Assignment: Self-Discovery

In order to understand those around you and society as a whole, it is important to understand or know yourself, that is, to have self-knowledge. Self-knowledge includes many aspects of the self and is developed with input from many sources. Development of your self-knowledge is influenced by your family and those around you, how you were raised, environment and culture, and the countless experiences you have in your life.

As a simple example, if your parents and teachers consistently told you that you were good with numbers, you probably felt confident that you could succeed in math. If you then succeeded in math courses in school and selected a career in which you could apply your math skills, your self-concept related to math probably would be positive.

In this week’s Assignment, you explore the many different areas that make up self-knowledge, using yourself as an example. By better understanding yourself (self-knowledge), you can better understand others.

To prepare:

• Read Chapter 5 in your course text, Social Psychology, and thoughtfully complete the following inventories:
  • Measurement of Independence and Interdependence (p. 123)
  • Private Self-Consciousness Scale (p. 127)
• Read pages 149-151 and 155-166 of Chapter 6 in your course text, Social Psychology.
• View the video excerpt on self-concept and self-efficacy found at minutes 6:03–10:36 of the video “The Self” (lines 39–73 of transcript).
• Think about specific sources of your self-knowledge including feedback from others, your self-perception, your social identity, and your culture.
• Think about one aspect of your life. For example, think about yourself in the role of a student, a spouse, a parent, an employee, or some other role. How would you apply each element of social comparison theory to an aspect of your own life?
• Recall a time in which you engaged in self-justification and consider how it reduced your cognitive dissonance.

The Assignment (2–4 pages):

• Discuss something important you learned about yourself and how you learned it through introspection or through self-perception.
• Do you have an interdependent view of yourself, an independent view of yourself, or both? What is your culture(s), and how does your culture(s) contribute to this view? Provide one example of how this view influences your behavior or your beliefs. Your example may include, but is not limited to: (a) how your interdependent or independent self-view influences what kinds of things make you feel especially proud, (b) how your interdependent or independent self-view influences what kinds of things make you feel especially embarrassed, and (c) how your interdependent or independent self-view influences the way you interact with others.
• Then, select one specific aspect of your life, such as your role as a student, a spouse, a parent, an employee, or some other role, and apply the social comparison theory to this role.
• Briefly discuss a time you engaged in one of the following types of self-justification: Justification of effort, external justification, internal justification, or justification of a good deed. What was the source of your cognitive dissonance and how did this self-justification reduce that dissonance?

By Day 7

Submit your Assignment.

Note: Support the responses within your Assignment with evidence from the assigned Learning Resources. Provide a reference list for resources you used for this Assignment.

Submission and Grading Information

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Grading Criteria

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Week 4 Assignment Rubric

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Submit Your Assignment by Day 7

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Week 4 Assignment