The Social Self (Chapter 3)

Textbook + Lecture

What is the self concept?

• sum of total beliefs that people have about themselves

  • made up of “cognitive molecules” called self schemas

• self-concept consists of multitude of schemas

What is the paint & mirrors trick to show self-concept?

• magpie with dot on neck placed in front of mirror

  • realizes is looking at mirror realizes reflection and attempts to take off dot

• some primates: humans (but not young kids ~6), bonobos, chimps, and orangutans all do as well

  • some evidence for dolphins, orcas, asian elephants, magpies

• trickier with animals with diff minds/bodies

What are self-schemas?

• templates or ideas we have for understanding the self

• ex: liberal/conservative, masculine/feminine, introverted/extroverted

• self schemas are to self concept like what books are to library

How might people identifying with 2 different cultures have different self concepts?

• people who identify with two cultures might have "double consciousness” abt who they are

How is self-relevant info processed differently? (brain scans)

• through brain imaging, areas of the brain become more active when lab participants see self relevant info than when they see other ppl/words/etc.

• cocktail party effect → hearing name among crowd of people

How did Gordon Gallup test self-recognition? (how can self-recognition be tested)

• placed diff animals in front of mirror to test self-recognition

  • only great apes (chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans), seemed capable of self-recognition

    • later tested further by adding a red dot and great apes tried to pick it off

What 2 important steps/factors/whatever make the self concept?

1. seeing self as distinct self (knowing there is a self)

2. social factors

What is the looking glass self?

• other ppl serve as a mirror for us to view ourselves

• we think of ourselves based on what we imagine others to think of us and incorporating it into self-concept

Are we good at introspection?

• we’re bad at introspection → leads us astray on road to self-knowledge

• affective forecasting + impact bais

What is affective forecasting?

• predicting future emotions/affect/states

• predicting how people would feel in response to emotional events

• we’re shit at it → impact bias

study:

• asked participants to predict how they would feel after diff positive/negative life events + compared predictions to ppl who actually experienced them

What is impact bais?

• people overestimate the strength and duration of emotional reactions

• makes people have difficulty predicting how they would feel in response to future emotional events

What is self-perception theory?

• when internal states are weak, people infer what they think or how they feel by observing their own behavior + the situation in which that behavior takes place.

• occurs only w/ ambiguous internal states

• takes situation and environment into account

• when ppl are led to say or do things when they’re unsure of how they feel, they can internalize it and define themselves as such

  • e.g. if someone has ambiguous internal state and they are coaxed into nodding up/down they might believe they agree with whatever message

How is self-perception a form of introspection/learning about self?

• observing our behaviours is a method people employ to learn about ourselves and develop a concept of “self”

• more likely to happen for attitudes we don’t already have a strong opinion about, then once formed, opinions about ourselves are harder to change

What is the Self-Other-Knowledge-Asymmetry Model? (SOKA)

• we know ourselves better when it comes to traits that are internal and hard to observe (anxious, optimistic, etc.)

• there is no self-other difference when it comes to traits that are “external” and easy to observe (quiet, sociable, messy, etc.)

• others may know us better than ourselves when it comes to observable traits that can be touchy for self-esteem (smart, creative, rude)

  • we have motivated blind-spots to protect self-esteem

What is the facial feedback hypothesis?

• hypothesis that changes in facial expression can lead to corresponding changes in emotion.

• part of self-perception theory

• e.g. using a machine to contract facial muscles to make a smile/frown can cause corresponding feelings (happy/sad) to ambiguous stimuli

What is the overjustification effect?

• intrinsic motivation decreases when being associated with a reward or other extrinsic factors (e.g. paid to do a job you love)

What is distinctiveness theory?

• to avoid informational overload, we tend to selectively notice aspects of the self what makes us distinctive in relation to others

• tend to describe ourselves in ways that distinguish us from one another

• Other people help us to define ourselves

• has informational value → we can’t share everything about everything

What is the social comparison theory?

• The theory that people evaluate their own abilities and opinions by comparing themselves to others

• end to describe ourselves in ways that distinguish us from one another

• Other people help us to define ourselves

When do you engage in upward social comparison?

• comparing self to someone judged to be better than self

• engage when goal is to improve

When do you engage in downward social comparison?

• comparing self to someone judged to be worse than self

• engage when goal is to make selves feel better (/enhance self esteem)

What is lateral social comparison?

• comparing oneself with another who is considered to be more or less equal (similar to us)

• engage in lateral social comparisons when our goal is to get an accurate comparison of our abilities

What is the two-factor theory of emotion?

• experience of emotion is based on 2 factors:

  • physiological arousal

  • cognitive interpretation OF arousal

• increased HR + standing in front of bear → “i must be scared” → fear

What are autobiographical memories?

• memories of one's own experiences, including one's thoughts and emotions

• “observing ourselves via memory”

• we don’t remember all memory equally or objectively

• memory is very porous → when we retrieve memory it is malleable and open to alteration

• remember recent info better

  • 2 exceptions tho

What is the recency effect?

• we remember recent things more easily

• 2 exceptions to the recency effect:

  • “reminiscence bump” of memories from adolescence when we’re old

  • transitional “firsts”

    • e.g. first kiss, first few days of school, etc.

What are flashbulb memories?

• enduring, detailed, high-resolution memories

• speculated for “survival purposes”

• not necessarily accurate or consistent over time but still feel special

How does culture affect self-concept?

• individualism vs collectivist countries form diff self concepts

• culture made up of 4 I’s → culture cycle

  • ideas

  • institutions

  • interactions

  • individuals

What is dialectism?

• An Eastern system of thought that accepts the coexistence of contradictory characteristics within a single person

• characterized by acceptance of contradictions through compromise

  • opposite characteristics can be in one person

What is self-esteem?

• An affective component of the self, consisting of a person’s positive and negative self-evaluations

• self esteem differs in both amount and stability

• self esteem typically stays roughly the same from childhood into adulthood

  • stays stable relative to others

What is sociometer theory?

• theory that self-esteem is a gauge monitoring our social interactions

• sends us signals as to whether our behavior is acceptable to others.

• increased activity in rejection-related brain regions associated w/ lower self esteem

What is terror-management theory?

• humans biologically programmed for life and self-preservation

• humans cope with the fear of their own death by constructing worldviews that help to preserve their self-esteem

What is self-discrepancy theory?

• there are 3 selves: actual, ought, and ideal

  • actual self - self concept

  • ought/ideal - self guides

• discrepancies from actual and ought/ideal selves decrease self esteem

• 3 selves predict self esteem and wellbeing

• self discrepancies generally stay stable over time

What is self-awareness theory?

• theory that when attention is focused on self it leads people to notice self-discrepancies → motivating either escape from self-awareness or a change in behavior?

What are the two ways of coping when with discomfort from self-discrepancies?

1. shape up → fix self, reduce discrepancy

2. ship out → stop thinking about self

   • withdraw from self awareness, distract self, etc.

   • can often cause substance abuse as means to stop thinking abt it

What determines which coping mechanism is used for self-discrepancies?

• they think they can fix the discrepancy

• and whether they are satisfied w/ progress once they tried

What is private self-consciousness?

• personality characteristic of individuals who are introspective

• often attending to their own inner states.

• tendency introspect about inner thoughts and feelings

What is public self-consciousness?

• personality characteristic of individuals who focus on themselves as social objects, as seen by others.

• tendency to focus on our outer public image

What is the Dunning-Kruger effect?

• everyone tends to overestimate own abilities → some do it more than others

• those w/ lowest scores on logic, humour, and grammar most likely to overestimate own abilities

• [experts underestimate ability… maybe]

What is self-regulation?

• process by which people control their thoughts, feelings, or behavior in order to achieve a personal or social goal.

• ego depletion: willpower = finite resource

  • some say glucose as the resource but very unlikely

What are ironic processes?

• harder you try to inhibit a thought, feeling, or behaviour → less likely you are to succeed

What are some different mechanisms of self-enhancement?

• better than average effect

• implicit egotism

• self-serving cognitions/beliefs

• self-handicapping

• BIRGing

• downward social comparisons

What is the better-than-average effect?

• people see positive traits as more self-descriptive than negative traits

• most ppl think they’re above average on various personality trait and ability dimensions

What is implicit egotism?

• unconscious and subtle expression of self-esteem

• ppl quicker to associate “self” words with positive traits than negative ones

What are self-serving cognitions/beliefs?

• take credit for success and distance self from failures to protect self esteem

• intrinsic explanations for successes

  • (IM BUILT DIFFERENT)

• extrinsic explanations for failures

  • (this prof is tryna get me bro)

• unrealistic positivity about future (illusion of control)

What is self-handicapping?

• making excuse for future performance in anticipation of failure

• behaviours that sabotage performance provide an excuse for failure (and therefore protect the self)

• effectively protects SE but increased risks of failures

What is BIRG/basking in reflected glory?

• sibling = CORF

  • cutting off reflected failure

• we identify w/ groups when they experience success (BIRG) and distance with failure (CORF)

• e.g. school sweatshirts following wins vs losses

How are downward social comparisons used for self-enhancement?

• aren't objective in who we compare ourselves to

  • often do it downward

    • 53% downward in hospital

• the more often these comparisons were made downward, the better they felt

  • can't always avoid going downward

• two approaches are to be happy and BIRG, or jealousy and social distance occurs

• seems to be related to whether its OUR thing.

  • if not, its cool, if so, jealousy

What is positive illusion and how may it be adaptive?

• To the extent we are deceiving ourselves, may act more confident, and experience more success

• Depressed individuals are actually more accurate

  • About their future probabilities, their own abilities, how others perceive them

• people who harbor positive illusions of themselves are likely to enjoy the benefits and achievements of high self-esteem and social influence

What is the spotlight effect?

• tendency to believe that more people are paying attention to you than they actually are

  • especially when embarrassing situation

What is self-presentation?

• process by which we try to shape:

  • what other people think of us

  • what we think of ourselves

What is strategic self-presentation?

• our efforts to shape others’ impressions in specific ways in order to gain influence, power, sympathy, or approval

• 2 goals:

  • integration - get along

  • self promotion - get ahead

What is self verification?

• the desire to have others perceive us the way we perceive ourselves

• when described as how you perceive yourself → take it at face value

• when described as not how you perceive yourself → try to act more like how self perceives

  • e.g. described as submissive → act more assertive

• desire for self verification stronger than desire for flattery/self-enhancement

  • ppl w/ low SE prefer to have ppl admit their shortcomings

What is self-monitoring?

• tendency to regulate one’s own behavior to meet the demands of social situations.

• personality trait that determines if people prefer strategic self-presentation or self verification