Reading Blog 3/22 10pm

Chapter 10 addresses many factors that have influence on the way we view ourselves and the way we behave based on that perception of ourselves. The chapter talks about self-esteem as a consequence of cumulative achievement related successes and failures. I thought that this was very interesting as I had never heard it described in that way. Because the chapter related self-esteem to happiness I naturally related it to job satisfaction and how we could improve self-esteem (or job satisfaction) in the workplace. The chapter suggests that improving skills will increase self-esteem, which to me suggests that organizations should put more effort into effective training programs as to increase their employees’ competence and job satisfaction as they will then be more productive in their jobs; really this is a win-win for both the individual and the organization. The chapter also distinguishes between self-concept (based on feedback from daily occurrences) and self-schemas (cognitive generalizations that are specific and based on previous experiences). The chapter also talked about different ways that we view ourselves; the facets of identity and agency become important when identifying how we “fit-in”. This is because identity looks at how we relate ourselves to and within society, and agency relates to the actions that we take. Lastly, these actions are based on different types of goals that are based on different beliefs.

I like the discussion about cognitive dissonance. While I had learned about it before, I found the chapter’s description of it interesting. The chapter describes this idea as something that takes place when people behave in such a way that is not consistent with their perceived self. The chapter also discusses the decision making process involved when a person is contemplating their behavior based on the way that they feel about themselves. Once an individual has made their choice they are much more likely to support that choice than prior to making the decision. Self-perception theory is similar however it assumes that people come to believe whatever it is that they do and say. I think I side more with cognitive dissonance, and that we alter either our behavior or our way of thinking in order to adjust for the discrepancy between the two.

A surprising part of the chapter for me was the discussion about the differences between self-concordance goals and personal strivings. The chapter states that self-concordance goals are goals that reflect a person’s core values. These goals assess a person’s needs, interests and preferences, while personal strivings depict more of what a person is trying to do. I found these two things to be very similar simply with small differences. Additionally, I think that a self-concordance goal and a personal striving could in some cases be the same thing. For example, graduating from my program is a self-concordance goal of mine because I value education and knowledge and feel that they are a necessity for me to achieve other self-concordance goals (job, success, etc). However, graduating is also something that I am striving for right now so it is also a personal striving. However, the distinction is seen when we look at personal strivings as more of things that we simply want. For example, I would love to travel around the world; this reflects no core value of mine (other than maybe a cultural appreciation) however it is more of a desire rather than a value. I think that this distinction could be important for people to consider when going through a decision making process about something they are looking to do.

It seems that overall the chapter identifies many different ways of conceptualizing our behaviors and our cognitive processes. We are constantly looking to strive for the things that are important to us (whether those be related to our values or our desires) and we make an attempt to match our beliefs to our behaviors even though this does not always happen. The chapter also provides some methods for adjusting our cognitive dissonance and using that as a way to increase motivation. The chapter also presents self-regulation as a technique in achieving our goals. It claims that self-regulation is a skill that is attained from social learning (we learn what is right based on what we see around us), and that the higher the ability to use this the more likely we are to achieve the goals we want to attain. However, I do think that it is important to note that simply paying more attention to our beliefs and behaviors may not be enough to reach goal attainment, but may be just provide more capability to achieve the means to the desired outcome.

ME Terms: Self-esteem, achievement, happiness, competence, self-concept, self-schema, feedback, cognitive generalizations, identity, agency, goals, cognitive dissonance, perceived self, ideal state, core values, choice, self-perception theory, self-concordance goals, personal strivings, cognitive processes, desires, beliefs, self-regulation, social learning, desired outcome, and goal attainment.

Chapter 10 is about the self and its strivings. There are four major problems with the self and its striving. They are defining or creating the self, relating the self to society, discovering and developing personal potential, and managing or regulating the self. Self concept is defining the self, identity is relating the self to society, agency is developing personal potential, and self-regulation is managing the self. These explain how the self creates motivation by emphasizing the self’s cognitive structures, social relationships, strivings from within, and self-monitoring. Also very important and helpful to the self is achieving high self-esteem. People with low self-esteem usually have high levels of anxiety. Self concept is an individual’s mental representation of him or herself. It’s a collection of self-schemas. Self-schemas are cognitive generalizations about the self that are domain specific and are learned from past experiences. Self-schemas generative motivation through the consistent self and possible self. Self-schemas direct behavior to confirm the self-view and to prevent episodes that generate feedback that might disconfirm the self-view for the consistent self. For the possible self, the individual observes others and proactively forecasts a view of the future self that the person would like to become. Cognitive dissonance theory states that people don’t like inconsistency or dissonance, and they try to avoid these through having consistency in their beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors. Dissonance-arousing situational events are caused by choice, insufficient jurisdiction, effort jurisdiction, and new information. Identity is how the self relates to society, and it captures the essence of the self within a cultural context. Social roles cause their identities to direct their behavior in ways that express the role-identity’s cultural value. Self can possess motivation of its own or agency. Agency has action, which emerges spontaneously from intrinsic motivation. Its development proceeds through the processes of differentiation and integration. Intrinsic motivation energizes the self to exercise and develop its inherent capabilities. Differentiation occurs as the self shows its intrinsic interests, preferences, and capacities to grow and expand the self into an increasing complexity. Integration occurs as these differentiated parts of the self are brought together into a sense of sense of coherence or unity. All three of these lead to development and growth of the self. The self-concordance model shows the motivational and developmental benefits of pursuing life goals that come from the core self. Self-congruence between one’s self and one’s goals generates enhanced effort that leads to a greater likelihood of need-satisfying experiences that promote well-being and future gains in self-concordance. Personal strivings constitute the super ordinate goals people try to accomplish. Personal strivings are important because they organize and foreshadow a person’s underlying goal system and foreshadow a person’s emotional well-being. Self-regulation is the person’s self monitoring of how his or her goal-setting progress in going. Self-monitoring is a self-observational and self-judgment process in which the person compares present performance with the goal state. Self-regulatory processes are learned through a social learning process in which a novice learns from an expert. Greater self-regulation increases the self’s capacity to do the goal-setting process.
I found it interesting that some things we have talked about in the past as being positive can also be dissonance arousing situations. We learned before that choice helps to increase self efficacy, but we learn in the chapter that choices also cause dissonance. This shows that a scenario can have both positives and negatives, and you have to weigh the two to determine what is best.
Provide a list of terms at the end of your post that you used from the chapter: self, strivings, self concept, identity, agency, self-regulation, self’s cognitive structures, self-monitoring, self-esteem, self-schemas, consistent self, possible self, cognitive dissonance theory, inconsistency, dissonance, consistency, differentiation, integration, intrinsic motivation, self concordance model, self-regulation

Chapter 10 is about the self and its strivings. The self is made up of many different components, like self-concept, identity, and agency. In creating the self, we figure out who we are, our relation to others, and the type of person we want to be. One aspect of the self is self-esteem. It was once thought that having high self-esteem would leave one to be happier and to improve skills. This was proven to be untrue. Although self-esteem and happiness are related, self-esteem does not cause happiness. It seems that self-esteem is the outcome of things like achievement and competence. Satisfying psychological/social needs helps to increase self-esteem, but not the other way around. This is important to know so that we understand that trying to increase self-esteem is not the way to promote intrinsic motivation.

Self-concepts are a persons’ mental description of themselves. It is made up of one’s experiences and how they viewed themselves in those experiences. Eventually, they come to a conclusion about themselves, such as “I’m funny”. Part of a persons’ self-concept is self-schemas. Self-schemas are mental generalizations that are specific to certain situations. For example, a student does very well in their math classes but has a hard time passing English. Rather than thinking their awful in school, they’ll say they’re awful in English. The self-concept is made up of self-schemas, especially situations that are very important to a person, like relationships and intelligence. Self-schemas direct motivation because we like to see our schemas confirmed by feedback. If a certain schema receives feedback inconsistent with that schema, we’ll try to act a certain way to bring back consistency. Another way we strive to reach consistency with our schemas is to associate ourselves with people who confirm them. For example, if someone thinks their funny, they’re likely to hang out with people who think they’re funny too. If they’re around people who don’t think they’re funny, they’ll start to avoid those people. It’s possible to attempt to change self-schemas if self-concept certainty is low and feedback is powerful and clear. Sometimes this change happens because of social influence but it usually occurs because we have the desire to become the ideal self. If an individual isn’t content with their present self, they may strive to reach a better self. Therefore, motivation is directed towards a future self and the individual will take action to become that.

Cognitive dissonance is a concept that affects the self and their behaviors. It occurs when the individual possesses a certain belief but emits behaviors that are the opposite of that. An example is being a Democrat but being a Republican Senator. The individual has beliefs that are consistent with that of a Democrat, but portrays the beliefs of a Republican. Cognitive dissonance causes psychological discomfort and people usually do something to get rid of that feeling. There are four ways to reduce this feeling: remove the dissonant belief, reduce the importance of the dissonant belief, add a new consonant belief, or increase the importance of the consonant belief. In my example, the Senator could quit his job (1), claim that his beliefs don’t really matter (2), increase his Republican beliefs (3), or try to run as a Democratic Senator (4). There are four different situations that bring on cognitive dissonance: choice, insufficient justification, effort justification, and new information. When a choice becomes difficult because there are several positives and negatives to it, dissonance may be an outcome of one of the choices. This can easily be solved by choosing the alternative. Insufficient justification is when people have explanations for their actions that are not consistent with the actual reason for why they did something. Effort justification is justifying an action because you exerted a lot of effort to complete that task. You may not agree with your reasons but because you put so much effort into doing something, you feel that you must agree with it. New information can change your opinion on something and may even be the opposite of what you believe in. Because the new information was presented about a belief you already had, you feel that you must still believe in it. Suffering from cognitive dissonance drives motivation because we want to stay away from that aversive uncomfortable feeling. It can end up being a positive thing sometimes.

Identity is how the self relates to society. Although each individual has their own special personality and characteristics, how they relate to society is still important and critical in our behaviors. Roles are positions that we hold that describe a certain aspect of our life and within our identity. Examples of roles I have are student, daughter, girlfriend, sister, cousin, roommate, and friend. It’s not unusual to act differently within each role because each role calls for a different part of personality.

Agency is the part of the self that entails action. There are two processes inherent within agency called differentiation and integration. Differentiation is a process that guides us to have individual interests and skills and how they’re different in certain situations. Integration is the process that puts all the different parts of an individual together.

Self-regulation is the process we undergo in which we monitor and evaluate ourselves. Based on these evaluations, we emit certain behaviors related to the goals we have. Self-regulating tells us how we’re doing and what we need to change or continue to do. We an individual can become effective at self-regulation, goals are much easier to reach.

Terms: self-regulation, goals, agency, differentiation, integration, identity, roles, self, self-concept, self-esteem, achievement, competence, psychological/social needs, intrinsic motivation, self-schema, motivation, feedback, cognitive dissonance, choice, insufficient justification, effort justification, new information

Chapter 10 deals with the self and how we perceive ourselves. In a motivational analysis of the self, there is said to be four major issues, these issues include: 1.) Defining or creating the self, 2.) Relating the self to society, 3.) Discovering and developing personal potential, and 4.) Managing or regulating the self. Obviously the self and how we perceive it is very complex and very important. The self has to do with who we are, how we’re perceived, and who we hope to become.
The most interesting thing from chapter 10 is self-schemas. Self-schema is cognitive generalizations about the self that are domain specific and are learned from past experiences. The book uses the example of being shy. The reason I find this so interesting is because I would consider myself to be a relatively shy person. Being shy is both domain specific and learned from past experiences. I agree with these ideals because I am very shy around new people, or people that are intimidating. The reason that I am shy around people that I view intimidating is learned from past experiences with teachers’ and coaches. In my opinion both teachers and coaches utilize their age and authority to demand a sense of power and respect from others. I learned this at a very early age and it has stuck with me ever since.
The most surprising/unique thing that I learned from chapter 10 is the idea of possible selves. Possible selves are the ideas of what people would like to become, and also what their afraid of becoming. The book talks about “hope-for-selves” that include: a thin self, a rich self, a popular self and even a not unemployed self. Possible selves are very common and fluctuate constantly. What I mean by that is, my personal “hope-for-selves” are constantly evolving. One day I want to be a bigger/stronger self; whereas the very next day I would prefer to be thinner and more tone. It can sometimes be very confusing and ultimately lead to identity confusion. Do I really want to be this person…or would I prefer to be this person instead? But overall, possible selves are positive in the sense that they motivate us to improve ourselves, or at the least maintain who we are.
In conclusion chapter 10’s focus on the self allows us to better understand who we are, and who we would like to become. It helps us to set goals that help us strive to change our view of the self and how society views who we are.

Terms: Self, Motivational Analysis, Cognitive Generalizations, Domain Specific, Learned from Past Experiences, Possible Selves.

Chapter ten is about one’s self. It goes on to tell about the differences in the self and how you, and others, see yourself. It also discusses what the self strives for. The self is a quest or a mission, to find out who we are, what our peers think about us, and the similarities and differences between our self and others. The self is kind of like and image, an image that we want to become. It’s the beginning of our quest, to find ones “self”. To find our self, we take a journey. We find things that interest us and things that don’t. We search for our talents, skills, and create relationships along the way. The self also is found by setting goals and accomplishing them.
Everyone has self-esteem; it can be high in some people and low in others, either way, it’s there. The key to being happy is having good self-esteem right? It is said that having an increase in ones self-esteem is the best way to increase motivation. In order to get good self-esteem for good motivation employers, teachers, and professors try and make the person feel good about themselves to get them motivated. Well, it turns out that having good self-esteem doesn’t really mean good motivation. The book states that even though having good self-esteem is good, it doesn’t actually show any signs of increasing anything. The book also says that self-esteem is made up from a person successes and failures, and that it’s more of a way to deal with the world. Self-esteem, however, does go well with productivity and achievement. An interesting thing that I learned from the reading was the fact that self-esteem does not increase achievement, it’s the other way around, achievement increase one’s self-esteem. All in all, self-esteem is basically a reflection on how our life is going.
Self-esteem is good, but it can also be bad when low. Having low self-esteem can course a person to have high levels of anxiety and can also lead to depression. Trying to boost self-esteem can have a bad effect as well. At times when people try and boost their self-esteem they are more prone to becoming aggressive and violent.
Self-concept is a person’s mental image of themselves. It’s the same as how we think of others and places, the ideal form. They way that self-concept is built is by the experiences the self has faced and they way that it has been reflected. The best way to help with the experiences we face is through feedback. In our life, we face many different experiences and don’t always remember each and every one or each person we meet throughout our life journey. Over time, with each new experience we face, we develop a conclusion. This conclusion is a way that the individual person defines their “self”. The book uses shy for their example. Once the self has picked out that its shy, it tends to go with it and the person will become shy to others. This leads into self-schemas, which is what we have learned in our past experiences. Going back to being shy, it’s learned from others and from past experiences.
Two other parts of the self is the consistent self and the possible selves. By finding the consistent self, a person will search for any information that consistent with the self-concept and ignoring other information that might have to deal with the self-view. Possible selves is the ideal state, it’s what a person would like to become and also what they don’t want to become. An example would be a person in their present state and their role model, which would be their ideal self.
Another major role in the self is identity. Identity is where the self relates with the society. Each person has a role to play, whether it’s a mother, sister, boss ect. With those roles come certain behaviors that help identify identity. The other role in finding the self is agency. Agency is an action. The chapter gives an example of a newborn. The newborn learns to walk and talk. It’s the process in developing and discovering. This helps the newborn go from depending on others to being able to do things on their own. Which leads to finding ones “self”.
I would have to say that the most surprising/interesting thing that I learned in this chapter was learning about self-esteem. It’s interesting to read that having good self-esteem doesn’t lead to anything, it’s just there. It doesn’t motivate you in anyway. It’s also interesting to learn about what makes a “self” and all the things that you have to come across or go through to find it. It kind of seems like it’s a lot of labeling. People say your shy, so you start to believe it and it becomes how you are, it’s you self identity.
Terms- self, self-esteem, self-concept, feedback, achievement, self-schema, consistent self, possible selves, identity, role, and agency

Chapter 10 is broken down in to four main parts: Self-Concept, Identity, Agency, and Self-Regulation. The first part is 'Self-Concept', which is the idea that individuals have mental representations of themselves. The mental representations are constructed from experiences and from reflections on those experiences. Within or related to this idea is the concept of 'Self-Schema'. This term or concept explains that individuals have cognitive mental generalizations about the self that are domain specific and are learned from past experiences. An example is if someone believes they are intrinsically motivated, or that they make decisions on their own, then it will affect their relationship or reactions to others suggesting ideas to them. Self-Schemas generate motivation in two ways, the first is that once self-schemas are formed they direct an individual's behavior in ways that elicit feedback consistent with the established self-schemas. An example is that believing you're shy means a person will try to act that way and expect feedback normally previously received. The second way is that self-schemas generate motivation to move the present self toward a desired future self. An example of this would be a shy person desiring to become more social. Also within Self-Concept is the idea of 'Consistent-Self', which explains that the more established a self-schema is in a particular domain, that the more resistant it will be to contradictory information. It goes on to explain that a person will act to preserve that self-view by actively seeking out information consistent with their self-concept and by ignoring information that contradicts their self-view.

The second main part of Chapter 10 is 'Identity', which is the idea of "the means by which the self relates to society, as it captures the essence of who one is within a cultural context" (textbook, p. 279). The textbook goes on to explain that once a person inhabits a role, such as a student, parent, job profession, etc., that the identity directs the person to pursue some identity confirming behaviors and to avoid other behaviors such as identity-disconfirming behaviors. Within that idea is the term 'Role', which is the concept of cultural expectations for behavior from persons who hold a particular social position. The book further explains that each of us hold a number of different social positions or roles and which role we inhabit at any given time depends on the situation we are in and the people with whom we are interacting. Also related to Identity is the concept of 'Identity-Restoring Behaviors', which explains that if a person behaves in an identity inconsistent way they can restore the original identity either through restorative behaviors or restorative emotional displays, which both provide identity-relevant information of who that person is. This was the part of the chapter that I found to be the most interesting because I feel like it is very true and I feel like I can relate well to it because it made me realize parts of my life which demonstrate the concepts that I discussed during the paragraph.

The third main part of Chapter 10 is 'Agency', which describes the self from a view of as in action and development from within. The textbook goes on to explain that throughout childhood, as the self develops, the self gradually advances away from heteronomy and goes more for autonomy, which gradually allows for a person to become a fully functioning person. Later the textbook further explains that there are two processes within Agency. The first being ‘Differentiation’, which explains that the self has a synthetic tendency to integrate the self’s emerging complexity into a single sense of self or into a coherent unity. The second being ‘Integration’, which explains that the self is an organizational process that brings the self’s differentiated parts together, it occurs as the self’s individual parts are successfully interrelated and organized as mutually complementary. The two processes within Agency are the most difficult part of the chapter for me to understand.
The fourth main part of chapter ten is ‘Self-Regulation’, which is the metacognitive monitoring and evaluating of one’s ongoing effort to attain the goals one seeks. Self-Regulation is an on-going, cyclical process, which involves forethought, action, and reflection. Forethought is made up of two parts, ‘Goal-Setting’ and ‘Implementation Intentions’. Reflection is also made up of two parts, ‘Self-Monitoring’ and ‘Self-Evaluating’. I also found the concept of ‘Self-Regulation’ to be very interesting because I think it is important for people to think about their actions prior to performing them and I also think it is essential for people to take the time to reflect on their actions so that they can learn, and therefore benefit from them whether they are considered mistakes or the current action at the time.
Terms used: 1) Self-Concept 2) Self-Schemas 3) Consistent-Self 4) Identity 5) Role 6) Identity-Restoring Behaviors 7) Agency 8) Differentiation 9) Integration 10) Self-Regulation

The topic of Ch. 10 is the self and particularly four problems that the self is occupied with. These four problems are: defining and creating the self, relating the self to society, discovering and developing personal potential, and managing o regulating the self. The chapter refers to these problems as self-concept, identity, agency, and self-regulation (respectively). Self-concepts are individuals’ mental representations of themselves. The self-concept is a collection of self-schemas, which are cognitive generalizations about the self that are domain specific and are learned from past experiences. Self-schemas can generate motivation in two separate ways: through the consistent self and the possible self. The consistent self refers to the direct behavior to confirm the self-view and to prevent episodes that generate feedback that might disconfirm that self-view. The possible self refers to an individual who observes others and proactively forecasts a view of the future self that the person would like to become. The theory of cognitive dissonance is very closely related to the concept of the self. The theory states that people dislike inconsistency, the experience of dissonance is psychologically aversive, and people seek to reduce dissonance by striving to maintain consistency in their beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors. Identity is the means by which the self relates to society, and captures the essence of who the self is within a cultural context. A person’s behavior is often directed by the social roles that they assume. For example, someone with a nice identity will most likely engage in nice behaviors and someone with a mean identity will engage in mean behaviors. Agency refers to the motivation that the self possesses on its own. Within the self is an intrinsic motivation that gives it a quality of agency, which entails action. An ever changing process that includes intrinsic motivation, differentiation, integration, and the internalization of social experience all contribute to the development and growth of the self. Differentiation expands and elaborates the self into an ever-increasing complexity and integration synthesizes that emerging complexity into a coherent whole, thereby preserving a sense of a single, cohesive self. Internalization refers to the process through which an individual transforms a formerly externally prescribed way of behaving or valuing into an internal one. Personal strivings organize and foreshadow a person’s underlying goal system, and also foreshadow a person’s emotional well-being. Well-being is more about what one strives for than it is about what one actually obtains in life. Finally, self-regulation involves the person’s metacognitive monitoring of how his or her goal-setting progress is going.

I thought that the section about self-esteem was the most interesting part of the chapter. The idea that people believing that they will perform better in some way if they have a higher level of self-esteem has been found to be false. The truth is more likely that self-esteem is the result of a person’s successes and performance as opposed to the other way around. Low self-esteem can leave a person vulnerable to the suffrages of anxiety and depression, but high self-esteem can also have negative implications. People with inflated self-esteem are significantly more prone to aggression and acts of violence when their favorable self-views are threatened.

ME Terms: self-concept, identity, agency, self-regulation, self-schemas, consistent self, possible self, theory of cognitive dissonance, self-esteem, intrinsic motivation, differentiation, integration, internalization, personal strivings

Chapter 10 is about the self and the tasks surrounding it. In order to define the self we have to look first look at the four problems surrounding the self. The first problem is defining or creating the self. In order to define or create the self the individual has to wonder about who they are, how others see them, how similar or different they are from others, and whether they can become the person they want to be. The second problem is relating the self to society. In order to relate the self to society the individual has to contemplate how they want to relate to others, what place they wish to occupy in the social world, and what the societal roles are or are not available to them. The third problem is discovering and developing personal potential. In order to discover and develop the self the individual must explore what does and does not interest them, internalize values they respect, strive to create meaning, seek to develop and discover their talents, and devote their time to developing some of the skills and relationships rather than others. The last problem is regulating the self. In order to regulate the self the individual must reflect on their capacities, monitor how well they are accomplishing their goals, and make the self-related adjustments that are needed to achieve enhanced self-functioning.
The next part of Chapter 10 states that there is a problem with using self-esteem as a motivational goal. The problem is that according to the chapter there are almost no findings that self-esteem causes anything at all. Self-esteem is considered a by-product of the individual’s self-concept, identity, agency, and self-regulation. Self-concept is defined as the individuals’ mental representations of themselves. An example of this would be that a person realizes at lunch they don’t sit with other people. The individual eventually begins to make self-schemas about their self in certain situations. A self-schema is defined as cognitive generalization about the self that are domain specific and are learned from past experiences. The self-schema has two motivational purposes. First, once they are formed they direct and individual’s behavior in ways that elicit feedback consistent with the established self-schemas. The second is self-schemas generate motivation to move the present self toward a desired future self. After a self-schema has been established, they become more and more resistant to contradictory information. The individual attempts to preserve their self-concept by finding information that supports their consistent self and ignoring information that contradicts it. Self-schemas sometimes change in response to feedback but it is much more likely that they change by a deliberate effort to advance the present self toward a desired future possible self. Identity is the next influence on self-esteem. Identity is defined as the means by which the self relates to society. An example of identity would be a student who fulfills this role by spending hours studying at the library preparing for an exam. A role is defined as cultural expectations for behavior from persons who hold a particular social position. Every individual fulfills a number of roles such as a mother may also be a sister, a daughter, a wife, and a friend. The next self-esteem influence is agency. Agency is defined as an intrinsic motivation that entails action. An example of agency would be the self’s advancement from heteronomy toward autonomy.
The last influence on self-esteem is self-regulation. Self-regulation is defined as the metacognitive monitoring and evaluating of one’s ongoing effort to attain the goals one seeks. An example of self-regulation is monitoring goal-performance and producing feedback.
The most surprising part of the chapter to me was that self-esteem causes nothing at all. The book states that what needs improving in not self-esteem but improvement of our skills for dealing with the world. This surprises me because what I’ve been told and taught about self-esteem contradicts this. It is something to consider when considering my previous view on counseling.
ME Terms – self, self-esteem, self-schema, self-concept, identity, agency, self-regulation, possible self, consistent self

Chapter 10 was largely about the self. The self consists of self-concept, self-regulation, identity, and agency. All of these things are key parts in the puzzle that is the self. I thought that the most surprising thing I learned was that self-esteem does not cause anything. It is, rather, just a score card that allows us to see how well we are doing. In essence, our self-esteem can give us limited amounts of feedback about ourselves and the environment.
Self-concepts are individuals’ mental representation of themselves. Essentially, it helps a person understand what their like. A self-concept about me would be that I am a person that enjoys reading. I would have self-schemas that support this from my past experiences. I would have more memories about me enjoying a good book then someone that did not like it so much. Having a self-schema can motivate my behavior in unexpected ways. For one, I would spend a lot of money on books because I enjoy reading so much. I may not get the books for weeks off of amazon, but I buy them because I believe that I enjoy reading, and that I can enjoy them later when they arrive. I would also have a consistent self to support my belief that I enjoy reading. I would seek out feedback that supports the fact that I enjoy reading and ignore the instances that may disprove it. I can easily accept a good grade on a reading comprehension test because I got my reading skills down. I would blame the books themselves if I did not enjoy reading them. Like these textbooks I am forced to read are boring, repetitive, over-worded, bloated, and a bit depressing. I can also make future possible self’s to play imagine how my book reading will be then. One of me may have collected every book he has ever came upon. Another me may have lost his job and had to sell his books to make ends meet. Another me might decide to stop reading and start writing instead. Imagining what happens in the future would motivate my behavior to protect my future ability to read. Reading a book and not being able to finish it because I didn’t like reading it may cause a cognitive dissonance. My view of myself as enjoying reading would be tarnished by this example. Therefore, I would be motivated to stop the dissonance if it did occur.
Identity is another major aspect of the self. It deals with how one relates to society. I for one have several roles: son, brother, student, boyfriend, friend, part-time worker. My behavior may change drastically depending of what role I am using for the context that I am in.
Agency is also a major aspect of the self. It is action and development that originates from within with innate processes and motivations. It is the action that takes place to fulfill intrinsic motivation. If I wanted to gain more muscle mass I would differentiate ways of doing so. From the information gathered, I can integrate what I have learned into a much more effective whole.
Self-regulation is the last aspect of self. It allows a person to step back and evaluate how well they did on accomplishing their goals. It involves forethought, performance, and reflection. Forethought is where one sets goals or intentions. Performance is the carrying out of these goals. Reflection tells the individual how well they carried out their goals.

TERMS: self, self-esteem, feedback, self-concept, self-regulation, identity, agency, self-schema, consistent self, possible selves, cognitive dissonance, role, integration, differentian,

According to the text summary, there are four different maladies plaguing the self: defining and creating the self, relating the self to society, discovering and developing personal potential, and managing or regulating the self. Each self needs to have identity, regulation, development, and concept. Without those elements, the self can have crisis. The most interesting part of this chapter for me was the section about identity roles. There are many roles a person can take. For instance, I am a daughter, friend, student, aunt, sister, vlogger, dancer, etc. Some identity-confirming behaviors associated with those roles are things such as spending time with my family, teaching my nephew new words and sight recognition of objects and colors, doing homework, and attending class. Identity-restoring behavior would include the time after my surgery on my foot when I could finally return to the studio to dance. I had been unable to dance for over a year, which made me unhappy, but I still called myself a dancer, though not an active one. Now, however, I am officially an active dancer because I can physically dance again.
Another interesting concept to me is cognitive dissonance. I find it interesting as a paradoxical incidence. Since most people think better of themselves than others might, there is a mismatch between the two. Cognitive consistency has an example of being moral as a person and speaking truth. The truth telling follows the belief that the self is a moral person. In contrast, cognitive dissonance would be someone believe herself to be moral but lying. The text outlines that the greater the mismatch between self view and the behavior of the self, the more psychologically uncomfortable one will be. It can also be defined as hypocrisy.

Terms: The self, developing potential, identity roles, creating the self, defining the self, self-regulation, cognitive dissonance, cognitive consistency.

Chapter 10 is about the self. There are six facets of psychological well-being. These are self-acceptance, positive interpersonal relations, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth. There are four main problems that occupy the self: defining or creating the self(self-concept), relating the self to society (identity), discovering and developing personal potential (agency), and managing the self (self-regulation). Self- concepts are individuals’ mental representations of themselves. The self-concept is a collection of domain-specific self-schemas. Self-schemas are cognitive generalizations about the self that are domain specific and are learned from past experiences. Self-schemas motivate in two ways. First, they direct an individual’s behavior in ways that elicit feedback consistent with the established self-schemas. Once an individual establishes a well-articulated self-schema in a particular domain, he generally acts to preserve that self-view. Second, they generate motivation to move the present self toward a desired future self. Seeking possible selves is a goal-setting process that invites self-concept development. Possible selves represent individuals’ ideas of what they would like to become and also what they are afraid of becoming. When beliefs about who the self is and what the self does are inconsistent, people experience a psychologically uncomfortable state referred to as “cognitive dissonance.” When this is intense and uncomfortable enough, it motivates people to eliminate or reduce the discrepancies. Identity is the means by which the self relates to society, as it captures the essence of who one is within a cultural context. Once a person inhibits a role, the identity directs the person to pursue some behaviors (identity-confirming behaviors) and to avoid other behaviors (identity-disconfirming behaviors). The self also has motivation of its own, or agency created by intrinsic motivation. Differentiation expands and elaborates the self into more and more complexity. Integration synthesizes all of the complexity into a coherent whole, preserving a sense of a single, cohesive self. The process through which individuals take in and accept as their own an externally prescribed way of thinking, feeling, or behaving is referred to as internalization. The self-concordance model asks (1) How do people decide what to strive for in their lives? and (2) How does this personal striving process sometimes nurture the self and promote well-being yet other times go awry and diminish well-being. Personal strivings are what a person is typically or characteristically trying to do. Those personal strivings that are not endorsed by the self tend to generate conflict and pressure in the person, whereas those personal strivings that cultivate self-concordant goals, personal growth, and subjective well-being are those that seek greater autonomy, competence, or relatedness in the person’s life. As people attempt to accomplish the goals they have for themselves, they mentally step back to monitor and evaluate how well things are going. Self-regulation is the metacognitive monitoring and evaluation of one’s ongoing effort to attain the goals one seeks. The most surprising thing I learned in this chapter was that self-esteem is not a causal variable. Self-esteem and achievement are correlated positively with one another, but self-esteem exists as an end product of the self’s adaptive and productive functioning. This chapter applies to my life right now as my self-concept is changing. I am in current stable roles of daughter, mother, and wife right now. I also am in the role of a student, however this is soon coming to an end as I graduate in May. I feel as if I’m in a self-verification crisis as I leave my temporary, not so thrilling jobs, and seek a career. Although I am a non-traditional student, at times I feel like I’m not old enough, skilled enough, or experienced enough to be in a professional career :)

Terms Used: self, well-being, self-concept, identity, agency, self-regulation, self-schemas, feedback, future self, possible selves, goal-setting, cognitive dissonance, roles, identity-confirming behaviors, identity-disconfirming behaviors, intrinsic motivation, differentiation, integration, internalization, personal strivings, self-concordant goals, personal growth, autonomy, competence, relatedness, self-esteem

Chapter 10 introduces us to the four problems people encounter regarding the self and its strivings. The first problem is defining or creating the self (self-concept). We gain self definition by genes (i.e. I am a female) and through acts of choice as well (i.e. becoming a teacher). The second problem is relating the self to society (identity). Identity comes from choice but it also comes from society as well. The third problem is discovering and developing the potential of the self (agency). Agency is the power the self has to act so it gives the self motivational potential. Finally, the fourth problem is managing or regulating the self (self-regulation) which includes monitoring and evaluating the self to enable goal progress and competent functioning.

Self schemas are mental generalizations about the self and they are domain specific. They process information about the self and can retrieve self-related behavioral evidence from past experiences. They also can predict future behavior in that domain and often resist information that seems to contrary. There are two ways that self-schemas generate motivation and that is through the consistent self and the possible self. The consistent self directs and confirms the self view and tries to prevent episodes that might disconfirm the self-view. The possible self generates motivation for a desired self often when an individual observes the selves modeled by others.

Cognitive dissonance is also discussed in Chapter 10. Cognitive dissonance occurs when beliefs about who the self is and what the self actually does are inconsistent or don’t match up. Basically, you believe one thing but behave the opposite. This leaves the self feeling psychologically uncomfortable and this state is known as cognitive dissonance.

I really found the section on cognitive dissonance interesting. In the text and in the class smoking was used as an example. When I was quitting smoking I felt cognitive dissonance very strongly. I knew that smoking was harmful yet I kept doing it and I literally made excuses in my mind to ease the “guilt” (which I now know was that cognitive dissonance causing psychological discomfort) I kept feeling over my behavior. I think most people have experienced cognitive dissonance in some form at least once if not many times. Hypocrisy also goes along with cognitive dissonance and the text offers another great example of a person who wants to help the environment but isn’t willing to give up certain behaviors to do it (i.e., driving an automobile which would reduce air pollution).

ME terms: Self-concept, Identity, Agency, Self-Regulation, Self-Schemas, Consistent Self, Possible Self, Self-View, Cognitive Dissonance

This chapter starts off by discussing the 6 elements of well being. These include self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life and personal growth. If you possess these six qualities, you are considered to be well psychologically.
The concept the text discusses next is self concept. Which is defined as an individual’s representations of themselves. These concepts are often attained through life experiences and how they perceived these experiences. Self schemas are cognitive generalizations about the self that are domain specific and often learned from past experiences. They can be compared to a file folder. Self schemas are important to understand related to motivation for two reasons. They generate motivation because they contain our memories of past experiences, or the feedback received. They also generate motivation because they hold the present self and they desired self.
The next concept is consistent self. A perceived consistent self comes from seeking out information consistent with the self schema. This is very important to understand. This is what leads us to choose our friends for example, because we often choose to hang out with friends who support our schemas. Once a person’s confidence is reached in their self schema and true consistency is reached, it creates “self concept certainty.”
The text discusses possible selves next. This, again goes back to one perceived present self compared to one’s desired self. The possible self is a representation of the future self. It becomes motivation, like a goal to obtain. These are important because they are essential to the abilities we do not yet possess. This concept is yet another that proves our “selves” have a past, present, and future. Whenever the person’s self is and what the self does, doesn’t match it is called cognitive dissonance. This is an uncomfortable feeling for most and usually motivates people to change.
A second major part of self is identity. This is how the self relates to society, for example student, mother, teacher. Understandably, people sometimes change their self to fit the situation they are in. We tend to all have more than one self to act upon.
Self-regulation is the metacognitive monitoring and evaluating of one’s effort to attain certain goals. since it is always ongoing it requires forethought, action and reflection. All in all, nothing in this chapter surprised me.

Chapter 10 is about the self and its strivings. There are four basic problems that occupy the self: self-concept, identity, agency, and self-regulation.
Self-concept is when a person defines and creates the self. This is a set of beliefs a person uses to conceptualize themselves. It is a collection of specific cognitive generalizations about the self that are learned from past experience. For example, my self-concept would be that I am outgoing but not athletic. A person can be motivated by their self-concept in two different ways: the consistent self and the possible self. The consistent self uses behavior to confirm their self-concept. The possible self uses observations of others to envision how they would like to become themselves. The possible self motivates the individual to work towards meeting their goals. An example would be admiring someone who is very successful in their career and envisioning becoming as successful as they are.
Identity is the way that the self relates to society. People identify themselves by the roles they play and how they interact within a group of people. People have multiple roles that make up their identity. For example, I am a daughter, sister, friend, student, cousin, granddaughter, roommate, and babysitter. I am also compassionate, friendly, and caring. All of these characteristics make up my identity.
Agency is the self’s source of motivation. Agency causes action which transpires suddenly from intrinsic motivation and energizes the self to implement and cultivate what the self is capable of. Agency is an important part of progression of the self. When a person realizes they are accomplishing their goals, they become more encouraged to put in more effort that leads to them being more likely to have experiences that satisfy their needs. People’s personal strivings are what make up their goal system and predict the individual’s emotional well-being which is what they are actually what they are striving for, not what they end up obtaining.
Self-regulation is an individual’s cognitive monitoring of how their goal-setting progress is going by comparing their current performance with their goal state. This process is usually learned by watching an expert, emulating what they have observed, and internalizing the skills of self-regulation themselves. Learning how to effectively self-regulate helps the individual to carry out the goal-setting process on their own.
The most interesting thing I learned from this section was the benefits of a well-developed self-schema. I learned that individuals with a well-developed self-schema process information about themselves with ease, can quickly remember self-related behavior evidence from the domain, are able to confidently predict their own future behavior, and resist counter-schematic information about themselves.

Terms: self, strivings, self-concept, identity, agency, self-regulation, beliefs, motivation, goals, intrinsic motivation, personal strivings, self-schema

Chapter 10 Is about self concept and how it directs and motivates behavior. Define and creat self, relate self to society, discovering and devloping personal potential, and managing and regulating the self. Slef concept is defined as a set of beliefs/schemas an individual utilizes to view themselves.
There are benifits of a well developed self schema such as: process info. about the self with ease, quickly retrieve self releated behavioral evidence from the domain, confidently predict own future behavior in the domain, resist counter schematic infor about ones self. The consistent self prevents episodes that would be uncomfortable due to disconfiming views of the self. Possible view is to move present self toward a desired future self. Possible selves are mostly social in origin, motivational role is to link present with possible, understand how self develops, portraying the self as a dynamic entity with a past present and future.
Cognitive Dissonance is tension an that arises whan an individual holds two cognitions that are inconsistent such as being a smoker and not wanting to die from lung cancer, People make assumptions to justify their own beliefs, They also use various coping stratgies: removing the dissonant belief , reduce the importance of the dissonant belief, add a new dissonant belief, increase the importantce of the constance belief.

Identity is the way the self relates to society, who self is within a cultural context, identities direct their behaviors in ways that express the role-identity's cultural value, identity directs pereson to pursue/avoid certain behaviors. Helps to define other aspects.
Self regulation involves the person's metacognitive (thinking of thinking) monitoring of how their goal setting progress is going. Develops more comptent self regulation.
What I thought was most interesting was that by have a clear view of possible self it increases sucess in a goal.

Terms used: self concept, self schemas, consistent self, possible self, cognitive dissonance, coping strategies, identity, self regulation, performancem avoidance, goal,

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