Blackwell Reference Online

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As a central variable underlying moral behavior and attitude-consistent behavior this has its historical roots in Wolff (1932) and Mead (1934) . The term “self-consciousness” has also been used in these contexts and may be regarded as interchangeable with “self-awareness,” “self-directed attention,” and “self-focus.” Duval and Wicklund (1972) formulated a theory of self-awareness, also called “objective” self-awareness, in that the process entails a person's becoming the object of one's own attention. It is assumed that attention can focus on the self, thus on one's internalized attitudes, values , morals, physical being as well as on the somewhat more vague causal agent self . When attention comes to be directed to a self-aspect, such as one's own voice or face ( see the techniques developed by Wolff, 1932 ), that self-focus will in turn come to settle upon whatever self-facets are at the moment salient. For example, should a person be in the midst of a conflict regarding a moral issue ( see Diener & Wallbom, in Gibbons, 1990 ), then self-focus that has been set off via attention to one's body will come to settle on one's own moral conflict. In turn, the person will then be sensitive to discrepancies between the relevant internalized moral and possible behavioral options. If the person can then act, behavior will be in accord with that moral (e.g., not cheating, ... log in or subscribe to read full text