The self-concept

A fiction character's behaviour depends greatly on their personality, but as developmental psychologists are aware, there is often a difference between a person's image of themselves and what they are really like.  Psychologists use the term self-concept to describe the various elements of a person's view of who they are.

Not just self-esteem

The self-concept is a broader idea than self-esteem, and includes several aspects:

• Self-esteem: how much to we value ourselves
• Self-image: what do we think of our physical appearance
• Self-efficacy: how good we think we are at things e.g. our ability to play sports

A person's self-concept is often inaccurate.  The views of others play a major role in how we see ourselves.  We go through life taking in board the comments and judgements of others, distorting our self-concept.  Think of a person with anorexia nervosa mistakenly thinking they are too fat - a clear example of having a distorted self-image.

The work of Rogers

Humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers was a major figure behind developing this idea. He said that everyone has an ideal self - a view of how they would like to be.  A major part of developing into a fulfilled person and feeling happy is to get past the judgements of others and their attempts to control you, and become the person you want to be.  However, this does not mean fantasising that you are successful!

The problem with boosting self-esteem

One thing I notice with my own students is that those who have done the least work and are least able are often the most likely to brag about their abilities.  Carol Craig of the Centre for Confidence and Wellbeing in Glasgow states that this can link to an educational obsession with boosting self-esteem in young people.  Although low-self esteem is problematic, serious anti-social behaviours such as road rage and sex crimes are more likely to be committed by people with high self-esteem (Baumeister et al., 1996).  This may be because their fragile, unrealistically high self-esteem is often threatened.

This links to Rogers' ideas again - having an accurate self-concept is much more valuable than having an unrealistically positive one. 

Writers: do you think about a character's inner conflicts and contradictions?  Is it something you would take notes on when developing a character, or does it develop more organically as you write?

Writing activity

As a writing exercise, have a try at portraying a character whose self-concept is significantly different from their true character.  This could involve a person who has a distored view of their own abilities, their own personality, their likelihood of success etc.  There may also be a contrast between their speech/attitudes and their actions.

References

Baumeister, R.F., Smart, L. and Boden, J.M. (1996). Relation of threatened egotism to violence and aggression: the dark side of high self-esteem. Psychological Review, 103(1), 5-33.

The many uses of the mind map

A mind map is an image with words or pictures connected by lines.  The technique of drawing up a mind map is commonly used for idea generation or planning, and the maps themselves are sometimes used for revision/memorisation.  They are generally brightly coloured, and are supposed to represent the connections our minds make as we think.

An example of a mind map - image from mythoughtsformac

How is it done?

The technique's main proponent is Tony Buzan, author of The Mind Map Book (Buzan, 1996).  He suggests that to be effective, mapping has to be done in a specific way, including:

• Using a single, central image
• Writing words along lines rather than connecting them with lines
• Keeping all lines the same length
• Using a variety of colours
• Using images where possible
• Making the overall map visually distinctive

Peculiarly, Buzan states that mind mapping is a very different thing from a spider diagram - I'm still not too sure why!

Fact or pseudoscience?

The technique seems to originate from the undoubted fact that the brain forms associations between different words and concepts, which in the 1960s and 1970s began to be drawn as semantic maps:

However, a mind map uses one central image or word which every other item links to, forming a hierarchy.  It is pretty clear that the brain doesn't process ideas on the basis of hierarchies.  For example, when we see a fork, we don't process it via a clunky list of categories:

• It's an object -> kitchen implement -> item of cutlery -> fork

Indeed, we don't even think in words at all.

Buzan has made a successful career out of mind maps, but can only feed the skeptics with dubious statements like the following in a 2009 interview:

"It is my firm belief that every brain is, by nature, a mind mapper! The fact that a baby learns a language is evidence confirming that it must learn by multi-sensual images and their radiating associations."

He also places great store by the visual similarity of a mind map to the connections of a brain's neurons.  By this logic, we will all work better using from brain-shaped paper!  So, is there any scientific support?

Efficacy of mind-mapping

Perhaps the most important question about mind maps is 'do they work?' Researchers Farrand et al. (2002) compared the effectiveness of mind-mapping with a free choice of study technique to learn a 600-word essay. Participants were medical students, and they were tested straight away after a distraction task, and again a week later.

Farrand et al used medical students in
their study.  Image from TulanePublicRelations

A significant improvement was found in both groups, but only the mind-mapping group maintained their improvement after one week.  Motivation was lower in the mind-map group compared to free choice of technique.  Researchers concluded that mind-maps improved recall, and would have done so even more strongly had motivation to use them been higher.

Brainstorming

For writers and other professionals, a mind map is most likely to be used for planning or brainstorming (although unlike brainstorming, mind mapping is primarily an individual rather than group technique).  My first ever mind map a plan for a novel (as yet unwritten, ten years on!)  A mind map provides a structure to idea generation, and is supposedly less linear than simply listing ideas.

In research with executives, Mento et al. (1999) found it useful for capturing ideas and planning.  As with the Farrand et al. study, success may depend heavily on users' opinions of the technique and motivation to use it - it is unlikely to work well with people who are unenthusiastic, or simply have other methods that they prefer.

Mind mapping can be time consuming, but if nothing else, it's very easy to do, and can be much better than staring at a blank sheet of paper, waiting for ideas to come.

References
Buzan, T. (1996).  The Mind Map Book.  London: Penguin.

Farrand, P., Hussain, F., and Hennessy, E. (2002).  The efficacy of the 'mind map' study technique.  Medical Education, 36(5), 426-431.
Mento, A.J., Martinelli, P. and Jones, R.J. (1999). Mind mapping in executive education: applications and outcomes.  Journal of Management Development, 18(4), 390-416.

Blue sky thinking - with just a few clouds

Blue-sky thinking is open, expressive idea-making, which focusses on possibilities without being held back by details.  It is the kind of thinking, in short, that creative types do well, whether artists, inventors, businesspeople or whatever.

The problem with blue-sky research

The related term 'blue-sky research' is where scientific research has no immediate link to practicalities.  It is imaginative and perhaps ground-breaking, but has no clear real-world application - at least at the outset.  This can be a problem - bodies which fund research often prefer research which has a clearer potential use, albeit with little likelihood of a ground-breaking discovery.

The trouble is that the benefits of a scientific breakthrough are often obscure until after the research has been completed.  Western nations have increasingly attempted to link research funding to economic benefits of the work, leading to protests by leading scientists (Travis, 2009).

Some clouds threaten the clear blue skies!

Science versus the humanities

This links closely to prevailing attitudes to education.  More and more, preference is being given to STEM subjects - science, technology, engineering and maths.  We are told that these are vital to society and should be encouraged (i.e. funded) at both school and university, often at the expense of arts and humanities.  However, according to Robinson (2001), this is more a matter of ideology than logic.

Rather like blue-skies research, the benefits of improving as a creative writer can be unclear.  The benefits of reading a book can be unclear.  The benefits of studying subjects such as philosophy can be unclear.  But collectively and across the population, these activities lead to a literate, educated society.

Thinker and Writer Umberto Eco, by giveawayboy

Outcomes

I think that studying creative writing has a lot in common with blue-sky research.  Each may lead to outcomes which are highly interesting but not immediately practical.  They can both be time-consuming and expensive, and the hope of a monetary payback can seem distant. But just occasionally, they produce something ground-breaking, with quite unexpected benefits.

Right now, the rise of epublishing could be such an outcome.  Suddenly a massive, international, English-speaking market has opened up, and people who have developed skills in creative writing are ideally placed to exploit it.

References
Robinson, K. (2001). Out of our Minds: Learning to be creative. Chichester: Capstone Publishing.
Travis, J. (2009). Is the (Blue) Sky Falling in the U.K? ScienceInsider.  Retrieved from: http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2009/02/is-the-blue-sky.html