The self and its development are complicated, abstract topics. Writers still grapple with the question of what constitutes a self. In their search for answers, theorists and researchers need to account for the fact that selves are multifaceted and possess elements of both stability and change. If you have ever said that you are not the same person that you were some time ago, you can understand this point. Recently, writers have begun to use the term self-system to replace “self,” because the latter seems too unidimensional (see Damon & Hart, 1988). The self-system includes aspects related to the self, such as self-concept, self-regulation, and self-esteem.
The notion of an independent entity called “self” is such a deeply embedded concept in Western psychology that we tend to take it for granted. Therefore, it may be surprising to learn that the psychologies of other cultures (e.g., Buddhist psy- chology) take a decidedly different view. In Buddhist psychology, mind and matter change continually, and this impermanence is influenced by surrounding conditions (Bodhi, 1999). The Buddhist concept of “no-self” (anatta) does not imply that our conventional use of “self” is not helpful or that you and I are not real in some way. Rather, it emphasizes the transient nature of our phenomenological experience as human beings. The self is constantly being constructed in the moment-to-moment flow of experience. This insight is at the core of recent therapies that offer ways to alleviate the suffering that can come from our human tendency to protect and de- fend reified concepts about ourselves (see Olendzki, 2010). The view of “no-self” is quite different from that of classic Western psychology, which assumes a relatively permanent construct that can be studied over time.
We will begin our look at the nature of the self-system within Western psychol- ogy with a brief description of the classic work of James, Cooley, and Mead. William James (1890) made a distinction between the “I” and the “Me,” a distinction that is still used productively in contemporary research about the self. That part of the self called “I” refers to the I-Self/self-as-subject, as active agent, or as the knower. It is that part of the self that experiences a sense of subjective self-awareness. The part called “Me” is that part of the self that is the object of self or others’ observations, or in other words, the part that is known. One might think of the “Me” part of the self (Me-Self) as the Me-Self/self-concept.
Implicit in James’s traditional construction of selfhood is the idea that the self is multidimensional. Freud (1956) once wrote that a person could be construed as a whole “cast of characters.” Interestingly, this view of the multiplicity of selves was rejected by a number of influential writers in the first half of the 20th century. Gergen (1971) described the emphasis placed on the importance of maintaining a unified, coherent self by important therapists and scholars such as Horney (1950), Jung (1928), Maslow (1954), and Rogers (1951). Considerable recent evidence, how- ever, has not supported the view of the unified self but has demonstrated that indi- viduals vary across situations, that they may possess conflicting self-ideas that speak with different voices at different times, and that the self-concept differentiates with
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Recently, writers have developed alternative ways of categorizing the classic “I–Me” distinction. Among these are Lewis’s (1994) subjective and objective self- awareness, Case’s (1991) implicit and explicit self, and Neisser’s (1993) ecological and remembered self. All the newer contrasts share the original distinction between the self as knower and the self as known. Furthermore, there is consensus between classic and contemporary theorists that the “I” self emerges first.
What specifically does the “I” comprise? James proposed that this is the side of the self that experiences continuity over time. Even though we all grow and change, we know we embody core elements of the same “self” throughout our lifetime. The “I” also recognizes the distinctiveness of the self as a person compared to other per- sons. You know where you end and the person sitting next to you begins. Finally, the “I” reflects agency or is that part of the self that engages in self-directed activ- ity, self-control, and contemplation of the “Me.” With time, these elements will be explored and further consolidated in the adolescent search for identity.
The “Me” includes all those attributes that are used to define the self and that make up the self-concept. In James’s typology, these are the “material self,” the “ social self,” and the “spiritual self,” ranked in that order of importance from lowest to highest. The material self encompasses a person’s physical characteristics and material possessions. The social self includes her social standing, her reputation, and those personal characteristics that are recognized by others, such as gregariousness or stubbornness. The spiritual self, viewed by James as the most precious, incorpo- rates her qualities of character, beliefs, and personal values.
Self-concept, as defined here, is distinct from self-esteem. The former is a description of personal attributes. The latter is one’s evaluation of these attri- butes, or the positive or negative valence associated with those attributes. Valence refers to the affective value of a characteristic, either good, bad, or neutral. James believed that self-esteem is more than just the measure of accomplishments. Rather, he believed that it depends upon the number of successes we enjoy relative to our aspirations, or, in his terminology, pretensions. Pretensions are goals that we choose to meet for ourselves because of their personal importance. For example, if it is highly important to you to be popular and socially active, the lack of a date for an important New Year’s Eve party can be a real blow to your self-esteem. However, if you really care more about earning enough money to become rich at an early age, you might consider working overtime on New Year’s Eve to be highly congruent with your aspirations. Your dateless condition is less damaging to your self-esteem. Failures or even successes in areas that are relatively unimportant to us may be dis- counted and will have less effect on self-esteem.
If James provided ideas about the structure of the self that resonate with contemporary theorizing, Charles Cooley (1902) introduced a developmental per- spective that describes how interactions with others help construct the self-system. Using his now-famous metaphor of the “looking-glass self,” Cooley described the process of self-development as one that originates from observing the reflected appraisals of others, primarily attachment figures. Cooley hypothesized that this process consists of three steps. As we interact with others, we first imagine how we must appear to the other person on a certain dimension, such as intelligence. Then, we interpret or imagine how that other person evaluates us on that certain dimen- sion. Finally, we experience some emotional response to that perceived evaluation. The resulting interpretation and its affective valence constitute a building block for constructing self-knowledge. So it is that our self-representations are shaped and given affective valences by the significant people in our life.
Let’s consider a simplified example of a young child’s display of affection for a parent. A 4-year-old girl approaches her father to give him a hug. The father, preoc- cupied with a pressing business matter, looks annoyed by the interruption. He gives
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Publishing Servicesher a quick hug and returns to his work. If this type of sequence is repeated on a regular basis across various situations, the child may come to develop a “self-idea” that she is bothersome and not important enough to interrupt her father’s work. She may begin to construct a vague impression of herself as unappealing or possibly too emotionally expressive or dependent. Because the child perceives the emotion and interprets her father’s response as impatient and irritated, her view of the event includes a self-appraisal—presumably that she is irritating—that is incorporated into her self-system. With repeated experience, the youngster comes to regard herself in certain ways by looking at the mirror of her parent’s view of her, warped though that mirror might be. The emotional valence associated with this aspect of the child’s self-image can be unpleasant or uncomfortable. This self-representation may serve as a standard for her behavior in social interactions (e.g., in her willingness to express her need for attention and affection from others) and inform her sense of right and wrong.
Now imagine this same little girl in another family. She interrupts her father to give him a hug, and he beams, expressing evident satisfaction in his daughter’s affectionate nature. This child’s self-concept is likely to include a positively valenced sense of being emotionally expressive. The same child and the same behavior could lead to different social responses in different families, setting the child’s developing sense of self, relationships, and morality on a different pathway. Thus early attach- ment and parenting interactions have been viewed as instrumental in the develop- ment of individual differences in self-concept (Sroufe, 1996).
Although the development of the self is obviously influenced by many fac- tors and is extraordinarily complex, Cooley believed that it was largely the product of social influences. Recent researchers have investigated the possibility that the sequence Cooley proposed can also operate in reverse order, namely that a positive appraisal of oneself can generate positive interpretations of others’ appraisals.
George Herbert Mead (1934) expanded on Cooley’s work, enlarging the scope of influence to include the role of language and society in shaping the self-system. He held that the self-idea, or self-concept, becomes internalized or “generalized” through repeated interactions with others of the same cultural group. The individual adopts the perspective of others who share the same societal perspective, producing a kind of ecological self (Neisser, 1993). An example of this phenomenon is provided by Markus and Kitayama (1991), who found cultural differences in preferred ways of viewing the self. In their study, Japanese were more likely to describe themselves by emphasizing their affiliations, such as family membership, whereas Americans used self-descriptors that emphasized their individuality. Children not only adopt descrip- tive information about the self from their cultural milieu, they also incorporate those standards, rules, and goals that their family and their culture have determined to be appropriate ways of behaving and thinking (Stipek, Recchia, & McClintic, 1992). Note the parallels between Mead’s approach and Vygotsky’s (see Chapter 3).
These classic formulations of the self as multidimensional, as influenced by the reflected appraisals of significant others, and as shaped by the cultural milieu, pro- vide a foundation for current Western thinking about the self-system. You may have noticed that conceptions of self and of morality overlap in these models. Damon and Hart (1992) have noted:
Children cannot know themselves without some sense of the other. Nor can they forge their self-identities without an awareness of their own values. Moreover, at all developmental periods, social activities derive from—and in turn shape—judgments about the self, other, and morality. In these and many other ways, self-understanding, social interaction, and morality are intertwined in a developing psychological system that grows and changes throughout the life span. (p. 421)
Self-understanding is one of the key building blocks of personality, social, and moral development. How does this mysterious self begin? In the next section, we will re- view the earliest stages of developing self-awareness.
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