Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

The study of the nature of self has been of great interest not only to social psychologists but also to the general public. Research on the self does not fall into one neatly integrated system but rather exists in a loose collection of overlapping subtopics. Despite frequent and colloquial usage, the term “self” is not easy to define. A full understanding of self must encompass the physical body, the socially defined identity (including roles and relationships), the personality, and the person's knowledge about self (i.e., the self-concept). Self is also understood as the active agent who makes decisions and initiates actions. Although the term “self-concept” is popular, theorists generally agree now that it is misleading and probably wrong to assume that self-knowledge is uniform, constant, fully consistent, or unitary. Instead, researchers refer to multiple conceptions about how the self is (and how the self may become). Each time people reflect on themselves, only one small subset of this knowledge is brought to mind, and so self-awareness may have quite different contents on different occasions. Still, this multiplicity should not be overstated. The very definition of self entails unity and continuity over time. Attributes, roles, motivations, and subjective states may change frequently, but they are all understood as belonging to one and the same self. The notion of self is ... log in or subscribe to read full text