Social Perceptions and Self-Knowledge
Exam Two Information
The second exam will exclusively cover material discussed since the first exam. No in-depth study of content from the first exam is required.
The scope of the exam aligns exactly with what is outlined in the syllabus.
Review sessions are available; students are encouraged to meet with instructors for in-depth review, to clarify missed concepts, or discuss study strategies for exam two.
Social Perceptions: Biases and Attributions
The Actor-Observer Effect
Definition: Our tendency to attribute our own behavior to situational causes (external factors) and the behavior of others to dispositional causes (internal traits or personalities).
This differs from the fundamental attribution error by explicitly including our perspective on our own behavior, whereas fundamental attribution primarily focuses on overemphasizing dispositional factors for others' behavior while underestimating situational influences.
Impact on Failures: The effect is particularly strong with failures; we are more likely to explain our own poor performance or negative outcomes by citing situational circumstances (e.g., ).
We communicate these situational factors to others (e.g., .) to help them understand our performance or actions, rather than attributing them to an inherent personal flaw.
This is not necessarily making excuses, but acknowledging internal awareness of our own situation, which others lack.
Factors Explaining the Actor-Observer Effect
Perceptual Salience:
Actors (us): We are acutely aware of the situations influencing us (e.g., how we feel, what happened before an event).
Observers (others): They focus on us from the outside and lack access to our internal state or immediate situational context. This information is not salient to them.
Basic Information Access:
Actors possess more comprehensive information about themselves (their past behaviors, consistency, feelings) than observers.
Unless shared, this information remains private, making it difficult for observers to understand underlying reasons for behavior.
Motivational Bias:
This factor is distinct from the first two, which are more about information availability.
We are often motivated to protect our self-esteem and self-worth.
Therefore, we are more likely to attribute our failures or undesired outcomes to external, situational factors to avoid looking bad internally (e.g., .).
Conversely, successes are more often attributed to internal, stable factors (e.g., or .).
Self-Serving Attributions
Definition: A specific type of attribution where individuals tend to take internal credit for their successes and attribute their failures to external causes.
Cultural Context: A significant portion of this research has been conducted in the U.S., suggesting potential cultural variations in its expression.
Mechanism: Influenced by the actor-observer effect (awareness of personal impact) and a motivation to present oneself positively, especially to those not known well.
Demographics: Found across all age ranges and genders studied in the U.S. (primarily high school, college, and young adults).
Examples from Research:
Politics (1967 and replicated):
Wins: Politicians (and campaign workers) attribute success to internal factors (e.g., .).
Losses: They attribute defeat to external factors (e.g., .).
Minimizing Others' Success & Maximizing Others' Failures:
When others succeed, we tend to minimize their internal, dispositional responsibility (e.g., .).
When others fail, we tend to increase their personal responsibility (e.g., .).
College Student Attribution Patterns (Self vs. Other, Success vs. Failure):
Self-Success: Internal attributions (e.g., .).
Self-Failure: External attributions (e.g., .).
Other's Success: Situational attributions (e.g., .).
Other's Failure: Internal attributions (e.g., .).
Archival Analysis of Professional Sports Coaches and Writers
Study Design: Researchers analyzed thousands of attributions made by professional coaches, players, and sports writers (from NBA, MLB, NFL) in newspaper articles after team wins or losses.
Focused on home team outcomes and local sports writers' perspectives.
Findings (Internal Attributions):
Wins: Overall, there were more internal attributions following a win for both players/coaches and sports writers.
Losses: Significantly fewer internal attributions were made after a loss, implying a greater reliance on external or situational attributions (though the exact figure for external attributions was not presented, the opposite pattern was reported).
Correlation between Players/Coaches and Writers: Sports writers showed similar attribution patterns to players and coaches, attributing home team wins to internal factors and losses to situational factors.
Reason: This similarity is likely due to a subtle bias introduced by the writers' identity as fans of the home team; they tend to align with the sentiments of the players and coaches, reflecting their emotional investment in the team's success.
Self-Knowledge
The Importance of Self-Knowledge
Our beliefs about who we are are significantly shaped by our social world: what people tell us, how they treat us, and our social environment.
Self-knowledge influences how we perceive and interact with others, and vice versa.
We are influenced by others' perceptions and interactions; for example, if consistently told we are , we may internalize that self-perception.
Connects to confirmation biases: Our existing beliefs and attitudes about ourselves and the world impact our reactions to others.
Self-Concept and Self-Schema
An exercise of listing things that describe (starting with ) defines your self-concept or self-schema.
Self-Concept: Our knowledge and thoughts about who we are as a person; the overall set of beliefs we hold about our personal attributes; characteristics that make us unique.
Self-Schema: The specific cognitive structures that represent our beliefs and feelings about ourselves.
Self-Descriptors
Physical Descriptors: Appear first in self-development (e.g., .).
Young children often start their self-descriptions with these physical attributes.
Social Descriptors: Refer to relationships, group memberships (e.g., political, religious identity), social roles (e.g., mother, student, GW student, psych major), and ethnic identity.
Reflect how we fit into our social world and interactions.
Psychological Descriptors: Common among college students; refer to traits, states, attitudes, and beliefs not tied to specific relationships (e.g., .).
Influenced by past experiences and feedback from others.
Holistic Descriptors: Least common; very general, non-specific aspects of the self (e.g., .).
Lack individualistic specificity compared to the first three categories.
Variations in Self-Concept
Your self-concept is unique (no two lists are identical, though some overlaps exist, e.g., .).
It can change over time (e.g., over six months) based on salient events, current feelings, or life stages.
Strong personality traits (e.g., extroversion, introversion, maturity) tend to be more stable.
Cultural Variations in Self-Concepts
These are general trends observed in research, not absolute for every individual.
Individualist Orientation (e.g., Western cultures):
Emphasis on independent self-construal.
Focus on trait descriptors in self-description.
Self-esteem linked to individual traits and accomplishments.
Identity and goals encourage self-validation and expression of ego-focused emotions.
Collectivist Orientation:
Emphasis on interdependent self-construal.
More frequent mention of group-based affiliations or identities.
Self-esteem linked to family, group, and collective accomplishments.
Identity and goals may encourage group harmony and less focus on individual ego.
Practical Implication: Cultural orientation can influence therapeutic experiences, as counselors with similar cultural understanding might better navigate discussions around self-focus and emotional expression.
The Self-Reference Effect
Definition: The tendency to remember information better when it is related to the self.
Application: Useful for exam preparation; relating course material to personal experiences or the self enhances memory recall.
Cognitive Mechanisms: Material associated with the self is rehearsed more deeply and benefits from existing automatic associations and connections in the brain.
Extension: The effect can also apply to information related to close others (e.g., close relatives or loved ones), as we often have many associations with them.
Classic Study (1979):
Participants were given a list of words.
One group judged whether words were . (basic processing)
Another group judged whether the word . (self-reference)
Result: The self-reference group showed significantly better recall of the words in a subsequent free recall test.
Implicit and Explicit Self-Esteem
Implicit Self-Esteem: Unconscious or automatic positive evaluations of the self.
Measurement Example: Asking for favorite letters, a favorite number, and a favorite month. If these choices include one's initials, birth month, or significant numbers, it can correlate with higher implicit self-esteem.
IAT (Implicit Association Test): Measures the speed of associating self-related concepts with positive words, indicating implicit self-esteem.
Explicit Self-Esteem: Conscious and evaluative feelings about oneself.
Global Self-Esteem: An overall valuation of the self.
Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale: A common explicit measure asking direct questions about overall feelings of self-worth.
Characteristics of Self-Esteem
Relative Stability: Self-esteem is generally stable but can fluctuate temporarily in response to significant life experiences (e.g., successes, failures, acceptance, rejection).
Example: Gaining or losing an important internship can cause temporary shifts, but minor annoyances (e.g., missing public transport) usually do not.
Continuum: Self-esteem exists on a spectrum from low to high.
High Self-Esteem: Individuals with a highly positive global self-evaluation, who generally feel competent and good about themselves, even while acknowledging imperfections.
A majority of college students tend to report relatively high self-esteem.
Low Self-Esteem: Individuals with a generally negative global self-evaluation, experiencing more feelings of shame than pride, and often being more self-critical.
Low self-esteem is correlated with depression but does not directly cause it.
Correlates of High Self-Esteem (Consistent Research Findings)
Lower levels of stress.
Higher feelings of control.
Greater ability to self-regulate.
Higher intrinsic (internal) motivations.
Increased optimism and hope (which positively impact psychological and physical health).
Lower levels of depression.
Lower levels of substance use (though high self-esteem does not preclude substance use).
Sources of Self-Esteem (Social Psychology Perspective)
Evaluations of Successes and Failures: Our self-esteem is significantly impacted by how we evaluate our successes and failures, especially for outcomes we value highly (e.g., an important internship).
Acceptance and Rejection: How we are treated by others in our social world (e.g., acceptance vs. bullying) directly impacts our self-esteem.
Value Domains: The specific areas from which our feelings of self-worth are derived.
These domains are influenced by individual choices and cultural/societal values (e.g., academics, social skills, appearance, social relationships).
Example: A major breakup can significantly lower self-esteem if the relationship was a core part of one's social world.
Domain-Specific Self-Esteem: It's beneficial to measure self-esteem across different domains (e.g., academic, social, physical).
Diversification of Value Domains: Individuals with more diverse value domains ( domains) tend to experience less severe impacts on their global self-esteem when one domain takes a compared to those with fewer ( domains) highly valued domains.
Societal and Cultural Values: What constitutes or varies across societies (e.g., family vs. workforce success).
Research in over dozen countries indicates that males and middle-aged individuals often report higher self-esteem, potentially due to differing societal pressures (e.g., appearance standards for women) and media portrayals.
Enhancing Temporary Self-Esteem
BIRGing (Bask in the Reflected Glory): Increasing one's self-esteem by associating with successful individuals, groups, teams, or organizations.
Examples: Wearing school apparel after a sports team wins, parents posting about a child's accomplishment, using language (e.g., ) when referring to a team one supports but isn't part of.
Video Clip: A comedic illustration showed a character claiming a football team's success as won, despite having no direct involvement.
CORFing (Cut Off Reflective Failure): Distancing oneself from others who have failed, groups receiving negative publicity, or organizations experiencing losses.
Examples: Not posting about a team's loss, using language (e.g., ) instead of when referring to a failing group.
This behavior is often evident in social media, where people selectively post positive associations while avoiding negative ones to maintain a favorable self-image.
Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic Motivation: Pursuing a goal or engaging in an activity because one genuinely enjoys it and finds it interesting.
Leads to increased effort, time investment, active engagement, and higher long-term success.
Highly individualized; stems from self-regulation of time, energy, and effort.
Characterized by the absence of a primary external reward or pressure (though secondary external rewards, like good grades for a liked subject, can exist).
Often described as coming (e.g., volunteering).
Extrinsic Motivation: Pursuing goals or activities due to external rewards or pressures.
Examples: Doing chores for money, avoiding punishment, responding to pressure from authority figures or peers.
Less individualized; common extrinsic motivators include monetary rewards or compliance to avoid negative consequences.
The discussion on overjustification will continue in the next lecture.