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Self

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

Synonyms

Ego; I; Identity; Individuality; Me; Self-concept

Definition

The self is a structured but dynamic system that comprises the perceptions and evaluations of one’s own personal features as well as the processes and mechanisms operating with these items.

Introduction

The ability to reflect upon and evaluate one’s own acting, feeling, and thinking is what distinguishes humans from other species. People form a mental construct of being a unique entity, direct attention at their own psychological processes, evaluate these processes, and often attempt to regulate them (Leary and Tangney 2012). Even though the term “self” is not rare in everyday conversations, defining what “the self” is, exactly, has been a challenge. In 1890, William James introduced a distinction between two aspects of the self that was to influence decades of theorists and researchers: the “I,” the self as a subject and regulatory agent, and, the self as object or concept, the “Me.” The “I” is the knower; the “Me”...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany

    Astrid Schütz

  2. University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany

    Theresa Fehn

  3. Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    Roy F. Baumeister

  4. University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

    Roy F. Baumeister

Authors
  1. Astrid Schütz
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  2. Theresa Fehn
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  3. Roy F. Baumeister
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Astrid Schütz .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA

    Chris Ditzfeld

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Schütz, A., Fehn, T., Baumeister, R.F. (2020). Self. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_1998

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