Revisiting the Self and Exploring Its Role in Identity Formation

Abstract

Like all scientific endeavor, our quest for truth regarding The Self requires continuous successful approximations of some objective construct that is in fact the self. Many such approximations have been put forth over time, each contributing in a significant way, to our current understanding of the self. This research is one such endeavor that revisits the previous conceptions of the self (including views from behaviorism, psychoanalysis, social interaction, information processing, etc.), and tries to extract value from each in putting forth a more complete model of the self. The more complete explanation examines how the different posited sub-facets that constitute the self interact with each other, in the process of determining consumers’ behaviors, and ultimately, their value-seeking endeavors on the path to consummation.