PSYC20008 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Social Capital, Friends House, Social Learning Theory
10 May 2018
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Lecture 17
- Self-concept: a set of attributes, abilities, attitudes, and values that a person sees as
defining who she or he is
- Attributes: our characteristics/qualities about us; “I am willing to help” [willingness to
help], “I am lazy” [laziness], [persistence with tasks]
- Abilities: actual skills [might be good or bad at something]; I am good at maths, I
am a bad cook [weak or strong abilities in maths or cooking or athletics], [forming
self concept ⇒ willing to help but am a bad cook]
- Attitudes: beliefs or position on something usually debatable [strong political position
or believing animals have no place in research or genuinely likes people or doesn’t
like bacon], “I like people”, “I don’t like bacon”
- Values: things you hold dear, things you invest in, things you find worthwhile; [person
who values human rights, family, career] “I value human rights”, “I value freedom of
speech”
- Self-concept: William James (1890) Principles of Psychology: “I” vs “Me”
- “I” self: self as knower, actor [observer, person looking out and planning what to do];
inner life; not accessible to others
- “Me” self: self as object of evaluation [self-concept, the thing being expressed and
being accessed by others]
- the “Material” me [what makes me me? What is mine?; answer is in materials and
possessions you own, body and how you hold yourself, language and phrases used,
includes clothes and how you style them to express yourself, what we do with the
things we own and control to express ourselves with others]; ownership and
possessions
- the Social me [A man has as many social selves as there are individuals who
recognize him, fundamental part of being human, whenever we come in contact with
people → express a little bit about ourselves, they express themselves back →
dynamic relationship a bit distorted from who we were before we met them → for
every person that you know, you have a different self-concept, different way of
behaving → can have different attitudes, respond to things differently depending on
you’re with, but those different responses are still your honest self], relationships
- the “Spiritual” me [the most enduring and intimate part of the self]; intellectual, moral,
religious endeavours that frame out our core expression of who we think we are; this
self took the longest to develop and the hardest part of ourselves to change
- Infancy (0-1 yo): late infancy, difficult to say what a young infant’s self-concept is
[don’t have expression], infants use gaze to show preference for different people and
different activities [that preference is a form of attitude, “I like this person over that
person”, use of gaze as control over their physical self deliberately in order to meet
their internal needs of their self-concept/inner self]
- Toddler (1-2 yo): toddlers are much more expressive both verbally and physically,
awareness of self-concept through the use of pronouns [descriptions of other people,
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correct use of pronouns on some level → recognise words can represent themselves,
myself, mum, dad], body control [infants are now much more adept at using their
bodies to express themselves, aware of their bodies as part of themselves, toddlers
much more aware than infants]
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- Early childhood (3-5 yo): much more expressive child verbally, using lists of their own
attributes, observable descriptions [physical appearance, I am tall, I have brown hair],
list abilities that are optimistic and unrealistic [don’t yet have sense of limit on
capacity, either have it or don’t]
- Middle childhood (6-9 yo): realistic abilities, social comparisons [I can run faster than
Billy but not faster than Meg]
- Late childhood (9-11 yo): still making social comparisons [not as interested compared
to the way people evaluate them, talk about them], others’ perceptions [my whole
class says I’m the best runner, my parents say they’re proud of me,
reaffirmation/confirmation of skills based on others’ opinions], some grouping of
descriptors [fast runner might also be good at basketball/sport → I’m athletic], values
[in basic way, based on things they’re good at or things they enjoy, value academic
over athletic → I don’t want to be professional athlete anyway, can make more in
future by being accountant]
- Early adolescence (12-14 yo): conflicting, abstract descriptors [very good at using
descriptive variables; have wealth of knowledge about their abilities, attributes, and
values → so many that they’re seeing them conflict with each other], [young
teenager’s written example of who she is with different people], egocentrism [don’t
realise internal conflicts happen for everyone]
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-
- Late adolescence (15-18 yo): some conflicts resolved, more comfortable with some
contrasts, higher order, integrated abstract descriptors, much better at expressing
selves at a deeper level
- Identity: a person’s sense of sense of who s/he is, where and how s/he belongs, what
s/he values, and directions s/he chooses to pursue in life
- Where do I fit and what do I contribute
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- Addressing the task/question of identity → leads to identity achievement
- Failing to address the task of identity → leads to identity confusion (state of
incomplete and incoherent sense of self)
- Adolescence already dealing with internal conflicts of how they can be two different
kinds of people at the same time
- Question of who they are and what do they contribute is overwhelming → contributes
to turmoil in later adolescent years
- Ideological identity: who do you want to be ethically and morally
- Cultural, ethnic, racial and national identity
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Document Summary
Self-concept: a set of attributes, abilities, attitudes, and values that a person sees as defining who she or he is. Attributes: our characteristics/qualities about us; i am willing to help [willingness to help], i am lazy [laziness], [persistence with tasks] Attitudes: beliefs or position on something usually debatable [strong political position or believing animals have no place in research or genuinely likes people or doesn"t like bacon], i like people , i don"t like bacon . Values: things you hold dear, things you invest in, things you find worthwhile; [person who values human rights, family, career] i value human rights , i value freedom of speech . Self-concept: william james (1890) principles of psychology: i vs me . I self: self as knower, actor [observer, person looking out and planning what to do]; inner life; not accessible to others. Infancy (0-1 yo): late infancy, difficult to say what a young infant"s self-concept is.
