Modern Self-Concepts - Literature review Example

The concept of self is one that has been studied by many famous and philosophers. “To thine own self be true” is a line from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Plato stated that “the first and best victory is to conquer the self”. The concept of ‘self’, though not new, has nevertheless faded from psychological research until recently. The aim of the current study is to test the effect that having either a stable or unstable view of the ‘self’ would have on the areas of causal attribution and cognitive performance. The self can be thought of in two ways (Spencer-Rodgers, Williams and Peng 2010). The first viewpoint is known as the modern self, which says that we all have a ‘self’. This ‘self’ is composed of a small number of personality traits that best define the individual. These personality traits are meant to be enduring, stable across time and stable across differing situations. The second viewpoint is that of the postmodern self. This viewpoint believes that our ‘self’ is who we are seen to be. This ‘self’ is made up of all the personality traits that an individual possesses, however small or large. This viewpoint believes personality traits to be fragmented, made up of many different parts that may contradict each other (Spencer-Rodgers et al 2010). These personality traits are unstable. The individual’s personality will adapt to new events such as the loss of a loved one or the learning of a new skill set (Spencer-Rodgers et al 2010). In Western Societies, when we view our ‘self’ as changing and not constant, there is a higher risk for mental and physical health problems(Alter and Kwan 2009). Viewing our ‘self’ as changing can also lead to decrease in performance at work (Judge and Bono 2001); a higher likelihood of suffering from depression (Valiente, Cantero ,et al 2011, Vickery, Sepheri, et al 2011); and an increase in binge eating (Bonar, Rosenberg et al 2011). The results of these studies show that life function and health issues are positively correlated with a low sense of ‘self’ stability. This demonstrates the need for further research to be conducted in these areas. If we can increase awareness of the detrimental effects of a fragmented ‘self’ concept, we can begin to correct these issues. One such detrimental effect, we posit, is the issue of drug abuse. People who report a postmodern sense of self will be more likely to attribute their negative behaviours to external factors. One such behaviour, which is damaging to life function and to health, is the behaviour of drug abuse. The concept of responsibility for one’s choices (behaviours) is central in addressing the issue of recovery from substance abuse. We hypothesise that an individual must possess an integrated, modern self-concept in order to believe that they themselves, rather than external factors, are the cause of, and therefore responsible for, their behaviours. These include the choice of whether or not to engage in drug abuse. The modern self-concept, as we have stated, includes personality traits that are enduring, stable across time and stable across differing situations. These personality traits form a construct that provides the individual with free will: the ability to decide a cause of action (in this case a behaviour) independent of external factors. We will use causal attribution theory in our efforts to test this hypothesis. We will also explore the possible correlation between integrated vs. fragmented self-concept and cognitive performance. The possible correlation between culture and increased incidence of fragmented self-concept will also be examined. The “modern” and “postmodern” types of ‘self’ can result in two very different interpretations of the same behavioural cause(Buss 1978). Causal attribution refers to what an individual believes the reason is that a situation or behaviour occurred (Lecourt et al 1979). Causal attribution can be split into three different dimensions. The first dimension is the locus of control. This incorporates how much control individuals feel they have over the particular situation, i.e. determining whether or not the consequence of the situation was due to internal or external circumstances. The second dimension is stability. This refers to how much the individual believes the behaviour exhibited in the situation will change over time (Spencer-Rodgers et al 2010). The third dimension is generalisability. This third dimension is whether or not the individual thinks that the behaviour exhibited will be the same in a different situation (Spencer-Rodgers et al 2010).. Viewing the self as “modern” will likely cause individuals to attribute behaviour in a distinctive way (Buss and Scheier 1976). For example, if the behavior exhibited is positive, then the individual will want to show that this behaviour is part of her ‘self’, This is because her ‘self’ (i.e. personality) is static. By adding positive behaviours, her self-esteem will increase (Greenberg, Solomon et el 1992). She will want to think that the positive behaviour is internal (locus of causality), that she will always exhibit this behaviour( stable) and that she would do the same in other similar situations (generalisability). The internalisation of negative behaviours into the self concept of those possessing the ’modern self’ will be explored shortly. Another area that is affected by views of the ‘self’ is cognitive performance (Baumeister et al 2003). Cognitive performance is a mental act that measures performance on tasks involving intuition, perception and reasoning. It has been shown that when an individual is more confident, they perform significantly better in a variety of situations (Perlmuter and Monty 1977). In addition, results have shown that self-esteem as well as confidence is linked with cognitive performance (Fitch 1970, Baumeister et al 2003). In their Meta-analysis on the effects of self-efficacy on work -related performance, Stajkovic and Luthans (1998) found that self-efficacy was a significant predictor of performance. However, these findings are contradicted by Baumeister et al (2003, p.1) where it is stated “Laboratory studies have generally failed to find that self-esteem causes good task performance”. In our study, the cognitive performance scores of each participant will be collected and analysed. We will determine if a statistically significant correlation exists, either a positive or negative correlation, between an individual’s self-concept as “modern” or “postmodern” and her cognitive performance scores. Culture plays a large part in the levels of self-esteem experienced by individuals. In Eastern societies, it is much more common to have a fragmented , “postmodern” as it were, view of the self.(Spencer-Rodgers et al 2010). This has led to findings showing that members of Eastern cultures report lower levels of self-esteem. We hypothesise that those from Eastern cultures will display a fragmented, “postmodern” self more frequently. We will test this by finding whether a correlation exists, and whether it is positive or negative, between those participants from Eastern cultures and those reporting a fragmented ‘self’. Campbell (1990) found that both self-esteem and self-concept clarity were interlinked. For example, it was unlikely to have high self-esteem and low self-concept clarity. Self-concept clarity refers to how well one knows the ‘self’. A study that has looked into self-concept clarity showed that when someone forgives the behaviour of another person, their self-concept clarity decreases(Luchies, et al 2010). The reason for this is as follows: when a behaviour, which previously was considered to be wrong, is being accepted and forgiven, it means that the person is changing her mind about what is acceptable and what is unacceptable. This causes her to experience cognitive dissonance. As a result, if someone is uncertain about what is right and wrong, this will decrease their level of ‘self’ stability. The self would be viewed as fragmented, thus decreasing self-concept clarity (Luchies et al 2010). These findings were supported in a study by Campbell et al (1996), where it was demonstrated that self beliefs which are clearly and confidently defined, internally consistent and stable will also increase self concept clarity. Another area which has been shown to be affected by the level to which a person views their ‘self’ as stable is the degree to which they feel they have a meaning in life. The literature shows that the higher a person’s perceived meaning in life, the more stable the person (Roche & Lachman 2008). Hence, this study was also important in formulating our hypothesis. We wanted to see if the reverse could be said: would a participant who viewed the self as fragmented also experience a corresponding lack of meaning? We hypothesise that participants who posses “modern” self-concepts will attribute desirable behaviours towards themselves rather than the situation. We anticipate that “modern self” individuals will believe that these behaviours are enduring and generalisable. Conversely, we hypothesise that participants having a “post-modern” self-concept will be less likely to attribute desirable behaviours towards themselves, and will be less likely to believe that these behaviours are enduring and generalisable. Keeping this in mind, we posit that “modern self” participants will be more likely to attribute negative behaviours towards themselves, and to believe that these negative behaviors are enduring and generalisable. We hypothesise that “postmodern” participants will be more apt to attribute their negative behaviours to the situation. We predict a positive correlation between the stable self-concept found in the “modern self” participants and higher level of performance on the cognitive tasks of mathematics and memory. We predict a positive correlation between “modern self” participants and higher self- esteem, as well as a positive correlation between “modern self” participants and perceived meaning in life, The negative side to the “modern” as opposed to the “post-modern”, we hypothesise, will be the “modern” tendency to attribute negative behaviours towards themselves rather than the situation. We hypothesise that the more the ‘self’ is viewed as stable, the higher the self-concept clarity. These benefits will, if found, outweigh the negatives of those participants who possess a stable, “modern” sense of self. Read More