Social psych 2

What are they trying to figure out(Mesoudi 2016)?

• How do humans adapt so quickly to almost every environment on Earth?

• Why do humans build complex tools and systems that no single person could invent alone?

• How does cultural change follow the rules of evolution, like variation, competition, and inheritance?

How did they try to figure that out (Mesoudi 2016)?

• They compared how human children and apes solve problems and copy actions.

• They tested how people choose who to learn from, such as copying popular behaviors or following experts.

• They used computer models to track how traits change over time as people pass them down.

• They used family tree models from biology to trace how languages and tools change across generations.

What did they find (Mesoudi 2016)?

• Humans copy experts and popular trends with higher accuracy, which keeps good ideas alive in a group.

• Culture changes through evolution, just like genes do.

• Human success comes from learning together as a group over time

What are they trying to figure out (Strominger 2017)?

• How people separate their core identity ("true self") from general personality traits.

• Which specific traits define a person's true self.

• Why people consistently view the true self as fundamentally good across different cultures and perspectives.

How did they figure that out? (Strominger 2017)?

• They reviewed brain disease studies (like dementia) to see which lost mental traits alter a person's identity the most.

• They evaluated experiments testing whether people credit good vs. bad behaviors to someone's "true self."

• They compared how people judge their own true self versus others' true selves.

What was the conclusion? What did they find? (Strominger 2017)

• Morality is central: Moral traits define identity far more than memories or intelligence.

• Positive by default: People view the true self as inherently good; bad actions are blamed on surface factors.

• Universal perspective: Unlike regular self-judgments, people judge both themselves

What are they trying to figure out? (Berckman 2017)

• How identity (values and beliefs) drives self-regulation and goal success.

• How the brain processes identity to make self-control easier.

How did they try to figure that out? (Berckman 2017)

• Created a theoretical model (Identity-Value Model) combining psychology, economics, and neuroscience.

• Reviewed brain scans (fMRI) linking identity processing to value computation in the brain (vmPFC).

What was the conclusion? What did they find? (Berckman 2017)

• Identity adds value: Actions tied to identity feel more rewarding, making it easier to resist temptation.

• Self-control is value comparison: Choices aren't just raw willpower, but choosing whatever option carries the highest personal value.

What are they trying to figure out? (Lindquist 2013)

• Whether emotions are hardwired brain units ("natural kinds") or constructed from basic mental ingredients.

• What basic components combine to create specific emotions like anger or fear.

How did they try to figure that out? (Lindquist 2013)

• Reviewed brain imaging, body response, and facial expression studies for distinct emotion patterns.

• Tested if disrupting emotion words (using word repetition or dementia cases) impairs recognizing emotions.

What was the conclusion? What did they find? (Lindquist 2013)

• Emotions aren't hardwired: Distinct emotions don't have dedicated brain circuits or body patterns.

• Built from two main parts: Emotions emerge when core affect (bodily feelings) and conceptualization (context and language) combine.

Nuture

Culture and environment (parenting style)

Nature

biology (genetics)

Evolution

genes produces traits such as behaviors, thoughts, and feelings

Natural Selection

Promote survival

Sexual Selection

Promote reproduction

Evolutionary adaptation

Traits spread that are well-adpated to their environmental context

Example of evolutionary adapation:

Thick white fur 

• Well- adapted to arctic, NOT for tropics 

• Will spread in arctic, not in tropics 

Fear 

• Well-adapted to threatening environments, NOT for safe environments 

• Same deal

Social brain hypothesis

The hypothesis that the human brain has evolved, so that humans can maintain larger ingroups.

Why do we talk about the Self in Social Psychology?

• Good starting point 

• The Self is fundamentally social 

- the need to belong

- brains default setting is social

Schemas

• Organized bundles of  concepts related to yourself 

• Social roles, traits, preferences 

The Self

• Who I Am

• Accumulation of all your schemas 

Working Self

• Many shelves

• “Current” self 

• Strongly affected by situation 

Example of working self

• Sole female student in class of male students 

  • “Working” self-concept highlights her gender

Self-other overlap

When you see another person as closely connected to yourself and their feelings or experiences affect you.

Independent self

• self/other boundaries are firm

• Western cultures

Interdependent self

• self/other boundaries are permeable

• eastern cultures

Self-Discrepancy Theory

• Actual Self

• Ideal Self

• Ought Self

Self-Awareness Theory

When aware of yourself, discrepancies are

highlighted.

• change self or behavior

• reduce or escape self-awareness (TV, alcohol, drugs. etc)

Trick or Treat Study

IV: mirror or no mirror

DV: number of pieces of candy

Percent who took > 1 candy

Self-Esteem

one's feelings of positive or negative self-worth

Self-Enhancement Theory

• Exaggerate positive traits, Minimize negative traits

• Better-than-average effect

Self Regulation

change yourself to meet your goals

Relies Upon

Goals

Monitoring

Capacity to change

Self Control

• Effortful inhibition of an impulse 

• Goals > immediate desires

Self-control

goals over immediate desires; effortful inhibition of an impulse

TOTE Model

Depletion of self control

gets depleted with use 

Strength Model Study

Resisting the temptation to eat cookies reduced performance on task

Problems for strength model

“Depletion” effects eliminated by: 

• Money 

• Beliefs 

• Mood

• Food 

New Approach

• Away from “Have-To”

• Towards “Want-To”

Intrinsic Motivation

internal drive to do something simply because you find it enjoyable and interesting rather than for an outside reward

Extrinsic Motivation

doing something to gain a reward or avoid a punishment

Overjustification Effect

Ascribe motive to external forces (ex: reading for money, not for self)

Emotion-regulation

Attempts to meet emotion goals 

• Reduce negative emotions 

• Increase positive emotions 

• Prevent emotions from affecting behavior 

Difficult

Emotion Suppression

Hiding or holding back your feelings instead of expressing them

Emotion Reappraisal

• Change the way you interpret your feelings 

• From threatening to exciting 

• Effective and lasting emotion change

Mindful Appearance

• Embrace and investigate emotions without judgement 

• Ride them as they wax and wane

Improving Self-Regulation

Intrinsic motivation 

Emotions

Emotion

arise in reaction to events 

Mood

not clearly linked to events

Affect

less conscious feelings

• good or bad

• usually arising in reaction to events

Affect builds what?

Emotion and Mood

6 “Basic” Emotions?

• anger

• happiness

• surprise

• disgust

• sadness

• fear; vary wildly by culture and context

Social Emotion

• Moral Disgust

• Envy/Jealousy

• Shame/Embarrassment/Guilt

• Empathy

• Schadenfreude

• Gluckschmerz

Envy

you don’t have it, someone else does

Jealousy

you have it, someone else wants it

Shame

I feel bad about who I am

Guilt

I feel bad about what I did

Embarrassment

breaking a social (but not moral) rule

Empathy

Sharing someone else’s emotional experience

• emotional contagion

Schadenfreude

the pleasure derived from someone else’s pain

Gluckschmerz

the feeling of pain, displeasure, or annoyance caused by another person's good fortune or success

Why do we have emotions?

They promote effective responses

Theory buffet

self-discrepancy theory, self-awareness theory, self-esteem, sociometer theory, and self-enhancement theory

Hedonic Treadmill

tendency for our moods to adapt to external circumstances

Impact Bias

overestimating the enduring impact of emotion-causing events