Chapter 4: Self and identity
Constructs = abstract or theoretical concepts or variables that are not observable and are
used to explain or clarify a phenomenon.
The forces for change in identity:
● Secularisation, the idea that fulfillment occurs in the afterlife was replaced by the
idea that you should actively pursue personal fulfillment in this life.
● Industrialization, people were increasingly seen as units of production that moved
from place to place to work and thus had a portable personal identity that was not
locked into static social structures such as the extended family.
● Enlightenment, people felt that they could organize and construct different, better
identities and lives for themselves by overthrowing orthodox value systems and
oppressive regimes.
● Psychoanalysis, Freud’s theory of the human mind crystallized the notion that the
self was incomprehensible because it lurked in the gloomy depths of the
unconscious.
The self can be a shared or collective self; a “we” or “us”, e.g. “I am Dutch” doesn’t just
describe me, but also a lot of others.
Symbolic interactionism = theory of how the self emerges from human interaction, which
involves people trading symbols (through language and gesture) that are usually consensual
and represent abstract properties rather than concrete objects.
Looking-glass self = the self derived from seeing ourselves as others see us.
Self-enhancing triad = people normally overestimate their good points and control over
events and are unrealistically optimistic.
Private self = your private thoughts, feelings and attitudes
Public self = how other people see you, your public image.
Deindividuation = process whereby people lose their sense of socialized individual identity
and engage in unsocialized, often antisocial, behaviors; a state in which people are blocked
from awareness of themselves as distinct individuals, fail to monitor their actions and can
behave impulsively.
The experience of self emerges from widely distributed brain activity across the medial
prefrontal and medial precuneus cortex of the brain.
People are self-schematic on dimensions that are important to them, on which they think
they’re extreme and on which they are certain the opposite does not hold.
Self-discrepancy theory = theory about the consequences of making actual ideal and
actual ‘ought’ self-comparisons that reveal self-discrepancies.
→ 3 self concepts
1. actual self, how we currently are
20
Constructs = abstract or theoretical concepts or variables that are not observable and are
used to explain or clarify a phenomenon.
The forces for change in identity:
● Secularisation, the idea that fulfillment occurs in the afterlife was replaced by the
idea that you should actively pursue personal fulfillment in this life.
● Industrialization, people were increasingly seen as units of production that moved
from place to place to work and thus had a portable personal identity that was not
locked into static social structures such as the extended family.
● Enlightenment, people felt that they could organize and construct different, better
identities and lives for themselves by overthrowing orthodox value systems and
oppressive regimes.
● Psychoanalysis, Freud’s theory of the human mind crystallized the notion that the
self was incomprehensible because it lurked in the gloomy depths of the
unconscious.
The self can be a shared or collective self; a “we” or “us”, e.g. “I am Dutch” doesn’t just
describe me, but also a lot of others.
Symbolic interactionism = theory of how the self emerges from human interaction, which
involves people trading symbols (through language and gesture) that are usually consensual
and represent abstract properties rather than concrete objects.
Looking-glass self = the self derived from seeing ourselves as others see us.
Self-enhancing triad = people normally overestimate their good points and control over
events and are unrealistically optimistic.
Private self = your private thoughts, feelings and attitudes
Public self = how other people see you, your public image.
Deindividuation = process whereby people lose their sense of socialized individual identity
and engage in unsocialized, often antisocial, behaviors; a state in which people are blocked
from awareness of themselves as distinct individuals, fail to monitor their actions and can
behave impulsively.
The experience of self emerges from widely distributed brain activity across the medial
prefrontal and medial precuneus cortex of the brain.
People are self-schematic on dimensions that are important to them, on which they think
they’re extreme and on which they are certain the opposite does not hold.
Self-discrepancy theory = theory about the consequences of making actual ideal and
actual ‘ought’ self-comparisons that reveal self-discrepancies.
→ 3 self concepts
1. actual self, how we currently are
20
