Self-concept

Self-concept

Self-concept—the way in which one perceives oneself—can be divided into categories, such as personal self-concept (facts or one’s own opinions about oneself, such as “I have brown eyes” or “I am attractive”); social self-concept (one’s perceptions about how one is regarded by others: “people think I have a great sense of humor”); and self-ideals (what or how one would like to be: “I want to be a lawyer” or “I wish I were thinner”).

While a number of philosophers and psychologists have addressed the idea that behavior is influenced by the way people see themselves, investigation into the importance of self-concept is most closely associated with the writings and therapeutic practices of Carl Rogers.

The self—and one’s awareness of it—lie at the heart of Carl Rogers’ client-centered therapy and the philosophy behind it. According to Carl Rogers, one’s self-concept influences how one regards both oneself and one’s environment.

Self-conscious Emotions

Self-conscious Emotions

Succeeding or failing to meet the standards, rules, and goals of one’s group or society determines how well an individual forms relationships with other members of the group. Living up to one’s own internalized set of standards—or failing to live up to them—is the basis of complex emotions.

The so-called self-conscious emotions, such as guilt, pride, shame, and hubris, require a fairly sophisticated level of intellectual development. To feel them, individuals must have a sense of self as well as a set of standards. They must also have notions of what constitutes success and failure, and the capacity to evaluate their own behavior.

Self-conscious emotions are difficult to study. For one thing, there are no clear elicitors of these emotions. Joy registers predictably on a person’s face at the approach of a friend, and caution appears at the approach of a stranger.

Self-esteem

Self-esteem

Psychologists who write about self-esteem generally discuss it in terms of two key components: the feeling of being loved and accepted by others and a sense of competence and mastery in performing tasks and solving problems independently.

Much research has been conducted in the area of developing self-esteem in children. Martin Seligman claims that in order for children to feel good about themselves, they must feel that they are able to do things well.

He claims that trying to shield children from feelings of sadness, frustration, and anxiety when they fail robs them of the motivation to persist in difficult tasks until they succeed. It is precisely such success in the face of difficulties that can truly make them feel good about themselves.

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

Self-fulfilling Prophecy

One’s beliefs about other people determine how one acts towards them, and thus play a role in determining the behavior that results. Experiments have demonstrated this process in a variety of settings.

In one of the bestknown examples, teachers were told (falsely) that certain students in their class were “bloomers” on the verge of dramatic intellectual development. When the students were tested eight months later, the “special” students outperformed their peers, fulfilling the prediction that had been made about them.

During the intervening period, the teachers had apparently behaved in ways that facilitated the students’ intellectual development, perhaps by giving them increased attention and support and setting higher goals for them.

Self-help Groups

Self-help Groups

Since the advent of managed health care and the cost-controls that have accompanied it, self-help groups have grown in popularity. Individuals who are offered limited mental health coverage through their healthcare plan often find self-help a positive and economical way to gain emotional support.

Overview

Twelve-step groups, one of the most popular types of self-help organizations, have been active in the United States since the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) in 1935. AA and other 12-step programs are based on the spiritual premise that turning one’s life and will over to “a higher power” (i.e., God, another spiritual entity, or the group itself) for guidance and self-evaluation is the key to recovery.

Outside of AA and its sister organizations (Narcotics Anonymous, or NA; Cocaine Anonymous, or CA), a number of 12-step programs have sprung up to treat a range of mental disorders, such as Gambler’s Anonymous (GA), Schizophrenics Anonymous (SA), and Overeaters Anonymous (OA).

Separation Anxiety

Separation Anxiety

Separation anxiety emerges according to a developmental timetable during the second half year in human infants. This development reflects advancing cognitive maturation, rather than the onset of problem behaviors.

As illustrated in the accompanying figure, infants from cultures as diverse as Kalahari bushmen, Israeli kibbutzim, and Guatemalan Indians display quite similar patterns in their response to maternal separation, which peaks at the end of the first year and gradually becomes less frequent and less intense throughout later infancy and the preschool years.

This fact has been interpreted to mean that the one-year-old is alerted by the absence of the parent and tries to understand that discrete event. If it fails, fear is created and the child cries.

Serial Learning

Serial Learning

In some research on memory for words, the learner is exposed to stimuli to be remembered and later recalls those stimuli in the same order in which they initially appeared. This procedure is called serial learning. In general, when people must recall stimuli in a particular order, they remember less material than when allowed to engage in free recall, which imposes no constraints on the order or recall.

Hermann Ebbinghaus is credited with conducting the first studies of verbal memory involving serial learning. Most serial learning studies use a procedure called serial anticipation, where one stimulus is presented at a time and the learner uses that word as a cue for the next word.

The second word then serves as a cue for the third, and so on. One of the most consistent findings in research involving single words or nonsense syllables involves the serial position function or effect: learners show greatest recall for stimuli at the beginning of the list, and good but somewhat less recall for items appearing at the end of the list. Stimuli in the middle of the list fare least well.