Digital Self: A Third Type of Self-Representation

a post by Richard Kensinger for the World of Psychology blog

The sense of mind and self is created by multiple social interactions with many others; particularly from those in our early psychosocial environment. These intimate interactions result in the construction of our personality. Personality becomes, in time, the consistent features of who we are in regards to our thoughts, feelings, and actions (which I refer to as mind, mood, and motor). Around age 3, personality emerges. It is dynamically formed by multiple inputs from others, becomes consolidated in our late teens and early 20’s, and around the 3rd decade it becomes relatively fixed.

In Psychology, one field of thought involves the split-object representations of self/other. There are essentially four global sub-types and each involves a global emotional charge. They are: good-good (++), good-bad (+-), bad-good (-+), and bad-bad (–). These four subtypes, in my clinical opinion, are critical to attachment and bonding. Emotions essentially encode our experiences with others. This occurs in the Limbic region of the brain. I refer to this region as our “reacting brain” as it is the origin of our emotions, motivations and attraction to and connections to others. (See Daniel J. Siegel’s The Developing Mind.)

Continue reading [quite heavy going but I found it very interesting]

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Career Development Strategies as Moderators Between Career Compromise and Career Outcomes in Emerging Adults

an article by Peter A. Creed and Trinette Hughes (Griffith University, Australia) published in Journal of Career Development volume 40 Number 2 (April 2013)

Abstract

The authors surveyed 130 first-year university students (80% female; mean age 20.5) and assessed:

1. the level of career compromise they reported between their ideal and enrolled university programs,
2. their career-related strategies,
3. their perceptions of employability, and
4. their career-related distress.

The authors tested a model that proposed that career compromise would predict perceptions of employability and career distress and that the effects of compromise would be moderated by the career-related strategies.

Two strategies, seeking career guidance and self-presentation, moderated the relationship between compromise and career distress.

There was no moderated effect for perceptions of employability, although compromise was directly associated with these perceptions.

Thus, while compromise may be a normal aspect of career development, it was associated with more career distress when career development strategies were low and associated directly with more negative employment perceptions.

Practitioners might assist with career compromise by enhancing career development strategies.

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‘It’s what you have to do!’: Exploring the role of high-risk edgework and advanced marginality in a young man’s motivation for crime

an article by Tea Torbenfeldt Bengtsson (SFI – The Danish National Centre for Social Research and University of Copenhagen, Denmark) published in Criminology and Criminal Justice Volume 13 Number 1 (February 2013)

Abstract

By focusing on one young man’s self-presentations in a secure care unit for young offenders in Denmark, this article explores how his contradictory and incoherent self-presentations can be analysed as meaningful.

Drawing on Stephen Lyng’s theory of high-risk edgework and Loïc Wacquant’s theory of advanced marginalization, it is argued that this young man’s engagement in youth crime cannot be fully understood by focusing only on the criminal experience itself.

Also, specific social and symbolic relations must be integrated into the analysis to understand his engagement in crime.

The article argues that although edgework theory is compelling, it needs further development if it is to capture the full complexity of young people’s motivation for crime.

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When modesty wins: Impression management through modesty, political skill, and career success – a two-study investigation

Gerhard Blickle, Corinna Diekmann, Paula B. Schneider, and Yvonne Kalthöfer (University of Bonn, Germany) and James K. Summers (Bradley University, Peoria, IL, USA) published in European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology Volume 21 Number 6 (December 2012)

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of employees’ upward self-presentation through modesty and political skill on their subsequent career success.

Study 1 used a predictive design over a 3 year period with 141 employees, controlling for age, gender, and self-esteem. Political skill positively moderated the relationship between employees' upward modesty and career success (attained position, career satisfaction) after 3 years.

Study 2 (n = 132 employees) provided construct validation, demonstrating high discriminant validity of the impression management through modesty scale used in Study 1 with a trait-modesty scale, thus attenuating rival explanations of the findings in Study 1.

Implications, limitations, and future directions for research are discussed.

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Dating deception: Gender, online dating, and exaggerated self-presentation

an article by Bradley M. Okdie (Ohio State University at Newark, USA) and Rosanna E. Guadagno and Sara A. Kruse (The University of Alabama, USA) published in Computers in Human Behavior Volume 28 Issue 2 (March 2012)

Abstract

This study examined how differences in expectations about meeting impacted the degree of deceptive self-presentation individuals displayed within the context of dating. Participants filled out personality measures in one of four anticipated meeting conditions:

• face-to-face, 
• email, 
• no meeting, and 
• a control condition with no pretence of dating.

Results indicated that, compared to baseline measures, male participants increased the amount they self-presented when anticipating a future interaction with a prospective date. Specifically, male participants emphasized their positive characteristics more if the potential date was less salient (e.g., email meeting) compared to a more salient condition (e.g., face-to-face meeting) or the control conditions.

Implications for self-presentation theory, online social interaction, and online dating research will be discussed.

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