Ch 10 The Self

This chapter focused completely on the concept of the self. Through several different steps and processes one can evaluate themselves, make changes, or continue what they are doing in order to achieve their ideal self. Many concepts in this chapter are things that we probably do in our daily life already without noticing it.
The most surprising part of this chapter was when they discussed self-esteem. Growing up we are taught that a high self-esteem will motivate us to do better when tasks are presented to us. The chapter discussed how this was not true although it is important to remember self-esteem does affect happiness. Self-esteem is actually generated based on how you do that activity and plays no motivational role whatsoever. Instead of focusing on ways of boosting one’s self-esteem we should focus on how to boost one’s ability to cope with the daily world happenings. It was interesting to see that although we are affected by self-esteem it is not in the way most people are taught.
The self is a very important aspect of a person. All parts of working on the self have to deal with motivation. The idea of a consistent self can be tied to motivation. One a person reaches where they want to be they will strive to maintain it. By doing so, we work hard to continue presenting ourselves to others in a way we hope to be seen. When one seems to fall below this they are motivated to get back to where they were because they experience a sense of discomfort from no longer achieving the self they wish. Identity also plays a big role in self and our motivation to achieve a particular self. Society has an unspoken set of rules we are all suppose to follow and once you discover your role you are expected to conform to these expectations. Discovering your identity thus motivates you to perform particular behaviors in order to fall in line with society and to try and avoid those behaviors that would not be seen as acceptable. In perspective, the self pushes us to strive for an ideal being that we wish to acquire. Through external and internal interactions we are motivated to achieve this ideal self in order to feel as though we have reached our goal.
Having a better understanding of the self definitely helps me to understand why I choose the goals I do. One identity I possess is being a student and so it makes sense that I strive to do well in this, because society says that is what students are suppose to do. The idea of developing personal strivings is something that I think would beneficial to helping me obtain my desired goals as well. By making this list it will serve as a reminder on the things I need to accomplish. Not only would it help me reach my desired goals but it would also help me to achieve my ideal self. Self-regulation is also something that I think could be very beneficial to me. By being able to observe those who are experts I am able to see what I need to do to improve. One of my goals is to improve my health and in order to do this I began my fitness journey as I like to call it. When I first started going to the gym I had no clue what I was doing or how to use half of the machines. I started following fitness people on social media and watching the videos or reading the blogs they posted to get more insight on what to do. I would also observe those in the gym who appeared to be at a higher level than I was. By doing so I was able to develop my skills in the gym.

Terms:
Self-esteem
Consistent self
Identity
Ideal self
Personal strivings
Self-regulation

This chapter is all about the self and how people motivate themselves daily. People go through a process throughout their entire lives trying to define and sculpt themselves into who they want to be there. The four main processes that people go through to do this involves identifying self-schemas, developing one’s identity, participating in agency, and monitoring their process of self-regulation. These concepts all need to be fulfilled in a person’s lifetime in order for them to set goals for themselves, find their place in society, and develop who they want to be viewed as when in society. Without these concepts it would be very hard for someone to progress through their lives efficiently and effectively.

The most surprising thing I learned from this chapter was how interconnected the concepts from chapter 6 on psychological needs are connected to the idea of agency, and honestly, all four of the processes discussed in this chapter. We are all born with the need to develop and fulfill one’s potential in the world, and agency is the actions one takes through this developmental process. But this action doesn’t just come from anywhere. It mostly comes from our internal motivation. This internal motivation causes us to discover ourselves and develop into an autonomous human being; pursuing our interests, seeking out environmental changes, exercising the skills we’ve learned and developing the talents that will help define who we are. This internal motivation is the underlying source of agency.

The self has everything to do with motivation. It may not be the reason we are motivated to do things all of the time, but the self is the reason we are motivated to pursue the things we enjoy. Motivation is the drive that causes us to want to develop a self that we can most relate to: a self that we want the world around us to know. This begins with creating a self. Our self-concept is constructed from our analysis of our past experiences, and in order to identify our personal self-schemas, we must have the motivation to do so. Once our self-schema is set in a particular domain we actively seek out information that fits with this self-schema, and actively avoid the information that doesn’t. This whole process takes motivation. There are many more components of the self, but simply focusing on the beginning processes of developing the self shows that motivation is at the center of the self.

This knowledge helps me to motivate myself towards my own personal goals by pushing me towards self-concordant goals instead of self-discordant goals. Self-concordant goals are ones we form internally that are we most motivated to achieve. They are the goals that generate and sustain greater effort, and if sustained over time, will show greater achievement within that goal. Attaining the self-concordant goals that I have for myself increases well-being, produces need-satisfying experiences, and increases mood. With this in mind, from now on I will try to push myself more towards self-concordant goals in order to improve my overall well-being and view of myself. Now, I am not blind to not know that there will always be self-discordant goals in my life; goals that I have to do instead of want to do. These goals are the ones such a tough homework assignment so that I pass the class or working a bunch of hours at work in order to pay my bills. These are minor goals that are self-discordant; emmenate out of social pressure or felt obligation. These goals will always appear in my life, but after reading this chapter I am going to try to relate these goals to my self-concordant goals. Instead of viewing homework as something I have to do because I need to graduate to my parents happy, I will view it as something fun that I want to do in order to achieve my personal goal of graduating. And instead of forcing myself to go to work to pay bills, I can look at is a chance to learn to things, meet new people, and earn extra money than just what I need for rent so that I can have fun doing something I want to do.

Terms: Self-schemas, Identity, Self-Regulation, Agency, Motivation, Internal Motivation, Self-Concept, Domain, Self-Concordant, Self-Discordant.

Chapter 10 focuses on the self and Its strivings including information on the self, problems with self-esteem, self concept, self-schemas, and possible selves, and cognitive dissonance. There are four problems that occur in a motivational analysis of the self and its strivings. The first problem is defining or creating he self and this is shown through the idea of wondering about who we are and how others see us. Next, relating the self to society is how we want to relate to others. This is where we decide what societal roles are for us and what are not. The third problem is discovering and developing personal potential, this is where we discover what does or does not interest us. Lastly, managing or regulating the self is demonstrated through self concept and directs our behaviors. I think that these ideas are prevalent among all of us and if we take the time to think about it we can identify where we are in each category. I think that managing and regulating the self is super important because it really is defining your life through acts of choice. This is something we all are going through right now by being in college, we are taking on the responsibility of achieving a degree to get a career that we want. Self-esteem is something everyone uses to motivate others, and this is shown in the book by using teachers, students, workers, and athletes. I found it interesting and was surprised by what self-esteem actually stems from. Self-esteem is caused by success and failures, and the book explains that an increase in self-esteem does not increase achievement but instead achievement increases self-esteem. Self-esteem is the starting point to many other concepts in this book including, self-concept, self-regulation, and identity. Self-concept are individuals’ mental representations of themselves. This self-concept is constructed from experiences and reflection on those experiences. I found it interesting that we as individuals take our experiences and reflect on them to then decide important self-concepts about ourselves. I took the example from the book on page 268, and then related it to my life. I have been a very social kid since elementary school so multiple experiences have been evaluated and eventually led me to consider myself as an outgoing or extroverted person. Self-schemas are cognitive generalizations about oneself and are learned through past experiences. This is an integrated set of memories, beliefs, and generalizations about one's behavior in a given situation. Possible selves is future oriented expectation, and is what one expects, fears, and wishes to be in the future. Possible selves play a role in motivating and regulating goal-directed behavior. Cognitive dissonance is demonstrated by people that see themselves as something but there is a consonant shown. The example shown in the book is being a moral person but lying. I think that many people probably shown some sort of cognitive dissonance in their life, because we often want to see ourselves a certain way when in reality that is not how we are. I found chapter 10 to be interesting, and really be relatable to most people. I think that many of the concepts from this chapter go hand in hand with what I see/ saw in my life.

Terms:
Self
Self-esteem
Self-concept
Self-schemas
Possible selves
Cognitive dissonance

Chapter 10 covers the psychological and behavioral development of the self, arguably the most important portion of understanding the human psyche in terms of motivation and emotion. It begins by introducing the four major categories of developing and defining the self (Self-Concept, Identity, Agency, and Self-Regulation). After their introduction, these four categories become the focus of the remainder of the chapter. However, before delving into the main four, the chapter touches on the controversial and already heavily-discussed in class topic of Self-Esteem. Self-Esteem (how you feel about yourself) is a consequence of performance and does not generate any motivation or influence performance in any way, yet somehow still pervades our society with programs intended to boost the self-esteem of children. Having defined the devilish self-esteem, Self-Concept is the first of the major four to be discussed.

Self-concept is the mental representation you form of yourself and is comprised of a swathe of Self-Schemas (domain-specific cognitive generalizations about yourself) which all derive from past experiences/reflection on those experiences. The chapter further delves into schemas with the motivational properties of Self-Schema Consistency (eliciting feedback consistent with your set schema) and the concept of Possible Selves (schemas revolve around what you want to become in the future). Within the Consistency category, there are the sub-concepts of Self-Concept Certainty (how sure you are that your self-schema is valid and true) and Crisis Self-Verification (need to verify self-schema when unsure of schemas validity and presented inconsistent feedback). Cognitive Dissonance is then discussed with relation to self-concept, being that people develop and change beliefs in response to negative emotional states born from contradiction (dissonance). The chapter then presents dissonance’s opposite, Self-Perception Theory, which states that people change their beliefs based on self-observation of their own behavior.

The chapter then moves on to Identity, the second main category of the self. Identity is the means through which the self is related to its society, in the form of Roles. Roles are the various niches in society that we as individuals fill in, and which define what is appropriate and not appropriate for us to do within given contexts. We reinforce these with Identity-Confirming Behaviors (reinforce the chosen identity) and Identity Restoring Behaviors (behaviors/emotional displays intended to restore an individual who acted out of role). Afterwards, the chapter moves on to Agency, which focuses more on the self as a form of action and active, innate inner development. Basically, agency seeks to express and develop our inner selves through our action. Being innate, agency derives its motivational properties from intrinsic motivation. While agency provides the main motivation, this motivation is directed by Differentiation (evolves and expands the self ever-increasingly) and Integration (compacts the self into a more organized and complementary form), bolstered by Internalization (taking external values and making them internal) from the social environment. These all leads to increased Self-Concordance, which is what gives us the persistence to carry on effort and goal attainment.

The chapter concludes by discussing Self-Regulation, which is our ability to step back and mentally monitor/evaluate our efforts to attain goals. The chapter further divides regulation into Forethought, Performance, and Regulation, a cyclical triad, and also defines self-regulation as a learned/acquired skill usually attained through observational learning.

Having trawled through my (probably) way too long summary of the chapter, I will now move on to the topic of Identity, and more specifically the concept of “Definition of the Situation.” This was the most fascinating thing I found while reading the chapter, as it is a phenomenon that describes that in every social interaction we undertake, we yearn to figure out another person’s role (identity) to facilitate appropriate communication. Because our lives are fraught with interactions (Teacher v. Student, Parent v. Child, Employer v. Employee), we try to label each interaction as such. A student would (traditionally) not talk or interact with a teacher as they would their best friend. So, when a person approaches us that does not outwardly present any role, we become confused. If a man walked up to me wearing a white shirt, white pants, white shoes, and had no outward marks of employment, title, rank, etc., I would be very confused. After introductions, my very first instinct would be to ascertain his job, so that I could figure out how exactly I could appropriately interact with him. The reason this is so fascinating is because it really magnifies how complex we humans really are, and for an analogy, I’d like to turn to Starbursts.

Back in AP Psychology in high school, our teacher had us do an experiment to demonstrate how the human body worked together with itself to perform certain functions. In this case, it was taste. She had us close our eyes, plug our noses, and have a classmate place a Starburst of unknown flavor into our mouths. To my surprise, the Starburst did not taste like anything until my eyes opened and my nose breathed. The flavor came rushing in with eyesight and scent. Much like in the situation with the white-clothed man, I would be uncomfortable talking with him until I knew where he came from or why he was there but gleaning some personal information from him (IE: Job) would cause all the pieces to fall into place, much like the Starbursts rushing flavor.

Self, with relation to motivation, defines the “why” of our motivation extremely well. In defining our self, we set our own limitations, interests, strengths, etc. that essentially set our boundaries. So, in goal-setting and in motivated behavior, we would use these definitions of ourselves to set the realistic boundaries for these goals and behaviors. In setting these boundaries, we then limit ourselves to certain goals as opposed to others, thus forming a basis for why we choose to pursue one thing over others. Self-schemas, how we view ourselves in domain-specific situations, are nonexistent in areas that do not interest us. I myself fancy myself many things, shy, awkward, funny, clumsy, a student, etc., and I do not see myself as athletic, sporty, competitive, and so on. Because of this, I set my own limitation, which explains why I do not drop everything to chase a randomly acquired dream of becoming a professional NBA basketball player. My chosen roles (intellectual, nerd, student) also can help explain why I don’t do certain tasks. I don’t go work out with my meathead roommates because I see that as an identity-inconsistent behavior that would not affirm my chosen role. I could go on, but I believe I should move on to the next topic as this post is long enough already.

This chapter has taught me, with regards to my own desired goals, that I can accurately look at these desired goals and then infer who I am based on them. It seems kind of stupid to not be able to first understand yourself and then set the goals based on your understanding of yourself but bear with me here. I am not a very well-defined person. I have interests that crest from theatre to psychology to history to criminology, and the list goes on and on. How did I focus myself on pursuing a psychological degree? Because I obviously was motivated to understand understanding above all else. Had I pursued theatre, I must be more concerned with expression (of ideas, concepts, etc.), pursuing history would display I was more concerned with the past and future, etc. My chosen pursuits show what I want for myself and what I want the world to see me as: A confusing pseudo-philosopher who uses big words and pretty phrases to try and explain why I do what I do.

Terms Used:
Intrinsic Motivation – Pg. 111
Self – Pg. 264
Self-Esteem – Pg. 266
Self-Concept – Pg. 268
Self-Schema – Pg. 268
Self-Schema Consistency – Pg. 270
Self-Concept Certainty – Pg. 271
Crisis Self-Verification – Pg. 271
Possible Selves – Pg. 273
Cognitive Dissonance Theory – Pg. 275
Self-Perception Theory – Pg. 279
Identity – Pg. 279
Roles – Pg. 280
“Definition of the Situation” – Pg. 280
Identity-Confirming Behaviors – Pg. 280
Identity-Restoring Behaviors – Pg. 281
Agency – Pg. 281
Differentiation – Pg. 282
Integration – Pg. 282
Internalization – Pg. 283
Self-Concordance – Pg. 284
Self-Regulation – Pg. 289
Forethought – Pg. 289
Self-Reflection – Pg. 289

Chapter 10 covers the idea of the self and its four primary factors; self-concept, identity, agency, and self-regulation. There are four main issues that people deal with in regards to their idea of self. These issues are creating the self, relating the self to society, discovering and developing one's potential, and managing and regulating the self. Our self plays a significant role in our life in regards to the person we are and the person we want to become. Our self is often what sets us in motion when it comes to achieving a goal.
One of the most surprising or interesting things that I learned in regards to the self is the impact self-esteem can make on a person. Throughout my life, as a student, a son, and a player on many athletic teams, I have been taught that one of the most important battles I will face in life is a battle with my self-esteem. I was taught that if I believed in myself, that I could accomplish most anything. However, the book stats that while there is a strong correlation between self-esteem and happiness, self-esteem has nothing to do with motivation or the ability to accomplish goals. On page 266, the book states that there are “almost no findings that self-esteem does anything at all.” The book argues that it isn’t our self-esteem that needs improvement, but our skills in regards to dealing with the world. The book compares self-esteem to a scoreboard of how things are going for you in life. Scoreboards in sports have nothing to do with the score of the game, they just report it, The play of the players determines what is on the scoreboard. The same idea is portrayed with self-esteem. How you live and deal with life is what affects your self-esteem. Although this idea was shocking to me, I do believe it is accurate. My self-esteem would be higher if I would accomplish more of my goals; not my goals would be accomplished more if my self-esteem was somehow magically higher. I do believe now that self-esteem a measure of the outcome, not the means of creating a certain outcome.
I believe the self is a mediator in regards to motivation. I wouldn’t be motivated to play basketball if my “self” didn’t enjoy it. I wouldn’t be motivated to workout if I didn’t want to improve my “self.” With that being said, the idea of self is extremely important as it is an underlying cause for many of the things that we do and are motivated to do. Some things we don’t have a choice to be motivated to do such as eat, drink, and sleep. Many motivations that aren’t “necessary” to life however, are caused by the self and our identity. That is why I believe self is so important to motivation.
My knowledge of my “self” will help me understand what I am likely to be more and less motivated to do. I will be able to look at my possible selves and understand which is most realistic and helpful to obtain. I will be able to use this information and work and strive to achieve these goals as doing so will allow me to lower cognitive dissonance. If I fail at my goals that dealt with my idea of self or potential selves, this will create cognitive dissonance. Keeping in mind my “self” will allow me to not set goals that I will not enjoy achieving or goals that are not reasonable. This should help me stay motivated or if nothing else increase motivation.

Self-concept
Identity
Agency
Self-regulation
Self-esteem
Possible selves
Cognitive Dissonance

Chapter ten discusses self-esteem. The idea of self-esteem sounds really great to people who don’t know a lot about it. What these people fail to realize is that self-esteem is a reflection of how life is going and not something that can make life better. It can benefit us by increasing our defense against anxiety and depression. If we feel good in our own bodies (which means we have good self esteem), then we are more likely to avoid these issues. I look at self-esteem like an continuum because (like the book says) too much self-esteem can lead to an over inflation, but not enough can lead to anxiety and depression. To avoid problems, like these ones, someone would need to stay as close to the middle of the continuum as they can. People who have too much self-esteem are more likely to be aggressive and violent. Increasing self-esteem is not as easy as some people think. Because happiness and self-esteem seem to be a byproduct of our lives as they are, we cannot simply decide to have better self-esteem. The textbook also brings up six aspects of well-being that cannot simply be changed: Self-acceptance, positive internal relationships, autonomy, mastery, purpose, and personal growth.
The next topic in the book that I was interested in was the idea of self-concept. A self-concept is like a mental picture that someone has that shows themself. People can concepts of all kinds of events, places, and people. Once people take time to reflect, they can create a self-concept. Similarly, self-schemas are more generalized to situations and events. Some people call themselves skilled in booksmarts but not skilled in street smarts (or visa versa). These are both schemas that the person either identifies with, or does not, because of their experiences. Based on these schemas, people direct their behavior to try and get feedback consistent with how and what they identify with. These behaviors also try and change the person from who they are now to who they want to be in the future.
Cognitive dissonance is the psychological process where the brain holds two conflicting beliefs. The brain wants to solve this dissonance, so it comes up with a solution for one way or the other. An example would be if someone smokes even though they know it is bad for their lungs. They might convince themselves that it can’t be as bad as people say it is. The also might be pushed by society (even if they want to smoke) to stop smoking because it is the more socially acceptable thing to do. The opposite of cognitive dissonance is cognitive consistency. This is where the beliefs within the mind line up with one another and no dissonance is felt. The smoking example use earlier showed a role or a cultural expectation for a person who holds a specific social position. If the person was a teacher or other public figure, they might be expected to quit smoking. If the were unemployed, they would be less pressured to quit.
The most surprising thing that I learned this chapter was that self-esteem cannot be changed like a mindset. Self-esteem is a reflection of how our lives are going. The self has a lot to do with motivation because someone who has a good sense of self is more likely to have mastery beliefs and learn quicker and more efficiently. This will help motivate me because I want to help others in a counseling profession in the near future. By knowing that I can’t change someone’s self-esteem without changing their events in their life, I can save myself a lot of time and try to add more happy situations in their life.
Terms: Self-esteem, self-concept, self-schema, cognitive dissonance, cognitive consistency, role, and mastery beliefs

Chapter 10 is about the self and four main problems about the self that are related to directing and energizing our behavior, namely 1.) defining or creating one’s self through maintaining and developing ways we think about ourselves operating in certain situations (self-concept), 2.) relating oneself to society through role playing in ways we are expected and behaving in ways that that confirm who we are and who want to be (identity), 3.) discovering and developing self potential through attaining goals that meet our internal needs (agency), and 4.) regulating the self and its goals through monitoring and the cyclical process of forethought, action, and reflection (self-regulation).

The most surprising part of the chapter that I learned was the intricacies of the defining or creating the self. Defining and creating oneself is are rooted in one’s self-concepts and self-schemas. Self-schemas are the building blocks of one’s self-concept, or rather, one’s total representation of oneself. Self-schemas are formed by experience in specific domains (e.g. “I am competent in academics but not sports”). Once a self-schema is establish people find comfort in keeping it consistent. For example, if I do not feel competent in sports, but someone says I am a really good basketball player, I would probably experience some tension and perhaps deny their claim. But maybe I do want to become a better basketball player. People sometimes want to change our self-schemas toward possible selves. For example, If I want to become a better basketball player, I might play more basketball and begin to feel less tension if I am told I am doing well because it is consistent with the new schema “I want to be a better basketball player”. However, people are not perfect and will inevitably run into inconsistencies between their schemas and actions, which produces cognitive dissonance. Cognitive dissonance occurs when people’s actions do not fit their beliefs. For instance, if I was beginning to do much better at basketball and started to believe “I am good at basketball”, but then I played a game making no baskets, I may feel tension. I might blame it on my new shoes, which is considered a dissonance removal strategy and provides comfort. Strategies that remove cognitive dissonance and keep our schemas consistent make us feel like the world is predictable and coherent. Feeling otherwise would likely mean certain death (at least for our ancestors). Although these self processes seem internal, when considering the world and our social landscape, they coexist with other people and our environments, which makes up our identity.

So what does this self and its identity, agency, and regulation have to do with motivation? The way each self is construct is what is going to influence the direction and energy of one’s behavior. For example, whether one is motivated to play basketball or not is going to depend on how they understand themselves in relation to basketball, what their peers and mentors are doing and what they think about basketball playing, how much basketball playing satisfies their internal needs, and how well they will be able to maintain that basketball playing behavior over time (e.g. do they have a mentor or internalized feedback system?).

Expanding on the topic of mentors, this chapter is especially helping me realize how much I might need a mentor in some of my more novice adventures, such as a learning music. Whenever I have watched YouTube videos or had my musically-inclined friends of mine help me with my music learning, I have always progressed more than when I am alone. I also have a feeling that actual people help me more than watching YouTube videos. Their is something personalized about it, and the pressure also helps me focus and be accountable for concentrated practice. I think being more aware of this and seeking out more mentors will be beneficial in helping me progress more quickly (even though I know I will also have to dedicate much time to personal practice). I love the quote, the Chinese proverb, at the end of this chapter. “Start with your master. Finish with yourself.”

This chapter explained the concept of the self, including self-concept, identity, and agency. Self-concept is a mental representation of ourselves that is constructed by using feedback on our personal attributes, characteristics, and preferences. Identity is the means by which the self relates to society, which is essentially comparing oneself to its culture and determining characteristics. Agency is basically intrinsic motivation and inner development.
The most surprising concept I learned was that the self can be motivating. I always assumed the self was personality traits and modeling, but after reading this chapter I understand that we can be motivated by the self. I was really interested in possible selves under the self-concept section. I did not think about the fact that self-schemas could change depending on social feedback. This makes sense because if someone has an ideal self, for example, to be fit and healthy, and their present self becomes their ideal self, they will find a new ideal self to compare themselves to. If someone is working out in order to merge their ideal and present self, but they do not see results, they could reject their possible self of being fit and just focus on their possible self of being healthy by not eating as many Oreos after dinner.
I also thought the cognitive dissonance section was interesting because of all the ways to relieve the dissonance. I feel like this concept is relatable as a college student because I know I am in college to learn, which means studying and doing homework, but my action of watching Netflix after class creates psychological tension because I procrastinate my schoolwork. This class helps me relieve this dissonance by adding a new consonant belief because part of my homework is to watch movies and relate them to class concepts. Therefore, by watching movies on Netflix, I am also doing my homework, so there is no longer any dissonance.
The self motivates us by giving us energy and direction towards a certain outcome. While I was taking notes on the chapter, I noticed myself repeatedly using the terms “energize” and “directed”, which are essential to motivation. An example of this is the motivational processes that underlie cognitive dissonance. Cognitive inconsistency and dissonance motivation come forth and can motivate ways of believing or behaving in order to reduce the psychological tension pertaining to one’s believes and actions.
This knowledge can help me to motivate myself towards my desired goals because I can be more aware of my choices for possible self. For example, I want to be a good friend to others and I am afraid of becoming lonely so I am more likely to rely on feedback from my current friends and adjust my present self to fit their needs in a friendship. I have a goal of being a good friend so I am motivated to develop good listening and communication skills to fit the needs of my friends. I am also motivated to relieve dissonance in my life by changing my actions rather than my thoughts because I would say my thoughts are pretty moral and I think my actions need to provide evidence of the good characteristics and attributes I think I have.
Terms:
Self-concept, identity, agency, intrinsic motivation, self, possible selves, self-verify, self-schema, cognitive dissonance, feedback, goals

In chapter 10 we talk about one's self. The chapter begins by explaining the 6 key factors to psychological well-being: Self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose, and personal growth. I find these factors very interesting because a person will not have great psychological well-being unless all 6 of these factors are satisfied to some degree. The chapter goes on to talk about the 4 challenges of oneself, which are very connected to the 6 factors that go into someone's psychological well being. These are creating or defining oneself, relating oneself to society, discovering and developing one's potential, and managing and regulating oneself. How well or poorly a person is able to meet these challenges has a great impact on self-esteem. Self-esteem is the perceived value one has of themselves.

After reading about self-esteem and how it really affects people, I am very interested to learn more about it. According the the text, self-esteem has no real effect one a person's motivation. It's more of a dependent variable that fluctuates up and down depending on life experiences, successes, and failures. Today's society has drastically over-emphasized the importance of self-esteem. I think this has something to do with the rise in diagnoses of major depression. The rise in major depression (especially among teens) leads people to believe that we need to educate more about self-esteem and caring for one's self-esteem. While I agree that we should be careful to keep a healthy self-esteem, we should be educating more about how to properly motivate oneself to achieve goals and have positive experiences. Self-esteem may be a decent gauge for how someone thinks things are going for them, but it is not a source of motivation to change one's situation.

I really enjoyed the section of the chapter that discussed personal striving as well. Personal striving is a person trying to accomplish or attain something. However, what I had never thought of before, is that this can possibly be a negative thing. A person can either strive to achieve, or strive to avoid. I can think of specific examples in my life where I was striving to avoid doing a task because I didn't think it was fun. I would avoid things I didn't like doing at all costs even though I knew eventually it was going to have to get done or there would be consequences. Sometimes I avoided something so long that I ended up having to deal with those consequences. I never really thought of this as my personal striving though, until now.

This chapter was extremely interesting and will help me towards my goals, and everyday life really. Everyone has periods of time where they feel a little low on self-esteem. Now I know that in order to fix that, I'm going to have to go out and do something about it, that it won't just fix itself. I will be much more careful about what kind of personal striving I will be involved in as well. I would much rather strive to achieve my goals than strive to avoid tasks I find unenjoyable.

Terms:
Self-esteem
Self-regulation
Personal Striving
Autonomy

Chapter 10 discusses how one’s self motivates. There are different concepts that have to do with motivating self. When figuring out or creating self we begin to “wonder about who we are, how others see us, how similar and different we are from others, and whether we can become the person we want to be” (Reeve, 266). We also try to relate the self to society and to discover and develop the self. When we set out to do all these things we either become motivated or lack the motivation to improve the self.
One-way self has a lot to do with motivation is through agency. Agency “means that an agent (the self) has the power and intention to act and it reveals the motivation inherent within the self” (Reeve, 266). Agency motivates within the person instead of motivation through an environment or culture. Another way that self has a lot to do with motivation has to do with self-esteem. According to teachers, employers, and coaches “the best way to motivate students, workers, and athletes is to increase their self-esteem” by making them feel good about themselves.
I thought that the section about personal strivings was interesting. One reason why I thought it was interesting was because if I were to look at Table 10.2 before reading what personal strivings I are would’ve guessed it was a list of goals that the girl was trying to accomplish. I feel like if I took the time to sit down and come up with a personal strivings list, print a couple of copies, and tape them around my apartment and in my truck that it will help motivate me towards accomplishes and attain objectives that would impact myself in a positive way.
One way I can use what I learned from the reading to help motivate me to achieve my goals is through using the concept of possible selves. Possible selves “represent individuals’ ideas of what they would like to become and what they are afraid of becoming” and usually are “social in origin as the individual observes the selves modeled by others” (Reeve, 273). Let’s use my goal to workout as an example of how possible selves could help motivate and achieve the goal. I have many friends or “role models” that are avid lifters and I have observed how they work out, diet, and the muscle transformation. Seeing a possible self that is healthier and more fit would help motivate me to strive towards completing my goal. A few years ago, I lifted daily for a whole school year with one of my friends that is one the most avid lifters that I have ever met, and I noticed positive feedback. Knowing that I successfully completed this goal is supporting evidence that will help “energize and direct action so that the attributes, characteristics, and abilities” will begin to materialize. If I were to use the possible selves concept I would first set out to answer a few questions: If I am going to become my possible self, how should I go about lifting and dieting to experience the best muscle gains? What kind of workout activities should I pursue? And what other information will help me reach my goals? After answering these questions, I will be able to find effective strategies and feel more confident in reaching the finish line.
Self
Agency
Self-esteem
personal strivings
possible selves

Chapter 10 was all about the self. However, there is a slight problem with self-esteem. Many people try to boost one’s self-esteem, but no research has found anything that shows that self-esteem works. Although self-esteem and achievement are positively correlated, the relationship is not reciprocal. Low self-esteem can relate to levels of anxiety and too much self-esteem may be related to aggression and violence.

The self has four major struggles when it’s looked at analytically. The first is defining/creating the self, which allows self-concept to energize and direct behavior. A person’s self-concept is the way that they see themselves. This is created from experiences and reflections. Self-schemas are a part of the self-concept and are generalizations from past experiences. These can give feedback and also help move the current self toward a future self. People like consistency, so we are always looking to gain information that is consistent with our self-concept. Whether a person is confident about their self-schema may predict what kind of information or feedback they seek out. If there is a discrepancy among their self-schema, they may make a change or avoid certain interactions. However, if they are trying to change their self-schema toward a more desirable future self, change may occur through social feedback. Occasionally, cognitive dissonance occurs when one’s belief contradicts what one is doing. When this happens, people may try to reduce this by removing the dissonant belief, reduce the importance of that belief, add a consonant belief, or increase the importance of the consonant belief. People may also try to restore these beliefs, and they do these by engaging in dissonance-arousing circumstances that allow them choice, insufficient justification, effort justification, and new information.

Identity is the way that the self relates to society. People have many different identities, and they change in different situations. One way that our identities change is through our many different life roles. A person has a different identity as a doctor than they do as a sister, and they both have different roles as well. When we recognize a person’s identity, we can allow them to take positions that fit that specific identity. If a person is inconsistent in their identity, they can restore them through behaviors or emotions.

Agency is the action within a self that is intrinsically motivated. Within agency are differentiation and integration which can help motivate the development of the self. These are innate characteristics that self uses to grow and expand into a more elaborate self. Internalization and the integrating self are other aspects of agency. Internalization can come from the self or from outside recommendations and helps to develop meaningful relations and to interact with the world. Self-concordant goals are goals that reflect the agentic self. However, these goals are intrinsic and if they were introjected or extrinsic goals, they would be discordant goals. Strivings are somewhat like goals, but they aren’t. They are what someone is trying to accomplish in daily behavior and over their life. When striving for psychological needs, they can create subjective well-being.

Self-regulation is the way someone is able to monitor their efforts toward their goals. This can also help make competent functioning. Before this can happen, a person must have been observing an expert model and receive guidance and feedback. Once the person no longer needs the model, they can begin to self-regulate.

The most surprising thing that I learned was that self-esteem really isn’t that important in regards to motivation. The comparison of achievement to self-esteem also surprises me because increases in achievement can produce higher self-esteem but not the other way around. I was also surprised when the book mentioned that self-esteem is like happiness, but I think it actually makes sense. Our self-esteem builds or falls because of experiences of life just like happiness does. These are just byproducts.

Learning about the self can help discover what may be motivating for one person. Everyone is different, so their ways of motivation are also going to be different. Understanding people’s identities, roles, concepts, schemas, and possible selves are keys to understanding how to motivate people. A celebrity would have different motivations than an ordinary person and would also have different identities and roles. Reflecting on my own personal concepts, identities, and schemas will allow myself to see in what ways I’m intrinsically motivated and extrinsically motivated. Knowing how I’m motivated towards different ways, I’m able to maximize or change my motivations.

Terms:
Self-concept, self-schema, self-esteem, identity, agency, regulation, intrinsic motivation, dissonance, experience

Chapter ten focuses on what’s called “the self”, and the six sides of psychological well-being. The chapter moves on to focus on the four high points throughout the self: self-concept, identity, agency, and self-regulation. Self-concept, according to the book, has to do with how a person defines themselves, or creates “their self”. This primary focus has to do with choosing things such as values and friend groups, however it can also include things such as race or gender that you are born with. Identity has to do with relating to the self that you’ve defined for yourself, as we do with work and relationships. Agency follows along the lines of discovering and developing the self, and self-regulation follows by managing or correcting the self. Going back to self-concept, self-schemas follow very closely to this. Self-schemas are generalizations about ourselves made form past experiences. These can be beneficial, because it helps the self with motivation. Self-schemas can help to direct our behavior to either push to a better, more ideal self, or to reinforce the schemas that we have put in place. For example, one of my self-schemas is that I am a type A personality. To reinforce this, I might be motivated to take charge more often, or to get a planner because I want to see myself as even more organized. This also ties into consistent self, in which we try to reaffirm our self-schemas, even if there are contradictions. For example, although I very much have a type A personality, I am also shy which doesn’t fit into the schema. By ignoring this I am practicing consistent self.
What surprised me the most in this chapter was the second main topic: identity. Once we have put ourselves into a role (parent, coworker, student, etc.) we begin to act in a way that reinforces that role. For example, I identity myself as a movie buff, specifically classic horror movies. Because of this, I act in certain ways that other movie-goers don’t, such as looking at movies based on producers, or paying attention to lighting or visual techniques. Two behaviors that follow identity are identity-confirming behaviors, which is what I mentioned above, and identity-disconfirming behaviors. In the disconfirming section, we do things that do not fit in with our identities and must either change our self-schemas or change our behavior. This is interesting to me, because I think that it helps to show just how much our “self” changes throughout our lifetime.
The chapter follows with agency, which is acting on the previously mentioned topics or behaviors. Integration and internalization are found in the agency, which focus on preserving a whole, cohesive self. Internalization focuses more on how a person processes information, and whether they choose to externalize it. Lastly is self-regulation, in which we can process ourselves and reflect on how we’ve acted based on our personal schemas.
By understanding the self that I have created more now, it should be much easier for me motivate myself towards desired goals. After reading this chapter, I am aware of my own identity, agency, self-concept, and self-regulation. I can choose goals that not only sounds enjoyable, but do not cause cognitive dissonance either!

Self-concept
Identity
Agency
Self-regulation
Self-schemas
Consistent self
Identity-confirming behaviors
Identity-disconfirming behaviors
Internalization
Integration

The self has four problems which are defining it, relating it to society, discovering personal potential, and managing it. Self-schemas are cognitive generalizations. Self-concepts are a person’s idea of themselves. They help define general conclusions about a person and are a collection of self-schemas. Self-schemas motivate by helping direct behavior and push a person towards a desired future self. People then act in a manner that does not contradict their self-schema. If something contradicts a person’s schema, cognitive dissonance occurs which is when a person holds a belief about themselves and yet act in a opposite manner. Dissonance can be relieved by removing the conflicting belief, reducing its importance, adding a new belief, or increasing the importance of the consonant belief. Dissonance can be used to achieve goals.
Identity allows people to relate to society and inhibit roles. Roles direct peoples’ behavior in a way that is socially accepted. Giving a person an identity allows the to behave in a way that confirms their position in that role. Agency is a person’s innate processes and motivations. Differentiation occurs as a person grows in their interests and preferences. Integration takes that growth and creates a single, cohesive self. Internalization occurs when a person desire to experience relatedness and to interact effectively with society. Personal well-being shows in a person’s strivings. The more a person strives to fulfill their innate psychological needs, the more they promote growth and well-being within themselves. Self-regulation is a person’s supervisor of their progress towards their goals. By comparing their present state to their goal state, a person is able to promote social learning as a novice observing an expert and gain the skills to obtain their goal.
It is very surprising that self-esteem is basically a worthless construct. We often think that self-esteem is an indication of how well a person can act and behavior. I have thought before that it is a factor that influences many things in my life from social interactions to school performance when it in fact, does not. So many people credit performance above all else to self-esteem. It is definitely believed that self-esteem rules actions and behaviors. It is interesting to know that self-esteem is just a reflection of a person’s cumulative achievements and failures.
As a result of this chapter, I will not rely on attempts to boost self-esteem to motivate myself or correct unwanted behaviors. Rather, I will pursue strivings that direct my behavior in ways that I can grow and develop a positive well-being. I will be more aware of situations that produce dissonance within me and instead of justifying them, I will act in a manner that helps me understand where my hypocrisy is coming from and attempt to fix the problem instead of just using a psychological tactic to brush it under the rug. I will try to use more intrinsic motivators so I am doing things for myself instead of for others.
Terms: Self-esteem, cognitive dissonance, self-schemas, self-concepts, motivation, goal, identity, role, behavior, differentiation, internalization, integration, striving, well-being, self-regulation, goal

Chapter 10 was all about the self and its strivings. The self is a person's essential being that distinguishes them from others, especially considered as the object of introspection or reflexive action. When it comes to the self, there are four different issues that affect the self. These four different issues are: 1) self-concept (defining the self), 2) identity (relating the self to society), 3) agency (developing personal potential, and 4) self-regulation (managing the self). Each one of these issues help us understand how motivation is generated by the self in the forms of presenting their best self through cognitive structures, social relationships, strivings from within, and self-monitoring. The self-concept is a group of domain-specific self-schemas. Self-schemas are cognitive generalizations about the self that are domain specific and are learned from past experience. There are two ways in which self-schemas create motivation. The first way is the consistent self. The consistent self is where self-schemas observe behaviors and make sure that things stay the same and there is not any disturbances in the status quo. The second way in which self-schemas create motivation is through the possible self. The possible self uses self-schemas to look into the future and think about the person that one would like to become. Identity is how the self relates to the society. once someone settles in in their “life role” their identity starts to control their behavior so that it matches up with their identity. The self has its own form of motivation via the form of agency. Agency uses one’s intrinsic motivation to change behaviors so that they can go after what they want. As one uses this agency to go after what they want, it causes a chain of reactions where some of the new behaviors do not match up with some of the new behaviors. Then, the behaviors start to work together and form into one person. This process is what allows us to grow from who we are to who we want to be. Finally, people tend to take a step back and look into their life. They look into how their goal paths are coming and to make sure they stay on the track that they want to stay on. Otherwise they have to change something to get back on path.

The most surprising thing that I learned was that the self is more complex than what I had thought it was. It is way more than just what one person thinks about themselves. It is about not only that, but also about balancing maintaining the self and growing closer to who you want the self to be,

The self is all about who you are; how other people define you and how you define yourself. Because of this, you make decisions in life so that the things that you do and your behavior match up with who you are. So, you could say that the self is the center of motivation to keep balance between what one thinks of themselves and what others think of them.

I will try and set goals so that they more seem like they match up with my “self”. This way my agency will use my internal motivation to pursue my goals with more intent than what I do now.

Key Terms:
The self, self-concept, identity, agency, self-regulation, self-schema, the consistent self, the possible self

There are 4 main stages that we go through within our life that deal with the self. One being defining or creating the self. This starts to happen at a young age this is when we as people begin to find ourselves and who we want to be or how we want to be. A lot of it at this point can be based on family, peers and friends influence that lead us to become to person we do. One of the biggest things that goes hand and hand with creating ourselves is self-esteem. Today self-esteem is one of the biggest problems when it comes to children and teens and lot of that is because of the way media is. In the book, there was a something mentioned about self-esteem not being the one that needs to change or improve but instead the way we deal with the world around us. Another one of the biggest factors that creates our self are our self-schemas. Our self-schemas are things we learn from past experiences. Some of the different self schemas are like being shy, or being outgoing or being friendly or rude. This are things that are learned or can be seen as well as things that are sort of within you. Self-schemas are also something that can grab the focus and create certain behaviors because of them. This happens when someone can realize that they are either outgoing or shy and because they see themselves as one or another they direct their behavior in that certain direction. For a person that is shy they create behaviors that show they are shy as well as keep behaviors that later can make decisions based on that knowledge. Once a person begins to create their possible shelves they then begin to build and keep them. When one starts to realize that they have certain traits that they are noticing or shelves then they want to keep them. There are different ways that people can create shelves those ways are the environment as well as personal thoughts and beliefs that can possible shape them as well as peers and social media and the world around us. First one being the fact that is it something that is created within the person you are some people are born with possible shelves whether it be the environment or the way they were raised some may be shy or outgoing or others. The next is today’s world and the social media that is involved and children and teens having social lives. When kids begin to enter into school is when many of these shelves are formed they begin because of the way they act at school and either it is liked and they keep doing it or they see that it’s a behavior that isn’t liked and it is then stopped. Along with possible shelves and the keeping or getting rid of them becomes a point that some people run into that is called cognitive dissonance. This is when a person may believe that they are shy but yet they act in a different manner and because of this they begin to run into a problem with not understanding or knowing if they are who they truly think they are. Overall creating a self can be challenging for the fact that there are so many things that influence us as a person but this is what makes us all different.

Terms:
Self-esteem
Creating the self
Self-Schema
Cognitive Dissonance
Possible shelves

Chapter 10 is titled The Self and Its Strivings, with such concepts as self-schemas, possible selves, identity roles and cognitive dissonance. Self-schemas are cognitive generalizations about the self that can be specific and are learned from past experiences. Being shy is an example of a self-schema, as it is specific and is something that is learned from past experiences. Self-schemas help motivate us in two ways, one is by directing behavior in ways that elicit feedback that are consistent with the self-schema. Secondly they generate motivation to move the present self toward a desired self. When a person finds a very comfortable self-schema for a domain, they typically try to preserve that self-schema. This is referred to as the consistent self, and one way to preserve this is by seeking information consistent with their self-concept, and ignore other information that disputes it. It is similar to self-confirming bias as they both seem to seek only what they want, and ignore other information.
Possible selves are the outcomes from sometimes either social feedback, or through an effort to advance the present self to a better future self. What we would like to become, and what we would like to try and avoid becoming. The possible self is usually modeled after a role model that they desire to become as they are consider them to be a future ideal self. It when these possible selves conflict with each other that issues may arise. Cognitive dissonance is when beliefs about who the self is and what the self does are inconsistent. So being a moral person and telling the truth is consistent, while being a moral person but lying could cause cognitive dissonance. Some ways to reduce cognitive dissonance are remove the dissonant belief, reduce importance of dissonant belief, add a new belief, or increase the consonant belief.
Identity is also an important factor when it comes to the self, and it is how the self relates to society. People want to be part of social and cultural groups, as they offer identities to certain individuals of the group. For example, an identity I would have is that I am a student, and in some situations my identity could direct me to pursue some behaviors that conform or avoid student like behaviors.
Something that I found interesting but not really surprised by was the fact that consistent self is pretty similar to self-confirming bias. They sound very similar and almost identical in that they both seek information that is wanted, and dispute any information that could go against the consistent self which may end up causing more harm than good. The tactics to change cognitive dissonance seem easy, but I bet that they would be pretty difficult to actually try and change a belief about something that we have learned and always relied on.
Finding an ideal or consistent self, while also possibly being open to all information may greatly help how we learn. Something like dynamic social impact theory where communication is important could even be something that may impact our self-schemas.
Words used: self-schemas, possible selves, DSIT, identity roles, cognitive dissonance, motivation.

Chapter 10 discusses the self and its relation to motivation. There are six dimensions of psychological well-being: self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth. Four problems arise when dealing with the self: defining and creating the self (self-concept), relating the self to society (identity), discovering and developing personal potential (agency), and managing and regulating the self (self-regulation). Chapter 10 takes a deeper look at these four areas.
Self-concept is one’s mental representation of themselves. They use feedback to draw general conclusions about themselves. These general conclusions are then compared to self-schemas. Self-schemas are cognitive generalizations about the self that are domain specific and are learned from past experiences. Self-schemas are motivational in two ways. First, self-schemas direct behaviors in ways that encourage feedback consistent with the schemas. Secondly, self-schemas motivate the present self towards a desired future self. However, schemas can change. In order for them to change, self-concept certainty must be low, and self-discrepant feedback must be difficult to discredit. It’s important to note that changes in self-schemas are the exception. The self usually tries to seek information consistent with one’s self-concept and ignore contradictory information, thus maintaining the self-schemas already in place.
When a person receives feedback that is discrepant with self-schemas and self-concept certainty is moderate, one self-verifies. This is the process of finding a “tie-breaker” to determine if the self-schema or the feedback is inconsistent. People self-verify to know themselves, to perceive the world as predictable and coherent, and to avoid misunderstandings and unrealistic expectations.
One of the most interesting parts of this chapter to me was the discussion of possible selves. Possible selves represent what one hopes and fears to become. They represent the future self, which is why they’re goal-oriented. This idea of possible selves suggests that the self encompasses past, present, and future. Not only can we find motivation within our current self and in developing our future self, but we can find motivation from our past self. The text suggests the reader look back on her effort devoted to college courses in the context of possible selves. Looking back and forward, I have more motivation to attend all my classes and do all of my readings. I have re-realized that all the content I skipped out on may have negatively affected my possible self to become an effective teacher (or whatever career path I choose to pursue).
As the chapter continues, it compares cognitive dissonance theory and self-perception theory. Both support the statement, “saying or doing is believing.” However, cognitive dissonance theory states that beliefs change due to negative affect from inconsistencies between schemas and behaviors. Whereas self-perception theory states that beliefs change due to self-observations of one’s own behavior.
The next problem was identity. Identity is a means by which self relates to society. Identity directs a person to pursue or avoid certain behaviors. This is based on roles, or cultural expectation for behavior from people who hold certain social positions. One person has several different identities based on different situations. For example, my identities include student, daughter, musician, peer advisor, and I act differently depending on which role I currently am in.
Agency relates to intrinsic motivation and innate processes. Individuals differentiate what interests and capacities they have and integrate them into their lives. Internalization is the process of transforming externally prescribed behaviors and values into an internal one. This process is motivated by relatedness and competence. Related to agency, self-concordance is what one wants to do, rather than what one has to do.
Finally, self-regulation is the metacognitive monitoring and evaluating of one’s ongoing effort to attain one’s goals. One learns self-regulation skills by observation, imitation, and internalization. Self-regulation is self-monitoring and self-evaluating one’s performance. It’s followed by forethought, which involves goal setting, and then, the task is performed and self-regulated again.

Terms: self, motivation, autonomy, self-concept, identity, agency, self-regulation, self-schemas, self-verify, possible selves, cognitive dissonance theory, self-perception theory, roles, differentiate, internalization, self-concordance, forethought

Chapter 10 discusses “the self” in great detail. The self is made up of several pieces which are self-concept, identity, agency, and self-regulation. All four of these entities are what makes each human being unique. For example, some people search more diligently for their identity while some people simply embrace the identity they are given at birth and act how they are told to act my parents, teachers, and elders in the community. Other people choose to challenge cultural norms in order to find their true self.

The most surprising thing I learned in this chapter was that once a person inhibits a role, such as mother or Southerner, the identity directs the person to pursue some behaviors, such as identity confirming behaviors, and to avoid other behaviors, such as identity disconfirming behaviors (pg. 279). Certain roles have cultural expectations. For example, my female friend from South Sudan is the oldest child; therefore, she is expected to act as a parent to her younger siblings. On the other hand, I have a female friend from Iowa who is also the oldest child in her family and she was not expected to act as a parent to her younger siblings. She was simply expected to behave as any other child would. As for my friend from South Sudan, she takes her siblings to school, does not drink alcohol, and works hard in school in order to set a good example for her younger siblings. This would be an example of identity confirming behaviors and the identity she has taken on is a parental role. If she were to suddenly do the opposite of all these things, that would be considered identity disconfirming behaviors and everyone around her would be confused as to why she is acting abnormally.

What does “the self” have to do with motivation? Firstly, self-schemas direct an individual’s behavior in ways that elicit feedback consistent with the established self-schemas (pg. 269). For example, I view myself as outgoing, as a result, I am going to speak up in class and offer to lead group projects for both of those activities fit into the self-schema I have created for myself. My motivation for speaking up in class and volunteering to lead group projects is because I want other people to think I am outgoing as well. If for some reason, someone informs me they think I am not outgoing, I will use that as motivation to do something outgoing in an attempt to change their mind about me.

I can use this knowledge to motivate me towards my desired goals in dance. I have fractured my left femur twice, but I really want to be on UNI’s Dance Team this August. I know I have a long road ahead of me until my leg is back to where it used to be, but that does not mean I should give up. Auditions are in exactly one month and if I go into this next month with the mindset that I will not make the team, then chances are I won’t. However, if I work hard and stay focused for the next month, I am sure I can accomplish my goal and begin dancing again.

TERMS USED:
AGENCY
BEHAVIOR
FEEDBACK
IDENTITY
MOTIVATION
ROLE
SELF-CONCEPT
SELF-IDENTITY

Chapter 10 focuses on the self and how it can direct and energize our behavior. There are six dimensions of psychological well-being that are a byproduct of four other pursuits related to the self. The six dimensions are measured by a high/low scale and they are: 1) Self-Acceptance, 2) Positive relations with others, 3) Autonomy, 4) Environmental Mastery, 5) Purpose in Life, and 6) Personal Growth. The four pursuits of the self are described all throughout the chapter.
The first one is the Self-Concept; it energizes and directs behavior by defining or creating the self. The self-concept is created by self-schemas learned from past experiences and domain specific behaviors that have motivational properties. We behave in order to maintain our self- consistent feedback and to discredit the self-discrepant feedback. By acting this way, we seek to know ourselves, bolster perceptions that our environment is predictable and coherent, and to avoid misunderstandings about interactions. When people engage in behaviors that are dissonant with their beliefs and values, they encounter Dissonance-arousing situations that include effort, insufficient justification, effort justification, and new information.
The second concept is Identity, it is the means by which the self relates to society. People change their motivations by assuming different roles, trying to confirm or restore the identity that is congruent with that social role.
The third concept is Agency, it directs motivation by discovering and developing the potential of the self. Intrinsic motivation is the source of the developing self that underlies agency. This kind of motivation, interest, and preferences motivates the self to interact with the world by differentiating, integrating, and internalizating thoughts and behaviors that energize us.
The last factor is Self-Regulation, where the self evaluates its resources, monitor goals, evaluate goal progress and make adjustments in order to achieve a more competent functioning.
The most surprising (and probably the most important) thing that I read in this chapter is the sentence “happiness is a byproduct of life’s satisfactions, triumphs, and positive relationships” at the end of page 267. This made me think a little bit about happiness and by relating it to previous chapters, I came with the conclusion that to achieve happiness, we would have to set goals for whatever make us happy, and not simply try to convince us that we are happy (as I previously thought that this was the way to achieve happiness).
I will use this new knowledge to think about my future goals. In my opinion, to be more motivated toward goals, I would have to reconsider my future possible self in certain domains and compare it to my actual self concept in order to direct attention and to plan better. I sometimes find myself in situations (mostly in academic situations) that I don’t know what to decide because I don’t really know what I want to be. As this is a self-concept issue, the three other factors depend on it, so I would not deal with identity, agency, or self regulation changes until I have some of my possible selves clear.

Terms used:
Self-Acceptance, Positive relations with others, Autonomy, Environmental Mastery, Purpose in Life, Personal Growth, Self-Concept, Identity, Agency, Self-Regulation, Self-discrepant feedback, Self-schemas, Self- consistent feedback

Chapter 10 mostly focused on the concept of self. This chapter talked about many different techniques and steps that a person can use to make a change, appraise themselves, or persist to do what they are already doing in order to achieve their goal and to accomplish a personality that they want to have.
I think for me, the most interesting part of this chapter would be when it talked about one’s self-esteem. Throughout our whole life, we acknowledge to have a high self-esteem in order to do well in whatever we are doing or whichever goal we are trying to accomplish because we automatically get motivated to do that. But, the chapter mentioned that it is not completely true even though self-esteem plays a very important role in our mood and makes us feel happy. It’s mentioned in the book that self-esteem is literally developed based on how you perform an activity and plays no motivational role. An important message here that we can learn is that it is very important for us to increase our competence to cope with whatever is happening around us every single day, rather than just focusing on different methods to increase our self-esteem. I was very surprised to learn that even though self-esteem plays an important role in our lives on daily basis, but it is actually not what we all have been taught throughout our lives.
Moreover, chapter’s main focus was on self and why it is an important facet of our lives. There are many different ways one can focus on self and these steps all focus on motivation. An idea of a constant can be related to motivation. For example, when someone reaches his/her goal that they have been working on for years, they will continue to work hard enough to maintain that position. We all have different ways to demonstrate ourselves to other people the way we want to be demonstrated. But, when someone’s doesn’t approach to this level, they will go back to where they were and will work even harder this time to present themselves better because the they sensed unpleasantness by not achieving their self that they wanted the first time. Moreover, chapter also went into details of how an identity plays a very important role in our lives and our desire to accomplish a specific self. I would say that our society perform a substantial part in this because our environment around us have many rules that are expected from us to follow and perform exactly the way it wants us to meet its expectations. It is important for everyone to determine their identity that would inspire them to execute different attitudes and behaviors in order to fit into a category that is “approved” by our society so we are not doing something that is unacceptable or to break rules. In context, I think our self motivates us to aim for an ideal self that we are trying to accomplish. Also, we are motivated and inspired by our external and internal interplay that helps us to feel as we have achieved our goals that we wanted to achieve.
Overall, I feel very confident about the goal that I want to achieve because now that I have a better understanding of the self. There are many identity that I acquire. The first one would of course be being a mom and raise my child the way I was raised by my parents. And second one would obviously be being a student and doing well in school. Because I think, our society plays a big role in these matter. I have seen many people judging moms by how their kids behave in public. Our society has its mind set that if a child is behaving bad, it has to be the mom who is not doing what she is supposed to and same goes for being a student. I have met many people in my life that ask be “are you a good student?”, Furthermore, I think establishing a personal striving entity that is very advantageous that help me to reach my goal that I want to accomplish. I know how bad I want to get accepted to a medical school and I have been working with my friends who are physicians and have done this to help me improve what needs to be revised. I have started job shadowing my friend who works in the ER and I have been able to learn so much from it. It is truly amazing to see what the staff at the hospital do to help people in need and I am hoping to do the same one day!
Terms Used:
Accomplish
Self
Achieve
Self-esteem
Identity
Ideal Self
Role

Ch 10 covered the concept of “the self” and its effects on motivation. There are four main principles in the self, and they are self-concept, identity, agency, and self-regulation. This chapter teaches us the self has its own view of the world, and how it views the world changes motivation for the person. Understanding this relationship can help us determine where we fit in the world, and how to move up in it.

Self-concept is a mental representation of oneself. This is built from experiences and how the person reacts to those experiences. It can be any experience, such as a disastrous public speaking event early in life may lead someone to see themselves as a poor speaker. Identity is how the person fits into society, and what they belong to. Many people align themselves with sports teams, local groups, or hobbies to develop their identity. Agency is the intrinsic motivation a person has. This can be anything to do with developing and becoming more adept at even simple things such as walking for babies. Self-regulation is mentally monitoring their own actions and thoughts. This is the idea that we are constantly evaluating our progress and the goals we set and where we stand in completing them. Self-regulation is not eating that extra piece of cake when you are on a diet, or spending extra time on a musical instrument when you know you need the practice.

The most surprising thing to me was how much self-esteem affects your motivation. California putting time and money into programs to boost self-esteem which turned out to be a total failure is easy to see. The best way to motivate someone is to get them to want it, and generally the government programs do not tailor their ideas to each person. When it seems broad and vague it does not hit home with people, and subsequently does not motivate them. Self-esteem is not the external in, but the internal out. Boosting self-esteem is an issue of learning to be successful in your environment, not the environment adapting to the person.

The self is related to motivation because how a person interprets their surroundings has a major influence on their motivations in it. For instance someone who does not think they are good enough to do something may not put in as much effort as someone who does believe they are. This self-fulfilling prophecy can leave people with less effort and motivation because they are more likely to fail, because they know they will fail.

This chapter helps me motivate myself in my goals because regulating self perception can keep me in balance with my environment. Learning what I am good at can teach me where to invest my time and effort. Believing in yourself can put the effort into you, and light a fire under my motivation levels. If I see a goal I want, I should believe I can do it if I spend any time on it, because if I am only putting partial work in, there is a low chance for success.

Terms:
Self
Self-concept
Identity
Agency
Self-regulation

This movie illustrates what it’s like to be completely free from the world. Chris is a college graduate who doesn’t fit into society. He doesn’t know what he’s doing anymore and he wants to figure it out. So he gives away most of the money he has once he graduates, packs up his stuff in his apartment, and goes. He travels the world with just a few things to help keep him alive, meets new people along the way, and sees beautiful things. This movie clearly represents a man’s process of eliminating himself from society in order to find who he wants to be.

The most prominent concepts within this movie is developing the self and figuring out who he wants to be within society. When developing the self, people form self-schemas. These are cognitive generalizations about the self that are formed around specific domains that we develop based on past experiences. When developing self-schemas, humans pick the past experiences that are most important to them. These developed self-schemas become motivating by driving the person towards environmental situations that involve positive feedback for the self-schema as well as moving the person towards a desired future self. In regards to Chris(Alex), he developed many self-schemas that involved the characteristics of passion and adventure, and drove him towards living in the wild and traveling the world with only on a few things to keep him going. When Chris decides to leave the city without telling his family and adventure all across the world, he was confirming his self-schema by doing the things that were consistent with it, not sticking around to do adult stuff like his parents wanted him to, because this would be inconsistent with his self-schema and thus cause internal tension instead of happiness.

Another topic present within Into the Wild is identity, but it is present in a different way than one might think. Identity is the way that someone relates themselves to society. Identifying with a social group or culture offers the person different identities which leads them to play out the socially defined role within the culture or social group. As people encounter different roles in their lives, they change their behavior. All people have different roles they must take in their lives, many of those being student, parent, child, athlete, friend, etc. As the present situation changes, the role and behavior coinciding with that role changes. For Chris(Alex), he assumed the role of student while in college, and son when among his family, as well as friend and confidant when around his sister, but when he decides to leave the life he has, he begins assuming different roles. Because of the change in setting and people he interacts with, his role become less constricting. He begins to relate with people that understand him more, which acts as an identity-confirming behavior. As Chris(Alex) starts to identify himself as Alexander Supertramp, he establishes a situationally and culturally appropriate identity. Once this identity is confirmed, his behavior is continuous. He continues striving towards reaching Alaska and maintaining this identity he has formed for himself out in the wild.

Terms: Self-Schema, Identity, Identity-Confirming Behavior, Roles