Download self efficacy

Conceptions of the Self
• Self: A conceptual system made up of one’s
thoughts and attitudes about one’s self,
including one’s
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Gender
Physical Appearance
Possessions
Values, Beliefs, Preferences
Psychosocial characteristics
The Early Self
Infants’ sense of the ability to control objects develops at 2–4
months (sense of self efficacy)
• By ~ 20 months, children can recognize their self-image in
a mirror.
• By age 2-3, children may exhibit shame and
embarrassment
• By age 2, children use language (“me,” “I”) to refer to
self.
• Age 3-5 (temporally extended self) A sense of self over
time—coincides with first autobiographical memory in
preschool years
The Self in Childhood
• Preschoolers engage in little social comparison= lack
objective comparisons of performance (e.g. test scores),
high self-esteem/over-confidence
• By elementary school, children comparing self with
others in terms of characteristics, behaviors, and
possessions
– self-concept is based on relationship with others, and
thus children are vulnerable to low self-esteem if
others view them negatively
The Self in Adolescence
• There is concern with social competence and social
acceptance
– Girls concerned with physical appearances and
relationships
– Boys with performance
• Adolescents can conceive of themselves in terms of a variety
of selves, depending on the context (with friends, siblings,
parents)—a mild identity crisis? Personas
• Personal Fable = self is regarded as unique and special
(“You don’t know how I feel!”).
• Adolescents develop belief in an Imaginary Audience
• In late adolescence, self-concept becomes less determined by
what others think and more determine by personal values.
Schemas
• Self schemas = lens on the world, what is
important to you (gender, ethnicity, weight,
intelligence, friendly)
• Judge self and OTHERS according to this
schema--A pseudo-halo effect
Factors that Influence Self
• Biological
– Gender
– Attractiveness
– Weight, ethnicity, etc. etc.
• Social
– peer and family interactions
• Cultural and environment
– Schemas
– Context cues
• Psychological
– Beliefs and theories
– Depression/mood
Self-Esteem
• Partially results from difference between
perceived self and ideal self
What does atypical development
tell us about self?
DID (formerly MPD)
Dazed and bruised from a beating, Eric, 29, was discovered wandering
around a Daytona Beach shopping Mall…transferred 6 weeks later to a
Human Resources Center, Eric began talking to doctors in two voices:
the infantile rhythms of ‘young Eric’, a dim and frightened child, and the
measured tones of ‘older Eric’ who told a tale of terror and child abuse.
According to ‘older Eric’ after his immigrant German parents died, a
harsh stepfather and mistress took Erick from his native South Carolina
to a drug dealers’ hide-out in in a Florida swamp. Eric said he was raped
by several gang members and watched his stepfather murder 2 men.
One day an alarmed counselor watched Eric’s face twist into a violent snarl.
Eric let loose an unearthly growl and spate out a stream of
obscenities…who insolently demanded to be called Mark…Eric’s other
manifestations emerged over the nexts weeks: quiet, middle-aged
Dwight, the hysterically blind and mute Jeffrey; Michael, an arrogant
Jock; the coquettish Tian, whom Eric considered a whore; an
argumentative lawyer…Eric gradually unfurled 27 different
personalities, including 3 females…
DID
The diagnostic criteria for the diagnosis of DID are:
• (1) the existence within the person of two or more distinct personalities or
personality states, each with its own relatively enduring pattern of perceiving,
relating to, and thinking about the environment and self,
• (2) at least two of these personality states recurrently take full control of the
person's behavior,
• (3) the inability to recall important personal information that is too extensive
to be explained by ordinary forgetfulness, and
• (4) not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g. blackouts
due to alcohol intoxication) or a general medical condition
• 80-100% of people diagnosed with DID also have a secondary
diagnosis of PTSD
(APA, 1994).
DID
Symptomatology/Description
Subpersonalities or “Alters” are either:
• Mutually amnesic
• Mutually cognizant
• One-way amnesic (most common) co-conscious
alters
Prevalence = 1% of the population
o women receive diagnosis 3 times more than
men
• Average # of alters = 15 for women, 8 for men
DID: Symptomatology Cont’d
• “Alters” often display differences in gender and age (there is
almost always a child “alter”)!
• Alters also typically differ in preferences, religious beliefs,
political beliefs, knowledge and abilities they possess and
languages they speak.
• Have their own proper names, often describe themselves as
differing in appearances (race, hair color, weight, attractiveness)
DID: Symptomatology Cont’d
• Lending credibility to the disorder are differences across
personalities (when dominant) in:
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handedness
Handwriting
Voice
Vision
vital stats
and cerebral blood flow and brain electrical activity
– (e.g. study comparing DID patients and pretenders)
DID: Possible Cause(s)?
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Demonic Possession?
Genetic predisposition?
Iatrogenic?
A naturally occurring adaptive response to severe and
often prolonged physical, sexual, or psychological abuse
(97% of patients in early childhood--before age 12 mostly before
age 5!)
• Extreme and rigid state dependent memory?
• Self-hypnosis (DID = highly suggestible and children are
highly suggestible)
Restriction on
Information Flow
(e.g. information encapsulation)
Restriction on Information Flow
http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/fcs_hollow-face/index.html
Ambulance Video!
DID
• “Dissociation serves as a temporarily adaptive function
(escape) e.g. surgeons, parents,
• Repeated reliance on dissociative defenses can lead to the
inability to properly process information from past events
into a narrative
• repeated use of dissociation can lead to the development of
a series of separate mental states that may eventually take
on an identity of their own
• these personality states are created to “house” the
fragmented memories related to different traumatic
incidents
DID: Implications/Thought Questions
• What does this tell us about the development of self?
Identity? Personality? Memory? Gender?
• Is there a critical/sensitive period for the development
of self (ves)
• Why the need for so many alters?
• Is integration of the “selves” necessary (common
treatment)?
• Is DID an extreme case of different personas?
• Once an alter is generated, what is the purpose of
having different names, genders, appearances,
preferences…?