The Self
The Self-Concept
Who Are You?
Self-concept: Your knowledge about yourself
Traits, values, goals, group memberships, past experiences, etc.
The self-concept is the schema you have for yourself
Organizes your knowledge to answer the question: Who am I?
Culture Shapes the Self-Concept
Groups Shape the Self-Concept
Social identity theory: people define and evaluate themselves in terms of social groups they identify with
Broken up into two parts
Define yourself in terms of group membership
UMD student, Californian, member of athletic team, fraternity/sorority, etc.
Learning about the group means learning about the self
Minimal group paradigm: Participants are randomly assigned to arbitrary groups
In this study, participants answered questions about paintings (“which painting do you see as more visually complex”)
Supposedly based on these answers, assigned to “figure” or “ground” group
Creates an ingroup (your group) and outgroup (not your group)
IV: received feedback that ingroup was
Condition 1: ingroup equally high in “surgency” as outgroup
Condition 2: ingroup higher in “surgency” as outgroup
Condition 3: ingroup lower in “surgency” as outgroup
DV1: how high are you in surgency?
DV2: how important is it to be high in surgency?
Evaluate yourself in terms of group membership
How you feel about the self depends on your ingroup
How positively is your ingroup viewed? How successful is your ingroup?
Basking in Reflected Glory
We can strategically use group membership in self-evaluations
Selectively valuing some characteristics but not others (e.g., “surgency”)
Explains how members of stigmatized groups maintain high self-esteem
We prioritize group membership in the self concept when the group does well
Example: On the day after football games, students wear clothes with university logos more after wins than after losses
When describing how game went, students use “we” for the wins and “they” for the losses
From the reading: The Frog Pond Effect
Definition: a phenomena of social comparison where you’re given the scenario: “As a frog, would you rather be a big frog in a small pond? Or a small frog in a big pond.” This scenario can be an analogy to many concepts in which a person’s comparison group can affect their evaluations of themselves.
People tend to evaluate themselves lower
Context Shapes the Self-Concept
Like all schemas, different aspects of the self-concept can be more or less accessible depending on the situation
When different identities are made salient, we act differently
When you’re home, you act differently than when with your friends
When you’re with your friends, you act differently than when you’re in class
Which of these is “you”? They’re all you, just different selves in different contexts
Selves can be inconsistent across contexts…
Example study:
IV: participants were primed to think about themselves as "serious business students” or “sociable college students”
Condition 1: saw business school logo images while rating business-related extracurriculars
Condition 2: saw school mascot images while rating social extracurriculars
DV: which products did they choose (e.g., Fortune Magazine People)
Results: “serious business student” participants chose Fortune, "sociable college students” chose People
Follow-up: after passing time with a filler activity, participants were re-primed
Condition 1: same prime as before (business or social)
Condition 2: opposite prime
DV: how much do they like their choice?
Results: in opposite prime condition, liked their previous choice less choice was no longer identity-consistent
This is because self-concept is a schema
Reflected appraisals
Appraisals: what others thinks about us
Reflected appraisal: what we think others think about us
Can be intentionally shared: goals, feedback from boss, comments from friends
Can be unintentionally shared: laughter, eye rolls, being on phone instead of listening
How We See Ourselves vs. How Others See Us
Sometimes how we ourselves and how others see us diverges
What information do we rely on?
When we judge ourselves: internal information (thoughts, feelings)
When others judge us: external information (behavior)
Internal Information vs. External Information
The performers externally are smiling and dancing at the audience, but on the inside, they are embarrassed
The audience doesn’t know these internal thoughts and are only basing the performers emotions based on their outward appearance; thinking that the performers look happy
Others Know Us Better than We Known Ourselves?
Sometimes behavior is more accurate information than internal thoughts/feelings.
Examples: Others may have a better sense of how conscientious we are
Evidence is behavioral: punctuality, organization
Example: Others may have a worse sense of how tired we are
Evidence is internal: feeling sleepy but might not look exhausted
Potentially same with sickness, pain, “invisible” disabilities
Social Comparison
Definition: We use comparisons with other people to learn about the self
Downward social comparisons: comparisons with others who are worse
Makes you feel good, but doesn’t help you improve
Upward social comparisons: comparisons with others who are better
Makes you feel bad, but can help you improve
Who Do We Compare Ourselves to?
Who we compare ourselves to affects how we think about ourselves
Compared to a professor, you don’t know that much about social psychology
Does this mean you are bad at psychology?
Compared to a middle schooler, you know a lot about social psychology
Does this mean you are good at psychology?
Typically, we compare ourselves to relevant peers (e.g, classmates in similar context)
But sometimes we don’t pay attention to the relevance of comparison target…
Dual Process Theory of Social Comparison
Stage 1: Make comparison regardless of their relevance/ diagnosticity
Stage 2: If aware, able, and motivated, correct based on relevance
Example: you see a 10 year old slowly running around a track
First, System 1 says: wow, I’m a fast runner!
Then, System 2 says: wait a second, that’s not an informative comparison
When We’re Really Wrong About Comparisons
Better-than-average effect: tendency to rank yourself higher than most other people in positive attributes
E.g., most people think they are better than average drivers
People confident in their knowledge will even claim to know things that don’t exist (e.g., fake studies, fake events)
Overestimating Our Abilities
Cause 1: You don’t know enough to know you are bad
The skills you need to be good are the skills you need to know if you’re good
Cause 2: You’re picking the wrong social comparison targets
Cause 3: You’re misreading appraisals or appraisals are wrong
Self-Perception
Definition: sometimes you infer your attitudes and attributes by observing your own behavior
Similar to how you make inferences about others from their behavior
I am unhappy → I must not like this
I am happy → I must like this
I am scared → I must fear this
Do I Care About This?
Participants sat on couch facing TV showing information about famine in Niger at low volume
IV: Were participants nudged to pay attention or not
Condition 1: during “waiting period,” told they were free to watch
Condition 2: during “waiting period” told they were free to use computer
DV: Rated how important famine-related issues were (poverty, hunger)
Results: participants who were distracted and didn’t pay attention rated issues as less important
(it’s not just because people who paid attention got information—distracted people rated issues as less important relative to participants in a control condition where TV was off)
If we see ourselves ignoring something, we assume we don’t care or it’s unimportant
How Do I Feel?
Bridge experiment: Men walking on the shaky bridge were more likely to call the attractive women after the experiment and write more romantic/sexual stories when told to write a story based on a picture they were given. This is due to adrenaline.
Level of physiological arousal determines intensity of emotion
But our attribution determines what we perceive that we’re feeling
What does it mean that your heart is racing when on a date on a Ferris wheel?
Attribute arousal to heights → not informative about how I feel about date
Attribute arousal to excitement → wow I’m really into this person!
Arousal is only one part of emotional experience
Self-Regulation
Self-regulation: set of processes for guiding one’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior to research desired goals
How you decide what goals to pursue
How you try to guide your thoughts, feelings, actions to meet those goals
Self-control is one part of regulation
You try to control yourself to better meet your goals
Self-Awareness
Definition: What are you paying attention to at a given moment?
Attention can be internal: focused on self
Attention can be external: focused on situation
Internal focus on self makes relevant goals, attitudes, values more salient
External focus reduces salience of self and of self’s foals, etc.
Self-Awareness Helps Self-Regulation
Self-awareness can help you act more in line with your goals, values, attitudes
Mirrors, cameras, your name increase self-awareness
They direct your attention to focus on the self
Increasing Self-Awareness
Participants in experiment administered punishment under low or high self-awareness
IV: how self-aware is participant
Condition 1: sat in front of mirror (high self-awareness)
Condition 2: sat without mirror (low self-awareness)
DV: how strongly does punishment level correlate with participants’ attitudes toward physical punishment?
In low self-awareness condition, there was little correlation between participants’ punishment attitudes and how much punishment they delivered
In high self-awareness condition (mirror), punishment attitudes were much more correlated with how much punishment they delivered
Self-awareness makes the self (goal, values, attitudes) more salient
Self-awareness makes it easier self-regulate
Self-Awareness as Feedback
Self-regulation is about pursuing our goals
Self-awareness helps us know what our goals are, but also helps us know how close/far we are from those goals
Ought self: who we think we should be
We feel guilty and anxious (expecting punishment) when we think we are far away from ought self
Ideal self: who we want to be
We feel sad when we think we are far away from ideal self
Escaping Self-Awareness
Sometimes, it’s so unpleasant to be self-aware we try to escape
Distraction can be good, or at least not harmful
Awareness of boredom → watching TV
Awareness of upcoming stressful test result → playing video game
But sometimes escape involves harmful behaviors
Alcohol, drugs, binge eating, self-harm, dangerous activities
Hope–you’re not there now, but you could be one day
Mindful awareness—noticing thoughts without judgment
Reappraisal—changing how you think about events or problems; therapy
Self-Awareness Summary
One part of self-regulation is what we want
Self-awareness helps by making what we want salient
Other part of self-regulation is how to get what we want
Self-awareness helps by comparing where we are to where we want to be
Self-awareness can make us feel good if we’re close to goals, bad if not
Sometimes we want to escape self-awareness because it feels bad
Self-Regulation Challenges
Video: Marshmallow experiment
Present vs. Future
Balancing present vs. future goals
Have to use self-control to shape present behavior to fit with longer-term goals
Challenges:
“Temporral discounting”
“Hot” vs “cold” thinking
Temporal Discounting
Definition: we place higher value on what’s happening in the present
Makes it harder to prioritize larger future gains over small immediate ones
1 marshmallow now vs. 2 in 10 minutes
Ways to fight temporal discounting
Connecting the Future to the Present
A study done where participants submitted a photo of themselves, which was then digitalized and aged up by the experimenters. Participants felt more connected to their older selves upon seeing the editing photo and strived to save for retirement. This fights against temporal discounting.
“Hot” vs. “Cold” Processes
“Hot” self-regulation: driven by strong and salient emotions
Orients us, directs our attention to seeking pleasure, avoiding pain
“Cold” self-regulation: driven by level-headed reasoning
Keeps us on track when we hit self-control conflicts, allows planning
Hot system says: “I want a marshmallow!”
Cold system says: If I wait, I get even more marshmallow
“Hot” Cognition Can Undermine Self-Regulation
Male participants completed survey while masturbating and while not masturbating
High sexual arousal = hot motivational state
Low sexual arousal = cold motivational state
Aroused participants reportedL
Higher willingness to engage in risky sexual behaviors (e.g., no condom)
Higher willingness to engage in sexual coercing (e.g., encourage date to drink)
Implementation Intentions
Definition: Mental rules reminding us to respond to a cue in a situation with a goal-directed behavior
If-then plans of action
“If [situation x] arises, then I will perform [action y].”
“When I wake up, I will stretch for 10 minutes.”
“When I go on a date, I will bring a condom.”
These are meant to take the weight off on some heavy decisions
Specificity of Implementation Intentions
More specific and concrete implementation intention are more useful
“If our friend is acting inappropriately, we…”
Not specific: “will intervene” – but how can you intervene?
Somewhat specific: “say we need him for a moment” – but how will he respond?
More specific: “say we need his help finding a phone outside.”
“Cool” Strategies
Definition: Using the “cool” motivational system to help reduce the impact of the “hot” motivational system