The Dynamic Self: The Use of Ideals and Intentions in Understanding Self and Others

Download or read book The Dynamic Self: The Use of Ideals and Intentions in Understanding Self and Others written by Elanor Frances Williams and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our goals, intentions, and ideals are ever present, and seem to have a strong influence on our behavior; consequently, these thoughts seem to represent who we are. People do not have access to these thoughts when others have them, however, and so they use other people's observable behavior and that of people at large to characterize who they are. Thus, ideals and intentions have a greater influence on people's assessments of themselves than on their assessments of other people. In essence, people see themselves as vectors, headed in a given direction, whereas they see others as static points. This dissertation will address three implications of this idea. In Chapter 2, I discuss the idea that, because the future is a constant mental presence for the self, it seems appropriate to describe or define oneself in terms of it, in a way that does not seem informative for other people. Seven studies demonstrate that people see the future as more a part of who they are than part of who someone else is. In Chapter 3, I propose that one's "bests" most closely reflect what one intended to do, and thus they seem to represent what one's own skills and traits truly are; without another person's intentions to guide interpretation of what they have done, best performances appear instead to be normal variation in someone else's output. Six studies show that people use their best performances to represent their abilities and traits to a greater extent than they use them to represent other people. In Chapter 4, I suggest that people expect that they should or will perform even better than their best performances, with practice, effort, or better circumstances, and these potential performances are the closest match to their intended output; therefore, potential can be seen as a useful marker of what one can do. Five studies demonstrate that people incorporate potential into assessments of their own traits and abilities to a greater extent than they do so for others. Finally, in Chapter 5, I discuss the implications of this effect and further directions of this research.