As we grow, the same mechanism scales up. School, media, peers, social media, advertising, religion, workplace culture feed us new “power scripts”. Be productive. Be attractive (by current beauty standards). Be funny but not too loud. Be ambitious but not selfish. Be emotionally intelligent but never needy. Have the perfect body, career, relationship, opinions…
These scripts are sold as “this is how you gain power/love/status in the world.” Our brain, still running the childhood program of “approval = safety,” downloads them without question. They become part of the ideal self as an internal image of who we should be to finally feel powerful and worthy.