The Cognitive Construction of the Self

Learning Objectives

When writing learning objectives for a course or module, remember:

1. Define and describe the self-concept, its influence on information

processing, and its diversity across social groups.
2.  Describe the concepts of self-complexity and self-concept clarity
and explain how they influence social cognition and behavior.
3. Differentiate the various types of self-awareness and self-
consciousness.
4. Describe self-awareness, self-discrepancy, and self-affirmation
theories and their interrelationships.
5. Explore how we sometimes overestimate the accuracy with which
other people view us.

LESSON 1

The Cognitive Construction of the Self

Cognitive construction, also known as Constructivism, was pioneered
by Jean Piaget. Constructivists purport that people construct their
understanding and knowledge of the world through their experiences
and their reflections upon these experiences. In cognitive psychology,
 the self is understood as contextual or ecological, intertwining mental
capacities with social experiences.

What is Self?

 Is the sense of personal identity and of who we are as an

individual?
 A person's essential being distinguishes them from others,
especially considered the object of introspection or reflexive action.
Below is the Diagram of the Self.

Two Concepts of Conceptualized Self

 is the thinking, acting, feeling self?

 As the one who works and decides.
 Me

 The physical characteristic as well as psychological capabilities

that makes who you are.
  What do you think and feel about yourself as an object?
Self-Concept

Self-concept is our knowledge of who we are, encompassing all of our

thoughts and feelings about ourselves physically, personally, and
socially. Self-concept also includes our understanding of how we
behave, our capabilities, and our characteristics. Our self-concept
develops most rapidly during early childhood and adolescence, but self-
concept continues to form and change over time as we learn more about
ourselves.
Self-concept is an individual's knowledge of who he or she is.
Self-concept is active, dynamic, and malleable. It can be influenced by
social situations and even one's own motivation for seeking self-
knowledge.
According to Carl Rogers, self-concept has three components:

1. self-image
2. self-esteem
3. ideal self
Self-Image

 Self-image is the way we see ourselves. It includes what we know

about ourselves physically (e.g., brown hair, blue eyes, tall), our social
roles (e.g., wife, brother, gardener), and our personality traits (e.g.,
outgoing, serious, kind)
 Self-image doesn’t always match reality. Some individuals hold an
inflated perception of one or more of their characteristics. These
 inflated perceptions may be positive or negative, and an individual may
have a more positive view of certain aspects of the self and a more
negative view of others.
Self-esteem

 Self-esteem is the value we place upon ourselves. Individual levels

of self-esteem are dependent on the way we evaluate ourselves. Those
evaluations incorporate our comparisons to others as well as others'
responses to us.
 When we compare ourselves to others and find that we are better
at something than others and or that people respond favorably to what
we do, our self-esteem in that area grows. On the other hand, when we
compare ourselves to others and find we're not as successful in a given
area and or people respond negatively to what we do, our self-esteem
decreases.
Ideal Self

 The ideal self is the self we would like to be. There's often a
difference between one's self-image and one's ideal self. This
contradiction can negatively impact one's self-esteem.
 According to Carl Rogers, self-image and ideal self can be
congruent or incongruent. Congruence between the self-image and
perfect self means a fair amount of overlap between the two. While it is
difficult, if not impossible, to achieve ideal congruence, greater
congruence will enable self-actualization. Incongruence between the
self-image and ideal self means there's a discrepancy between oneself
and one's experiences, leading to internal confusion that prevents self-
actualization.
Self-concept begins to develop in early childhood. This process
continues throughout the lifespan. However, it is between early
childhood and adolescence that self-concept experiences the most
growth.

Throughout childhood and adolescence, the self-concept becomes more

abstract and complex and is organized into various cognitive aspects of
the self, known as self-schemas.

Self-schema

Refers to the Cognitive Structures, we must describe

various categories of knowledge about the world, and like other things,
we also hold schemas about ourselves.
It is a cognitive generalization about the self-derived from
past/previous experience that organizes and guides the processing of
self-related information in the individual’s social experiences.
 What are they, and How they work?

These categories of knowledge reflect how we expect ourselves to think,

feel, and act in particular settings or situations. Each of these beliefs
includes ('outgoing,' 'shy,' 'talkative') and our knowledge of past
experiences in similar situations.

Among other things, people can hold self-schemas about:

 Physical characteristics ('I'm pretty, 'I'm overweight)

 Interests (‘I love sports,’ I like art’)
 Personality traits (‘I’m shy,’ ‘I’m friendly’)
 Behaviors (‘I’m assertive,’ ‘I avoid conflict’)
As you can see, neuroimaging studies have shown that information
about the self is stored in the prefrontal cortex, the same place that other
information about people is stored (Barrios et al., 2008)