Possible Selves Research Paper

In 1986 two Social Psychologists (Markus and Nurius) created the part of the social self called “Possible Selves”. Possible Selves is an image of who you could be in the future or who you were in the past. How we see ourselves is triggered by experiences we go through and what others may tell us. If we experience something negative or are told something negative then we will only see a negative self. Same goes with positive experiences; if you experience something positive or if you are told something positive then you will see a positive self. Possible Selves is social and individual. It is social because the way we see ourselves in the past or future comes from interactions with others and experiences with others. These interactions and experiences encourage our thoughts. The reason why Possible Selves is individual is because no one can limit your images of imagination. Why does this all matter you may ask? The reason for the importance of Possible Selves is that your images …show more content…
On my quizzes I got good grades, so I automatically assumed that I would do the same for the exams. Once I took the exam none of the questions made sense and I had no idea what the questions meant. When I got my exam back I got a 60%. Seeing my grade made me so sad and feel low about myself. I started seeing myself in my mind as a big failure, then I saw myself never being able to graduate with my class when I am supposed to because I couldn’t pass this one class. I saw myself keep having to come semester after semester to retake this class that I knew I would never pass and I saw myself watching all my friends graduate when I couldn’t. I was having all of these images because I had a negative experience in my class which brought on my Negative Possible