WEEK 5 - Social Self

Self-concept

Our knowledge about who we are

When does self develop in humans?

18-24 months old (red dot test)

How does self differ at young age veres older? (9 vs 11)

9: concrete at young age; tall, brown eyes

11: complex; truthful person, okay in school

self-schema

organized body of knowledge ab self (attitudes, prefences, etc)

When asked to recall 40 words, participants remembered words mostly...

if relevant to self.

Self Concept Clarity

extent of which knowledge about self is stable, clear, and defined

Indepedance vs interdependance

Independence: I am comfortable at work

Interdependance: I will sacrifice my self interest for the group.

Western vs Eastern views of self

Western cultures have more independent view of self: emphasize own internal thoughts, feelings

Eastern cultures have more interdependent view of self: defining oneself based on thoughts, feelings, and actions of others.

Less common baby names given to those born in...

more BC, AB, MA, SK

less (ON,QC,NS)

How does Gender influence self concept..

WOMEN tend to define themselves more in terms of relationships w close others (INTERDEPENDANT)

MEN tend to define themselves in relationship to larger social groups they belong to. (COLLECTIVE)

Introspection

processes whereby people look inward & examine their own thoughts, feelings, and motives. EG: watching a video of yourself.

Self awareness theory

increased self awareness leads to self evaluation; we compare our actual behaviour to internal standards & values.

If actions don't match out internal standards & values we feel discomfort. Solution?

change behaviour or avoid self-awareness.

FG: when given negative feedback about performance, studies suggest people.. avoid stimuli that directs attention at self .

Moskalenk study

participants completed a IQ test: easy, med, hard

Which connects these words: sleep, fantasy, day = DREAM

ppt asked to calculate own scores and indicate where on distribution table they lie

HARD condition: mark BELOW 50%

EASY condition: ABOVE 50%

then ppt left in room w/ TV and researcher recorded how long they watched TV before becoming distracted.

Those w failure to feedback spent more time watching TV.

Moskalenk study suggest..

people avoid self focus in these situations by distracting themselves (here, through watching TV)

Lecture study

5 weeks diary on mood (health, sleep, work)

What influence's mood?

Found that in relationships, excerise was high

Sleep, weather, food, wasn't big factor but often say, "oh, didn't sleep well).

Casual theories

internal theories about causes of mood based on culture.

People underestmate...

how good they feel after nature walk & overestimate how they will feel about a walk indoors.

Bem's self perception Theory

suggests we think about our past behaviour to make an inference

"if i chosen to do it in the past, I must like it)

Extrinic vs Intritic Motivation

E: win award, avoid punishment

I: Enjoy. f your reward,, they report liking it less.

Over-justification Effect

ppl begin to think behaviour was extrinsically motivated

Performance cotangent rewards

Less determinmal than rewarding for simily performing

Social Comparison Thoery

learn abilities & attitudes by comparing ourselves to other people (buffet)

Upward social comparison

comparing oneself to someone better on a given dimension, reduced self esteem

Upward comparison sometimes motivational..

when romantic partner performs well, we may upward compare, but also benefit from their success.

Downward social comparison

comparing to someone worse, do this when self esteem is relevant & tied to the trait on which we are comparing ourselves

Downward comparison

enhances self esteem & usually compare downwards when given choice

Self enhancement

creating an unrealistically positive view of oneself.

Self enhancement effect is largely an event of...

individualist cultures

Self Verification Theory

ppl have need to seek conformation of their self, whatever self concept is positive/negative.

We want others to have similar impressions of us as we have for ourselves.

Imposter Syndrome

feeling like you don't deserve a position, job, raises, etc.

When does self verification theory become most relevant? (when do we care more about accuracy than positive feedback) (FAI)

- when we see person frequently & stakes are high

- strongly convinced we are accurate

- we know there is room to improve on skill/ trait