1

Lesson 3

Self and Self-Presentation

2

Lesson Outline

The Nature & Geneses of Self Identities: The Self we Know Identities: The Self we Enact Self-Presentation in Everyday Life Tactile Impression Management Detecting Deceptive Impression Management Ineffective Self Presentation & Spoiled

Identities

3

Who Am I?

Few human beings in Western societies

live out their lives without pondering

the question of, “ Who am I?”– Each of us has unique answers to this question.

• Our answers reflect:

- Our self-schema or self-concept

- The organized structure of cognition

- The thoughts we have about ourselves

4

The Nature & Genesis of Self

Our understanding of the Self is drawn from Symbolic Interaction Theory.

The self is the individual viewed as both the source and the object of reflexive behavior.– The self is both active (the source that initiates

reflexive behavior) and passive (the object toward whom reflexive behavior is directed).

According to William I. James and George H. Mead:– The active aspect of the self is labeled the I.– The object of self-action is labeled the me.

5

Steps involved in the Geneses of Self

The following two steps are sequentially involved in the geneses of self:

1. Self-Differentiation

2. Role Taking

6

Self-Differentiation

To take the self as the object of action, we must be able to recognize ourselves.

To do so, we must distinguish our own faces and bodies from those of others.– Infants are not born with this ability.– Infants acquire this ability very quickly.

• Bertenthal and Fisher indicate that children recognize self-other contingencies by 18 to 24 months.

7

Role Taking

Role taking: The process of imaginatively occupying the position of another person and viewing the self and the situation from that person’s perspective.

In the early and mid-20th Century George Herbert Mead and Charles Horton Cooley recognized that language was central to the development of self, and to role taking.

When a child recognizes himself in the mirror – that child has acquired the ability to role take.

8

The Origin of Self

Cooley and Mead recognized that we acquire our Self in interaction with others.

One must recognize and interpret others responses to our actions in order to figure out how we appear to them.

A sense of self depends on ability to use self-referent terms, terms to describe the self.

9

The Looking Glass Self

•Cooley coined the term looking glass self.- Parents and immediate family and later on the child’s playmates form a child’s significant others (the people whose reflected views have greatest influence on the child’s self concepts).- As a child grows older and interacts with teachers, clergy, fellow workers, and others the list of significant others widens.

10

We can come to think of ourselves as funny because people laugh at the things we say.

11

Stages in the Development of Self

Mead (1934) identified three sequential stages leading to the emergence of the self in children.

1. The Play Stage

2. The Game Stage

3. Generalized Other

12

Mead’s Stages in Developing the Self

#1 Play - – Young children imitate the activities of people

around them.– Role taking involves imitating the mail carrier, the

doctor, the father, etc. #2 Game –

– This stage occurs when children enter organized activities such as complex games of house, school, and team sports.

– Now, role taking requires children to imagine the viewpoints of several others at the same time.

13

The Generalized Other

#3 The Generalized Other: - Mead’s term referring to a conception of the

attitudes and expectations held in common by the members of the organized groups with whom they interact.

When we imagine what the group expects of us, we are taking the role of the generalized other.

14

The Game Stage: Baseball

15

Phases of the Self: “I” and “me”

“I” (the self in action)- Self in process, in the

moment- The impulsive,

spontaneous, and indeterminate part of the self

- Non-reflective- Part of he self that

produces individuality

“Me” (the self as an object in the world)

- The structured and determinate part of the self

- A product of interaction and conscious reflection

- We know the “I” only through the “me”

16

The Self We Know

The self we know:- involves specific identities (the meanings

attached to the self by one’s self and others)- is primarily influenced by the reactions of

others- varies with the situation

In today’s society, we often communicate over the world-wide Web. What effect does this have?

17

Identities

Remember, identities are the meanings attached to the self by one’s self and others.

Identities are linked to social roles we enact or our membership in social groups.

Identities may be associated with in-group favoritism and out-group stereotyping.

We form self-concepts through learning and adopting role and social identities.

18

Role Identities

Role Identities: concepts of self in specific roles. For each role we enact, we develop a somewhat different

view of who we are; i.e. an identity. The role identities we develop depend on the social

positions available to us in society. Role identities involve role expectations.

Question:– Define the role identity of “student” and what are the

student role expectations?

19

Social Identities

Social Identities: a definition of the self in terms of the defining characteristics of a social group.

Each of us associates certain characteristics with members of specific groups.

If you define yourself as a member of the group, these characteristics become standards for your thoughts, feelings, and actions.

20

The Adoption of Role and Social Identities

Self-schemas are formed in part by adopting identities.

The identities available to us depend on whether the culture is individualist or collectivist.

– Individualist cultures emphasize individual achievement and one’s personal identities; e.g. student, school president, top athlete.

– Collectivist cultures emphasize group welfare and one’s group position; e.g. son, Italian, Catholic, American.

21

Reflected Appraisals

The idea that the person bases a self-schema on reactions perceived from others during social interaction.

Research studies support the hypothesis that the perceived reactions of others are crucial for self-concept formation rather than their actual reactions that.– Others rarely give honest feedback about their

reactions to us.• The feedback we receive from others is

inconsistent and frequently ambiguous.

22

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.

The self-concepts most likely to enter the situated self are those distinctive to the setting and relevant to ongoing activities.

23

Identities: The Self We Enact

The self we enact expresses our identities. We choose behaviors to evoke responses

from others that will confirm particular identities.

To confirm identities successfully, we must share our understanding of what these behaviors and identities mean.

24

Hierarchy of Identities

The importance of an identity varies from situation to situation. For example, being a rap artist is not important in a math class.– We organize different role identities into a

hierarchy according to their salience, or relative importance to the self-schema.

– The more salient an identity, the more likely we are to perceive a situations as an opportunities to enact that identity.

25

Identities as Sources of Consistency

Although the self includes multiple identities, people usually experience themselves as a unified entity.– we use strategies that verify our perceptions of

ourselves.

Salience Hierarchy: Our most salient identities provide consistent styles of behavior and priorities that lend continuity and unity to our behavior.

26

Self-Disclosure

When we speak as sharing our identity (s) with another we are speaking about self-disclosure.– Self-disclosure… disclosing the self

Self-disclosure is usually bilateral or reciprocal. The “norm of reciprocity in disclosure”;

– Sharing too much intimate self-information with another often weakens the relationship and may lead to disliking each other.

27

Impression Management

impression management: a process by which people manage the setting (stage), their dress (costumes), and their words and/or their gestures (script) to correspond to the impression they are trying to make.

28

Self-Presentation

The processes by which individuals attempt to control the impressions that others form of them in social interaction.

We differentiate between authentic, ideal, and tactical self-presentations.– Authentic is creating an image consistent with our

self view.– Ideal is our most appropriate public image our ideal

self.– Tactical is a public image consistent with what

others expect of us.

29

Tactical Impression Management

The use of conscious, goal-directed activity of controlling information to influence impressions.

The expression of emotions may be appropriate or inappropriate.

– For example:– Service workers must conceal anger or fear.– Imagine a surgeon expressing fear before operating

on your child.

30

Situation: Did you ever ask your boss if you could leave early from work because you were feeling sick, when in fact you were not? What kinds of

things did you do to convince your boss that you were really sick?

31

Managing Appearances

The impression an individual makes on others depends not only on clothes, makeup, and grooming, but also on props in the environment.

Irving Goffman draws a parallel between a theater’s front and back stages and the regions we use in managing appearances.

32

back stage: Area out of the audience’s site, where an individual can let down his or her

guard…. We take great care to conceal it from audience.

Backstage

Often doors separate backstage from front stage

33

front stage: area visible to the audience, where people feel compelled to present

themselves in expected ways

Once the doctor comes in, the patient is in the front stage

34

In the back stage a “person can relax,

drop his front, forgo his speaking lines

and step out of character”

35

Success of impression management is judged by ….

….whether an audience “plays along with the performance.” If the

audience plays along, the person has successfully

projected a desired definition of

situation.

36

Sometimes we are aware that we are engaging in impression management; as when we are pretending to listen in class when we are not. When we really are listening we are less aware of the “work” behind giving off that impression.

37

Ineffective Self-Presentations & Spoiled Identities

Some may recover when their identity is challenged, while others may have a permanently spoiled identity.

– Ex President Richard Nixon

– Designer Martha Stewart

Embarrassment

– People feel embarrassed, show lack of poise, fear, and loss of self-esteem when their identity is challenged and/or discredited.

38

Stigma Stigma is a characteristic widely viewed as an

insurmountable handicap that prevents competent or morally trustworthy behavior.

Types of stigma include those who have:

1. Physical challenges and deformities

2. Character defects such as dishonesty, or mental illnesses that are dangerous to society and themselves.

3. Racial, sexual or religious beliefs that could contaminate or morally debilitate others.