The Self: Structure, Content, and Biases

The Self: Structure & Content

• James' I and Me:
  • I (Experiential Consciousness): The self as the subject, the one experiencing the world.
  • Me (Self-Concept): The self as an object, how we perceive and understand ourselves.
• Looking-Glass Self: Our self-concept is influenced by how we believe others perceive us, reflected appraisals.
• Cultural Differences in Self-Concept:
  • "Me Thinking" vs. "We Thinking": Individualistic cultures (Western) emphasize personal identity; Collectivistic cultures (Asian, Third World) prioritize group identity.

Self-Concept

• Identity: What matters to the individual.
• Self-Concept: Can be independent or interdependent, varying across cultures.
• Independent View of Self:
  • Personal identity defined by individual traits and goals.
  • Illustrative motto: "To thine own self be true."
  • Cultures that support: Individualistic Western cultures.
  • What matters: Me - personal achievement, fulfillment, rights, and liberties.
  • Disapproves of: Conformity.
• Interdependent View of Self:
  • Social identity defined by connections with others.
  • Illustrative motto: "No one is an island."
  • Cultures that support: Collectivistic Asian and Third World cultures.
  • What matters: We - group goals, solidarity, social responsibilities, and relationships.
  • Disapproves of: Egotism.

Beliefs About the Self

• Self-Esteem:
  • Global evaluation (affective judgment) about one's value and competency. It reflects how favorably someone evaluates himself or herself.
• Sample Items from Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem Scale
  • I feel that I am a person of worth, at least on an equal basis with others.
  • I feel that I have a number of good qualities.
  • I am able to do things as well as most other people
  • On the whole, I am satisfied with myself
  • At times I think I am no good at all (RS)
• Rotter's Locus of Control: Beliefs about the extent to which internal versus external factors play in affecting one's life.
• Bandura's Self-Efficacy: Beliefs about one's ability to succeed in specific situations or accomplish a task.
• Sample Items from a Self-Efficacy Scale
  • When I make plans, I am certain that I can make them work.
  • When I decide to do something, I go right to work at it.
  • I am a self-reliant person
  • If I see someone I would like to meet, I go to that person instead of waiting for him or her to come to me.
  • I do not seem capable of dealing with problems that come up in life (RS)

Self-Regulation

• Self-Control: A limited capacity resource that can be temporarily exhausted but strengthened over time through repeated use (practice).
• Association with Favorable Outcomes: Self-control is linked to positive social and psychological outcomes.

The “Better Than Average” Effect

• People tend to rate themselves as better than average on various positive traits.
• Example: Students rating themselves as wiser, more reliable, more honest, and more ethical than the average student.

Other Self-Enhancing Biases

• False Consensus: Overestimating how common one's own opinions and undesirable behaviors are.
• False Uniqueness: Underestimating how common one's own abilities and desirable behaviors are.
• Unrealistic Optimism: Believing that one is more likely to experience positive events and less likely to experience negative events compared to others.
• Barnum Effect: The tendency to accept vague and general personality descriptions as uniquely applicable to oneself, particularly if the description is flattering.

Self-Knowledge

• Accuracy of Memory: People often distort memories of their own attitudes, emotions, and behaviors to align with their current self-concept or desired image.
• Remembering Attitudes: Example recalling opinions on topics like legalizing pot, women's rights, and affirmative action.

Remembering Our Own Attitudes

• Attitudes: Remembering '73 in '82 (Markus,
  1986)

Remembering Our Own Emotions

• Menstruation, Recalled Mood, and Actual Mood (McFarland et al., 1989)

Self-Knowledge: Explaining Preferences/Behavior

• Limited Insight: People often have difficulty accurately explaining their own preferences, behaviors, and the reasons behind them.
• Nisbett & Wilson Studies: Power saw experiment and documentary study.
• Multiple-Choice Dilemma: Whether to stick with the initial answer or change it.
  *Based on your past experience, which should you do - stick with the first choice or change your answer? Here’s what students (and most professors) believe occurs when they change their answer.

Empirical Data on Multiple-Choice Answers

• Benjamin, Cavell, & Schallenberger (1984) Study:
  • Changing from right to wrong: 20%
  • Changing from wrong to wrong: 22%
  • Changing from wrong to right: 58%

Self-Perception Theory

• Inferring Attitudes: We infer our attitudes and feelings by observing our own behavior and the context in which it occurs.
• Facial and Kinesthetic Feedback Studies: Evaluation of stimuli and emotional states influenced by facial expressions and body movements.
• Overjustification Effect: Explaining how rewards can undermine intrinsic motivation.

Self-Perception Theory: Facial Feedback

• Positive Mood: Favorable evaluation of neutral stimuli.
• Negative Mood: Unfavorable evaluation of neutral stimuli.

Self-Perception Theory: Additional Examples

• Head-Nodding: Nodding can influence agreement with a message.
• Pulling Toward - Pushing Away: Actions can affect liking of stimuli.
• The Overjustification Effect:
  • Receiving rewards for enjoyable activities can decrease intrinsic motivation.

Overjustification Effect (Greene, Sternberg, & Lepper, 1976)

• Rewards and Motivation: Rewards lead us to infer extrinsic motivation rather than intrinsic motivation.

Social Comparison

• Evaluating Ourselves: We use others as a standard for evaluating ourselves.
• Reference Groups: We compare ourselves to similar others, often from our reference groups.
• Types of Comparisons:
  • Upward comparisons (comparing to those better than us).
  • Downward comparisons (comparing to those worse than us).
• Ambiguous Situations: Other people's behavior provides useful information.

Inferring Emotion: 2-Factor Theory of Emotion

• The 2-Factor Theory of Emotion (Schachter & Singer, 1962):
  1. Experience physiological arousal.
  2. Interpret arousal (make an attribution).
• "Suproxin" Study:
  • Participants received placebo or epinephrine.
  • Informed/not informed of the drug's effect.
  • Paired with hostile/euphoric confederate.
    • Aroused Informed: No Emotion
    • Aroused Not Informed: Emotion congruent to confederate.

Misattribution of Arousal: Dutton & Aron (1974)

• Bridge Experiment:
  • Men crossed either a low, secure bridge or a high, wobbly bridge.
  • Met by a female experimenter who gave them a questionnaire and her phone number.

Emotion & Misattribution: Fear or Sexual Attraction?

• Results: Men who crossed the high, wobbly bridge were more likely to call the woman.

Self-Presentational Phenomena: Impression Management

• Spotlight Effect: Overestimating how much others notice our actions and appearance.
• Illusion of Transparency: Overestimating how easily others can read our thoughts and feelings.
• Self-Handicapping: Creating excuses for possible future failure.
• False Modesty: Presenting oneself as humble or modest, even when successful.

False Modesty: Gratitude for Success

• Baumeister & Ilko (1995) Study:
  • Measured level of expressed gratitude to others for success, publicly vs. anonymously.

The Big Picture: Self-Biases

• Biases and Ambiguity: Biases emerge when information is ambiguous or lacking.
• Multiple Motives: Accuracy, homeostasis (self-verification), self-enhancement.
• Social Influence: The self is defined by and influenced by others.
• Adaptive Self-Deception: A little self-serving deception may be adaptive.
  • Benefits of unrealistic optimism.
  • Depressive realism.

Is Self-Deception Beneficial?

• Sackheim & Gur Study:
  • Assessed self-deception with an "embarrassing admissions" measure.
  • Those scoring highest in self-deception were better off psychologically, socially, and physically.

When Self-Serving Biases Become a Problem

• Overestimation: 90% of managers believe they are better than their peers.
• Unequal Contribution: In marriages, women report doing 70% of the housework, while men report doing 45%.
• Attribution of Credit/Blame: Groups take disproportionate credit for success and less blame for failure.

High SE and the Problem of “Threatened Egotism”

• Low SE and Aggression: Low SE is sometimes associated with antisocial behavior.
• Violent Criminals: Violent criminals, bullies, and perpetrators of genocide often have high self-appraisals.
• Inflated SE: Inflated SE may lead to threatened egotism.
  • Resulting in a sense of offense, disrespect, or injustice.