Sense of Self in Social Psychology - Essay Example

?Sense of Self in Social Psychology The quest for sense of self is as much philosophical as it is psychological in nature. Many religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism rely on introspection and achieving a sense of self through karma in order to attain a sense of enlightment or as the Buddhists refers to it as nirvana. In counseling psychology, often, existential therapy relies on logotherapy, which is a therapy that is designed to help the person find meaning in their life. In social psychology, there are many different viewpoints regarding how an individual perceives themselves as well as how they integrate their personality and external information into their purpose. However, it is important to identify that at its root, the idea of constructing “the self” of the individual has roots in many other domains of knowledge (Danziger, 1997). As stated previously, the first thoughts of the idea of the self originated from that of philosophy and religion. The self was often described as the “soul” or consciousness of the individual. It was supposed to be something that could be observed. Locke was one of the first to develop this issue due to the high rates of development and increase in society. He had to make a distinguishing factor between the external self and the self-consciousness. As time progressed, ideas of the self began to change in develop. Cooley addressed this as a mirror principle in that the reaction to others is based on a mirror principle, which involves both internal and external judgment (Cooley, 1902). One of the key events in the development of the self in social psychology was through the humanist, Carol Rogers. He postulated that the self constituted two components: the real and ideal selves. The real self was the true essence of who the individual is and the ideal self is what the person projects onto the world as a desire to be. The disunity in the real and ideal self is what causes the neuroticism and anxiety in the individual. The neuroticism can only go away once the real self and ideal self become integrated with one another. Being an American psychologist, he took the forefront in the development in this field of psychology, but moved the emphasis from awareness of self to the emotions and motivations, which play a part in the development of the self, both internally and externally. This represents the constructivist philosophy behind the social aspects in the influence in the psychology of the self. Another component of the self to observe is based on phenomenology, which goes into how does a person experience and interpret the external world. There are two aspects, which bring these together: ‘being-in-the-world’ and ‘lifeworld’. These aspects argue that rather a considering the individual as a separate from the environment, it addresses it as a system of two identities in which the experiences taken from the environment shape the individual, which is a phenomenological effect. Edmund Husserl gave three criteria, which are used in describing the phenomenology of the self in society. The first step is to suspend expectations of the experience. The second step is to stay with the experiences, versus deductive reasoning and hypothesis testing. Lastly, the third step is in regards to treating everything equally. Again, as with Carol Rogers and humanism, the existential psychologists took up the task of providing constructs for phenomenology. The main characteristics where that each person is unique in that we all process situations differently, being actively engaged in the experience and having the freedom to choose as well as being in the present moment. Psychoanalytic psychology, focused heavily on the development of the self. Psychiatrist Sigmund Freud pioneered in this field. He focused highly on the construction of the self; he was primarily focused on the consciousness. He often described the consciousness in reference to an iceberg. The largest portion of our self, the unconscious, is located in the recesses of our mind and we are often unaware of it, even though it is the largest portion. The very tip of the iceberg, the smallest part, is the conscious of which we are aware. Information flows back and forth through both of these consciousnesses and becomes integrated in the person. As a result, a majority of the therapy that was conducted by Freud was used in order to understand the workings of the unconsciousness since it is an integral part of understanding the workings of the self (Hollway, & Jefferson, 2005). All of the above theories, as well as many more, determine many of the core and fundamental aspects in the realm of psychology. Social psychology incorporates the aspects of group dynamics and relationships, which ultimately have an impact on the self. Also, in the field of social psychology, it is often looked at the perspective as the individual and the society; each being distinct units that interact with one another. This can be accounted for in processes of individuation and socialization. In particular, the sense of self plays an extremely important part in the roles of: close relationships, attitudes, attribution, intra-group processes, inter-group processes, conformity and individual differences. In these constructs, it is seen that the self is important in regulating the behavior in society as well as these constructs effecting the development of the self in the individual. Relationships are important not only in the sense that we must reproduce to ensure the continuity of our species, but also on a psychological level. We are an organized society that has relationships ranging from professional to personal. As children, we are dependent on our families as far as the nurturing relationship. As we develop further through adulthood, we seek friendships and intimate relationships. In the study of social psychology, there are many factors, which can impact the success of a healthy relationship, especially in that of intimate proportions. Often there are a majority of complex variables such as income, appearance, etc. which can impact intimate relationships. This can lead to the alteration of the sense of self in that often in intimate relationships, people will alter aspects of themselves in order to appear more attractive to the other partner. Once the relationship is formed, there are even more complex factors, which go into the development of the relationship. This includes some cognitive restructuring (Fletcher and Fitness 1993) as well as a development in the intimacy of the relationship (Prager and Buhrmester 1998). These factors can also cause changes in the flow of a relationship in that depending on factors such as attachment in the relationship as well as the rate at which the relationship progresses. In this aspect, the sense of self is important in looking at aspects within a relationship. The next component in which the self and social psychology meet is in the concept of attitudes. Attitudes are beliefs that will impact a person’s decision-making skills. In the field of psychology, Likert scales are often used as a method of quantitatively assessing qualitative data such as “strongly agree” or “strongly disagree”. This is a commonly used method of assessing attitudes or opinions due to the fact that it allows an individual to rate based on a scale, versus having to derive opinions from their base knowledge. Many psychologists have debated the biopsychosocial aspect of attitudes and tried to learn if these are innately born characteristics, or if they are the result of learning and interaction in the environment. Two theories, which are used to describe this theory is the theory of reasoned action and the theory of planned behavior, which are used to try and explain the connection behind attitudes and actions. As far as integration in the self, attitudes are the essence of the self. Attitudes also are present as prejudices, however this difference between action. People inherently have attitudes, such as in that of race, which are influenced by certain societal aspects. This is different from taking action as a result of these prejudices (LaPiere, 1967). These attitudes influence behavior as well as external actions influence the attitudes of a person, Attribution theory states that a person’s behavior can be explained due to either internal factors or external factors. These attributes are the root of our behavior and we attribute much to behavior like we attribute the climate to weather. However, in the attribution theory, there is a caveat called the fundamental attribution error. This was developed by Heider, who was rooted in Gestalt psychology as well as taking on a phenomenological approach to studying attribution. Since being developed, a majority of the testing of the fundamental attribution error has occurred on an individual level in a controlled laboratory setting. This is achieved by looking for the causal relationship between the subject and the attribution that the subject has. Through calculation and understanding of the causal relationships, this allows social psychologists to learn and understand the interactivity behind the self and behavior. Group dynamics is also an important phenomenon when considering how an individual socializes and works within society. In particular, Stangor (2004) says that there are some fundamental key aspects, which define what a group is and the importance in the group. He also talks about the collective process of being inside the group and the views that are looked into the group, as well as the group looking outside on the environment. This has resulted in a split in the realm of psychology regarding the cognitions associated in-group dynamics. Some social psychologists acknowledge that the self, is its own unit in the group and works with other members. It should be noted though that these psychologists approach this as separate cognitions that make up the group. Other social psychologists describe group behavior as a collective, or rather a merging of selves into a larger body. They look at it as a unified body in which there are no separate cognitions, but rather it is one thought, one voice. In some cases throughout history, this has proven to be an asset. In intragroup dynamics, this involves the choosing of members who share similar qualities to that of the group. This leads to quicker and more efficient integration. In military forces, collective thinking allows deployment and organization of armed conflict to occur in a much more efficient way without losses. However, group dynamics and the unity of a sole purpose has also occurred for wrong reasons, such as the case during World War I and World War II in Nazi Germany. Group size and distribution also plays a role in the development of intragroup dynamics. Society operates in both an individual sense, as well as in how the groups within society interact with one another. Many people are apart of many different groups such as religious organizations, political groups, societies, etc. Therefore, it is important in the study of social psychology that research is done to understand how individuals in society fall into these groups as well as the interaction among the different groups. What has been observed is that belonging to one of these groups’ influences the cognitions of the individual. For example, being Christian might influence one to be prolife, which would in turn influence political party affiliation. This trend extends across cultures meaning that it is applicable in cross-cultural studies. It also affects how people interact with each other. Tajfel’s approach to studying this is most effective and is called social identity theory. At it’s core, social identity theory defines how an individual acts in society as far as perceived how a person relates with the group and how they relate to those outside the group. This is how many of the rivalry processes in between groups occur, such as in North American fraternities and sororities. The perceived identity within the group in respect to other groups strengthens the identification of the person within the group. This can be explained in the competitive nature of sports teams, such as in rugby and soccer. In regards to the self in these groups, the self-esteem factor is important in the person’s social identity as well as how they relate within the group (Tajfel and Turner, 1979). As addressed previously, in groups in society there is a degree of subject conformity. Conformity is where a person alters their cognitions and self in order to fit that of the group. This conformity happens with the association of the individual with a particular group, idea, philosophy, etc. As a result, the self becomes integrated into the collective action of the group, thus this increases the self-esteem of the individual as being a result of identifying. In addition, this conformity could also be due to a lack of self-esteem. This relates to those that feel a need to be associated with something, therefore they conform in order to compensate for a lack of self-esteem. Societal constructs around these issues can be explained using the psychology of association and motivational factors, which impact conformity and the self in society. Individual psychology takes on approaches relating to theories of personality. These are influenced by biopsychosocial factors, which have been tried to assess through a psychometric approach. This was an attempt to contextualize and assess core personality traits that play a difference in individualistic determination. Other aspects such as learned behaviors as well as trait theory have also been used to explain these differences. All of these theories are good at explaining aspects of the individual, however all have their inherent flaws of only being able to describe portions of individual characteristics. Another important aspect on personality and individual psychology is that rather than occurring at specific points, these factors are spread over a spectrum. Therefore, this spectrum leaves room for fluctuations in behavior to occur based on situational variables. These attributes are what makes the self a fluidic construct in that it is capable of changing as well as adapting to social constraints. The concept of the self is an important part in the study of social psychology. The history in the development of the study of the self has extended past the area of counseling to the practical applicability in social psychology. This addresses areas such as motivation and reinforcement in how we relate while in an organized environment. The effects of being in a group also affect the development of the self and personality in an individual. This biopsychosocial construct is fluidic in that it fluctuates depending on person and situation. This is what presents a problem when social psychologists attempt to explain aspects of social psychology. Read More