ABSTRACT
While we currently take the idea of self for granted, this was not always the case (Baumeister, 1997). In the Middle Ages people's identities were linked to their social positions, occupations and family ties and people were not supposed to want to change these. People knew their identities since these were largely dictated by their place in society. Also, the issue of personal development did not arise in the sense in which it is a major issue for many people today. People learned their occupation. Many had their marriages arranged by their families. In western Judeo-Christian society, most people were guided by Christian values and beliefs. They had faith in God and a belief that leading a good and sinless life would lead to salvation in the afterlife. They had faith in their Monarch and a belief that if they fulfilled their duties within society, their Monarch would protect and not punish them. These constraints did not leave a great deal of scope for personal development or to a concern with individual differences in personal growth. During the Early Modern period (1500-1800) an interest developed in differences between people and the uniqueness of the individual. Autobiographical writing and a focus on the detailed differences between people's life experiences began to emerge. This later gave way to focus on the inner life and to the belief that fulfilment might be enhanced by developing a deeper understanding of the inner life of the self through art, culture, contemplation and poetry. This coincided with an emerging questioning of the certainties of religion, monarchies and the values entailed by these. People began to question their faith in their gods, their kings and their values. Democracy also began to supplant monarchies with the idea that people choose their leaders rather than their being appointed by God. At the turn of the nineteenth century the popularisation of the idea of the unconscious through the works of Sigmund Freud (an idea that had a long past but a short history) expanded the popular concept of the inner self and the idea that achieving self-knowledge and personal development were challenging undertakings. Lifecycle theorists such as Erik Erikson (1968) later proposed the idea that at transitional points between the stages of development of the lifecycle, identity crises could occur in which people questioned the way they were living their lives and entertained choices about making major changes in their lifestyles. This idea of an identity crisis entailed the view that the self was separate from the social and religious contexts in which it resided. This way of thinking was facilitated by the rise in geographic, social and occupational mobility. It was also supported by increasing wealth which gave freedom to entertain the idea of choosing different lifestyles. Wealth and mobility in turn were facilitated by huge advances in science and technology which were made as a result of the scientific revolution. While the emergence of the modern conception of self has been liberating on the one hand, it has also entailed a cost. Because it has become increasingly difficult to put all one's faith in the supernatural order or the social order, people are forced to look elsewhere for values and many turn to the self or close personal relationships
as a source of value. Relationships will be dealt with in Chapter 8. Here the focus will be on the self. Whereas in the past, a focus on the self was termed selfishness, a pejorative term, there are many positive terms for self-focused concerns in modern psychology, notable self-knowledge, self-esteem, selfefficacy, self-evaluation and self-regulation. Many of these are of concern to positive psychology.
