Self-knowledge (psychology)

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Self-knowledge is the term used in psychology to describe the information a person is drawing when finding answers to the question "What do I like?" .

While trying to develop an answer to this question, self-knowledge requires self-awareness and sustained self-awareness (which is not confused with consciousness). Young infants and chimpanzees exhibit some of the qualities of self-awareness and agency/contingency, but they are not considered to have self-awareness. However, at some level of higher cognition, the self-conscious component appears in addition to an increasing component of self-awareness, and then becomes possible to ask "What do I like?" , and to answer with self-knowledge.

Self-knowledge is a component of self or, more precisely, the self-concept. It is the knowledge of oneself and one's property and the desire to seek knowledge that directs the development of the self-concept. Self-knowledge tells us about our own mental representation, which contains attributes we uniquely attach to ourselves, and the theory of whether these attributes are stable or dynamic.

The concept of self is considered to have three main aspects:

• The cognitive self
• Affective Self
• Executive self

The affective and the self-executives are also known as feel and active respectively, as they refer to the emotional and behavioral components of self-concept. Self-knowledge associated with the cognitive self in its motive guides our search for greater clarity and assurance that our self-concept is an accurate representation of our true self; for this reason the cognitive self is also referred to as the known self . The cognitive self consists of everything we know (or think we know about ourselves). This implies physiological traits such as hair color, race, and height etc.; and psychological traits such as beliefs, values, and dislikes to mention but some.

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Self-knowledge and its structure affect how events we experience are encoded, how they are selectively taken/pulled back, and what conclusions are we drawing from how we interpret memory. The analytic interpretation of our own memory can also be called meta memory , and is an important factor of meta cognition .

The relationship between our memory and our self-knowledge has been recognized for many years by leading thought in both philosophy and psychology, but the exact specification of the relationship remains a point of controversy.

Custom memory

• Research has shown there is a memory advantage for information encoded with references to self.
• Patients with Alzheimer's who have difficulty recognizing their own families have not shown evidence of self-knowledge.

Memory sharing

Self theories have traditionally failed to distinguish between different sources that inform self-knowledge, these are the episodic memory and semantic memory . Episodic and semantic memory is an aspect of declarative memory , which contains fact memory. Declarative memory is an explicit partner for procedural memory, implied in that it applies to the skills we have learned; they are not facts that can be mentioned .

Episodic memory

Episodic memory is an autobiographical memory owned by an individual that contains events, emotions, and knowledge related to a particular context.

Semantic memory

Semantic memory does not refer to the concept-based knowledge stored about specific experiences such as episodic memory. Rather it includes the memory of meaning, understanding, general knowledge of the world, and factual information, etc. This makes semantic knowledge independent of context and personal information. Semantic memory allows one to know information, including information about themselves, without having to consciously recall the experience that taught them that knowledge.

Semantic self as source

People are able to maintain a sense of self supported by semantic knowledge of personal facts without direct access to memories depicting episodes in which knowledge is based.

• Individuals have been shown to maintain a sense of self despite disruption of disasters in episodic memories. For example, the subject of W.J., who suffered from a severe vaginal discharge, left him unable to recall events that occurred before the development of amnesia. However, his memory for the general facts about his life during the amnesia period remains intact.

• This suggests that a separate kind of knowledge contributes to self-concept, because knowledge of W.J. can not come from his episodic memory.
  • The same dissociation occurred in K.C. who suffered from a total episodic memory loss, but still knows various facts about him.
• There is also evidence showing how patients with severe amnesia can have accurate and detailed semantic knowledge about what they like as individuals, such as certain personality traits and characteristics they possess.

This evidence for the dissociation between episodic and semantic self-knowledge has made things clear:

1. Episodic memory is not the only point of drawing for self-knowledge, contrary to long-held beliefs. Therefore, self-knowledge must be extended to include semantic components of memory.
2. Self-knowledge about the properties of a person can be accessed without the need for episodic retrieval. This is demonstrated through studies of individuals with neurological disorders that make it impossible to recall experience-related traits, but who can still make judgments of their own reliable and accurate nature, and even revise this assessment based on new experiences that even they can not remember./li>

Maps Self-knowledge (psychology)

Motives that guide our search

People have a goal that leads them to seek, pay attention, and interpret information about themselves. These goals begin the search for self-knowledge. There are three main motives that guide us in seeking self-knowledge:

• Self Improvement
• Accuracy
• Consistency

Self-improvement

Self-improvement refers to the fact that people seem to be motivated to experience a positive emotional state and avoid experiencing negative emotional states. People are motivated to feel good about themselves to maximize their feelings of self-worth, thus increasing their self-esteem.
The emphasis on feeling is slightly different from how other previous theories have defined self-improvement needs, such as Contingency of the Self-Preview Model .
Other theorists have used this term to mean that people are motivated to think about themselves in very favorable terms, rather than feel In many situations and cultures, the feeling of self-worth is promoted by thinking of oneself as being very capable or better than one's peers. However, in some situations and cultures, the feeling of self-worth is promoted by thinking of oneself as average or even worse than others. In both cases, the thought of self still serves to enhance feelings of self-worth. The universal need is not the need to think of oneself in a certain way, but rather the need to maximize one's self-esteem. This is the meaning of self-improvement motive with respect to self-knowledge.

Arguments

In Western societies, the feeling of self-esteem is actually promoted by thinking of oneself in terms of benefit.

• In this case, self-improvement needs to lead people to seek information about themselves in such a way that they are inclined to conclude that they actually have what they see as positive determining qualities.

See the "Self-Verification" section.

Accuracy

The accuracy of needs affects the way people seek self-knowledge. People often want to know the truth about themselves regardless of whether they learn something positive or negative. There are three considerations underlying this need:

• Sometimes people just want to reduce any uncertainty. They may want to know the intrinsic pleasure solely to know what they really are.
• Some people believe they have a moral obligation to know what they really are. This view is very strong in theology and philosophy, especially existentialism.
• Knowing what really likes sometimes helps someone to achieve their goals. The basic fundamental goal for every living being is survival, therefore accurate self-knowledge can become adaptive for survival.

Accurate self-knowledge can also play a role in maximizing feelings of self-worth. Success is one of a number of things that make people feel good about themselves, and knowing how we can make success more likely, so that self-knowledge can again become adaptive. This is because the need for self-enhancement can be fulfilled by knowing that someone can not do something very well, thus protecting the person from pursuing a dead end dream that is likely to end in failure.

Consistency

Many theorists believe that we have a motive for protecting the self-concept (and thus our self-knowledge) from change. The motive for consistency leads people to seek and welcome information that is consistent with what they believe to be true about themselves; likewise, they will avoid and reject information that presents inconsistencies with their beliefs. This phenomenon is also known as self-verification theory. Not everyone proves to pursue the motive of self-consistency; but has played an important role in various other influential theories, such as the theory of cognitive dissonance.

This theory was proposed by William Swann of the University of Texas at Austin in 1983 to name the phenomenon mentioned above. His theory states that once a person develops an idea of ​​what they are like, they will seek to verify the self-image that accompanies it.

Two considerations are considered to encourage the search for self-verifying feedback:

• We feel more comfortable and secure when we believe that others see us in the same way we see ourselves. Actively seeking self-verifying feedback helps people avoid knowing that they are wrong about their own views.
• Self-verification theory assumes that social interaction will run more smoothly and profitably when others see us in the same way we see ourselves. This gives a second reason to selectively seek self-verifying feedback.

These self-verification theory factors create controversy when people suffering from low self-esteem are considered. People who have negative views about themselves selectively seek negative feedback to verify their self-views. This is in stark contrast to the self-improvement motive that shows people are driven by a desire to feel good about themselves.

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Source

There are three sources of information available to an individual to seek knowledge of self:

• The physical world
• The social world
• The psychological world

The physical world

The physical world in general is a source of information that is very easy to see and quite easily measured about yourself. Information that may be obtained from the physical world includes:

• Weight - by weighing yourself.
• Strength - by measuring how much you can lift.
• Height - by measuring yourself.

Limitations

• Many attributes can not be measured in the physical world, such as kindness, intelligence and sincerity.
• Even when attributes can be judged by reference to the physical world, the knowledge we gain is not always the knowledge we seek. Each size is just a relative size to that attribute level in, say, the general population or other specific individual.
  • This means that any measurement is only worth means when expressed in terms of other people's measurements.
  • Most of our personal identities are sealed in comparison from the social world.

Social world

The comparative nature of self-perception means that people rely heavily on the social world when seeking information about themselves. Two special processes are important:

• Social Comparison Theory
• Reflected Rating

Social comparison

People compare attributes with others and draw conclusions about what they are like. However, the conclusions that one draws ultimately depends on who they specifically compare with it. The need for accurate self-knowledge was initially considered to guide the social comparison process, and researchers assume that comparing with others that are similar to ours in a more informative way.

Complications of social comparison theory

People are also known to compare themselves with people who are slightly better than themselves (known as upward comparison ); and with slightly worse or less fortunate people (known as downward comparisons ). There is also substantial evidence that the need for accuracy self-knowledge is not the only factor, or most importantly that guides the social comparison process, the need to feel good about ourselves affects the social comparison process.

Rating reflected

The reflected judgment occurs when someone observes how others respond. This process was first described by sociologist Charles H. Cooley in 1902 as part of his discussion of "self-glass self," which describes how we see ourselves reflected in the eyes of others. He argues that one's feelings toward himself are socially determined through a three-step process:

"This kind of self-concept seems to have three principled elements: the imagination of our appearance to others, the imagination of his judgment of the appearance, and a kind of self-esteem, such as pride or shame.Comparison with the visible glass does not indicate the second element, the imagined judgment, which very important.The thing that moves us to feel proud or embarrassed is not a mere mechanical reflection of ourselves, but a calculated sentiment, the shadowy effect of this reflection on the other, the mind. " (Cooley, 1902, p.153)

In simplified terms, Cooley's three stages are:

1. We imagine how we appear in the eyes of others.
2. We then imagine how that person evaluates us.
3. The imagined evaluation makes us feel good or bad, according to the judgments we make.

Note that this model is phenomenological.

In 1963, John W. Kinch adapted the Cooley model to explain how the mind someone about themselves evolved from their feelings.

The three stages of the Kinch are:

1. The real assessment - what other people really think about us.
2. Perceived judgment - our perception of this judgment.
3. Self-esteem - our idea of ​​what we like based on perceived judgment.

This model is also a phenomenological approach.

Arguments against the reflected rating model

Research shows only limited support for models and a variety of arguments boost their heads:

• People are generally not good at knowing what people think about them.
  • Felson believes this is due to communication barriers and social norms imposed that place restrictions on information people receive from others. This is especially true when the feedback is negative; people rarely give negative feedback to each other, so people seldom conclude that others do not like it or are evaluating them negatively.
• Although most are not aware of how one person specifically evaluates them, people are better at knowing what others on the whole think.
  • The reflected rating model assumes that the actual rating determines the perceived appraisal . While this may actually be the case, the effect of the common third variable can also result in a relationship between the two.

The sequence of reflected ratings can accurately characterize patterns in early childhood because of the large amount of feedback that babies receive from their parents, but seems less relevant in the future. This is because people are not passive, as assumed by the model. People active and selectively process information from the social world. Once someone's idea of ​​themselves is formed, it also affects the way in which new information is gathered and interpreted, and thus the cycle continues.

The psychological world

The psychological world describes our "inner world". There are three processes that affect how people gain knowledge about themselves:

• Introspection
• The process of self-perception
• Causal attribution

Introspection

Introspection involves looking inward and directly consulting with our attitudes, feelings, and thoughts for meaning. Consulting with one's thoughts and feelings can sometimes produce meaningful self-knowledge. The accuracy of introspection, however, has been questioned since the 1970s. Generally, introspection depends on the self-explanatory theory of the person and his world, whose accuracy does not necessarily correspond to the form of self-knowledge they are trying to value.

• The rank of stranger about a participant is more correspondent with the assessment of the participants' self-assessment when a stranger has submitted to the participant's thoughts and feelings than when the stranger has been subjected to only participant behavior, or a combination of both.

Compare introspection sources. People believe that the form of spontaneous thought provides a more meaningful self-insight than a more deliberate form of thought. Morewedge, Giblin, and Norton (2014) found that the more spontaneous a type of thinking, the more spontaneous a particular thought, and the more spontaneous thought that is thought to be a particular thought, the more insight the self attributes. Moreover, the more meaningful thought is attached, the more certain thoughts influence their judgment and decision-making. People are asked to let their minds wander until they randomly think of someone to whom they are interested, for example, reporting that the person they identify gives them more insight than the people who are asked to think only of the person to whom they are attracted to. In addition, greater self-insights are associated with people identified by random thought processes (previously) rather than by deliberate thought processes that ultimately get people in random conditions to report feelings more attracted to the person they identify.

Arguments against introspection

Whether introspection always cultivates self-understanding is not entirely clear. Thinking too much about why we feel the way we do things sometimes confuses us and damages our true self knowledge. Participants in introspection conditions are less accurate when predicting their own future behavior than controls and are less satisfied with their choices and decisions.

Process of self-perception

Wilson's work is based on the assumption that people are not always aware why they feel what they are doing. Self-perception theory Bem makes the same assumptions. This theory deals with how people explain their behavior. This holds that people do not always know why they do what they do. When this happens, they infer the cause of their behavior by analyzing their behavior in the context in which it occurs. An outsider of behavior will reach the same conclusion as the individual who did it. Individuals then draw a logical conclusion about why they behave as they do.

"Individuals come to" know "their own attitudes, emotions, and other internal circumstances partially by deducing them from observing their own blatant behavior and/or the circumstances in which this behavior occurs.So, to the extent that internal cues are weak, ambiguous, or can not be interpreted, the individual is functionally in the same position as the outside observer, the observer must always rely on the same external cues to infer the inner state of the individual. "(Bem, 1972, p.2)

This theory has been applied to various phenomena. Under certain circumstances, people have been shown to infer their attitudes, emotions, and motives, in the same way that the theory explains.

Similar to introspection, but with an important distinction: our introspection directly examines our attitudes, feelings, and motives. With our self-perception process we indirectly deduce our attitudes, feelings, and motives by analyzing our behavior.

Causal Attributes

Causal attribution is an important source of self-knowledge, especially when people make attributions for positive and negative events. The key elements in the theory of self-perception are the explanations that people give to their actions, this explanation is known as causal attribution.

Causal attribution gives answer to "Why?" questions by linking one's behavior (including ours) to a cause.

People also gain self-knowledge by making attributions for the behavior of others; for example "If nobody wants to spend time with me, it must be because I'm boring".

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Activation

Individuals think for themselves in various ways, but only some of these ideas are active at any given time. Ideas that are particularly active at any given time are known as Current Representatives . Other theorists have referred to the same thing in several different ways:

• A phenomenal self
• Spontaneous self concept
• Self-identification
• Aspects of self-concepts that work

The present self-representation affects the processing of information, emotions, and behavior and is influenced by the personal and situational factors.

Personal factors affecting current self-representation

Self-concept

Self-concept, or how people usually consider themselves the most important personal factor affecting current representation. This is especially true for important and self-determining attributes.

Self-concept is also known as self-scheme, created from a smaller and countless number of self schemes that are "accessible chronically".

Self-esteem

Self-esteem affects the way people feel about themselves. People with high self-esteem are more likely to think about themselves in positive terms at a certain time than people who suffer low self-esteem.

Mood state

Moods affect the accessibility of a positive and negative self-view.

When we are happy, we tend to think more about our positive qualities and attributes, whereas when we are sad, our negative qualities and attributes become more accessible.

This relationship is very strong for people who suffer from low self-esteem.

Goal

One can deliberately activate certain self-views. We choose the appropriate image of ourselves depending on what role we want to play in a particular situation.

One particular purpose that affects the activation of the view is the desire to feel good.

Situational factors that affect the current self-representation

Social roles

How one thinks about themselves depends very much on the social role they play. The social role affects our personal identity.

Social context and self-description

People tend to think of themselves in a way that distinguishes them from their social environment.

• The more different the attribute, the more likely it will be used to describe itself.

Privileges also affect the meaning of group identity .

The self-categorization theory proposes that whether people think about themselves in either their social group or personal identity depends in part on the social context.

• Group identity is more prominent in the context of intergroups.

Group size

Group size affects the significance of group identity. Minority groups are more typical, so the identity of the group should be more prominent among members of minority groups than members of the majority group.

Group status

Group status interacts with group sizes to influence the meaning of social identity.

Social context and self-evaluation

The social environment has an influence on the way people evaluate themselves as a result of the social comparison process.

Contrast effect

People think of themselves as the end of the spectrum given to people in their company. However, this effect has come under fire, whether it is a major effect, as it seems to share space with the effect of assimilation, stating that people evaluate themselves more positively when they are in another exemplary company in some dimension..

• Whether the assimilation or contrast effect applies depends on psychological closeness, with people who feel psychologically disconnected from their social environment becoming more likely to exhibit contrasting effects. The effects of assimilation occur when the subject feels connected psychologically to his social environment.

Others and significant self-evaluation

Imagining how one looks at others has an effect on how people think about themselves.

Recent events

Recent events may signal certain self-views, either as a direct result of failure, or through mood.

The effect level depends on the private variable. For example, people with high self-esteem do not show this effect, and sometimes do the opposite.

Memory for previous events affects the way people think about themselves.

Fazio et al. found that selective memory for previous events can enable self-representation temporarily after being activated, guiding our behavior.

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Disadvantages

Specific type

Abusing

• Lack of knowledge about self now .
• Giving reasons but not a feeling of disturbing personal insight.

Misplaced

• Lack of knowledge about past self .
• Knowledge from now gives excess information knowledge of the past.
• Wrong theories form an autobiographical memory.

Misprediction

• Lack of knowledge about the future .
• Knowledge of overinforms currently predicts future knowledge.
• Affective estimates can be affected by a resilience bias.

Miswanting

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See also

References

Further reading

• Brown, J. D. (1998). Self. New York: McGraw Hill. ISBN: 0-07-008306-1
• Sedikides, C., & amp; Brewer, M. B. (2001). The individual self, the relational self, the collective self. Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press. ISBNÃ, 1-84169-043-0
• Suls, J. (1982). The psychological perspective on self (Vol 1). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. ISBNÃ, 0-89859-197-X
• Sedikides, C., & amp; Spencer, S. J. (Eds.) (2007). Self. New York: Press Psychology. ISBNÃ, 1-84169-439-8
• Thought and Action: Cognitive Perspectives on Self-Adjustment during Endurance Performance

External links

• Self-knowledge (psychology) at PhilPapers
• Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). "Self-knowledge". Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
• William Swann's Homepage includes much of his work
• The International Society for Self and Identity
• Journal of Self and Identity

Source of the article : Wikipedia