Human Motivation

1
Human Motivation

• Chapter 14
• Self-Concept and Self-Esteem

2
Self-Concept

• Sum of the attributes, abilities, attitudes, and
  values that an individual believes describes who
  he or she is self-knowledge.
• Ultimately determines the goals we set, how we
  evaluate progress of goals, and the impact of
  success/failure on goal-directed behavior.
• Incorporates ideas of capacity to learn, capacity
  to work hard, and capacity to find the right
  path.
• Plays organizational role (personal narrative)
  goal-setting role motivational role.

o     
3
Self-Esteem

• Aspect of the self-concept that is involved in
  making judgments about ones own worth.
• Effects how we react to such things as success
  and failure
• Roots in the evolution of self-conscious emotions
  (Example pride and shame) make it possible to
  experience high/low self-esteem.

4
Self-Concept

• The Biological Component
• Levels of consciousness- various qualities that
  reflect the dynamic quality of how we think and
  react to the world.
• Consciousness has its roots in wakefulness and
  the ability to generate images of objects.
• Higher levels of consciousness require lasting
  images (long-term memory) that we can retrieve
  any time allows humans to use past to guide
  actions/make decisions.
• Prefrontal cortex involved in creation of goals,
  planning route to goal, evaluating feedback,
  making adjustments also involved in inhibition
  of responses.

5
Self-Concept

• The Learned and Cognitive Components
• The emergence of self takes place over time-
  learning and cognitive processes working
  together.
• The self is both learned and constructed
• Learned by internalizing beliefs and attitudes
  of those around us stems from need for
  relatedness.
• Constructed by developing new beliefs as a result
  of our interactions actively integrating
  information.

6
Possible Selves

• Created selectively based on our experience in a
  given domain of expertise result from combining,
  recombining elements of self.
• Selectively become aware of abilities/talents,
  develop enduring sensitivity to tasks in which
  those abilities or talents might be relevant.
• Links self-concept to goals represent the
  future-oriented component of self-concept from
  the ideal self to the self we are afraid of.
• Without possible selves, there is little to
  motivate goal-directed behaviors starting points
  for change.

7
The Self

• Self-Discrepancy Theory discrepancy between the
  actual self (which represents the attributes we
  think we possess), and the ideal self (which
  represents our hopes, wishes, and aspirations
  self-guide).
• The Characteristics of Well-Defined Self-Concept
• Highly differentiated self-concept
• A positive self-concept.
• A self-concept linked to perceptions of
  competencies.

8
Implicit Theories

• Implicit Theories about the World
• Prototype 1 The world as threatening or
  malevolent.
• Prototype 2 The world as benevolent.
• Prototype 3 the world as benign.
• The more people believe the world is benevolent
  or even benign, the more likely they are to
  construct broad and well-defined possible selves
  and to set difficult goals.

9
Implicit Theories

• Implicit Theories of Competence
• To understand the self, we must understand how
  people cope with, adapt to, shape, or embrace the
  external world.
• The mastery strategy involves three interrelated
  beliefs- we can acquire skills to survive,
  control the environment through skills, and have
  the capacity to create happiness and health.
• The performance strategy involves three
  interrelated beliefs- we can achieve what we want
  by learning rules of winning, winning is
  acceptable way to get ahead, happiness is result
  of winning.
• Mastery oriented people are more likely to set
  difficult goals.

10
Self-Esteem and the Self-Conscious Emotions

• When people have a good opinion about themselves
  and their ability to deal with important things
  in their lies (good self-esteem), they are
  inclined to take charge of their lives, set set
  difficult goals for themselves, and to aspire to
  do things that no other person has done before
  central to developing competence.

11
High Self-Esteem

• High self-esteem pride in oneself in which one
  becomes aware and accepting of ones
  imperfections while cherishing ones inherent
  strengths and positive qualities.
• We feel pride when we can take responsibility for
  producing a socially valued outcome or for being
  a socially valued person pride can help sustain
  goal-directed behavior.
• People with mastery orientation tend to be
  relatively high in self-esteem.

12
Low Self-Esteem

• Low self-esteem the shame that comes from
  appraising ourselves as lacking skills and
  abilities important to valued others.
• People with low self-esteem engage in behaviors
  that perpetuate low self-esteem do not accept
  positive feedback but do accept negative
  feedback set low goals.
• Need for predictability need for
  self-verification need to avoid shame.
• People with performance orientation tend to be
  relatively low in self-esteem.

13
Terror Management Theory

• People have developed self-esteem to shield them
  against a deeply rooted fear of death.
• Self-esteem buffers anxiety associated with
  mortality.
• Self-esteem reduces the effects of mortality
  salience.
• Mortality salience increases self-esteem
  strivings.

14
Self-Esteem

• Sources of Self-Esteem Feelings
• Self-evaluation of success and failure.
• Successes in valued domains.
• Societal values.
• There is a small, but significant difference
  favoring males.
• Achieving self-esteem is important for living
  happy, productive, and healthy lives.
• Strongly related to beliefs that people hold
  about themselves.

15
Costs of Pursuing Self-Esteem

• Pursuit of self-esteem what people do to achieve
  boots of self-esteem and avoid drops in
  self-esteem self-esteem produces strong
  reactions which may serve as motivator.
• Costs to autonomy students who seek to protect,
  maintain, and enhance their self-esteem lose
  their ability to act autonomously.
• Costs to learning and competence often leads to
  shift in attention from a mastery and learning
  orientation to a performance orientation.

16
Costs of Pursuing Self-Esteem

• Costs to relationships self may become focus at
  expense of others.
• Costs to self-regulation self-regulation
  (controlling impulses) becomes difficult.
• Costs to physical health high anxiety and
  unhealthy coping.
• Costs to mental health often result in
  depressives symptoms.

17
Healthy Self-Esteem

• Self-esteem may promote well-being if
• Pursued through the development of competencies
  and positive relationships with others consistent
  with the surrounding values.
• Strategies in dealing with mistakes, criticisms,
  and shortcomings correct their behavior rather
  than deny or distract from the problem.
• Focus on the task, not the person.
• In children, praise success and effort.
• Parents who create atmosphere of acceptance and
  freedom from anxiety tend to promote the
  development of high self-esteem.