ABSTRACT
It is customary to define the self as all those qualities, attributes, beliefs, desires, goals, intentions, preferences, motivations, emotions, feelings and moral sentiments that a person assumes to be his or her own (Charmaz, 2007). Within the mental system, ‘every facet of personal experience is potentially relevant to a person’s self-understanding, from the details of their physical appearance to their self-perceived traits, values, and aspirations’ (Nowak, Vallacher, Strawinska, & Bree, 2013, p. 11). Arguably, thoughts about oneself are ‘the most recurrent and salient elements in the stream of consciousness’ (cf. Vallacher & Nowak, 2000, p. 35). Furthermore, the self involves human beings’ fruitful ability to understand and amend their mode of being, as well as the way in which they may differ from other people and the rest of the world (the ‘not-me’) (De Villiers & Cilliers, 2004, p. 35).
