SELF Research Articles

The interrelationship between women’s help-seeking experiences for vaginismus and their sense of self: a qualitative study and abductive analysis

ABSTRACT Objective There is a lack of research on women’s holistic experiences of vaginismus, also called sexual pain-penetration disorder, from their perspective. To address this gap, an abductive qualitative study aimed to examine women’s help-seeking experiences for vaginismus, and its impact on their sense of self. Methods This study was informed by a feminist approach to the theory of self focused on participants’ negotiation of dis/empowerment when help-seeking for vaginismus. Twenty-one participants aged 19–37 years (mean 27.6 years) and diagnosed with vaginismus in Australia participated in semi-structured interviews, which were thematically analysed. Results Three themes were developed: Interconnected constructions of womanhood and help-seeking, Elicit agency to move forward, Resilience to surmount challenges with subthemes. Participant’s overall help-seeking experiences, within and outside the healthcare system, shaped their sense of self in ways that drove their approach/es to future help-seeking behaviours. Conclusions Positive help-seeking experiences for vaginismus strengthened participants’ sense of self to persevere with treatment even when it was difficult. Conversely, negative help-seeking experiences led to participants’ weakened sense of self which was often caused by a gap between their ideal and perceived self. This led to negative feelings and responses of demotivation or halting subsequent help-seeking. Recommendations are provided to improve health professional practice to support women help-seeking for vaginismus, and to help close the gap between their ideal and perceived selves. Such insight can help to empower women’s sense of self and motivate them to persevere with help-seeking to experience improvement for their vaginismus and quality of life.

The meaning and feasibility of engaging in physical activity while being employed in people with mild to moderate disability due to multiple sclerosis: a qualitative study

Purpose To understand the perceptions of the meaning and feasibility of physical activity (PA) while employed for people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS). Materials and methods A qualitative design, using individual in-depth interviews of 26 employed pwMS with mild to moderate disability. The interviews were analysed using systematic text condensation in a phenomenological hermeneutic framework informed by a pattern theory of self. A systematic and dynamic process was used to develop categories of the most salient content and meaning. Results Three categories were developed: (1) Meaningfulness of PA for work, (2) Balancing daily life, PA, and work when energy is low, and (3) Leisure PA during work hours is beneficial but challenging to implement. The findings highlight that PA can be perceived meaningful for health, function, life balance, identity, their perceived abilities, possibilities, and challenges in relation to work, all influencing self-perception. The participants perceived the feasibility of PA to be influenced by work, private life, and work-life balance, particularly highlighting physical function, organisational structures and arrangements, and social and normative practices to be important. An arrangement of implementing leisure PA during working hours was recognised as a beneficial work accommodation when it was perceived feasible and accepted. Conclusion Employed pwMS may perceive PA as meaningful for their health, function, and work, influencing self-perception and perceived work capabilities. Its feasibility may be influenced by individual, environmental, and/or social aspects. Thus, individualised work adjustments to facilitate PA, like accommodating for leisure PA during work hours, can ultimately facilitate both PA and employment.

Pattern Theory of Selflessness: How Meditation May Transform the Self-Pattern

For many centuries, scholars and philosophers from wisdom traditions in different cultures have reported and discussed non-self states of consciousness. These states can be both short-term (state, transitory) and long-term (trait, lasting) conditions. However, in psychology, the importance of a healthy self is usually emphasized, and some theorists have dismissed the idea of “selfless” modes of functioning. This disagreement hinders further empirical progress in the study of self and the way it might be affected by meditation. This paper addresses this issue by providing an interdisciplinary conceptual discussion, grounded in the pattern theory of self (PTS). According to PTS, what we call “self” is a complex pattern of dynamically related constituent processes, which include embodied, experiential (prereflective), affective, psychological/cognitive, reflective, narrative, intersubjective, ecological, and normative processes. We propose that Buddhist and secular meditative practices induce a reorganization of the self-pattern, allowing individuals to experience a “selfless” state, both temporarily and persistently. We then put forward a heuristic model, the pattern theory of selflessness (PTSL), possibly experienced through meditation practices. The proposed PTSL model consists of six transformations that contribute to self-pattern reorganization in a nonlinear and iterative manner: consolidating and integrating the self-pattern; cultivating concentration and present-moment awareness; cultivating mindful awareness; self-deconstruction (non-self) states; self-flexibility; and self-liberation as a trait. This conceptual analysis and integrative view contributes to the growing field of consciousness and contemplative research by advancing the contemporary understanding of non-self experience and its relation to Buddhist and secular meditation. The proposed model serves as a basis for interdisciplinary efforts to guide empirical research in this area.

Examination of self patterns: framing an alternative phenomenological interview for use in mental health research and clinical practice.

Mental disorders are increasingly understood as involving complex alterations of self that emerge from dynamical interactions of constituent elements, including cognitive, bodily, affective, social, narrative, cultural and normative aspects and processes. An account of self that supports this view is the pattern theory of self (PTS). The PTS is a non-reductive account of the self, consistent with both embodied-enactive cognition and phenomenological psychopathology; it foregrounds the multi-dimensionality of subjects, stressing situated embodiment and intersubjective processes in the formation of the self-pattern. Indications in the literature already demonstrate the viability of the PTS for formulating an alternative methodology to better understand the lived experience of those suffering mental disorders and to guide mental health research more generally. This article develops a flexible methodological framework that front-loads the self-pattern into a minimally structured phenomenological interview. We call this framework 'Examination of Self Patterns' (ESP). The ESP is unconstrained by internalist or externalist assumptions about mind and is flexibly guided by person-specific interpretations rather than pre-determined diagnostic categories. We suggest this approach is advantageous for tackling the inherent complexity of mental health, the clinical protocols and the requirements of research.

Conceptualising personhood in nursing care for people with altered consciousness, cognition and behaviours: A discussion paper.

The aim of this discussion paper is to explore factors and contexts that influence how nurses might conceptualise and assign personhood for people with altered consciousness, cognition and behaviours. While a biomedical framing is founded upon a dichotomy between the body and self, such that the body can be subjected to a medical and objectifying gaze, relational theories of self, multiculturalism and technological advances for life-sustaining interventions present new dilemmas which necessitate discussion about what constitutes personhood. The concept of personhood is dynamic and evolving: where historical constructs of rationality, agency, autonomy and a conscious mind once formed the basis for personhood, these ideas have been challenged to encompass embodied, relational, social and cultural paradigms of selfhood. Themes in this discussion include: the right to personhood, mind-body dualism versus the embodied self; personhood as consciousness, rationality and narratives of self; social relational contexts of personhood and cultural contexts of personhood. Patricia Benner's and Christine Tanner's clinical judgement model is then applied to consider the implications for nursing care that seeks to reflexively incorporate personhood. Nurse clinicians are able to move between conceptions of personhood and act to support the body, as well as presumed autonomy and relational, social and cultural personhood. In doing so, they use analytical, intuitive and narrative reasoning which prioritises autonomous constructions of self. They also incorporate relational and social contexts of the person receiving care within the possibilities of technological advances and constraints of contextual resources.

Understanding behavioral and cognitive dispositions as subsystem topologies within cognitive models: A proposal.

In our 2023 paper, entitled "Modeling interactions between the embodied and the narrative self: Dynamics of the self-pattern within LIDA," Kugele, Newen, Franklin, and I propose a functional description and implementation of a central element of Gallagher & Newen's pattern theory of self, which identifies an agent's self with a dynamic pattern of so-called cognitive aspects which govern their thought and behavior (Gallagher, 2013; Newen, 2018; Gallagher & Daly, 2018). The pattern theory explicitly rejects the traditional conceptualization of the self as a unitary entity with certain properties that resides within agents, with the idea of a pattern of aspects being central to its ability to account for the dynamic, yet relatively stable development of most natural agents' selves. Implementing the pattern theory within Learning Intelligent Distribution Agent revealed that, in order for a cognitive architecture to account for both the dynamic and stable nature of an agent's self-pattern, aspects of that pattern had to be realized by dispositions of the agent to either think or act in a certain way. In this commentary, I argue that this fundamental role of dispositions extends to cognitive processes in general and that cognitive systems should be understood in terms of the dynamical interactions of dispositions over time. In order to facilitate such an understanding, dispositions will have to be identified with topologies of cognitive (sub)systems. I provide an example of such a topology by reference to informational topologies in neuronal systems.

Use of Instagram Stories Feature as Self Disclosure Media on @Azkhategar Account

This study explores the use of Instagram Stories features as a self – disclosure media on @Azkhategar account. Self – disclosure is a form of communication in which individuals disclosure information to others. Through her Instagram account, Azkha actively self – disclosure with an average of 8 to 15 posts per day, showcasing aspects of herself such a lifestyle, fashion, and make – up. In its stories content, Azkha also collaborates with local brands to expand its audience reach. This study uses descriptive qualitative approach with non – participant observation and data analysis of Miles & Huberman model and the main theory used in this study is the theory of self – disclosure. The results showed that the use of Instagram Stories provides a platform for Azkha to strengthen her existence, build closeness with her followers and express herself creatively. In today’s digital context, social media such as Instagram plays an important role in facilatating self – disclosure and expanding individual social interactions. The findings provide valuable insights into how individuals utilize social media as a tool for sharing personal information and building self – image online. This research also contributes to the understanding of the use Instagram Stories in the context of self – disclosure.

The Impact of the Parameter <i>Individualism — Collectivism</i> on the Formation of Behavioral Characteristics in People of Various National Cultures

Different theories of cross-cultural communication developed by researchers in the field of humanities including cultural anthropology, social psychology, cognitive science, etc., offer a variety of ways to classify national cultures. At the same time, many agree that there is a need for finding clear and measurable fundamental parameters underlying any national culture. The article substantiates the use of the parameter of individualism vs. collectivism, already tested in the framework of anthropology and philosophy of culture with regard to both Western and non-Western cultures, as an effective way for cultural comparison. The article aims to give an overview of various theories of cross-cultural interaction and their elements; to examine where they overlap or diverge; to look into the correlation between individualist/collectivist value orientations and behavior; and to study this parameter realization on a number of cases. The study is based on philosophical, anthropological, and cultural psychological theories, including the theory of guilt and shame cultures by R. Benedict, theory of self–presentations by R. Baumeister and D. Hutton, theory of personality’s self-construction by H. Marcus and S. Kitayama, as well as theory of cultural logics by A. Leung and D. Cohen. As an empirical confirmation of the above theoretical approaches, the article provides real-life examples, collected by the author. Literature was subject to categorical analysis. Empirical data was collected and analyzed using methods such as participant observation and discourse analysis. The comparative approach and hermeneutics techniques served as a general methodological prism. The study shows that, at least since the 1960s, specialists in the field of cultural studies have been increasingly discovering limitations and inconsistencies in theories that previously claimed to be universal: many of the models which originated in the West do not adequately represent non-Western cultures. The study proves the workability of the parameter of individualism vs. collectivism for interpretation of behavioral inconsistencies between people of different cultures. This parameter is compatible with a wide range of frameworks and shows a clear correlation between behavioral characteristics in different cultures and allows to interpret phenomena that were previously uninterpretable.

Antecedents of school burnout: A longitudinal mediation study

School burnout is a growing problem among university students. This two-wave longitudinal study examined the mediating effects of academic self-efficacy, grit, and academic resilience in the relationship between academic perfectionism and helicopter parenting, and school burnout in university students based on the Theory of Self- vs. Externally-Regulated Learning (SRL vs. ERL), and Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). A total of 481 college students completed measurements at Time 1 (T1) and Time 2 (T2) (Mage = 22.2; 61.5% female, 38.5% male). For analysis, the SPSS version 26 and Mplus version 7.0 were used. The results reveal that academic self-efficacy, grit, and academic resilience at Time 2 mediate the relationship between academic perfectionism and helicopter parent attitude at Time 1 and school burnout at Time 2. These findings reveal the key role of self-efficacy, grit, and academic resilience in reducing school burnout.

An Irrealist Theory of Race

ABSTRACT In this article I draw upon an analogy between a debate in the critical philosophy of race over the metaphysics of race and a debate in Buddhist philosophy of mind over the metaphysics of selves. I argue that there is a defensible irrealist theory of race, corresponding to the performativist theory of self found in certain Buddhist thinkers.

Government Policy in the National Strategy for Prevent and Eradicate Corruption in State Islamic Religious Universities

This research focuses on self-reconstruction in corruption prevention policies at State Islamic Religious Universities (PTKIN). The problem of this research is how self-reconstruction becomes a solution in corruption prevention policies to achieve justice and social welfare at PTKIN. This research proposes a self-reconstruction mechanism to prevent corruption and execute justice and social welfare at PTKIN. This research design uses a qualitative approach with case studies as the primary method. The research locations are UIN Sunan Kalijaga, UIN Syarifhidayatullah, and UIN North Sumatra Medan. The theory used in this research is the theory of self according to the Eastern/Islamic view and the theory of self according to the West, as well as the basic understanding of corruption. This study resulted in the formulation of a self-reconstruction mechanism at PTKIN in preventing corruption, namely the process of self-improvement to avoid the factors that cause corruption starting from good initial intentions, improving moral morals and then self-consistency in work. Self-reconstruction is one of the solutions to preventing corruption in PTKIN. The solution to avoid corrupt behaviour in PTKIN must involve all elements, rectors, deans, lecturers, or other components. This research provides concrete evidence about the effectiveness of the self-reconstruction mechanism in preventing corruption at PTKIN, this is a valuable finding and can be a significant contribution to the literature and practice of preventing corruption in the academic environment.

Morality, Affect, and Reputation in the Making of a Motivated Social Self

Despite the prevalence of symbolic interaction’s theory of the self, alongside alternative implicit models in dual-process and practice theory, sociology continues to struggle with incorporating affect into models of the self. To address this gap, we distinguish between the conventional sociological understanding of Goffman’s self as cynical and masked and an alternative construct we excavate by paying close attention to negative cases like Goffman’s Asylums and Stigma. This alternative theory of self treats self and situation not as one-sided but as mutually constitutive. Unlike most models of self, our alternative is continuously motivated by humans’ desire to maintain reputation within a given situation; reputation making is dependent on the situation, and its ceremonial rules provide the context for the self’s realization of affective rewards. After considering how reputational claims around ceremonial rules reveal an affectively driven, moral self, we consider the theoretical and methodological implications of the theory for major strands within symbolic interactionism.

Tabiat, Nefs, Kuvve ve Kudret İlişkisi: Nefs Teorisinin Kelam Geleneğindeki Karşılığı Üzerine Bir İnceleme

İslam düşünce tarihi üzerine karşılaştırmalı çalışmalar ekseriyetle disiplinler yahut gelenekler arasında konu başlıklarının uyuşması esasına göre yapılır. Nefs meselesiyle ilgili karşılaştırmalı çalışmalarda da felsefe kitaplarındaki nefs bölümleri ile kelam kitaplarındaki ruhla ilgili bölümlerine bakılır. Bu yöntem, yanlış olmamakla birlikte kimi zaman eksik kimi zaman da yanlış yönlendiricidir. Zira kelam kitaplarında ruhla ilgili bahisler, insanî nefs teorisinin kelamdaki karşılığını kısmen vermekle birlikte genel olarak nefs teorisinin mukâbili kelamda ruh teorisi değildir. Kelam geleneğinin kudret tarifleri, felsefe geleneğinde hareket veren ilkeler kabul edilen bitki, hayvan, insan ve felek nefslerinin yanı sıra varlık veren ilke olan Tanrı’yı da kapsamına almaktadır. Dolayısıyla kelamda kudret teorisi, yekpare varlık ve hareket ilkelerinin tamamını kapsamına almaktadır. Buna göre filozoflar kimi zaman güçleriyle birlikte cevhere nefs ve kuvve adını verirler, kimi zaman da nefs ile özellikleri ayırıp nefse cevher, özelliklere kuvve adını verirler. Kelamcılar ise bünyenin kendisine cevher, özelliklere sıfat adını verirler. Bir sıfat olan kudret, kelamcılarca irade doğrultusunda tesir eden sıfat yahut muhtelif fiillerin yakın ilkesi şeklinde tarif edilmiştir. Bu kudret tarifleri, felsefe geleneğinde hareket veren ilkeler kabul edilen bitki, hayvan, insan ve felek nefslerini kapsamına almaktadır. İrade doğrultusunda tesir etmedikleri yahut farklı türden fiillerin yakın ilkesi olmadıkları için Tanrı, ayrık akıllar, unsurların tabiatları ve madenlerin suretleri kudret tariflerinin dışında kalmaktadır. Fakat kelamcılara göre irade doğrultusunda tesir eden sıfat yahut muhtelif fiillerin yakın ilkesi, Allah’ın kudret sıfatıdır. Bu sebeple tabiatlar, suretler, ayrık akıllar ve Tanrı da kudret kapsamına girmektedir. Dolayısıyla kelamda kudret teorisi, yekpare varlık ve hareket ilkelerinin tamamını kapsamına almaktadır. Bütün var etme ve hareket verme türleri doğrudan ilahî kudrete atfedildiğinde görünüşteki çeşitlilik yalnızca ilahî fiillerin çeşitliliği kapsamında değerlendirilmektedir. Nitekim kelâmdaki adet teorisi, esas itibarıyla ilahî kudretin yegâne varlık ve hareket veren fâil olduğunu, filozofların iddia ettiği gibi varlık verme ile hareket verme arasında fark gözetilemeyeceğini açıklamayı üstlenir. Bu küllî hüküm, insan fiillerini de içerdiğinden kelamcılar asıl itibarıyla insan kudretini temellendirmeye uğraşmıştır. Kelamcıların insan fiilleri hakkında geliştirdiği kesb ve halk gibi teoriler insanın iradeli fiilleri için ilahî kudret kapsamında özerk bir alan oluşturmayı amaçlar. Bu bakımdan kelamdaki kudret teorisi, varlık ve hareket veren ilkelerin tamamına yönelik felsefî açıklamaların karşısına konulacak şekilde inşa edilmiştir. Makalede kudret tarifleri ile nefs, kuvve ve tabiat kavramlarının tanımları karşılaştırılarak felsefî nefs teorisinin kelamdaki mukâbilinin kudret teorisi olduğu gerekçeleriyle birlikte ortaya konulmaktadır.

Patients' experiences with early rehabilitation in intensive care units: A qualitative study about aspects that influence their participation.

To explore patients' experiences with early rehabilitation in the intensive care unit and what they perceive to influence their participation. A qualitative design anchored in phenomenological and hermeneutical traditions utilizing in-depth interviews. Thirteen patients were interviewed from 5 to 29 weeks following discharge from three units, in January-December 2022. Analysed using systematic text condensation and the pattern theory of self. Reporting adhered to consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research. Interviews described four main categories: (1) A foreign body, how the participants experienced their dysfunctional and different looking bodies. (2) From crisis to reorientation, the transformation the participants experienced from a state of crisis to acceptance and the ability to look forwards, indicating how bodily dysfunctions are interlinked to breakdowns of the patients' selves and the reorganization process. (3) Diverse expectations regarding activity: ambiguous expectations communicated by the nurses. (4) Nurse-patient: a powerful interaction, highlighting the essential significance of positive expectations and tailored bodily and verbal interaction for rebuilding the patient's outwards orientation. Outwards orientation and reorganization of the self through a reduction in bodily dysfunctions, strengthening the patients' acceptance of the situation, providing tailored expectations and hands-on and verbal interaction appear to be fundamental aspects of patient participation in early rehabilitation. Insights into patients' perceptions show how dysfunctional bodies cloud individuals' perceptual fields, causing inwards orientation and negative thoughts concerning themselves, their capabilities, environment and future. This knowledge can improve nurses' ability to tailor care to promote optimal recovery for patients. User representative contributed to the design of the study.

Understanding Somatization through the Prism of Deficit Pathology and Winnicott's False Self

In this article, the author investigates the wide variation in historical and contemporary understandings of somatization. The article explores the rewards of understanding somatization as a deficit pathology and proposes an integration of deficit pathology theory and Winnicott's theory of self to better understand the causes of somatization. The author postulates a link between the formation of a pathological false self and somatoform symptoms and draws on Killingmo's description of conflict and deficit pathology to integrate the defensive organization (false self) with the concept of deficit. The false self is conceptualized as a defensive organization that is born in a climate of deficit, including early childhood trauma. Therapeutic implications include a focus on experiencing meaning, working with alexithymia, and providing the client an opportunity to confront the painful reality of their unmet needs, in a safe and holding environment not afforded to them in childhood. The author outlines the therapeutic goal of moving toward a renewed sense of ‘equilibrium of self’, where a person can freely and safely demonstrate vulnerability as well as meet their own needs. This in turn works to reduce the need for the protection of a pathological false self and the tightly bound somatoform symptomatology.

Muhammad U. FARUQUE: Sculpting the Self: Islam, Selfhood and Human Flourishing

The subject of the self has been around, arguably, since people first began to systematize their thinking about the world and themselves, though it has never been studied as systematically as in the last fourteen centuries. That is to say, after the foundations of institutional learning and scientific investigation had been laid in the Islamicate world, more or less in the form we take for granted today. In this thoughtful and deeply knowledgeable study, Prof. Muhammad U. Faruque turns his attention to a set of themes at a moment of “major crisis” for the “theories of selfhood and subjectivity”. The crisis he has in mind is conceptual in nature and attributable to the myriad technological innovations that have overturned virtually every claim about selfhood inspired by neuroscience, analytic philosophy, phenomenology, anthropology and religious studies.

A middle range theory of self- and family management of chronic illness

BackgroundThe Self- and Family Management Framework was created in 2006 to help structure self- and family management science. Based on a series of reviews and syntheses of emerging research and critical evaluation, we developed the Framework into a robust nursing theory. PurposeIn this article, we reintroduce the Self- and Family Management Framework as the Middle Range Theory of Self- and Family Management of Chronic Illness. MethodsWe review steps in the development and updating of the Framework, share rationale for advancement to a middle range theory, explicate components of the newly designed model, and propose future directions. Discussion and ConclusionIt is our hope that this middle range theory will guide researchers and clinicians more comprehensively in supporting patients and families managing chronic illness, which will in turn inform continued theory development.

The Self-Pattern and Buddhist Psychology

In this paper, we address core insights from Buddhist psychology about mind-body phenomena and the self, and we relate such insights to the notion of the self-pattern developed in the pattern theory of self. We emphasize the dynamic, temporal and enactive characteristics of the self-pattern, consistent with the core Buddhist notion of non-self. Although there is no one-to-one mapping of Buddhist psychological concepts onto the pattern theory of self, there are important similarities among such concepts and the various processes and dynamical relations that constitute a pragmatic self-pattern that can explain both experiences of self and non-self. Buddhist psychology and the notion of the self-pattern offer mutual insight into the processes, the dynamics, and the implications for questions about well-being and a flexibility that avoids anxiety and reduces attachment, craving, and suffering.

The (In)flexible self: Psychopathology, mindfulness, and neuroscience

Clinical and neuroscientific evidence indicates that transdiagnostic processes contribute to the generation and maintenance of psychopathological symptoms and disorders. Rigidity (inflexibility) appears a core feature of most transdiagnostic pathological processes. Decreasing rigidity may prove important to restore and maintain mental health. One of the primary domains in which rigidity and flexibility plays a role concerns the self. We adopt the pattern theory of self (PTS) for a working definition of self. This incorporates the pluralist view on self as constituted by multiple aspects or processes, understood to constitute a self-pattern, i.e. processes organized in non-linear dynamical relations across a number of time scales. The use of mindfulness meditation in the format of Mindfulness Based Interventions (MBIs) has been developed over four decades in Clinical Psychology. MBIs are promising as evidence-based treatments, shown to be equivalent to gold-standard treatments and superior to specific active controls in several randomized controlled trials. Notably, MBIs have been shown to target transdiagnostic symptoms. Given the hypothesized central role of rigid, habitual self-patterns in psychopathology, PTS offers a useful frame to understand how mindfulness may be beneficial in decreasing inflexibility. We discuss the evidence that mindfulness can alter the psychological and behavioral expression of individual aspects of the self-pattern, as well as favour change in the self-pattern as a whole gestalt.We discuss neuroscientific research on how the phenomenology of the self (pattern) is reflected in associated cortical networks and meditation-related alterations in cortical networks. Creating a synergy between these two aspects can increase understanding of psychopathological processes and improve diagnostic and therapeutic options.

Modeling interactions between the embodied and the narrative self: Dynamics of the self-pattern within LIDA

Despite lacking a generally accepted definition, Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) is commonly understood to refer to artificial agents possessing the capacity to build up a context-independent understanding of itself and the world and to generalize this knowledge across a multitude of contexts. In human agents, this capacity is, to a large degree, facilitated by processes of self-directed learning, during which agents voluntarily control the conditions under which episodes of learning and problem solving occur. Since self-directed learning depends on the degree of knowledge the agent has about various aspects of themselves (their bodily skills, their learning goal, etc.), an AGI implementation of this type of learning must build on a theory of how this self-knowledge is actualized and modified during the learning process. In this paper, we employ the pattern theory of self in order to characterize different aspects of an agent’s self that are relevant for self-directed learning. Such aspects include agent-internal cognitive states such as thoughts, emotions, and intentions, but also relational states such as action possibilities in the environment. Combinations of these aspects form a characteristic pattern, which is unique to each individual agent, with no one aspect being necessary or sufficient for the individuation of that agent’s self. Here, we focus on the interdependence of narrative and embodied aspects of the self-pattern, since they involve particularly salient challenges consisting in conceptualizing the interaction between propositional and motor representations.In our paper, we model the reciprocal interaction of these aspects of the self-pattern within an individual cognitive agent. We do so by extending an approach by Ryan, Agrawal, & Franklin (2020), who laid the groundwork for the implementation of the pattern theory of self in the LIDA (Learning Intelligent Decision Agent) model. We describe how embodied and narrative aspects of an agent’s self-pattern are realized by patterns of interaction between different LIDA modules over time, and how interactions at multiple temporal scales allow the agent’s self-pattern to be both dynamically variable and relatively stable. Finally, we investigate the implications this view has for the creation of artificial agents that can benefit from self-directed learning, both in the context of deliberate planning and adaptive motor execution.