Page 32 - Effective Communication Skills by Dalton Kehoe

The Development of Our Sense of Self
Lecture 8

In the past three lectures, we have reviewed the key processes of the
conscious mind separately to clarify their operations, but in reality,
they operate in a fully integrated way through a unique collection of
perceptions, beliefs, and feelings called the self. Unlike other creatures,
we think about ourselves as separate from the world. This unique
sense of separateness shapes the way our mind processes external
reality, so we need to understand how our sense of self emerges out
of and then continues to shape our relationships with others. In this
lecture, we review several facets of this, our most cherished set of
perceptions, beliefs, and feelings.

here are three aspects of the self: personality, self-concept, and

self-esteem. We’ll look at the ¿rst two in this lecture and save self-

Testeem for the next. Personality is broadly de¿ned as an enduring
set of characteristics—needs, perceptions, and emotional reactions—that

inÀuence our reactions to the world across a variety of situations. There
Lecture 8: The Development of Our Sense of Self
are recognizable differences between people in terms of psychological
functions; the way they use their minds is partly inherited and partly shaped
in early learning.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator helps reveal the ways our conscious mind
processes information to get us through our everyday lives. The ¿ rst of four
dimensions is extraversion-introversion: When life presents you a question,

where do you ¿nd information? Do you turn your energy inward or call out
to the world around you? The argument is that extroverted folks tend to
think about things while they’re talking whereas folks with a preference for
introversion think about things before they talk.

The Myers-Briggs questionnaire also locates people on two dimensions of

internal information processing and decision making. The ¿rst is the sensing-
intuitive dimension: How do you prefer to have information organized for
processing? Sensors tend to look at the world in terms of facts, routines,
details, and sequential approach. Intuitives tend to look at the big picture ¿ rst

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