Personality and Perception of Self

After researching our needs as individuals, I read further into how we perceive ourselves within wider society and different types of personality. Different personality types approach, react and reflect on things in alternative ways and it is important for marketers to understand how these work in order to persuade or sell to an audience in a utilitarian method.

“People create and project images of themselves to other people; these images are called roles.”

“Role playing behaviour is natural. People don’t consciously change their accents movements and statements to fit in with those around them”.

“Conferred status within the group”

“Status is merely that of being accepted within the group, which fulfils the need to belong”.

“Personality is the collection of individual characteristics that make a person unique, and which control an individuals responses to and relationship with the external environment.”

“Subordinate processes; attitude, motivation and perception”

“It is the system that governs behaviour rather than the behaviour itself”.

Freud

“In simple terms, the id acts like a spoilt child, demanding instant gratification regardless of consequences; the superego acts like a stern parent, urging self-restraint and devotion to duty; and the ego acts like a good lawyer, arranging compromises and settlements between the two parties which will not lead to bankruptcy.”

Foxall,G. (1980), Consumer behaviour, a practical guide. Routledge, London.

• “Of all the personality concepts which have been applied to marketing, self-concept has probably provided the most consistent results and the greatest promise of application to the needs of business firms”.
• Self-concept has an important role to play in understanding consumer behaviour,since people will buy products which contribute to the self-concept.
• Essentially,people project a role and this is confirmed (or denied) by the people around them.
• Self-concept is a learned construct
• Children tend to look for role-models to imitate
• “Children can be crushed by a denial of the role being projected”.
• “Achieving the ideal self is very much about getting appropriate applause and critical acclaim, so that we know whether we are getting it right” (Snyder 1974) 

Real self: The actual, objective self, as others see us. There is a problem with this definition, since other people never know the whole story. This means the 'real' self may be other than something than the face shown to the world.

Self-image: This is the subjective self, as we see ourselves. Self-image is likely to differ radically from the real self, but to an extent this is modified over time because of feedback form others. We modify our self-image in the light of reactions from others.

Ideal-self: How we wish we were; this connects to the self-actualisation need that Maslow identified. This self is often the one that provokes the most extravagant spending, as the individual tries to make up the gap between self-image and ideal self.

Looking-glass self: The social self, or the way we think other people see us. This does not always coincide with the way people actually see us, since we are not able to read minds. Feedback from others will be constrained by politeness or by a desire to project a self-image on the part of the respondent, so we are not always aware of what other people really think we are like.

Senior,M. and Viveash,B. (1998), Health and Illness, Macmillan Press, London.