Chapter 4: The Self

the "self" represent a persons personality/behavior/attitude/mindset.

Self-concept: it is the image that a person sees he/herself to be

  
  1.social comparison:  comparison and adjustment we make to blend in
                                   with how the society acts and think   

2. Other's image of you: the desire to know what others think about you

3. Self interpretations & evaluation: a persons own evaluations of the things in the surroundings

4.Cultural Teachings: the beliefs, values, and attitudes your culture teaches you to be

students in Japan vs. students in American study time

Self awareness: is the understanding of who you are

1. Open self: having awareness to self and others

(Example: sandy likes baking and often bake for her family and friends, therefore sandy and everyone around her knows that she likes baking.)

2. Hidden self: having knowledge about yourself that others don’t

(Example: Kate is talented in playing violin but others does not know that because Kate never had the chance to perform playing.)

3. Blind self: things others know about you but you yourself don’t

(Example: when you were in primary school, someone put a sign on your back that said “I’m a monkey, feed me banana.” Everyone was aware of the sign but you. )

4. Unknown self: part of yourself that is unknown to you and others

(Example: 5 years old Elaine shows interest in learning dancing but her parents think that it is a waste of time and ban her from learning, therefore Elaine and her parents wouldn't know if she has potential in dancing.)

Self-esteem: the amount of self-confidence a person has 

a person who has low self-esteem tend to have less confidence in themselves

a person with high self-esteem tend to have high confidence in themselves

Self-disclosure: telling information about yourself that is unknown                            to others

1. Who you are: people who tend to communicate more often disclose more
2. Your culture: different cultures have different views towards self-disclosure ( cultures that has high masculinity will think that self-disclosure is a weakness )
3. Your gender: women tend to disclose more than men as they have fewer out of bounds topic to share then men do.
4. Your listeners: self-disclosure is often done in small groups, most people are more likely to disclose to the person they are close with
5. Your topic and channel: information about a job or interests are more likely to be disclosed than information about sexuality.  Also, the channel plays a role as research has shown that self-disclosure occurs more rapidly online than in face-to-face interactions.

Advantage and Disadvantage of Self-Disclosure