Self and Self-
Presentation
Chapter 3:
““He is a stranger to himself, a mystery to
everyone else. At least he has a name,
even if he knows it isn’t his own.”
“Who am I?”
Few human beings live out their
lives without pondering this question.
Some pursue the search for self-
knowledge and for meaningful identity.
Steps in the Genesis of
Self
1. Self-Differentiation
We must–at a minimum–be able to recognize
ourselves. That is, we must distinguish our own faces,
and bodies from those of others.
Self-Differentiation
Infants are not born with this ability, but they
acquire it quickly.
Learning one’s own name is one of the earliest and
most important steps in acquiring a self.
Self-Differentiation
A mature sense of self entails recognizing that our thoughts
and feelings are our private possessions. Young children often
confuse processes that go on in their own minds with the external
events.
They locate their own dreams and nightmares, for example,
in the world around them.
2. Role Taking
The process of
imaginatively
occupying the position
of another person and
viewing the self and the
situation from that
person’s perspective.
We can also
recognize that each
person sees the
world from a
different
perspective.
The Social Origins of Self
Play and the Game
A social experience
leading to the
emergence of self.
“Play” stage is when
young children
imitate the activities
of people around
them.
“Game” is when
children enter
organized activities.
The Generalized Other
A conception of
attitudes and
expectatations held in
common by members
of the organized
groups with whom
they interact.
Online
Communication and
the Self
The impact of others
whom we interact
with online depends
upon the nature of
our relationship with
them.
Throughout our life,
as we meet new
people and enter new
groups, our view of
self is modified by the
feedback we receive
from others.
Looking Glass
Self – our
significant
others
Self-Evaluation
The views of
ourselves that we
perceive from others–
positive or negative.
These evaluations
also become part of
the self we construct.
IDENTITIES:
The Self We Know
1.
Role Identities
Each of us occupies a numerous positions in society–
student, friend, son or daughter, customer.
These identities are concepts of self in specific roles.
It depends on the social positions available to us in
the society.
1I.
Social Identities
A second source of identities is membership in social
categories or groups based on criteria such as
gender, nationality, race/ethnicity, sexual
preferences, or political affiliation.
It is the defining of characteristics of a social group.
III.
Research on Self-Concept
The Adoption of Role and
Social Identities
Adopting a social identity
involves a self-
categorization – the
defining of the self as a
member of a social
category such as Filipino
American or feminist.
It involves conforming to a
role, thought associated
with the identity, and
styles of dress and
behavior.
Reflected Appraisals
The idea that the person
bases his or her self-
schema on the reactions
he or she perceives from
others during social
interaction.
Identity and Multiracial
Heritage
An important influence on
racial persons seems
obvious; that is, their skin
color or physical features.
1V.
The Situated Self
The subset of self-concepts chosen from our
identities, qualities, and self-evaluations that
constitutes the self we know in a particular situation.
Example: A Black woman who interacts with Black
men and White women.
IDENTITIES:
The Self We Enact
1.
Identities and Behavior
Each of us makes dozens of decisions every day;
most of them influence our behavior. These decisions
are influenced by explicit and implicit egotism – that
is, giving undue prominence to the self.
A study of major life decisions suggests that these
decisions are influenced by our names.
““Once you are known, versatility will get you
more opportunities than if you are a
specialist.”
II.
Choosing an Identity to Enact
Each identity suggests its own lines of actions. These
lines of action are all compatible, however, can they
be pursued simultaneously in a single situation.
Example: A family reunion in your parents’ home as
you wish to claim identities.
What influences the decision to enact one
rather than another identity?
The Hierarchy of
Identities
Different role identities do
not have equal importance
for us. We recognize them
into a heirarchy to their
salience.
Social Networks
Each of us is a part of a
network of social relationships.
These relatioships may stand
or fall depending on whether
we continue to enact particular
role identities.
Need for Identity
Support
We are likely to enact those
of our identities that most
need support because they
have recently been
challenged.
Situational
Opportunities
Social situations are
restrictive; they let us enact
only some identities
profitably, not others.
Their relative
importance to
the self-
schema.
III.
Identities as Sources of Consistency
Although the self includes multiple identities, people
usually experience themselves as a unified entity.
IV.
Self-Awareness and Self-Discrepancies
Effects of Self-
Awareness
While eating with friends, reading
a book, or participating in
conversation, your attentions is
usually directed toward the
objects, people, and events that
surround you. You suddenly
discover a photographer, lens
focused on you, snapping away?
Effects of Self-
Discrepancies
When the actual self matches
the ideal self, we feel
satisfaction or pride and if not,
we feel discomfort.
Self-Esteem
What is self-esteem?
Overall, how capable, successful, significant, and
worthy are you reflects self-esteem; the evaluative
component of self-concept.
1.
Assessment of Self-Esteem
Some of our specific role and social identities and
personal qualities are important to us; characteristics of
self or categories of outcomes on which a person stakes
self-esteem.
Example: You may consider yourself as an excellent
student and a worthy friend, an incompetent athlete and
an unreliable employee, and not care about your social
identiity as Filipino Japanese.
II.
Sources of Self-Esteem
Family
Experience
As one might expect,
parent-child
relationships are
important for the
development of self-
esteem.
Social Comparison
To interpret whether
performances represents
success or failure, we must
often compare them both with
our own goals and self-
expectations or with the
performances of others.
Performance
Feedback
Everyday feedback
about the quality of our
performances – our
successes and failures –
influences our self-
esteem.
1II.
Self-Esteem and Behavior
People with high self-esteem often behave quite differently
from those with low self-esteem.
Persons with high self-esteem participate more with
extracurricular activities and leadership roles while persons
with low self-esteem tends to be socialy anxious and
ineffective.
IV.
Protecting Self-Esteem
Manipulating
Appraisals
We choose to associate
with people who share
our view of self and
avoid people who do not.
Example: Women
associate frequently with
those they believed saw
them as they saw
themselves.
Selective Social
Comparison
Carefully selecting others
with whom to compare
ourselves, we can further
protect our self-esteem.
Selective
Information
Processing
We protect our self-
esteem by attending
more to occurrences that
are consistent with our
self-evaluation.
Selective
Commitment to
Identities
Involves committing
ourselves more to
those self-concepts
that provide feedback
consistent with our
self-evaluation.
Self-
Presentation
Few of us make our
living by creating
such a finely tuned
impression.
Self-Presentation in
Everyday Life
In everyday settings, people routinely project specific
social identities, and they must take care that others
understand and accept their identity claims.
Tactical Impression
Management
1.
Definition of the Situation
An agreement who they are, what their goals are, what
actions are proper, and what their behaviors mean.
Frames
The type of social
occasion in which they
are participating. Is it a
wedding? A reunion?
Identities
Identities that will
grant one another and,
relatedly, on the roles
they will enact.
Self-Disclosure
A primary means to
make authentic
identity claims is to
reveal certain facts
about ourselves.
1I.
Ingratiation
Most people want to be liked by others. This attempts
to increase a target person’s liking for us.
Opinion
Conformity
People tend to like
others who hold
opinions similar to their
own.
Other
Enhancement
Using flattery on the
target person. It stated
that people are best
flattered in those areas
where they wish to excel
but are unsure of
themselves.
Supplication
Convincing a target
person that you are
needy and deserving.
Selective Self-
Presentation
Involves explicit
presentation or
description of one’s
attribution increase the
likelihood of being
judged attractive by the
target.
1Ii.
Aligning Actions
During interaction, occasional failures of impression
management are inevitable.
Disclaimers
A verbal assertion
intended to ward off any
negative implications
and are irrelevant to
one’s established
identity.
Accounts
Explanations people offer
to mitigate responsibility
after they have
performed.
1V.
Altercasting
Use of tactics to impose roles and identities
on others.
Example: “I know you can do better than
that.”
V.
Impression Management
Online
The widespread use of technology has
multiplied the opportunities to engage in
tactical self-presentation.
Ineffective Self-
Presentation and Spoiled
Identities
▧ Embarrassment – the feeling we experience when the public
identity we claim in an encounter is discredited.
▧ Cooling-Out – refers to gently persuading a person whose
performance is unsuitable to accept a less desirable, though still
reasonable, alternative identity.
▧ Identity Degradation – process of destroying the offender’s
identity and transforming him or her into a low social type.
▧ Stigma – prevents competent or morally trustworthy behaviour.
Thanks!

Self and Self presentation

  • 1.
  • 2.
    ““He is astranger to himself, a mystery to everyone else. At least he has a name, even if he knows it isn’t his own.”
  • 3.
    “Who am I?” Fewhuman beings live out their lives without pondering this question. Some pursue the search for self- knowledge and for meaningful identity.
  • 4.
    Steps in theGenesis of Self
  • 5.
    1. Self-Differentiation We must–ata minimum–be able to recognize ourselves. That is, we must distinguish our own faces, and bodies from those of others.
  • 6.
    Self-Differentiation Infants are notborn with this ability, but they acquire it quickly. Learning one’s own name is one of the earliest and most important steps in acquiring a self.
  • 7.
    Self-Differentiation A mature senseof self entails recognizing that our thoughts and feelings are our private possessions. Young children often confuse processes that go on in their own minds with the external events. They locate their own dreams and nightmares, for example, in the world around them.
  • 8.
    2. Role Taking Theprocess of imaginatively occupying the position of another person and viewing the self and the situation from that person’s perspective. We can also recognize that each person sees the world from a different perspective.
  • 9.
    The Social Originsof Self Play and the Game A social experience leading to the emergence of self. “Play” stage is when young children imitate the activities of people around them. “Game” is when children enter organized activities. The Generalized Other A conception of attitudes and expectatations held in common by members of the organized groups with whom they interact. Online Communication and the Self The impact of others whom we interact with online depends upon the nature of our relationship with them. Throughout our life, as we meet new people and enter new groups, our view of self is modified by the feedback we receive from others. Looking Glass Self – our significant others Self-Evaluation The views of ourselves that we perceive from others– positive or negative. These evaluations also become part of the self we construct.
  • 10.
  • 11.
    1. Role Identities Each ofus occupies a numerous positions in society– student, friend, son or daughter, customer. These identities are concepts of self in specific roles. It depends on the social positions available to us in the society.
  • 12.
    1I. Social Identities A secondsource of identities is membership in social categories or groups based on criteria such as gender, nationality, race/ethnicity, sexual preferences, or political affiliation. It is the defining of characteristics of a social group.
  • 13.
    III. Research on Self-Concept TheAdoption of Role and Social Identities Adopting a social identity involves a self- categorization – the defining of the self as a member of a social category such as Filipino American or feminist. It involves conforming to a role, thought associated with the identity, and styles of dress and behavior. Reflected Appraisals The idea that the person bases his or her self- schema on the reactions he or she perceives from others during social interaction. Identity and Multiracial Heritage An important influence on racial persons seems obvious; that is, their skin color or physical features.
  • 14.
    1V. The Situated Self Thesubset of self-concepts chosen from our identities, qualities, and self-evaluations that constitutes the self we know in a particular situation. Example: A Black woman who interacts with Black men and White women.
  • 15.
  • 16.
    1. Identities and Behavior Eachof us makes dozens of decisions every day; most of them influence our behavior. These decisions are influenced by explicit and implicit egotism – that is, giving undue prominence to the self. A study of major life decisions suggests that these decisions are influenced by our names.
  • 17.
    ““Once you areknown, versatility will get you more opportunities than if you are a specialist.”
  • 18.
    II. Choosing an Identityto Enact Each identity suggests its own lines of actions. These lines of action are all compatible, however, can they be pursued simultaneously in a single situation. Example: A family reunion in your parents’ home as you wish to claim identities.
  • 19.
    What influences thedecision to enact one rather than another identity? The Hierarchy of Identities Different role identities do not have equal importance for us. We recognize them into a heirarchy to their salience. Social Networks Each of us is a part of a network of social relationships. These relatioships may stand or fall depending on whether we continue to enact particular role identities. Need for Identity Support We are likely to enact those of our identities that most need support because they have recently been challenged. Situational Opportunities Social situations are restrictive; they let us enact only some identities profitably, not others. Their relative importance to the self- schema.
  • 20.
    III. Identities as Sourcesof Consistency Although the self includes multiple identities, people usually experience themselves as a unified entity.
  • 21.
    IV. Self-Awareness and Self-Discrepancies Effectsof Self- Awareness While eating with friends, reading a book, or participating in conversation, your attentions is usually directed toward the objects, people, and events that surround you. You suddenly discover a photographer, lens focused on you, snapping away? Effects of Self- Discrepancies When the actual self matches the ideal self, we feel satisfaction or pride and if not, we feel discomfort.
  • 22.
  • 23.
    What is self-esteem? Overall,how capable, successful, significant, and worthy are you reflects self-esteem; the evaluative component of self-concept.
  • 24.
    1. Assessment of Self-Esteem Someof our specific role and social identities and personal qualities are important to us; characteristics of self or categories of outcomes on which a person stakes self-esteem. Example: You may consider yourself as an excellent student and a worthy friend, an incompetent athlete and an unreliable employee, and not care about your social identiity as Filipino Japanese.
  • 25.
    II. Sources of Self-Esteem Family Experience Asone might expect, parent-child relationships are important for the development of self- esteem. Social Comparison To interpret whether performances represents success or failure, we must often compare them both with our own goals and self- expectations or with the performances of others. Performance Feedback Everyday feedback about the quality of our performances – our successes and failures – influences our self- esteem.
  • 26.
    1II. Self-Esteem and Behavior Peoplewith high self-esteem often behave quite differently from those with low self-esteem. Persons with high self-esteem participate more with extracurricular activities and leadership roles while persons with low self-esteem tends to be socialy anxious and ineffective.
  • 27.
    IV. Protecting Self-Esteem Manipulating Appraisals We chooseto associate with people who share our view of self and avoid people who do not. Example: Women associate frequently with those they believed saw them as they saw themselves. Selective Social Comparison Carefully selecting others with whom to compare ourselves, we can further protect our self-esteem. Selective Information Processing We protect our self- esteem by attending more to occurrences that are consistent with our self-evaluation. Selective Commitment to Identities Involves committing ourselves more to those self-concepts that provide feedback consistent with our self-evaluation.
  • 28.
    Self- Presentation Few of usmake our living by creating such a finely tuned impression.
  • 29.
    Self-Presentation in Everyday Life Ineveryday settings, people routinely project specific social identities, and they must take care that others understand and accept their identity claims.
  • 30.
  • 31.
    1. Definition of theSituation An agreement who they are, what their goals are, what actions are proper, and what their behaviors mean. Frames The type of social occasion in which they are participating. Is it a wedding? A reunion? Identities Identities that will grant one another and, relatedly, on the roles they will enact. Self-Disclosure A primary means to make authentic identity claims is to reveal certain facts about ourselves.
  • 32.
    1I. Ingratiation Most people wantto be liked by others. This attempts to increase a target person’s liking for us. Opinion Conformity People tend to like others who hold opinions similar to their own. Other Enhancement Using flattery on the target person. It stated that people are best flattered in those areas where they wish to excel but are unsure of themselves. Supplication Convincing a target person that you are needy and deserving. Selective Self- Presentation Involves explicit presentation or description of one’s attribution increase the likelihood of being judged attractive by the target.
  • 33.
    1Ii. Aligning Actions During interaction,occasional failures of impression management are inevitable. Disclaimers A verbal assertion intended to ward off any negative implications and are irrelevant to one’s established identity. Accounts Explanations people offer to mitigate responsibility after they have performed.
  • 34.
    1V. Altercasting Use of tacticsto impose roles and identities on others. Example: “I know you can do better than that.”
  • 35.
    V. Impression Management Online The widespreaduse of technology has multiplied the opportunities to engage in tactical self-presentation.
  • 36.
  • 37.
    ▧ Embarrassment –the feeling we experience when the public identity we claim in an encounter is discredited. ▧ Cooling-Out – refers to gently persuading a person whose performance is unsuitable to accept a less desirable, though still reasonable, alternative identity. ▧ Identity Degradation – process of destroying the offender’s identity and transforming him or her into a low social type. ▧ Stigma – prevents competent or morally trustworthy behaviour.
  • 38.