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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences pp 4685–4691Cite as

Self-Consciousness

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Synonyms

Dispositional self-awareness

Definition

Self-consciousness is a dispositional tendency to spend time in a state of heightened self-awareness.

Introduction

Self-consciousness is a personality variable that predicts complexity and consistency in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors associated with the self-concept. This entry will begin by defining the concept of self-consciousness and discussing the scale designed to measure it. Consequences and correlates of high and low self-consciousness will be briefly reviewed, followed by a discussion of the primary measure of self-consciousness and potential future directions.

Self-Awareness as a Trait

“The consistent tendency of persons to direct attention inward or outward is the trait of self-consciousness” (Fenigstein et al. 1975, p. 522).

Self-consciousness is intimately related to self-awareness (see the “Self-Awareness”entry in this encyclopedia for a detailed description). Heightened or objective self-awareness is a state in which...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. St. Andrews University, Laurinburg, NC, USA

    Ann G. Phillips

Authors
  1. Ann G. Phillips
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Correspondence to Ann G. Phillips .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

    Christian Jordan

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Phillips, A.G. (2020). Self-Consciousness. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-24612-3_1161

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