Chapter 3 - The Social Self

Self-schema

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

Perform an organizing function by helping us navigate and make sense of all the information we encounter in the context of daily living

Serve as a basic unit of organization for self-knowledge and influence our interpretations and judgments of ourselves

Reflected self-appraisal

A belief about what others think of one’s self

We internalize how we think others perceive us (and not necessarily how they actually see us)

Working self-concept

A subset of self-knowledge that is brought to mind in a particular concept

ex: notions about the self associated with relationships are likely to be the mind’s main focus when with a romantic partner

Malleability and stability

We feel like our sense of self shifts across social contexts, but that we also experience continuity

This could be explained by:


1. a person is likely to have core beliefs about the self that come to mind first when thinking about oneself
2. a person’s overall pool of self-knowledge remains relatively stable over time even as different dimensions of self-knowledge shift across different contexts (ex: we see ourselves as lazy but this doesn’t come to mind when in a job interview even though it’s still stored in our minds, but when we’re procrastinating)

Independent self-construals

The self is an autonomous entity that is distinct and separate from others

It’s important for people in these cultures to assert their uniqueness and independence

Important to assert uniqueness and independence

Leads to a conception of the self in terms of traits that are stable across time and social context

Interdependent self-construals

The self is fundamentally connected to other people

Imperative to find a place within the community and to fulfill appropriate roles

Close attention to social contexts and recognition of the shifting demands of situations on behaviours

Leads to a conception of the self as something that is embedded within social relationships, roles and duties

Less likely to endorse positive illusions about the self as a form of self-enhancement

Gender differences in self-construal

Women are more likely to refer to social characteristics and relationships when asked to describe themselves

Women tend to be more empathic and better judges of other people’s personalities and emotions

Differences in upbringing are responsible for these differences later

Social comparison theory

The idea that people compare themselves to other people to obtain an accurate assessment of their own opinions, abilities and internal states

Social identities

The parts of a person’s sense of self that are derived from group memberships

ex: I am Republican, I am gay, I am Latinx

Self-stereotyping

The phenomenon whereby people come to define themselves in terms of traits, norms and values that they associate with a social group when their identity as a member of that group is salient

Different contexts bring to mind different social identities

Self-esteem

The overall positive or negative evaluation people have of themselves

How we feel about our attributes and qualities, our successes and failures, and ourselves in general

Trait self-esteem

A person’s enduring level of self-regard across time, fairly stable (someone with high trait self-esteem will likely have high trait self-esteem later on)

State self-esteem

The dynamic, changeable self-evaluations a person experiences as momentary feelings about the self

ex: when experiencing a setback, our self-esteem is likely to take a dive

Contingencies of self-worth

The thesis that people’s self-esteem is contingent on their successes and failures in domains they deem important to their self-worth

The more we derive our self-worth from multiple, distinct domains, the more likely we are to avoid feeling devastated by a setback in any one domain

Sociometer hypothesis

The idea that self-esteem is an internal, subjective index or marker of the extent to which a person is included or looked on favourably by others

Self-esteem is an internal, subjective index of how well we are regarded by others and how likely we are to be included or excluded by them

Self-enhancement

The desire to maintain, increase, or protect one’s positive self-views

Better-than-average effect

The finding that most people think they are above average on various personality trait and ability dimensions

More likely for people to think they are above average on ambiguous traits that are easy to construe (ex: artistic, sympathetic) than on unambiguous ones that are not (ex: tall, punctual)

Self-affirmation theory

The idea that people can maintain an overall sense of self-worth after being exposed to psychologically threatening information by affirming a valued aspect of themselves unrelated to the threat

Self-verification theory

The theory that people strive for others to view them as they view themselves

Such verification of one’s views of the self helps people maintain a sense of coherence and predictability

People selectively recall information that is consistent with their views of themselves

Self-regulation

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

ex: not buying trendy new shoes in order to save money to attend college

Self-discrepancy theory

A theory that behaviour is motivated by standards reflecting ideal and ought selves

People hold beliefs about not only what they are actually like but also what they would ideally like to be and what they ought to be

Falling short of these standards elicits specific emotions and may lead to efforts to get closer to them

Actual self

The self that people believe they are

If there are discrepancies between the actual self and the ideal/ought self, there are emotional consequences

Ideal self

The self that embodies people’s wishes and aspirations

Related to promotion focus

Ought self

The self that is concerned with the duties, obligations and external demands people feel they are compelled to honour

Related to prevention focus

Promotion focus

A focus on attaining positive outcomes through approach-related behaviours

Self-regulation of behaviour with respect to ideal-self standards

ex: focusing on what we can do to make someone we like reciprocate our feelings

People from independent cultures are more likely to have a promotion focus

Prevention focus

A focus on avoiding negative outcomes through avoidance-related behaviours

Self-regulation of behaviour with respect to ought-self standards

ex: focusing on what to avoid doing to look like a fool in front of someone we like

People from interdependent cultures are more likely to have a prevention focus

Self-control

We can shift how we construe temptations in order to exercise self-control

Thinking about temptations in “cooler” terms instead of “hotter” terms is a shift in construal

High-level construals focus on abstract, global and core features, tend to facilitate self-control

Low-level construals focus emphasize salient, incidental and concrete details

Focusing on high-level construals will motivate people to focus on their long-term goals

Implementation intention

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

Research shows that forming multiple, smaller implementation intentions related to the same goal increases our likelihood of goal attainment

Self-presentation

Presenting the person we would like others to believe we are

Also known as impression management, refers to how we attempt to control the particular impressions other people form about us

Face

The public image of ourself that we want others to believe

Self-monitoring

The tendency to monitor one’s behaviour to fit the current situation

High self-monitors carefully scrutinize situations and shift their self-presentation and behaviour according to the people present and situation at hand

Low self-monitors are more likely to behave according to their own traits and preferences, regardless of social context

Self-handicapping

The tendency to engage in self-defeating behaviour in order to have an excuse ready should one perform poorly or fail

Protects the desired public self if failure does occur

Presenting the Self Online

Most present their personality and other attributes (ex: occupation) accurately online, but we are less likely to do so when it comes to our physical attributes (ex: height, weight, age)

Online self-presentations may be driven as much or more by self-verification motives, the desire to be known by others as we truly are in our own eyes