Self-Concept,

Self-Esteem,

and Identity

ROY F. BAUMEISTER

INTRO

You can see why it has proven difficult for psychology to come up with firm answers about the nature
of the self, for the self includes stability and change, visible manifestations and inner phenomena,
ideas and feelings, and other complexities.

DEFINITIONS

Your self is the totality of you, including your body, your sense of identity, your reputation (how others
know you), and so on. It encompasses both the physical self and the self that is constructed out of
meaning.

Self-Concept: Your Idea(s) About Yourself.

Attributes and who the self is that might not be part of identity
Self-Esteem: How You Evaluate Yourself.

Self-esteem refers to the person's broadest self-evaluation. esteem for specific domains.

Identity: Who You Are.

Identity always answers the question, "Who are you?" Self-concept, in contrast, may contain answers to
other questions like "What kind of person are you?"

Identity means being the same person you were yesterday or ten years ago; it also means being different from
someone else

newborn babies do not have self-concepts, but they do have identities: They belong to a certain family,
they soon have a name, and so on.

SELF CONCEPT

Formation of the Self Concept

-

The first step in forming a self-concept is learning to distinguish between one's own body and the rest of the
world. 3 months baby. Facial features-photographs 2-year-old begin to understand that they need to conform
to external standards and rules, and they begin to evaluate their own actions against external standards.

15 months /age and gender/ first elements of self concept.

From ages 3 to 5, self-concepts of children seem to emphasize skills and abilities. The self is understood in
terms of what it can and cannot do

From ages 6 to 12, children's sense of competency. beginning of a conception of self as something inner or
hidden.

The idea of knowing one's own self better than anyone elsethe principle of privileged access to one's
inner selfdoes not become firm until adolescence.
As a result, self-consciousness increases greatly around age 12 or 13

Pursuit of Self-Knowledge
much human behavior is marked by the quest for information about the self.

Main Motives: Gain information about oneself, confirmation of what already knows and to learn positive
things aboute oneselg. self-assessment, self-verification, and self-enhancement motives. Still, the immediate and
emotional reaction strongly favors positivity.

Distortion: Overstimates qualities. Overstimate degree of control of live. Unrealistic optimistic.

Spontaneous Self-Concept
self-concept may remain rather stable, the parts of it that come to mind immediately may fluctuate as different
features of the self come to the forefront of one's mind. called the "spontaneous self-concept" or the
"phenomenal self."
Self-Schemas
A self-schema is thus a concept of some particular attribute of the self. Instead of one large self-concept, this
approach emphasizes many small concepts of parts and features of the self.

knowledge rejects the notion that each person has one single, integrated self-concept. Rather, it may be that
people have a loose collection of specific ideas about themselves.

Each individual self-concept is made up of several self-schemas on certain dimensions, but other
dimensions are left out.

Culture and Interdependence

people in different cultures hold systematically different self-concepts. The dimension runs from independence
to interdependence

Self-Construal /interpretation (specific view of self)

Independent: Focus on unique accomplishments. (Western)

Interdependent: self part of a network (Eastern)

Self Concept Change

-

self-concepts can change, but it is hard to do

. The self-concept change followed the way they had presented themselves to others rather than the private
memory scan.

Getting other people to see you in a certain way ends up having a bigger impact on your self-concept
than simply ruminating privately about it.

SELF-ESTEEM
There is no single measure of self-esteem that is used by everyone. one approach was to look for discrepancies
between the real self and the ideal self.

Self-Esteem and Self-Concept

Self-esteem is essentially the evaluative dimension of the self-concept.

Campbell (1990; Campbell & Lavallee, 1993). The broad conclusion is that low self -esteem is marked by self -

concept confusion. That is, people with high self-esteem have clear, consistent, and definite ideas about
themselves, whereas people with low self-esteem do not.

Roots of Self-Esteem

by Cooper-smith (1967). He concluded that three factors contributed to high self-esteem when raising a child:

Unconditional positive regard

Clear and strong standards.

Freedon, latitude and respect. Award attitudes.

High during childhood. Low Adolescence. Peak High Midlife, highest 60s, drop 70s and 80s.

Is High Self Esteem a Good Thing?

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Raising self-esteem does not appear to be an effective way to prevent teen pregnancy, drug abuse,
school failure, or the like.

Violence seems to occur primaly among people who hold very favorable, even inflated views of
themselves. Even poor social skills due to their centered vision of themselves.

High self-esteem are ore willing to be open in groups and persist in the face of failure. Pos ses
confidence that will lead to good outcomes.

Self-esteem is merely the perception, not the reality.

Why self-esteem matters?

1. People are driven by fear of death and self-esteem helps comfort them on mortality. High
sel-esteem hold back anxiety.
2. It helps coping with stress, trauma and misfortunes
3. It is a sociometer, internal measure of how well one is connected to other human beings.
Self esteem is often linked to a fear of social rejection.

Social Motives

People with low self-esteem want to succeed as much as others, they are simply less confident that
they will be able to do so. It is also a mechanism of self protection.

Self enhancement and self protection often work together, however the two motives are opposite.
High self esteem are enhancement oriented, low self-esteem protective oriented.
Plasticity

People with low self esteem tend to be more malleable than people with high self -esteem. Are more
likely to change their attitudes when someone tries to persuade them. Their behavior changes more
from one situation to another. It is safer to go with the group.

Emotion and Coping

Involve emotion. People with low self-esteem have higher emotional lability, their emotions fluctuate
more widely. A strong self concept avoid to the impact of events.

Prejudice

Low self-esteem people give more negative ratings to minority groups. Are more critical to everyone
ingroups, and outgroups. But high self-esteem people are more discriminatory about the outgroup.

Maintaining Self-Esteem

Succeed in everything.

High sel-esteem people are more likely to make better decisions because they know more about
themselves.

People take credit for success but deny failure.

People accept information that makes them look good without any critic or observation. When thay
hear criticism they tendo to skip over them or pay much less attention. Biased memory of successes
and good points better than failures. Have ways through the memory to rpove themselves tha they
fit any pattern adjusted with good things, Compare themselves with targets to mak e them feel good.
Distort perceptions.

Identity

Is a definition of the self essentially social. Is shared by the person, other people and society at
large.

Structure and Functions

Social Roles.

Two major defining criteria, continuity, means sameness over time. And differentiation, refers to the
things that distinguish someone from other people.

There are many sources of continuity and differentiation. Family ties, job, reputation, etc. Now home
or friendship networks are no longer the sources of stability that they were once.
Includes an interpersonal self: how others know you, style, reputation Concept of potentiality: what
you may become. General Values: principles and priorities.

Identity Crises

Maybe are fostered by some of the unique features of modern western cultures. James Marcia
distinguished four types of people based on two dimensions: Had an active period of identity crisis?
Had a stable identity based on firm commitments?

Identity achieved: Crisis plus commitment. Crisis resolved are identity achivied. Regarded as being
mature.

Moratorium: Crisis but no commitment. Thay had a crisis but not commitment means the crisis is still
going on. Open to experiment.

Foreclosure: Commitment without crisis. Signs of an illusional maturity, based on parents decision,
religion, culture. They are rigid, inflexive,insecure

Identity Diffusion: Neither crisis nor commitment. Lack of a stable identity but they dont mind.
Perpetual teenagers. Related also with psychopathology

Types of Identity Crises

Identity Deficit. Usually reject the teachings and are a vase for new ideas and identities. Does not
have enough identity to deal with life and major decisions. It is hard to make choices, because ther
is no much information where to choose. Are more vulnerable to new ideas and influences, and more
explorative and receptive. The lack of certainty about where their lives are going seems to be an
opportunity of freedin and confusing meaningless.

Resolve it by knowing the fundamental issues of value and meaning. What is important in life. Then
to translate them into real, valuable ambitions.

Identity Conflict: Inconsistency between two parts of the self. Several parts of identity componnts
that disagree about the best decision to make. People tend t o suffer. They do not tend to show
openness to new ideas or exploratory behavior.

Resolving it is difficult. Or detach from an important part of the self. Or choose one more than other,
or separate rigidly the two parts to prevent the identity crisis.