This document discusses early theories of the self, including William James' distinction between the self as object and agent, and Charles Cooley's view of the social self constructed through interactions with others. It then covers Pelham and Swann's model of global self-esteem as having affective and cognitive components, and framing factors. Gender differences in sources of self-esteem are noted. Finally, self-objectification theory proposes that American culture socializes women to view themselves from an observer's perspective, producing body shame and consuming cognitive resources.

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THE SELF
EARLY THEORISTS OF ‘THE SELF’
William James, Charles Cooley
SELF-CONCEPT & SELF-ESTEEM
Pelham & Swann (1989)
Gender differences?
Self-objectification theory

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EARLY THEORISTS OF THE ‘SELF’

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WILLIAM JAMES (1842--1910)
“Principles of Psychology”
Duality of Self:
• Self as object than can be observed
I have property X
“me”
• Self as agent doing the observing
Self as the perceiver
“I”
Related to consciousness: the “I” does the perceiving, feeling,

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CHARLES COOLEY (1864-1929)
“Human Nature and the Social Order”
The Social Self:
• Self can’t be understood in isolation--must be
studied in interaction with others
• Self is not an inherent property of human nature but
rather a socially-constructed entity: our sense of self
is built upon the life-long experience of seeing
ourselves through the eyes of others (“looking-glass
self”)
James, Mead, Cooley --> SYMBOLIC
INTERACTIONISM

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SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM
(Social) reality is an illusion, nothing is
inherently real, only the meanings and
symbols we collectively construct and use
to describe reality are real; these symbols
can be deconstructed to reveal who develop
them and how they are useful to particular
groups.

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SELF-CONCEPT & SELF-ESTEEM

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How do people move from having specific knowledge
about their attributes to global evaluations of their self-
worth?
Augusto Pinochet (1915-?) Sylvia Plath (1932-1963)
Undeserved high self-esteem ? Undeserved low self-
esteem ?
PARADOX: Often there is no obvious relationship between people’s accomplishments
and virtues and their global self-esteem

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PELHAM & SWANN (1989)
GLOBAL SELF-ESTEEM (GSE)
General affective evaluation of own’s worth or importance. 2 components:
(1) Affective component: COLOR
• Basic sense of pride/shame about oneself.
• Largely rooted in temperament (individual differences in basic tendency to feel positive
and negative emotions) and early childhood experiences; stable, fuzzy, unconscious, hard
to verbalize, spontaneous, irrational (“feeling is believing”)
• Also known as trait self-esteem
(2) Cognitive component: CONTENT
• Known as self-concept (SC)
• Hierarchically organized set of specific mental self-views about one’s characteristics
(roles, abilities, etc.) and their evaluation
• Dynamic, clear, verbalized, rational (“seeing is believing”)
Framing factors: DYNAMICS
1. Attribute importance
2. Attribute certainty determine
impact of SC on
3. Actual/Ideal/Ought Self discrepancy GSE

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POSITIVE &
NEGATIVE
AFFECT
SELF-
CONCEPT
(COGNITIVE
COMPONENT)
TRAIT
SELF-ESTEEM
(AFFECTIVE
COMPONENT)
GLOBAL SELF-ESTEEM
FRAMING FACTORS:
1. Attribute importance
2. Attribute certainty
3. Actual/Ideal/Ought
discrepancy

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Gender differences in global self-
esteem ?
• Not reliable and/or sizable differences
have been found in adults (Maccoby & Jacklin,
1974)
• Sources of global self-esteem associated
to different things for men and women
(Josephs, Markus, & Tafarodi, 1992)
Differences in agency and communion

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• Girl’s self-confidence fairly high until
age 11 or 12
– Assertive about feelings
• At adolescence
– Many girls accept stereotyped notions of
how they should be (behavior and looks)
• Repress true feelings
• Adopt a “nice” and woman-like self-
presentation
GIRLS SELF-ESTEEM
(Gilligan, 1990)

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PHYSICAL SELF IN YOUNG
WOMEN

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SELF-OBJECTIFICATION
(Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997)
American culture socializes women to
adopt observers' perspectives on their
physical selves.
This self-objectification is hypothesized to
(a) produce body shame  restrained
eating, and (b) consume attentional
resources.

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Highly recommended reading !!
Fredrickson, Roberts, Noll, Quinn, & Twenge
(1998).
That swimsuit becomes you: Sex differences in
self-objectification, restrained eating, and math
performance. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology.

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Question for the class:
Why is self-esteem in (Caucasian)
girls lower than for the other ethnic
groups?