W3.1 Self, Social Perception, and Health: Comprehensive Notes

Social aspects of the self and measurement challenges

• The self is shaped by social context: how we view ourselves in the past vs present, and our standing relative to others.
• Self-esteem: global, broad evaluation of self; traditional measures often rely on self-report and may be biased.
• Self-report bias in psychology: people may not answer objectively; there have been efforts to reduce this bias in self-report measures.

Self-esteem vs. self-efficacy (Bandura)

• Self-esteem: broad sense of self-worth; global self-evaluation.
• Self-efficacy: belief in one’s ability to perform a specific task; can be independent of actual ability.
• Key idea: perceived efficacy can drive effort, persistence, and performance regardless of actual skill level.
• Example: believing you can do well in psychology exams can lead to more study effort and persistence, improving outcomes even if ability is not inherently high.
• Efficacy influences behavior such as effort and persistence; can help overcome obstacles.
• Evidence: negative feedback effects on performance were mitigated by higher self-efficacy; those with high self-efficacy persisted despite bad feedback, while low self-efficacy led to reduced persistence.

Hope Theory (Trope/TraHope) — Pathway thinking and Agency thinking

• Core idea: most people are goal-oriented; success involves two cognitive processes:
  • Pathway thinking: ability to construct multiple pathways to achieve goals. High pathway thinkers can adapt if one route is blocked (e.g., failed initial university application but pursue TAFE or other routes).
  • Agency thinking: motivation to pursue those pathways; the will to try multiple alternatives.
• The combination predicts a range of outcomes (academic, athletic, etc.).
• Empirical note: in a university-related example, high trait hope (pathways + agency) predicted better outcomes; self-esteem alone did not reliably predict later outcomes in some longitudinal studies.

Self-affirmation theory

• When identity is threatened by poor performance in one domain, people can restore self-worth by focusing on other domains where they perform well.
• Example: someone who dislikes statistics may bolster self-image by downplaying statistics ability rather than accepting a threat to self-worth.
• This adaptive bias helps maintain overall self-esteem by shifting focus away from a threatened domain.

Self-comparison theory (Festinger, 1950s)

• People evaluate their own performance by comparing to relevant others.
• Example: quiz scored 7/10 may seem good if peers score 5/10; but if peers score 9/10, the same 7/10 feels worse.
• Relevance: comparisons are made with legitimate benchmarks (e.g., classmates, peers in the same context).

Self-control and the Marshmallow study

• Marshmallow test: delay of gratification predicts long-term outcomes.
• Findings: greater ability to delay is associated with better physical health, better finances, and lower likelihood of negative life outcomes (e.g., crime) later in life.
• This highlights self-control as a predictor of broad positive outcomes.

Cooley’s Looking-Glass Self and attributional labeling

• Looking-glass self (Cooley, 1902): we form a sense of self based on how others see and interact with us.
• Early classroom study: labeling children as neat and tidy was more effective at changing behavior than persuasion; underscores how labeling can influence self-concept and behavior.
• Attribution theory overlap: labeling vs. persuasion effects map onto attribution-style explanations.

Self-presentation and self-monitoring

• Self-presentation: how we manage how others perceive us in social contexts.
• Self-monitoring: degree to which people monitor and adjust their behavior to fit social contexts.
• High self-monitoring: adjust behavior to create favorable impressions; may be associated with higher likelihood of promotions but not necessarily with leadership roles.
• Low self-monitoring: more consistent behavior; can be associated with leadership roles and higher quality work evaluations in some contexts.
• Trade-offs: high self-monitoring can cause social distress due to constant social adjustment.

The Spotlight Effect

• The tendency to overestimate how much others notice our appearance or behavior.
• Classic study: wearing a conspicuous Barry Manilow t-shirt led participants to overestimate how many peers noticed; actual noticed rate was much lower (about 23–24%) than the perceived rate (about 50%).
• Takeaway: people overestimate the extent to which they are in others’ center of attention.

Self in the context of technology and social media

• Research pace: technology evolves quickly, research lags, but general principles often transfer across platforms.
• Early social media history and theories focus on image projection and self-curation online.
• Underwood’s two motives for using social media:
  • Communicators: seeking meaningful social interaction and relationship maintenance.
  • Broadcasters: presenting a broad, often curated image to many people; quantity over depth in relationships.
• Online behaviors: some online behaviors are hard to replicate offline (e.g., passive online stalking).
• Narcissism and online behavior:
  • Higher narcissism linked to more online friends and self-promotion (more posts/images).
  • Narcissism associated with broader online self-presentation, less emphasis on deep relationships.
• Big Five personality traits and social media use:
  • Extraversion: associated with higher Facebook use; linked to more social activity online.
  • Neuroticism: linked to higher Facebook use (emotion-driven reactivity).
  • Openness to experience: initially linked to use, but later replications failed; novelty wore off as platforms became ubiquitous.
• Privacy and security concerns:
  • Real-world consequences of online sharing (e.g., burglary after posting about being away).
  • Employer risk: recruiters using search engines to screen candidates; in 2006, about 77 ext{ ext{%}} of recruiters used search engines to evaluate candidates; 26 ext{ ext{%}} reported findings that ruled out a candidate.
  • Privacy sensitivities can be moderated by personality factors such as narcissism and the Big Five.
• Structural equation modeling (SEM) and online behavior
  • SEM used to model how motives for using Facebook mediate the relationship between personality traits (e.g., extraversion) and outcomes like disclosure and privacy settings.
  • Demonstrates how multiple variables interact to influence online behavior beyond simple direct effects.
• Health, social media and mental health
  • Social anxiety: online interactions can reduce stress and facilitate social engagement for some individuals.
  • True self online vs offline (Carl Rogers’ ideas): some people disclose more authentic selves online; over time, this can reduce anxiety for some individuals.
  • The “rich-get-richer” vs. “social compensation” debate: online interactions can benefit those already adept offline, but for some, online platforms may compensate for offline limitations.
• Attachment styles and online behavior
  • Secure attachment: generally associated with positive online social interactions and stable relationships.
  • Anxious-ambivalent attachment: linked to concerns about partner acceptance; online use can reflect a need for reassurance.
  • Avoidant attachment: not consistently associated with the same online behaviors; some measures of active stalking online may show weak or negative correlations with self-reported stalking behaviors.
• Online stalking and attachment considerations
  • Passive information gathering online without direct interaction (stalking) can be easier online than offline.
  • Self-reports of actively seeking interaction online (stalking) may not perfectly align with attitudes toward stalking, suggesting measurement complexities.

Psychology of health and stress (bridging mind and body)

• Why study health in psychology? Mind and body are intertwined; social environments and psychological processes influence physical health.
• Stress concept: dual aspects
  • Physiological: fight/flight response, mobilization of the body to face danger (Cannon).
  • Psychological: perceived demands exceeding resources, leading to stress perceptions and coping challenges.
• General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS) – Selye
  • Alarm stage: perception of threat; mobilization of physiological resources (e.g., increased heart rate, adrenaline).
  • Resistance stage: continued mobilization to cope with ongoing stressors; multiple threats can maintain elevated arousal.
  • Exhaustion stage: sustained activation may lead to depletion of resources; health risks escalate if the stress persists.
• Health consequences of chronic stress
  • Prolonged physiological arousal is detrimental to health (e.g., cardiovascular strain).
  • Studies show stress in workplaces associated with higher risks of certain cancers (e.g., colon cancer) even after controlling for age, smoking, and other factors; e.g., a five-point-five times higher likelihood in stressed workers compared to non-stressed in some studies.
  • Early research suggested a generalized sickening response across illnesses; later research refined this with the concept of hardiness.
• Hardiness (Kobasa) as a protective factor against stress-related illness
  • Key components: commitment (sense of purpose), control (perceived influence over events), and challenge (view stressors as opportunities rather than threats).
  • Hardiness differentiates those who become sick more frequently from those who stay healthier under stress.
  • Perceived control: environments where individuals feel they have input or influence (e.g., working conditions, nursing home autonomy) tend to be associated with better well-being.
• Optimism and attribution styles
  • Optimism can be linked to self-serving explanations: successes attributed to internal factors; failures attributed to external, unstable, or situational factors.
  • These attribution patterns have implications for long-term health and life expectancy; ongoing research links optimism with longevity, though causality and mechanisms require careful interpretation.

Connections and implications

• Across self-related constructs (esteem, efficacy, hope, self-affirmation, comparison), motivation, and social context shape behavior and outcomes.
• Social media studies illustrate how personality and motives shape online behavior (privacy, disclosure, admiration, and social connectedness) and how real-world consequences (recruitment decisions, stalking, privacy breaches) arise from online activity.
• Health psychology demonstrates that psychological processes, stress appraisals, and personal resources (hardiness, control, optimism) have measurable effects on physical health and well-being, reinforcing the biopsychosocial model.
• Methodological note: a range of statistical approaches (e.g., SEM) are used to model complex interdependencies among personality, motives, behaviors, and outcomes in real-world social phenomena.

Key formulas and numerical references (LaTeX)

• Perceived demand-resource gap in stress: ext{Demands} > ext{Resources}
• Recruiter statistic (2006 study): 77 ext{ ext{%}} of recruiters used search engines to evaluate potential candidates; 26 ext{ ext{%}} reported finding something that ruled out a candidate.
• Online risk example: 5.5\text{ times more likely} to develop colon cancer in stressed workers vs. non-stressed workers (controlled for age, smoking, etc.).
• Online visibility cue: about 23 ext{ ext{%} ext{ to } 24 ext{ ext{%}}} of participants noticed wearing a conspicuous shirt; participants overestimated at roughly 50 ext{ ext{%}}.
• Classic self-control measure: delayed gratification decisions (marshmallow task) and long-term outcomes (health, finances, criminal outcomes).
• Longitudinal claim: trait hope in year 7 predicted year 12 outcomes in a school-based cohort; self-esteem in year 7 did not predict later outcomes.

Study tips based on these notes

• Distinguish global vs domain-specific constructs: self-esteem (global) vs self-efficacy (domain/task-specific).
• When discussing social media, be careful with causal claims: many findings are correlations or predictive associations; SEM helps model mediation but does not prove causation.
• For health psychology, remember the three GAS stages and the concept of hardiness as a buffer against stress-related illness.
• Use real-world examples (e.g., recruitment practices, online privacy incidents, and the marshmallow study) to illustrate theoretical concepts.

Summary takeaway

• Our sense of self is shaped by social perception, self-evaluation biases, and motivational systems (esteem, efficacy, hope).
• People deploy strategies (self-affirmation, self-monitoring, labeling) to navigate self-concept and social interactions.
• Technology and social media dramatically alter how self-presentation and interpersonal processes unfold, with implications for mental health, privacy, and social behavior.
• Health psychology emphasizes that how we think about and manage stress, control, and optimism materially affects physical health and well-being.