The Social Self The Nature of the Social Self chapter 3 social pych

The Self

We like to believe that we have a consistent self, one that is clearly defined by stable personality and traits

-However, social psychology tells us that…

-The Social Self

-The self is not independent of the environment

-It is constructed, maintained, and negotiated in the social environment

-The social self is a malleable self

-Dynamic not static

-Nature of the Social Self

-Self: qualities that make a person unique and distinguishable from others

-I am ____________

Schema

A knowledge structure consisting of any organized body of stored knowledge

-Generalized knowledge about the world, how to behave in situations, how to interact with different kinds of people

Stereotypes

schemas about people or groups

Self-schema

a cognitive structure, derived from experience, that represents a person’s beliefs and feelings about the self in general and in specific situations

The Social Self

Origins of the Sense of Self

Origins of Self-Knowledge

Where does this information about the self come from?

(It’s certainly not all biology)

•Family & others

•Situationism

•Culture

•Gender

•Social comparison

•Family

•Family and socialization agents shape our sense of self by encouraging behaviors and providing opportunities

Looking Glass Self

•A person’s self grows out of interpersonal interactions and the perceptions of others

•An individual shapes himself/herself based on others’ perceptions … which leads to others’ confirming or reinforcing those parts of the self

Reflected self-appraisals

our beliefs about what others think of our social selves

•“Looking-glass self”: others’ reactions to us serve as a mirror

•People laugh at your jokes à You’re funny

•We internalize how we think others appraise us, not necessarily how others actually appraise us

•Reflected self-appraisals not highly correlated with others’ appraisals***

•How we view ourselves may impact how we think others view us

Trait

the “average” version of you that is relatively stable across time and situations

State

how you are in different situations, which changes based on the context

Situationism

the social self changes across different contexts

•Ex: students are free-spirited in the dorms, more reserved in the classroom

•Ex: someone who is relaxed and outspoken with friends might be shy with new acquaintances

Working self-concept

a subset of self-knowledge that is brought to mind in certain contexts, experiences most relevant to the current situation

•Ex: self related to one’s relationship at forefront of mind when with a romantic partner

•Ex: self related to competition at forefront of mind when in sports match

Who Am I?” by Culture

Gender

•Across cultures, men have more independent, and women have more interdependent, views of self (Cross & Madson, 1997)

•Women likely to refer to relationships when describing self

•Men prioritize differences and uniqueness

•Women more attuned to external social cues whereas men more attuned to their internal responses

•Differences may come from socialization

•Portrayals in media

•Treatment by parents

•Friendships and groups

Social comparison theory

(Festinger, 1954) people compare themselves to others to evaluate their own opinions, abilities, and internal states

•Likely to occur when…

•there is no clear objective standard

•you experience uncertainty about yourself in a particular domain

•Social Comparison

•Motivated comparisons

Upward comparison (How far can I go?):

when you want to improve something about yourself, you compare with people who are better

Downward comparison (It’s not that bad):

when you want to feel good about yourself, you compare with people who are worse

Self-esteem

the overall positive or negative evaluation an individual has of him/herself

•Usually measured by self-report

Contingencies of self-worth

self-esteem is contingent on (or rises and falls with) success and failure in domains that are important to the self (Crocker & Wolfe, 2001)

Self-complexity:

the tendency to define the self in terms of multiple domains that are relatively distinct from one another

Self-esteem helps us assess how we are doing socially

•High self-esteem: thriving

•Low self-esteem: having difficulties

Cultural Differences in Self-Esteem

Individualist cultures = self-esteem

Collectivist cultures = self-improvement

Self-enhancement

 people’s desire to maintain, increase, or protect their self-esteem or self-views

Better-than-average effect

most Westerners think they are better than average on most personality traits (e.g., kindness, fairness, popularity) and abilities/skills (e.g., driving)

•We judge others by what they’re like on average; we judge ourselves by what we’re like at our best

Interpretation of reality

people shift their definitions in order to come out on top

careful drivers give weight to care, skillful drivers give weight to skill, and those who think that, whatever else they are not, at least they are polite, give weight to courtesy, and come out

Self-Enhancement

The better-than-average effect is more likely to occur for “vague” traits than “concrete” traits

You can construe what it means to be a good driver

You simply know whether you’re an Olympic-tier athlete or not

Self-Affirmation

People can maintain an overall sense of self-worth following psychologically threatening information by affirming a valued aspect of themselves unrelated to the threat

•Ex: if you get a poor grade on a test, you remind yourself of your artistic abilities

Self-complexity

the tendency to define the self in terms of multiple domains that are relatively distinct from one another

Self-verification theory

People strive for stable, accurate beliefs about the self

We have a memory that is more selective for self-consistent information (Swann et al., 1992)

Such beliefs give us a sense of coherence and allow us to more accurately predict outcomes for ourselves

The Social Self

Self-Regulation

Motivating and Controlling Behavior

Self-regulation

processes by which people initiate, alter, and control their behavior in the pursuit of goals, including the ability to resist short-term rewards that thwart the attainment of long-term goals

Self-discrepancy theory

(Higgins, 1997) people want to reduce discrepancies between their actual self and possible selves (ought self, ideal self)

Promotion focus

focus on positive outcomes when working toward ideal self• More likely in Western cultures

Prevention focus

avoid negative outcomes when working toward ought self

•More likely in Eastern cultures

Implementation intentions

an if-then plan to engage in goal-directed behavior (“then”) whenever a particular cue (“if”) is encountered

Goal: I want to be kinder to my roommate

If my roommate makes a snarky remark, then I’ll just ignore it

Self-presentation

presenting the person that we would like others to believe we are

•Impression management: attempting to control how other people view us

•How we dress, public behavior, friends and associates, what we reveal about ourselves to others

•Face: public image of ourselves, what we want others to believe

Self-Monitoring

•The tendency to monitor one’s behaviors to fit the current situation or the expectations of others

•High self-monitors shift their self-presentation and behaviors to fit the context

•Low self-monitors are more likely to behave according to own traits, regardless of the context

•Self-Handicapping

•We may not live up to the public self we’re trying to portray

Self-handicapping:

tendency to engage in self-defeating behavior to prevent others from assuming a poor performance was due to a lack of ability

•We want to protect ourselves – save face

•Example: partying the night before an exam

•If you do poorly, it’s due to partying, not ability

•If you do well, you and others may conclude you’re really smart