PSY220 - The Self

4 components of the self

1. self concept

2. self esteem

3. self knowledge

4. social self

self concept

self-schema, beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant info

social comparisons

• we compare ourselves to others, we cannot help it

• we are conscious of those differences

• may have either positive or negative effects

• Lockwood and Kunda

Lockwood and Kunda (1997)

• social comparisons

• uni students (1st or 4th year)

• given a newspaper article to read about a superstar student

• 1st years —> feel inspired

• 4th years —> feel defeated

what are social comparisons online based on?

incomplete information (not the full picture), people tend to highlight the best parts of their life

spotlight effect

see ourselves as if we are on “centre stage”, you feel like everyone is paying attention to you

illusion of transparency

our worry about being evaluated negatively, especially when we feel self conscious, we feel as if people can see how we feel

Savitsky and Gilovich (2003)

the participants who were informed about the illusion of transparency felt and looked more relaxed

individualism

• there is more focus on the individual

• independent and do not need to fit within the group

• western cultures

• stable self concept & personal self esteem

• becoming an adult means separating from parents & becoming self reliant

collectivism

• interdependent

• values relationships and in-group harmony more

• eastern cultures

• malleable self concept & rational self esteem

• respecting and identifying with the group

• people are more self critical and focus less on positive self views

Masuda & Nisbett (2001)

• east asian individuals describe the picture in regards to the relationship among the fish

• americans attend more to the single big fish

• demonstrates social behaviours are different among settings

what do you mean by similarity?

americans: uni-dimensional rule (one feature is the same)

east asians: family resemblance rule (similarity among multiple features)

independent

• identity is: personal, defined by individual traits and goals

• what matters: me — personal achievement and fulfillment; my rights and liberties

• disapproves of: conformity

• illustrative motto: “to thine own self be true”

• cultures that support: individualistic western

interdependent

• identity is: social, defined by connections w/ others

• what matters: we — group goals and solidarity; our social responsibilities and relationships

• disapproves of: egotism

• illustrative motto: “no one is an island”

• cultures that support: collectivistic asian and developing world

culture and self esteem - individualistic

• more personal self esteem, less relational

• persist longer on tasks when succeeding

• downward social comparisons

• self evaluations biased positively

culture and self esteem - collectivistic

• relational and malleable self esteem

• persist longer on tasks when failing

• upward social comparisons

• self evaluations as balanced

affective forecasting

reveal that people have the greatest difficulty predicting the intensity and the duration of their future emotions, generally people overestimate strength and duration

planning fallacy

one of the most common errors in behavior prediction is underestimating how long it will take to complete

reveals impact bias

overestimating the enduring impact of emotion causing events, happy emotions disappear quickly

self reports are…

often untrustworthy

self esteem

the sum of all our self views across various domains

implicit attitudes

automatic, change slowly (w/ practice that forms new habits)

explicit attitudes

consciously controlled, may change (w/ education and persuasion)

low self esteem associated with

anxiety, loneliness, eating disorders

we are motivated to maintain our self esteem

high self esteem —> blame others/circumstances

low self esteem —> blame themselves

high self esteem associated with…

narcissism

self efficacy

a belief in one’s own competence

high self efficacy

if i work hard, i can do this

a strong sense of self efficacy leads people to stay calm and seek solutions when problems arise

self serving bias

attributing positive outcomes to oneself and negative outcomes to something else

negative explanatory style

depressed people do not display a self serving bias, they tend to attribute failure to causes that are stable, global and internal

self serving bias is stronger…

for traits that are more subjective or difficult to measure

unrealistic optimism

being pessimistic about others futures but optimistic about yours

illusory optimism

i am so good i dont even need to try really, increases vulnerability

defensive pessimism

the adaptive value of anticipating problems and harnessing one’s anxiety to motivate effective action

most people consider themselves…

better than average in a variety of dimensions

false consensus effect

overestimating the commonality of one’s opinions and one’s undesirable or unsuccessful behaviours, this is what makes things seem like common sense, you think everyone agrees with you

false uniqueness effect

underestimating the commonality of one’s abilities and one’s desirable or successful behaviours, we think we are so special

temporal comparisons

we perceive positive past selves as psychologically closer in time and negative past selves are more distant

self handicapping

protecting one’s self image with behaviours that create an excuse for later faulure

self presentation

wanting to present a desired image both to an external and internal audience

impression management

we want to present our desired image to the world

learned helplessness

occurs when an individual feels like they have no control over negative events and become passive, people tend to feel more satisfied when they have a sense that their choice was final because too much freedom can have negative effects

self monitoring

being attuned to the way one presents oneself in social situations and adjusting the performance to create the desired impression

low self monitors

“i dont want to change this is how i am”, aware of the differences, more consistent and get their cues internally

high self monitors

very perceptive of the social situation, act different in different settings

self presentation theory

suggests that we are eager to present ourselves in ways that make a good impression, we are motivated to impress others — but have self doubts, thus we feel social anxiety

over personalizing situations

concerning for people who are shy, anxious or self conscious, tendency breeds anxious concern and paranoia, especially prone to spotlight effect, spiralling

percieved self control

learned helplessness & self efficacy