Chapter 2: The Self in the Social World

Spotlights and Illusions

Spotlights

Spotlight Effect

The belief that others are paying attention to one’s appearance and behavior than they really are.

Illusions

Illusions of Transparency

Illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and can be easily read by others.

Research Close-Up: On Being Nervous about Looking Nervous

Examples of interplay between our sense of self and our social world

• Social surroundings affect our self-awareness
• Self-interest colors our social judgement
• Self-concern motivates our social behavior
• Social relationships help define our self

Self-Concept: Who Am I?

Self-Concept

A person’s answers to the question, “Who am I?“

At the Center of Our Worlds: Our Sense of Self

Schema

Mental templates by which we organize our worlds.

Self-schema

Beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant information.

Possible Selves

Images of what we dream or dread becoming the future.

Development of the Social Self

What determines our self-concept?

• Roles we play
• Social identities we form
• Comparisons we make with others
• How other people judge us
• Surrounding culture

The Roles We Play

New roles begin as play acting then become reality.

Social Comparisons

We compare ourselves with others and consider how we differ; we tend to compare upward; social comparison can diminish satisfaction.

Success and Failure

Our daily experiences cause us to have empowerment or low self-esteem.

Other People’s Judgements

Looking-glass self

How we think others perceive us as a mirror for perceiving ourselves; by sociologist Charles H. Cooley (1902)

Self and Culture

Individualism

Concept of giving priority to one’s own goals over group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications; independent self; Western culture.

Collectivism

Giving priority to the goals of one’s group and defining one’s identity accordingly; interdependent self; Asian, African, and Central and South American cultures

Culture and Cognition

Richard Nisbett’s The Geography of Thought (2003) ;Contends that collectivism results in different ways of thinking; Asian tend to think more in relationships than Americans; Americans see choices as expressions of themselves.

Culture and Self-Esteem

Self-Knowledge

• Explaining our behavior

• Predicting our behavior

  • Planning fallacy

  Tendency to underestimate how long it will take to complete a task.

Predicting our Feelings

Studies of “affective forecasting“ reveal people have the greatest difficulty predicting the intensity and the duration of their future emotions.

Impact Bias

Overestimating the enduring impact of emotion-causing events.

Immune Neglect

Tendency to neglect the speed and strength of the “psychological immune system“ which enables emotional recovery and resilience after bad things happen.

The Wisdom and Illusions of Self-Analysis

Dual Attitude

Automatic implicit attitudes regarding someone or something often differ from our consciously controlled, explicit attitudes.

Self-Esteem

Our overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth; Specific self-perceptions have some influence; Feedback is best when it is true and specific.

Self-Esteem Motivation

• Self-esteem maintenance
• Self-esteem threats occur among friends whose successes can be more threatening than that of strangers
• Terror Management Theory states humans must find ways to manage their fear of death.

The Dark Side of Self-Esteem

Narcissism

• Delroy and Williams (2002)
• “The Dark Triad” of negative traits
  • Narcissism
  • Machiavellianism (Manipulativeness)
  • Antisocial Psychopathology

Perceived Self-Control

• Effortful self-control depletes our limiter willpower reserves.
• Our brain’s “central executive“ consumes available blood sugar when engaged in self-control

Self-Efficacy

How competent we feel on a task; Leads us to set challenging goals and to persist.

Locus of Control

Extent to which people perceive outcomes as internally controllable by their own efforts and actions or as externally controlled by chance or outside forces.

Learned Helplessness versus Self-Determination

Learned Helplessness

Hopelessness and resignation learned when a human or animal perceives no control over repeated bad events; Martin Seligman.

Self-Determination

Development of self-discipline in one area of your life may cause self-control in other areas as well.

The Costs of Excess Choice

Excess Freedom

• Too many choices can lead to dissatisfaction with our final choice.
• People tend to be generally happier with decisions when they can’t undo them.

Self-Serving Bias

• Tendency to perceive oneself favorably.
  • Explaining positive and negative events.

Self-serving Attributions

• Tendency to attribute positive outcomes to oneself and negative outcomes to other factor.
  • Contribute to marital discord, worker dissatisfaction, and bargaining impasses.

Can We All Be Better Than Average?

Most people see themselves as better than the average on the following dimensions:

• Subjective
• Socially desirable
• Common dimensions

Areas in which we believe we are above average:

• Ethics
• Professional Competence
• Virtues
• Intelligence
• Parental support
• Health
• Attractiveness
• Driving

Unrealistic Optimism

Is on the rise; Illusory optimism increases our vulnerability.

Defensive Pessimism

Adaptive value of anticipating problems and harnessing one’s anxiety to motivate effective action.

False Consensus Effect

Tendency to overestimate the commonality of one’s opinions and one’s undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors.

False Uniqueness Effect

Tendency to underestimate the commonality of one’s abilities and one’s desirable successful behaviors.

Explaining Self-Serving Bias

Self-serving bias is a by-product of how we process and remember information about ourselves.

Self-Serving Bias may be:

• Adaptive
  • Protects people from depression
• Maladaptive

Self-Presentation

Wanting to present a desired image both to an external audience (other people) and to an internal audience (ourselves)

Self-Handicapping

Protecting one’s self-image with behaviors that create a handy excuse for later failure.

Self-Monitoring

Tendency to act like social chameleons,