individualist vs. collectivist culture

  • Abstracted traits vs. roles

Roles: roles that you find yourself in, groups, organizational identities

  • Consistent self vs. variable self

Consistent: consistent across situations and time? Found in people with a more independent sense of self Variable: in different situations, may behave in very different ways – no contradiction, no notion you must behave consistently. Found in people with a more interdependent sense of self

  • Object focus vs. context focus

Object: people in individualistic culture can tell you details concerning the objects seen

Context: people in collectivist culture can tell you broader seen details concerning the whole picture

  • Self-enhancement: “special” vs. “ordinary”

Related to the notion of self-esteem

Special: individualist cultures see themselves are more special

Ordinary: collectivist culture see themselves are more included with everyone in their surroundings, ordinary

  • (Personal paths to fulfillment?)
  • True self and intuitions about it?
  • Accessibility needed (helpful) for meaning?
  • Sources of authentic feelings?

Essential to behave according to values?

  • Correlates of self-esteem?

Is it important to compare yourself favourably to others? Is it more important to get along with others?

Levels of self-compassion?