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Self-Concept and Information-Processing: Methodological Problems and Theoretical Implications

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The Self in European and North American Culture: Development and Processes

Part of the book series: NATO ASI Series ((ASID,volume 84))

Abstract

Recent research on the self has come to view the self-concept as a dynamic and multidimensional structure. Depending on the theoretical position of the researcher, the self-system—or the self-structure—is conceived of as a set of different kinds of selfconceptions and self-representations (e.g., schemata, images, prototypes, theories, standards, etc.). Different models of the self have been suggested concerning the nature of these cognitive representations and the cognitive structure of the self-system. For instance, some theorists have proposed seeing the self as a node in an associative memory network with self-conceptions stored as propositions (Bower & Gilligan, 1979). Others have conceptualized the self-concept as a hierarchical category structure (e.g., Carver & Scheier, 1981; Kihlstrom & Cantor, 1984; Rogers, 1981) or as a multidimensional meaning space (e.g., Greenwald & Pratkanis, 1984). Still another view of the self has been put forward by Markus and colleagues (Markus, 1983; Markus & Sentis, 1982; Markus & Smith, 1981; Markus & Wurf, 1987). Following the schema-theoretical approach of cognitive psychology (e.g., Neisser, 1976; Rumelhart, 1984), the self can be conceptualized as a system of cognitive self-schemata (cf. Oosterwegel & Oppenheimer, 1993; Oppenheimer, this volume).

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  1. Humboldt-University Berlin, Germany

    Waldemar Mittag

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  1. Waldemar Mittag
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  1. Department of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK

    Annerieke Oosterwegel

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany

    Robert A. Wicklund

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Mittag, W. (1995). Self-Concept and Information-Processing: Methodological Problems and Theoretical Implications. In: Oosterwegel, A., Wicklund, R.A. (eds) The Self in European and North American Culture: Development and Processes. NATO ASI Series, vol 84. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0331-2_11

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0331-2_11

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