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Writer's pictureJessica Grossman

Post-Covid Growth & Metaphors of Self


Introduction

For many, Covid has cut people off from loved ones, community and resources; we know everything has changed, yet at the same time it can feel like nothing changes. The physical world, the day-to-day routine-- the same. But the “self” continues to change. It’s strange-- the collective trauma that occurred as isolation grew. I know for me, a person that had the privilege to stay home, I’ve felt far away, detached from the world. I feel far away from the global health crisis; I feel far away from the racial justice crisis. I just feel far away. I am stuck in my own bubble- reading the news headlines that don’t represent my day-to-day experience, while still holding the worry and grief close to my heart.


As vaccination enables the “safe” expansion of our physical world, what will we find? Did we grow? Does the world feel different? When will the relief wear off; how might the unexamined problems that we pushed away because they were “due to the pandemic” hit us? What will we continue to avoid? One thing is for sure: we’ve changed. Although everyone's experiences and reaction to a post covid world will be vastly different when change is recognized in this way it can be disorienting. These changes to the self reminded me of McAdams' theory of Self and so I decided to post the theory below in hopes it might enable a way to think about post covid growth.


Self-Growth

The question of self and identity has been central to multidisciplinary theorists for longer than 2,500 years; trying to fully grasp the question of who am I (McAdams, 2021)? Take a moment to think about yourself: what do you know; what is unknown? Understanding the self has been popularized as our society is constantly encouraging individuals to improve, adapt, develop, grow and change. According to McAdams (2021), “we work on ourselves as we might work on any other interesting project; but what exactly is it that we work on?” Dan McAdams provides 3 metaphors of the psychological self synthesizing these complex theories into a practical framework that helps individuals understand the mechanism of personal change. When the self consciously and reflexively perceive and work on the self it does so from three practical standpoints -- “as an actor who performs in the here and now on a social stage, as an agent who sets forth a motivated agenda for the future, and as an author who tries to make sense of it all --past, present and future-- through narrative” (McAdams, pg. 274, 2013).


3 Psychological Theories of the Self

Social Actor

When I first contemplated the definition of self, the idea that self emerges out of the mind as the knower, “what the knower knows when the knower reflects upon itself” is what I expected to find (McAdams, 2021). But this definition of a reflexive self is too narrow. In fact, the mind doesn’t arise and develop in a vacuum. The mind develops out of social interaction, and that patterned social interaction forms the basis of social structure (Mead, 1934). Thus, the self has a reciprocal relationship with the reflexive self as it interacts with society. This critical interaction of the self with the environment is the first psychological self to develop emerging around 18 months of age-- the Social Actor. McAdams (2021) explains his metaphor as though we were all on a stage, performing in a play - taking roles, following scripts, prescribed routines and managing the audience's reactions. “By noting how other people in my social world react to my performances, other people function like mirrors—they reflect who I am back to me” (McAdams, 2021). This demonstrates the “performative features of human social behavior”; the embeddedness of nature and nurture that impact the expression of traits. Thus traits are self-attributed, assumed by examining and identifying behavioral trends and social reactions within different social contexts. This becomes an “acting style”, categorizing themselves and conforming to researched personality taxonomies (e.g the Big Five) (McAdams, 2021).


Unlike self-attributed traits, roles emerge based on the perceived relationships (e.g. I am a good friend) (McAdams, 2021). Together roles and traits make up the main aspects of social reputation (McAdams, 2021). When it comes to self-improvement, traits tend to be stubborn and thus stable. However, re-thinking the role you play or enriching your performance in a current role might help you see yourself in a new way, inciting growth (e.g. trying to be a better friend is easier to change than not being neurotic). In this way, social actors hold potential transformational performance as we evolve across life stages (McAdams, 2021).


Motivated Agent

Although we can see the behavior of someone on the stage, it does not mean we know what is going on inside the social actor's head (McAdams, 2013). Thus, the second psychological self to develop is the motivated agent acting with direction and purpose and moving into the future to pursue self-chosen and valued goals (McAdams, 2021). These intentions are broken down based on an agent's future plans and achievements often in accord with familial and cultural expectations (McAdams, 2013). Human agency suggests choice, will, purpose and some shred of personal control in life which differs from the traits that feel thrust upon the self (McAdam, 2013). Thus, “committing oneself to an integrated suite of life goals and values is perhaps the greatest achievement for the self as a motivated agent” (McAdams, 2021).


Anytime you try to change yourself you assume the role of a motivated agent; change is what an agent does. But the specific component that’s targeted to change might relate to you as an actor, agent, author or a combination (McAdams, 2021). “As there are many possible selves, the motivated agent both broadens and explores ideological and professional aspirations while also narrowing their focus to ensure commitment, both reflecting the emerging agency and societies opportunities and constraints” (McAdams, 2013). By continuously re-thinking the self to changing contexts, a motivated agent abandons old goals, investing in new paths, exploring relationships and shifting priorities (McAdams, 2013).


Autobiographical Author

But developing the self is more than appraising and committing to life goals, new roles and old traits (McAdams, 2021). Instead, the last metaphor, the autobiographical author, “involves achieving a sense of temporal continuity in life--a reflexive understanding of how I have come to be the person I am becoming” (McAdams, 2021). Autobiographical authors don’t just tell stories, the narrative process is about making meaning out of the stories, generating inferences about who you are and what your lives mean (McAdams, 2013). Think about the story you tell for a “turning point” in your career or the development of our origin stories, “how it began”. Our narrative identity strings multiple events in casual sequences to define, offer insight and integrate the self (McAdams, 2013). Thus, in regard to self-growth, storytelling is the heart of self-transformation and a powerful mechanism to enable change (McAdams, 2021).


Conclusion

These three selves are layered upon one another overtime “to do three things: (a) to apprehend and to perform with social approval my self-ascribed traits and roles, (b) to pursue with vigor and (ideally) success my most valued goals and plans, and (c) to construct a story about life that conveys, with vividness and cultural resonance, how I became the person I am becoming, integrating my past as I remember it, my present as I am experiencing it, and my future as I hope it to be” (McAdams, 2021).


Resources

McAdams, Dan P. (2013). The Psychological Self as Actor, Agent and Author. Association for Psychological Science, 272–295. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691612464657


McAdams, D. P. (2021). Self and identity. In R. Biswas-Diener & E. Diener (Eds), Noba textbook series: Psychology. Champaign, IL: DEF publishers. Retrieved from http://noba.to/3gsuardw


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