Abstract
The notion of a self, or the possibility of unique personhood, has occupied human thought for millennia. Today, theory and research on the self and its more tangible manifestation—self-concept—continues to increase and to expand in new and promising directions. The assumption that self and society are co-created is also a bedrock axiom in symbolic interactionism. Recent scholarship, however, has attended more closely to defining and distinguishing among concepts related to the self and self-concept and to the mechanisms associated with their development. In this chapter we discuss the philosophical foundations of the concept of self and then address more recent theoretical and empirical refinements in self and self-concept research in the social sciences, particularly sociological social psychology. Along the way, we pay particular attention to theory and research on the self and self-concept as both a social product and a social force. Also addressed are deserving yet under-researched concepts related to the self, particularly mattering and comfort with the self. We conclude by discussing research methods used to study the self, including survey, field, and laboratory research.
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Notes
- 1.
Although its typical definition is not explicitly relational, the self is nevertheless relational as well since it arises from and is developed and sustained by human interaction (Mead, 1934).
- 2.
A useful alternative definition of identity is provided by Hewitt (1979, p. 91): “the person’s biographical sense of relationship to the others with whom he has been and is customarily associated.” Biography in this sense has four interrelated meanings (Hewitt, pp. 84–85). First, people have memories of past roles, successes and failures, and hopes and disappointments that are situated in time and place. Second, these memories are used by individuals to locate themselves with reference to others. Third, by evoking such memories, people define themselves as persons. Last, peoples’ biographies are constructed both by their own hand as well as by the people and situations that surround them.
- 3.
To be fair, Buchmann’s (1989) book is not centered exclusively on the self. Her effort is to “understand how individuals perceive, evaluate, and carry out their lives, and to grasp the ways in which they cope with the opportunities and constraints imposed by the structural and cultural setting of the larger society” (pp. 3–4). She notes that this endeavor “requires the inclusion of a concept of the individual as an actor” (p. 4, emphasis in the original). It is the treatment of the latter, and perhaps some overreaching, which caused the conceptual confusion noted here.
- 4.
- 5.
Professional role confidence is defined as: “Wielding practical competencies of day-to-day professional work, and identifying with the professional role and believing that one will enjoy this role, with all the complexity, uncertainty, and responsibility that accompany its fulfillment” (Cech et al., 2011, p. 646).
- 6.
Although Goffman (1959) was clearly on the scene first, Jones’ (1964) study of self-presentation (i.e., impression management) helped launch self-presentation research among psychological social psychologists. I believe Leary (1996, p. 8) erroneously suggested that Jones was unaware of Goffman’s work when he started his research on self-presentation and published his findings in 1964. Jones in fact cites Goffman.
- 7.
This stood in especially stark contrast to the insistence of many psychologists that such insights could only come from detailed knowledge of people’s inner motives and personalities.
- 8.
There is much in the literature, however, to suggest that some people would rather be loathed or laughed at, at least in the short term, than forgotten. This latter observation is illustrated in tell-all accounts of guests on some talk television shows and the hostile or belittling reaction of the audience, who are often primed beforehand to jeer and heckle the non-normative guests (e.g., Davis & Schmidt, 1977; Gamson, 1998; Grindstaff, 2002). That is, to matter, even if negatively or harshly, to others is an important human need and of central importance to one’s self-concept (e.g., Bourgois, 2003; Crocker, 1999; Swann, 1983). As Vonk (2001) has shown in relationship to aversive self-presentations, especially among shameless self-promoters, they
attempt to control the conversation, direct attention to themselves and avoid the other’s area of expertise, spend more time talking than listening, express disagreement with the other person, and stress their own accomplishments (p. 101).
The upshot, he explains, might be some modicum of respect and attention; but the price is often being disliked.
- 9.
Note that this aspect of comfort with the self is very much in line with Rosenberg’s (1965, 1979) conceptualization of self-esteem. A detailed examination of his original Guttman scale of self-esteem revealed that he saw self-esteem not so much as the presence of positive thoughts and feelings regarding oneself. Instead, self-esteem is the absence, in varying degrees, of self-condemning thoughts and feelings. Consequently, high self-esteem people are not necessarily full of self-congratulations but instead reject, again in varying degrees, self-condemnation (see Owens & King, 2001, for a more complete discussion).
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We wish to thank Caitlin J. Peterkin for assistance in the preparation of the manuscript.
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Owens, T.J., Samblanet, S. (2013). Self and Self-Concept. In: DeLamater, J., Ward, A. (eds) Handbook of Social Psychology. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6772-0_8
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