Self-Consciousness and Self-Awareness: Associations between Stable and Transitory Levels of Evidence.

The theory of objective self-awareness predicts the assessment of stable or dispositional self-consciousness and transitory or situational self-awareness. The aim of the present research was to investigate potential associations between patterns of experiential self-description to scores on self-report measures of dispositional self-consciousness. A total of 64 Brazilian volunteers (Mage = 29.7, SD = 8.79, 64.1% female) responded to the Revised Self-Consciousness Scale, the Philadelphia Mindfulness Scale, and the Rumination-Reflection Questionnaire before participating in an experience sampling protocol. The protocol consisted of random daily requests for up to four self-description experiences across seven consecutive days. Participants recorded audio messages on their mobile phones in reply to each request describing their current experience. Reports were analyzed through a reflexive thematic analysis that produced twenty sub-themes accounting for descriptive markers of experience. Based on those descriptive markers, the qualitative data were then transformed into quantitative data for the situational self-awareness indexes. Evidence of association between self-consciousness and self-awareness was stronger for the awareness subscale in a positive correlation with affective situational self-awareness and in a negative correlation with mental representational transitory self-awareness. Although relational evidence has been provided, the data reinforced the theoretical distinction between self-consciousness and self-awareness.

Self-Awareness in research: From its functional constituents to investigation models / Autoconsciência em pesquisa: dos constituintes funcionais aos modelos de investigação

Objective The present theoretical study aimed to describe the functionalist origins of self-awareness construct and its importance in grounding an empirical investigation agenda within psychological scientific literature. Method We first conceptually analyzed William James definitions for self-related processes and then examined its repercussion for empirical self-awareness research in personality and cognitive neuroscience literature. Results Initial challenges of the field to put forward investigations that encompassed both dispositional and situational aspects of self-awareness were found. Moreover, progress observed in different trends of self-awareness investigation, in the last 20 years, were approached in its connection to technological advances evidenced in science. Conclusion The need for more integration between different levels of evidence and research fields are discussed as a mean to build an effective full understanding of self-awareness.

Objetivo O presente estudo teórico teve como objetivo descrever as origens funcionalistas do construto autoconsciência e sua importância na fundamentação de uma agenda de pesquisas empíricas na literatura de psicologia científica. Método Inicialmente analisamos conceitualmente as definições de William James para processos autorreferentes e depois examinamos suas repercussões para a pesquisa empírica de autoconsciência nas literaturas de personalidade e neurociências cognitivas. Resultados Desafios iniciais do campo para definir investigações que abrangessem tanto aspectos disposicionais como situacionais da autoconsciência foram encontrados. Além disso, progressos observados em diferentes tendências de investigação da autoconsciência, nos últimos 20 anos, foram abordados em sua conexão com os avanços tecnológicos evidenciados nas ciências. Conclusão A necessidade de maior integração entre diferentes níveis de evidência e campos de pesquisa é discutida como uma forma de construir uma efetiva compreensão global da autoconsciência.