Dr.

Ruth Dehui Zhou

Counselling & Psychology Department,

Hong Kong Shue Yan University
Agenda

Self- esteem

Self- concept
• Self- schemas

Self- identity

Agency
• The self- concordance model

Self- regulation
The Self
Four Topics Taking Center Stage

Defining or Relating
creating the self
the self to society

Discovering
and Managing or
developing regulating the
personal self
potential
The Self

Defining or creating the self (self- concept)

Relating the self to society (Identity)

Discovering and developing personal potential (Agency)

Managing or regulating the self (Self- regulation)

relating
discovering
yourself to
knowing who and self-
the
you are developing regulation
environment
potential
around
 Self
acceptance

Positive
interpersonal
relationship

Autonomy

Psychological
Well-being
Mastery

Purpose

Personal
growth

Picture from:
http://clipartzebraz.com/files/3/10902_happy-face.html
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 Self-esteem is not a causal
variable.

The Self –esteem is mainly a

Problem consequence of cumulative
achievement-related success
with Self- and failures (Helmke & Van
Aken, 1995)
esteem
Self-esteem indicates the
adaptive functioning of the
self.
Self-Concept (cognitive structure)
- An individual’s mental representation of themselves.
- Over time, people translate their experiences into a general
representation of their self.

➢ Set of beliefs an individual uses to conceptualize his or her

self.
➢ Cluster of domain-specific self-schemas

…a reflection of the invariance people have

discovered in their own social behavior.
(the way the self has been differentiated and articulated in
memory)
 Increase in self- esteem DO NOT
produce corresponding increases
in achievement BUT

Increase in achievement produce

corresponding increases in self-
esteem

Self- Self- esteem reflects how life is

esteem going

Self- esteem is not the source of

motivation that allows people to
make life go well

Self- esteem is a byproduct of well-

being
Picture source
http://www.wmfirstassembly.com/?ser
mons=who-am-i

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Please write 20
descriptors about yourself.
◦ Please classify these 20 descriptors into the following
categories:
◦ -physical aspects
◦ -Family related
◦ -Personality related
◦ -What are the other categories

◦ -Positive descriptors
◦ -Negative descriptors
◦ -Neutral descriptors

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Self- concept
Self- concept: individuals’ mental representations of themselves

Self- concept is a collection of domain- specific self schemas

Constructed from
Cognitive experience
generalizations about
the self that are domain
specific

How you see yourself in

Day- to day affairs the future?
Self- concept

• GPA3.8
Exa • Best
m student
award

•Hate sports
Self schema
Spor
•Can't swim
ts and run well

•Very good
Com oral skills
muni •A good
catio communicat
n or in the
family
Benefits of Well Developed Self-Schema

Quickly retrieve self-

Process information
related behavioral
about the self with
evidence from the
relative ease.
domain.

Benefits of
Well-Developed
Self-Schema

Confidently predict his Resist counter-

own future behavior in schematic information
the domain. about him/herself.
- Self-concept is an individual’s overall perception of
him/herself.⾃自我概念念是個⼈人對⾃自⼰己的整體看法
- Self-esteem is the individual’s perception of his or
her own worth.⾃自尊是個⼈人對⾃自⼰己價值的看法

Self- concept
Motivational properties of Self- schemas
⾃自我圖式⼀一旦形成，就會引導我們的⾏行行為引發與我們既定的⾃自我圖式⼀一致的反饋

Self- schemas direct an individual’s behavior that elicit feedback

consistent with the established self- schema
•Eg1. Self- schema: I’m good at studying and getting GPA over 3 every semester
•Relevant behavior: I study hard for every exams and presentations
•The established Self- schema produces motivational tensions
•The tension motivates the self to restore consistency
•Eg2. Self schema: I’m always a shy girl in front of crowds
•Relevant behavior: Not daring to talk to people in the public (acting in shy ways to
maintain the consistency)
Motivational Properties of
Self-Schemas

Consistent Self

• Self-schemas direct behavior to confirm the self-

view and to prevent episodes that generate
feedback that might disconfirm that self-view.

Possible Self

• Self-schemas generate motivation to move the

present self toward a desired future self.
Self- concept
Consistent self
• Behaving and seeking out information
consistent with one’s self- concept
• Ignoring information that contradicts their self-
view

How about inconsistent?

Motivation to
Inconsistent Emotional
seek self
self disturbance
confirmatory

• Selective interaction- choosing friends who confirm our self- view

and by keeping our distance from those who contradict that self-
view
Write 10 descriptors about your ‘should-be’ self

Write 10 descriptors about your ‘possible’ self

Picture source http://www.ayyzz.cn/zhuanti/ziwofansheng/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mk7ghZjFrGA

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 Representations of attributes, characteristics,
an abilities that the self does not yet possess.

Mostly social in origin,

as the individual observes the selves modeled by others.
当个体观察他⼈人所模仿的⾃自我时。

The possible self’s motivational role

is to link the present self with ways to become the possible (ideal) self.

An important piece of the puzzle

in understanding how the self develops

Portraying the self as a dynamic entity

with a past, present, and future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv49RFo1ckQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4
ARjjz6Lqsw

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 Cognitive Dissonance
(Aronson, 1969)
認知失調
Cognitive Dissonance Assumptions

A state of tension that occurs Most people are motivated to

whenever an individual justify their own actions, beliefs,
simultaneously holds two and feelings.
cognitions (ideas, attitudes,
beliefs, opinions) that are People are not rational beings;
instead, people are rationalizing
psychologically inconsistent
beings.
with one another.
当⼀一个⼈人同时持有两种⼼心理理上彼此不
⼀一致的认知(观念念、态度、信仰、观
点)时，就会出现⼀一种紧张状态。

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF4gdOlP-fc
Motivational Processes Underlying
Cognitive dissonance

Cognitive Dissonance Processes (see Reeve, 2009: 278)

Identity (social relationship)

Identity is the means by which the self relates to society, and it captures the
essence of who the self is within a cultural context.

Once people assume social roles (e.g., mother, bully), their identities direct
their behaviors in ways that express the role-identity’s cultural value.

The identity directs the person to pursue some behaviors (identity-

confirming behaviors) and to avoid other behaviors (identity-
disconfirming behaviors).
Affect Control Theory
Motivation and Emotion
Produce

Identity- Identity-
confirming restoring
Behaviors behaviors
(i.e., fundamental
Sentiment-
confirming)
 Affect Control Theory
People behave in ways that minimize affective deflection.

◦ Identities motivate behavior while affective deflections

energize behavior.

People with nice (or powerful) identities engage in nice

(or powerful) behaviors.

When people act in identity-conflicting ways, affective deflection

occurs to energize identity-restoring courses of action.
 Agency
Self as action and development from within, as innate processes and motivations

Self as Action and Development from Within

Human beings possess a core Not all self-structures are

self, one energized by innate
motivation and directed by
the inherent developmental
processes of
differentiation and
integration.
equally authentic; while
some reflect the core self,
others reflect and reproduce
the society.
What fosters agency?
The organismic psychological needs

Agency
◦ Development from within the self and identity
◦ heteronomy → autonomy → fully functioning

The 2 processes that inherent within agency:

1. Differentiation expands and elaborates the self.

◦ The exercise of the individual’s interests, preferences and capacities

◦ From an undifferentiated self → specialized into several life domains
◦ The self’s intrinsic motivation

2. Integration synthesizes the complexity of the self into a cohesive 凝聚⼒力力的 self
◦ Relatedness- motivated internalization of the society’s values and concerns
◦ Behaviors & emotions do not only originated from within the self → within the
society
 Self-Corcordance
(Sheldon, 2002)
People deciding to pursue goals that are congruent or “concordant” with their core self
Self-concordant goals – when people decide to pursue goals that are congruent with their core self

The Questions Asked By The Self-concordance Model

1. How do people decide what to strive for in their lives?

How does this personal striving process sometimes nurture the self
2. and promote well-being yet other times go away and diminish
well-being?

Self-Concordance Model (see Reeve, 2009: 284)

The self- concordance
model & motivation
 Diagrammatic Illustration
of Self-Integrated and
Nonintegrated Action
If I do this, I This is what I
will get want

This is what I
should do This is what I
believe
(see Reeve, 2009: 285)
 Self-Regulation

Self-regulation involves the person’s metacognitive monitoring of how his or

her goal-setting progress is going.

Figure Cyclical Phases of Self-Regulation (see Reeve, 2009: 289)

 Self- regulation

01 - Observation of
expert model
03
Lack of self- regulation - Imitation
skills - Internalization of Acquisition of skills
standards
Unable to regulate Able to self- regulate
one’s goals Social learning process one’s goals

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The process of developing self- regulation

Self- regulation
Example: Finding a way to develop your own study plan/
daily plan
1. Cannot regulate my everyday schedule
2. Findings ways to plan a schedule, imitating other’s
planning behavior, internalize and find my own
standards
3. Able to plan with the use of a planning system
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5
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References
◦ Aronson, E. (1991). The theory of cognitive dissonance: A current perspective. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.),
Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 4, pp. 1-34). New York: Academic Express.
◦ Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy : The exercise of control. New York: W. H. Freeman
◦ Helmke, A., & Van Aken, M. G. (1995). The causal ordering of academic achievement and self-concept
of ability during elementary school: A longitudinal study. Journal of Educational Psychology, 87, 624-
637.
◦ Reeve, J. (2009). Understanding motivation and emotion. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
◦ Sheldon, K.M. (2002). The self-concordance model of healthy goal-striving: When personal goals
correctly represent the person. In E.L. Deci & R.M. Ryan (Eds.), Handbook of self-determination
research (pp. 65-86). Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.
◦ Swan, W.B. (1983).Bring social reality into harmony with self. In J. Suls & A. Greenwald(Eds.)
Psychological perspectives on the self (Vol.2, pp. 33-66). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

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TUTORIAL
The Greatest Love of All
◦ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq6wn8SZmsg
◦ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0sJ4nnYlO98

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Classroom activities
◦ Write down a belief about yourself that you consider to be an
important element within your self-definition (e.g., athlete,
introvert, romantic). In what ways do you publicly
communicate that self-definition to others? How could you
convince a stranger that this belief represents the real you?
What would you do?

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Self concept
◦ Suppose you are a counselor at a summer camp for delinquent
pre-teenage boys who lack any occupational aspirations and
exhibit antisocial interaction styles. You are having a meeting to
brainstorm how to use the possible selves literature to provide
these boys with an expanded view of their future selves? What
could you do? Would doing this be a good idea or a bad idea?

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More discussion
◦ When you experience cognitive dissonance (e.g., telling a white
lie), what does it feel like in terms of motivation and emotion? Put
the experience into words (pain? psychological distress?
physiological distress?)?
◦ Describe the self-concordant model. Discuss how self-
concordant goals generate effort, need-satisfying experiences,
and changes in psychological well-being.

◦ 你以为我矮小,卑微,不美,我就没有了感觉了吗?你错了,因为我们的灵魂是
平等的,就像我们都是赤裸着来到这个世界一样
◦ “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more
unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

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