The self

(noun)

The self is the individual person, from his or her own perspective. Self-awareness is the capacity for introspection and the ability to reconcile oneself as an individual separate from the environment and other individuals.

Related Terms

Examples of The self in the following topics:

  • Psychological Approaches to the Self

    • In modern psychology, the earliest formulation of the self derived from the distinction between the self as "I," the subjective knower, and the self as "me," the object that is known.
    • Kohut called the pole of ambitions the narcissistic self (later called the grandiose self).
    • Jung , the Self is one of several archetypes.
    • To Jung, the Self is both the whole and the center.
    • While Jung perceived the ego to be a self-contained, off-centered, smaller circle contained within the whole, he believed that the Self was the greater circle.

  • Sociological Theories of the Self

    • Sociological theories of the self attempt to explain how social processes such as socialization influence the development of the self.
    • Sociological theories of the self attempt to explain how social processes such as socialization influence the development of the self.
    • Mead presented the self and the mind in terms of a social process.
    • The "I" is self as subject; the "me" is self as object.
    • Interpret Mead's theory of self in term of the differences between "I" and "me"

  • Rogers' Humanistic Theory of Personality

    • Carl Rogers' humanistic personality theory emphasizes the importance of the self-actualizing tendency in forming a self-concept.
    • As a result of their interactions with the environment and others, an individual forms a structure of the self or self-concept—an organized, fluid, conceptual pattern of concepts and values related to the self.
    • Rogers further divided the self into two categories: the ideal self and the real self.
    • The ideal self is the person that you would like to be; the real self is the person you actually are.
    • In the development of the self-concept, Rogers elevated the importance of unconditional positive regard, or unconditional love.

  • Cooley

    • In 1902, Charles Horton Cooley created the concept of the looking-glass self, which explored how identity is formed.
    • An example of the looking-self concept is computer technology.
    • The looking-glass self is a social psychological concept created by Charles Horton Cooley in 1902.
    • George Herbert Mead described the self as "taking the role of the other," the premise for which the self is actualized.
    • An example of the looking-self concept is computer technology.

  • Self-Knowledge and Evaluating the Personality Perspective

    • Understanding the self is an important part of the personality perspective.
    • Some researchers use notions such as self-concept, the looking-glass self, and the ideal self to understand individual ideas of self-knowledge.
    • Self-concept is the idea a person has of himself or herself.
    • The looking glass self is what a person believes others believe about him or her.
    • The ideal self is the standard to which people aspire to be, and is usually influenced by role-models.

  • The Habit of Self-Government

    • In a self-governing colony such as Plymouth, elected rulers make most decisions without referring to the imperial power that nominally controls the colony.
    • A self-governing colony is a colony in which elected rulers are able to make most decisions without referring to the imperial power (such as England), with nominal control of the colony.
    • Colonies have sometimes been referred to as self-governing in situations where the executive has not been under the control of the imperial government; the term self-governing can refer to the direct rule of a Crown Colony by an executive governor elected under a limited franchise.
    • In Plymouth's form of self-government, the colony was led by a governor and local legislature elected by a local oligarchy; the Governor was appointed by the colonial power, rather than the English Crown.
    • The idea of self-government was encouraged by the Glorious Revolution and 1689 Bill of Rights, which established that the British Parliament - and not the king - had the ultimate authority in government.

  • Self-Managing Teams

    • Self-managing teams are distinct from self-directed teams.
    • While the latter define their own goals, the scope of a self-managing team's authority is limited by goals that are established by others.
    • For example, they set the work schedule and assign tasks.
    • Because they eliminate a level of management, the use of self-managing teams can better allocate resources and even lower costs.
    • This diagram illustrates the idea that virtual, management, and work teams can be empowered by being allowed to self-manage and monitor the quality of their own output.

  • Clonal Selection and Tolerance

    • Central tolerance is the mechanism by which newly developing T cells and B cells are rendered non-reactive to self.
    • The theory that self-tolerance is 'learned' during lymphocyte development was a major conceptual contribution to immunology.
    • However, they exert their immune suppression in the periphery on other self (or foreign)-reactive T cells.
    • Negative selection is the process that eliminates developing lymphocytes whose antigen receptors bind strongly to self antigens present in the lymphoid organs.
    • "Self"-antigens from the body's own tissues 4.

  • Self-Regulation and Volition

    • Some independent learners require little attention from their teachers.They know how to adopt learning strategies, they understand their competencies in specific domains, and will commit to their academic goals.These students have volition and can be described as "self-regulated" learners.Zimmerman (1989) pointed out that students can be described as self-regulated to the degree that they are metacognitively, motivationally, and behaviorally active participants in their own learning processes.Three assumptions are involved in the definition: self-regulated learning strategies, self-efficacy perceptions of skill performance, and a commitment to academic goals.
    • In his review of the literature, Alderman (1999) indicated that the formation of possible selves is influenced by developmental factors, sociocultural factors, attributional history and self-efficacy judgments.For example: John has an interest in media.He is influenced by his music teacher and decides to become a keyboard player.John tries to enhance his keyboard playing skills; his playing continually improves with practice.Encouragement from others and the positive experience of playing the keyboard increase his self-efficacy, which helps him to develop a concrete goal for the future.John attributes his success to internal, controllable, and stable causes.He stresses the value of effort over other factors.
    • Self-regulation is not a fixed characteristic of learners.Employing appropriate strategies can help learners to develop self-regulation and volition to learn.Zimmerman (1998) designed a table to compare experts' methods of self-regulation across different disciplines.Familiarity with these self-regulated methods is not only useful in learning, but once mastered, the techniques can be useful throughout life to function effectively in informal contexts.
    • The strategies being used are: Self-evaluating, Organizing and Transforming, Goal-setting and Planning, Seeking Information, Keeping Records and Monitoring, Environmental Structuring, Self-consequating, Rehearsing and Memorizing, Seeking Social Assistance and Reviewing Records.
    • Academic studying and the development of personal skill: a self-regulatory perspective.

  • Self-Efficacy

    • Self-efficacy affects some of the factors that predict motivation.According to Bandura (1982), self-efficacy is a self-judgment of one's ability to perform a task in a specific domain.However, a high degree of self-efficacy in one domain does not necessarily transfer to other areas of endeavor.High self-efficacy positively affects performance; this good performance will in turn enhance self-efficacy .
    • Self-efficacy can be affected by observing the experiences of others.Students who observe a model successfully perform in a threatening situation are more likely to develop the expectation that they can acquire the same skill (Alderman, 1999).The learners can imitate their models' skills, or copy the strategies that the models use.
    • Model: Exposing learners to an non-expert model (peer model) conquering the challenges successfully can help learners increase their motivation and self-efficacy.Another approach to enhance self-efficacy is learners observing the expert model solving problems with specific strategies or skills.
    • Successful experience: It is the teachers' responsibility to help learners achieve academic success by providing challenging, yet attainable tasks .Successful experience is the most important source of fostering self-efficacy.
    • This flash animation illustrates the journey of a teacher and student as the student's self-efficacy increases.