Self-Awareness Theory
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If you are watching a home video taken by a family member where you are the centered attraction, you will be in a state of self- awareness (Arroson, Wilson, & Akert, 2007, p.000). Self- awareness theory is the “idea that when people focus their attention on themselves, they evaluate and compare their behavior to their internal standards and values” (Arroson, Wilson, & Akert, 2007, pg.000). Humans differentiate from most other species in the way they can use self-concept, which is our own knowledge about who we are, and they do this by taking the self as a focus of attention (Povinelli & Prince, 1998). The fact that as human beings we are able to be self- aware enables us in a way to self-evaluate, the way a person views themselves (Duval & Silvia, 2001). People can compare themselves to internal standards and asses whether they are sufficiently physically attractive, intelligent, and sociable or anything that is seen as accurate and good (Duval & Silvia, 2001). If any discrepancies occur between your behavior and your inner standard, it will cause a change of the behavior to create balance with your internal standards and values (Arroson, Wilson & Akert, 2007, pg.000).
The ability to evaluate one's self is an essential part for recognizing parts in the self that can be improved (Sedikides& Strube, 1997). If self- awareness is low, the relationship between the self and internal standards is inconsistent and therefore, internal standards become unclear and disrupted (Sedikides & Strube, 1997). Attention has to be put on the self to be able to make connections. If a person is unaware, then any unbalance between the self and internal standards will be ignored and have no affective and motivational consequences to the self that would encourage self- improvement or change in behavior (Sedikides & Strude, 1997). When a person’s self- awareness is high, a person can discriminate between similarities and differences in the self’s current state and their internal standards (Sedikides & Strude, 1997). As a result a person can identify positive and compatible relationships to ones that are negative and incompatible (Sedikides & Strude, 1997). Also when these discriminations are made the potential for conflict with the attribution system, the way people explain the cause of their behavior and the behavior of others, arises and the probability for self- improvement rises (Sedikides & Strude, 1997). So by being self- aware you start analyzing the cause of your behavior, and are able to modify your behavior and therefore, yourself hopefully in a positive way (self- improvement). There can also be a downfall in evaluating and comparing your behavior and your internal standards. By people being able to recognize the possibility they can fail, evaluation of the self can disturb task performance, by making people defensive and distrustful of themselves (Dunning, 1999; Duval & Silvia, 2002).
According to Duval and Silvia (2001), the idea of the self- awareness theory has undergone major changes since Duval and Wicklund’s (1972) original concept. Therefore, many aspects of the theory are said to be in need of a change. One is “how expectancies influence approach and avoidance of self- standard discrepancies “and also the question as to the nature of standards and when they are changed is not answered (Duval & Silvia, 2001). In other words, we need to evaluate how anticipatory beliefs and desires will affect how we deal with the imbalance of our self and our internal standards and in turn know where these standards came from and if they can be changed. But in all, self- awareness is reluctant in reminding people of their misfortunes, and as a result of being in these situations; people attempt to avoid these shortcomings (Arroson, Wilson & Aket, 2007, pg.000). So when a person becomes lost between what actions are right and wrong, “a dose of self- awareness is not such a bad thing because it makes you more aware of your morals and ideals” (Arroson, Wilson & Aket, 2007, pg.000).
Example - Research
An actual example of self-awareness theory research was conducted by Phillips & Silvia (2004).The study investigated how self-evaluation affected creativity based on elements of the self-awareness theory. The hypothesis was that if a person is able to self- improve then that would counteract against negative affect of self- evaluation on creativity (Phillips & Silvia, 2004). In other words, self- evaluation would reduce creativity if a person feels they can not improve. The method of research involved two experiments. The first experiment manipulated self-evaluation through self- awareness. Participant were individually given a creative problem- solving task and randomly selected to be in either a condition of high self- awareness (being videotaped) or low self- awareness (not being videotaped). The high self-awareness condition was given positive performance standards and the low self- awareness condition was given negative ones. The second experiment had participants in groups some were told that they would receive standards where they could compare their performance (either positive or negative). Then participants were asked to come up with creative uses for a simple object, such as a knife. The operationalization of self- awareness within the study occurred in the first experiment, by having participants in either a videotaped condition where they could see themselves on a monitor being videotaped (high awareness) or not videotaped condition( low awareness). Phillips & Silvia (2004), concluded that self- evaluation did decrease creativity in both experiments, but only when people did not expect any improvement, which confirmed their predictions. The implication of the study was that self- evaluation can not without doubt decrease creativity. The self- awareness theory, points out the role of moderating variables in determining the over complicated affects of self –evaluation, especially when it comes to self- improvement expectations (Phillips & Silvia, 2004). The importance of the study is that it showed the process of self- evaluation can inform us about the making of creativity.
Example - Real-Life
On an episode of a CBS show, How I Met Your Mother named, “The Rough Patch”, a couple, Robin and Barney are going through a “rough patch” in their relationship. Basically, both are obviously very unhappy in their relationship, but they are the only ones that don’t realize it. Barney started eating a lot and Robin let herself go physically, both were looking awful externally because they were reflecting their internal frustrations. Their group of friends took noticed and devised a plan to slip them up by reminding them of all their major arguments. At the end, their friends thought their plan had failed, but them Robin and Barney surprised them with the news they had broken up. The reason their plan failed was because before their plan took action, Robin ad Barney had both caught their reflections on a restaurant window and realized how far they had let themselves go. They had become too comfortable with each other that they had just settled with their unhappy situation, but when they saw their reflections they realized how unhappy they were and decided on their own to go their separate ways.
The self- awareness theory came into play when they saw their reflections and become aware of their physical appearance. What they saw conflicted with their internal standards for what they wanted for themselves and what they wanted their romantic relationship to be. By attribution they decided to change their behavior by changing their situation and ending their relationship. At the end, self-awareness helped Robin and Barney comes out of an unhealthy relationship and therefore, they were able to return to being the people they used to be before their relationship weighted them down.
References
Akert, R. M., Aronson, E., & Wilson, T. D. (2007). Social Psychology:Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.
Dunning, D. (1999). A newer look: Motivated social cognition and the schematic representation of social concepts. PsychologicalInquiry, 10, 1-11.
Duval, T. S., & Silvia, P. J. (2001). Self-awareness and causal attribution: A dual systems theory. Boston: Kluwer Academic.
Duval, T. S., & Silvia, P. J. (2002). Self-awareness, probability of improvement, and the self-serving bias. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82, 49-61.
Phillips, A. G.,& Silvia, P. J. (2004). Self-awareness, self-evaluation, and creativity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 1009-1017.
Povinelli, D. J., & Prince, C. G. (1998). When self met other. In M.Ferrari & R. J. Sternberg (Eds.), Self-awareness: Its nature and development (pp. 37-107). New York: Guilford
Duval, T. S.,&Wicklund, R. A. (1972). A theory of objective self-awareness. New York: Academic Press
Sedikides, C., & Strube, M. J. (1997). Self-evaluation: To thine own self be good, to thine own self be sure, to thine own self be true, and to thine own self be better. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 29, 206-269.
How I met you Mother, “The Rough Patch”, aired date: November 11, 2009. http://www.cbs.com/primetime/how_i_met_your_mother/video/?pid=Q7DdC1SCYbSBZ_dgcX18tRAxNnx3vUA_&nrd=1
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