Even animals appear to have a self concept. In 1959, Carl Rogers brought the notion of the ideal and the real self into the literature. Higgins suggests we think of the actual self, the ideal self, and the ought self. We may also have a parental ought self. When different aspects of the self are different, this causes stress.
Modern psychologists conceptualize the self in terms of the self schema.
This includes a unique set of categories for each person. Much research on a part of the self schema known as the gender schema. The complexity of the self schema is another personality dimension. Another way of thinking about the self proposed by Cole is in terms of the Life Story. B. Evaluation of the self.