Abstract
Definition is a social undertaking. As a community we negotiate the meaning of words. This makes ‘self’ a peculiarly difficult term to define, since much of the meaning we attach to it derives from essentially private experiences of a kind which are difficult to communicate about and agree upon. Nevertheless, we can try to abstract from our private experience of self qualities which can constitute a working definition. Such an attempt was made by Bannister and Fransella (1980) in the following terms.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Bannister, D. and Agnew, J. (1977) The Child’s Construing of Self. In A.W. Landfield (ed.), Nebraska Symposium on Motivation 1976. Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.
Bannister, D. and Fransella, F. (1980) Inquiring Man (2nd edn). Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Fransella, F. (1972) Personal Change and Reconstruction. London: Academic Press.
Kelly, G.A. (1955) The Psychology of Personal Constructs, Volumes I and II. New York: Norton.
Kelly, G.A. (1969) Clinical Psychology and Personality: The selected papers of George Kelly (ed. B.A. Maher). New York: Wiley.
Mair, J.M.M. (1970) Experimenting with individuals. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 43, 245–256.
Mead, G.H. (1925) The genesis of the self and social control. International Journal of Ethics, 35, 251–273.
Mischel, W. (1968) Personality and Assessment. New York: Wiley.
Radley, A.R. (1974) The effect of role enactment on construct alternatives. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 47, 313–320.
Annotated reading
Axline, V.M. (1971) Dibs: In search of self. Harmondsworth: Penguin. A finely written description of a withdrawn and disturbed child who in the process of psychotherapy comes vividly to life. It casts light on our early struggles to achieve the idea of being a ‘self’.
Bannister, D. and Fransella, F. (1980) Inquiring Man: The psychology of personal constructs. Harmondsworth: Penguin. The second edition of a book which sets out the way Kelly sees each of us as developing a complex personal view of our world. The book describes two decades of psychological research based on the theory and relates it to problems such as psychological breakdown, prejudice, child development and personal relationships.
Bott, M. and Bowskill, D. (1980) The Do-It-Yourself Mind Book. London: Wildwood House. A lightly written but shrewd book on the ways in which we can tackle serious personal and emotional problems without recourse to formal psychiatry.
Fransella, F. (1975) Need to Change? London: Methuen. A brief description of the formal and informal ways in which ‘self’ is explored and change attempted.
Rogers, C.R. (1961) On Becoming a Person. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin. Sets out the idea of ‘self-actualization’ and describes the ways in which we might avoid either limiting ourselves or being socially limited, and come to be what Rogers calls a fully functioning person.
Copyright information
© 1982 The British Psychological Society
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bannister, D. (1982). Knowledge of self. In: Psychology for Occupational Therapists. Psychology for Professional Groups. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-16882-8_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-16882-8_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-31883-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-16882-8
eBook Packages: Palgrave Religion & Philosophy CollectionPhilosophy and Religion (R0)