Psych of Self ~ Exam

Lecture 6 ~ February 26th

Regulatory & Executive Functions of the Self

What is Self-Regulation

• Self-regulation occurs when the self modifies, alters, or otherwise changes itself or its responses

• Self-regulation involves goal-directed behaviour

• Self-regulation involves a set of processes or subprocesses that allow the generation, modulation, maintenance, reduction or inhibition of a given response

  • Many of these processes are also those involved in executive functioning

    • Cognitive processes needed to focus attention, formulate goals, plan a series to achieve your goals and mantain then plan in memory so that you can carry it out.

      • Ex. Inhibition, working memory, task switching

In Childhood

• Ability to comply with a request, to initiate and cease activities according to situational demands

  • Requires awareness of socially-approved behaviours

    • Important aspect of socialization

• Kopp (1982)

  • Model of the development of self-regulation in childhood

  • Neurophysiological modulation

    • Birth to 2-3 months

    • Control of arousal states to protect against intrusive or strong stimulation

      • Active and passive mechanisms

        • Ex. Non-nutritive sucking to self-soothe, neurological safeguards

    • Control of arousal states in nonconscious

    • Caregiver’s role is to provide assistance

  • Sesorimotor Modulation

    • 3- 9-12 months

    • Ability to engage ina voluntary motor act and change the act in response to events that arise

    • Does not require volition

    • Helps infant become aware of their own actions in holding, reaching, etc.

  • Control

    • 9-12 to 18+ months

    • Ability to…

      • Show awareness of social or task demands that have been defined by caregivers

      • Initiate, maintain, modulate, or cease physical acts, communication, and emotional signals accordingly

    • Requires conscious volition

    • Emerges out of advances in cognitive processing abilities

      • Increasing differentiation of self from others and objects

  • Control features

    • Compliance to demands

    • Self-initiated monitoring of behaviour

      • Active

      • Memory

    • Self-initiated inhibition

    • Reciprocal social interactions

  • Limited by memory constraints as well as affect inhibition

  • Self-control

    • 24+ months

    • Compliance

    • Ability to delay an act on request and abillity to behave according to caregiver and social expectations in the absence of external monitors

    • Symbolic functioning

      • Ex. Emergence of me-self

  • Self-regulation

    • 36+ months

    • Same features as self-control, but greater flexibility of control processes that meet changing situational demands

• Different methods used to measure self-regulatory abilities

  • Ex. Stroop tasks

  • Ex. Go/no go tasks

  • Ex. Stop-signal tasks

  • Ex. Delay of gratification tasks

• Gradual mastery

• High self-regulatory skills linked to a wide range of positive outcomes

  • But there is some controversy with the marshmallow task

    • Initial studies by Mischel & collegues not replicated

      • Self-regulatory skills or trust?

• Parenting plays an important role in development

  • Ex. Overcontrolling/intrusive parenting(Perry et al. 2018

In Adulthood

• Self-control vs. Self-regulation

  • Used synonymously, but…

    • Self-control

      • Conscious, intentional attempts to control behaviour

• Self-regulation

  • Includes both conscious and nonconscious control over behaviour

• WHAT IS SELF-REGULATION?

  • Carver & Scheier’s (1982) Control Theory model of self-regulation

    • Derived from control theory

    • Basic unit is the negative feedback loop

      

    • 1-4 make up the feedback loop

    • 5&6 external to the feedback group and affect the functioning of the loop

    • 1) current state

    • 2) comparator has two functions:

      • Compares Input function to some reference value to determine if there is a match or a discrepancy

      • Decides whether to exit loop or continue loop

        • Comparato will decide to exit loop if:

          • Input function = reference value

          • Efficacy expectations or outcome expectations not met

          • Input function ≠  reference value

            • Comparator decides to continue loo because

              • Efficacy and outcome expectations met

    • 3) new behaviour

    • 5) goal/ standard for behaviour — the ideal state

    • 6) external factor that impacts environment (4)

  • Reference Values

    • Hierarchical organization

      • Multiple feedback loops at different levels

      • Self-schemas are at the highest levels

        • Become activated when attention is turned to the self

    • At the highest level

      • Based on overarching schemas (ex. Ideal self)

        • Specify which standards, as well as behaviours, minimize the discrepancy.

Carver & Scheier: Self-control vs Self-Regulation

• Self-control

  • Requires volition (conscious action)

  • First, establish a goal that one wants to meet

  • Compare present state to reference value

  • If discrepant, engage in behaviours to reduce discrepancy, i.e., arrive at goal

    • Remember the role of expectancies

  • Compare new present state to reference value

  • If no longer discrepant, exit loop

• Self-regulation

  • Does not require conscious volition

    

  • Goals (and expectancies) are  represented mentally

  • Can be primed (triggered) outside of awareness and then run to completion, attaining the desired outcomes

  • Requires sufficient experience (i.e, consistent and repeated activation given a particular context) to gain automaticity

    • i.e., to be activated automatically

What is Self-Control

• Self-control as ego depletion

  • Temporary reduction in the self’s capacity or willingness to engage in volitional action caused by prior exercise of volition

  • Volition is an important aspect of self

  • Energy or strength is required for acts of volition

    • This energy is a limited resource

Baumeister et al (1998):

• Model 1: Self-control is a skill that develops gradually over time

  • On any given occasion, this skill remains constant across repeated trials

    • H1: no change in effectiveness of self-control over two successive exertions within a short time

• Model 2: Carver & Scheier’s (1982) Control Theory Model

  • Initial act of self-control activates the ‘self-regulation’ schema, which facilitates subsequent self-control

    • H1: effectiveness of self-control will increase over two successive exertions within a short time

• Model 3: self-control as ego depletion model

  • Initial act of self-control involves expenditure of energy, thus depleting supply available for future self-control

    • H1: effectiveness of self-control will decrease over two successive exertions within a short time

• EXPERIMENT 1

  • Method

    • 61 undergrads assigned to one of 3 conditions

      • Chocolates, radishes, no food control

    • 5 mins to taste the assigned food

    • 15 mins wait period - completed problem-solving task, and time taken to give up, and number of attempts recorded

  • Results

    • Radish condition gave up quicker and made attempts

• EXPERIMENT 2

  • Act of making the choice to engage in counter-attitudinal(and also pro-attitudinal) behaviour depletes the volitional resource

  • Method

    • 39 undergrads assigned to one of 4 conditions (counter-attitudinal choice, counter-attitudinal no choice, pro-attitudinal choice, no speech control)

    • Make an audiotape of a speech aimed at altering people’s attitudes

  • Results

    • Participants who had a choice persisted less and made fewer attempts

• EXPERIMENT 3

  • Persistence on insolvable puzzles may not reflect optimal self-regulation

  • Assessed performance on solvable anagrams

  • Participants who were instructed to suppress emotional response had poorer performance

• EXPERIMENT 4

  • How does self-control undermine subsequent decision-making

  • Used the passive-option effect

    • Active responses require expenditure of limited resources

    • Hypothesized greater persistence when persistence is passive rather than active

  • Ego depletion will enhance this response

  • Results

    • Participants in the ego depletion condition watched more of the movie when quitting was the active response

• Some recent studies have failed to replicate Baumeister et al. (1998)) [Ex. Cater et al’s (2015) meta-analysis of ~620 depletion studies)

  • Why?

    • Publication bias overestimates effect size

      • But size of bias difficult to estimate

    • Effect non-existent

    • Weak manipulations

    • Effect is influence by moderators (ex. Beliefs regarding willpower)

Self-Regulation Success vs. Failure

Self-Change

• Self-change is not always easy, as self-regulation must be sustained

  • Most people actually fail after that initial attempt

    • Why?

      • Remember self-motives

        • Self-verification: we seek out consistency in how we see ourselves

        • Self-enhancement: We want to maintain positive self-views

      • Remember self-schemas & autobiographical memory

        • Self-schemas are resistant to change

      • Focus on initial stage, not enough focus on the other stages

• According to Vohs et al (2007), there are 3 ingredients for successful self-control

  • Having a standard (goal)

    • Some goals are better than others

      • Ex. Specific goals

      • Ex. Stretch goals

      • Ex. Self-concordant goals

      • Ex. Fit between goal type and regulatory style

        • Ex. Promotion focus + approach goals vs. Prevention focus + avoidance goals

  • Following a regimen to achieve the goal (operations)

    • Following a regimen to achieve a goal

    • Self-regulatory “strength” required in order to perform the operations needed to reach goal

    • Finite, limited cognitive resources

  • Monitoring progress along the way (monitoring)

    • Little empirical attention

    • Involves being aware of the self and its standards

    • Self-awareness plays a key role

      • Loss of self-control occurs with loss of self-awareness

        • Ex. Deindividuation when in a large crowd

Lecture 7 ~ March 5th

Self & Emotions

Emotions

What are they?

• Discrete, transient, neuropsychological reactions to events that have consequences for our welfare, and require an immediate behavioural response

• Emotions are reactions

• Encompass:

  • Feelings

    • Subjective

    • We can tell emotions from eachother because they do not feel the same way

  • Physiological Reactions

    • Changes in heart rate

    • Sweating

    • Neurophysiological changes

      • Certain regions of the brain are involved in bringing about emotion

  • Cognitive Changes

    • Changing attentional awareness

    • Take in more or less information about our environment

    • Memory systems

    • Appraisal theories

    • Can bias us

  • Behavioural intentions

    • Part of our reactions

    • Some predispose us to behave in certain behaviours

  • Expressive behaviour

    • Non-verbal behaviour to express our emotions

Self-Conscious Emotions vs. Basic Emotions

• Basic Emotions

  • More biologically based

    • Shared with other animals

    • Panculturally experienced

    • Identifiable via discrete, universally recognized facial expressions

    • Located at basic level of emotion lexicon

    • Easy to elicit in the lab

  • Emotions:

    • Anger

    • Joy

    • Fear

    • Sadness

    • Surprise

    • Disgust

• Self-Conscious Emotions

  • More cognitively complex

  • Antecedent, subjective experience & consequences differ across cultures

  • No discrete, universally recognized facial expressions

  • Subsumed by basic emotions in most emotion lexicons

  • Difficult to elicit in the lab

  • Must have some idea of ourselves and who we are.

  • Violate some kind of standard of expectation

  • Emotions

    • Guilt

    • Shame

      • self

    • Pride

    • Hubris

    • Embarassement

    • Envy

Core Features of S-C Emotions

• Emerge later in childhood than basic emotions

  • Basic emotions emerge  ~ 9 months

  • S-C emotions emerge  ~3rd year of life

• Why

  • Because S-C emotions

    • Core Feature #1

    • Core Feature #2

      • Require complex cognitive abilities…

        • Recognize external standards

          • Remember Kopps control stage (~12 months)

        • Form stable mental self-representations

          • Remember mirror self-recognition (cognitive self) (18-24 months)

        • Focus attention on one’s self-representations

        • Adopt external standards for oneself

          • Internalize the emotions

          • Remember Kopp’s self-control stage (~24+ months)

        • Evaluate the self in relation to external standards

          • Remember self-evaluations (2-5 years and beyond)

    • Core Feature #3

      • Facilitate the attainment of complex social goals

        • Ex. Maintenance and enhancement of social status

          • Ex. Pride

        • Ex. Prevention of rejection by group

          • Ex. Shame & guilt

    • Core Feature #4

      • S-C emotions do not have discrete, universally recognized facial expressions, but..

        • Have distinct nonverbal expressions

          • Ex. Pride and shame have bodily posture or head movements combined with facial expression

        • Why?

Why Don’t S-C Emotions Have Discrete Facial Expressions?

• The more complex nonverbal expressions may better fit the complex messages conveyed

• S-C emotions convey messages that are often less urgent

• S-C emotions more frequently expressed through language than nonverbal expressions

  • Allows for more deliberate processing of message

  • Allows for the production of verbal language

• May, at times, be maladaptive, increases need for regulation

  • Facial expressions more difficult to regulate

    • Ex. Pride

      • In some cultures, open diplays pf pride lowers likability.

Self- Discrepancy Theory (Higgins)

• Different mental representations of the self

• We can create possible selves

• Domains of the Self

  • Actual self

    • Representations of the attributes that someone believes that you possess

  • Ideal Self

    • Representations of the attributes that someone would like you, ideally, to possess

  • Ought Self

    • Representations of the attributes that someone believes that you should/ought to possess

• Standpoints on the self

  • Own standpoint

    • Actual/own, ideal/own, ought/own

  • Other’s standpoint

    • Significant others, “generalized” other

    • Actual/other, Ideal/other, Ought/other

• Central to self-concept

  • Actual/own, actual/other

• Self-guides

  • Ideal/own, ideal/other, ought/own, ought/other

• Self discrepency theory: Part 1

  • We are motivated to reach a condition where our self-concept matches our personally relevant self-guides

  • Discrepency:

    • Self-concept ≠ Self-guide

  • Several theories postulate that we experience psychological discomfort when there are discrepancies between our beliefs

    • Ex. Cognitive dissonance theory, balance

  • In the absence of positive outcomes

    • Dejection-related emotions

      • Ex. Disappointment, sadness, dissatisfaction

  • In the presence of neagative outcomes

    • Agitation-related emotions

      • Ez. Fear, threat

• Self-discrepancy theory: part 2

  • Actual/own vs Ideal/own

    • Absence of positive outcomes

      • Dejection-related emotions

        • Disappointment & dissatisfaction & frustration

  • Actual/own vs ideal/other

    • Absence of positive outcomes

      • Dejection-related emotions

        • Shame & embarrassment & concern over losing affection of others

  • Actual/own vs. Ough/own

    • Presence of negative outcomes

      • Agitations-related emotions

        • Guilt & self-contempt & feelings of moral unworthiness

  • Actual/own vs ought/other

    • Presences of negative outcomes

      • Agitation-related emotions

        • Fear & feeling threatened & resentement

• Self-discrepancy theory: Part 3

  • Availability of a particular discrepancy involves the presence discrepencies

  • How available a discrepency is inmemory the greater the effect of it

    • The greater the number of mismatches, the greater the magnitude of the discrepancies of that type that are available.

    • The greater the magnitude, the greater the intensity of the discomfort when that discrepancy is activated

    • Accessibility of a particular discrepancy involves the likelihood that discrepancies will be activated

      • Temporary activation (priming)

        • Discrepancy recently activated

      • Chronic activation

        • Discrepancy frequently activated

      • Remember conscious and nonconscious activation

Process Model of Self-Conscious Emotions (Tracy and Robins)

Process model of S-C emotions

• Tracy & Robins (2004)

  • Tells you what processes give rise to specific S-C emotions

    • Ex. Under what conditions are S-C emotions likely to be expirenced

  • Based on appraisals, i.e., how you judge events

  • Always begins with an event

  • Different appraisals (green)

  • Emotions (rest)

Major Appraisals

• Relevant to survival?

  • Am I going to die as a result of the event?

• Is attention focused on the self?

  • Involves a state of objective self-awareness (or self-focused attention)

    • When in this state, self-representations are activated

    • Mental representations of the self

    • Is this an event that will make me question who I am ect.

• Relevant to identify goals?

  • Does it matter to who I am or who I want to be?

    • Identity is threatened or elevated, and the corresponding self-evaluation

• Is there congruence between identity goals and the event?

  • Determines the valence of the outcome emotion

    • Goal congruent: positive emotion

    • Goal incongruent (discrepancy): negative emotion

    • Current self-representations activated by the event are compared to stable, long-term self-representations or goals

• Locus Attribution

  • What caused the event?

    • Internal cause — within the individual

    • External cause — outside the individual

  • Actual main question: ‘Is there something about ME that caused the event?’ Not “did I cause the event?”

    • ‘ME’ = all aspects of one’s identity

    • Important for vicarious vs direct experience

      • Is it something about my self-concept that caused the event (people, objects, self)

• Stability, controllability, and globality attributions

  • Is the cause stable or unstable?

  • Is thecause controllable or uncontrollable?

  • Is the cause global or specific?

2 Paths to NO EMOTION

• 1) event -> relevant survival (no) -> activation of self-awareness (no) = No emotion

  • No situational factors

  • Attention focused on the interesting ebook

    

• 2) event  (pick up midterms)-> Survival (no) -> activateself domains or self-representations (yes) -> relevant to identity goals (no) -> NO emotion

  • Class you dont need or care about (identity goals)

2 Paths to BASIC EMOTIONS

• 1) Event -> survival (no) -> self awareness (yes) -> Identity goals (yes) -> congruence on identitty goals (no) -> Locus Attribution (external)= negative basic emotion

  • Class you need and care about

  • Domain is important for success

  • Corresponding self-evaluation is made

  • Discrepency = negative emotion

  • If it’s external, then basic

  • If there is conguence then positive basic emotion

    

• 2) event -> survival (yes) = basic emotion

Path to Embarrassment

• 1) event (date) -> survival (no) -> enhanced self-awareness (yes) -> identity goal relevance (yes) -> congurence with identity goals (Incongruent=negative emotion) -> Lcus Attribution (internal (public)) = embarrassement

  • Identity goal relevance

    • Relational context is important for success.

    • Corresponding self-evaluation is made (ex. I did non makae a good impression)

  • If you make internal public self (social self) locus attribution

    

Path to Shame

• Event (midtem pick up) -> survival (no) -> self-representations (yes) -> identity goals (yes)  -> congruence (incongruent) -> Locus Attribution (internal private) -> global, stable, uncontrollable attibutions = shame

  • You need the course

  • You wanna and need to do well, but you did not = discrepancy

  • If you make an internal private locus attribution (I did something to cause this)

    • I’m a dumb person

      • How smart you are will affect everything (global)

      • Can’t control

      • Stable

  • Something about me caused me to fall short of this standard

    

Path to Hubris

• Event (midtem pick up) -> survival (no) -> self-representations (yes) -> identity goals (yes)  -> congruence (congruent) -> Locus attribution (internal private)-> Stable, unctrollable, global = Hubris

  • Positvie emotion because there is congruence

  • If attribute it to internal casue (im smart

    • Stable, unctrollable, global for positive slef relevant event = hubris

    • When who you are exeedes the standards

      

Path to Guilt

• Event (midtem pick up) -> survival (no) -> self-representations (yes) -> identity goals  (yes)  -> congruence (incongruent) -> Locus attribution (internalprivate)-> unstable, controllable, specific = guilt

  • If attributed to  “I didn’t study enough” (controllable, unstable, and specific)

  • Shame you believe who you are is why you didnt live up to a standard

  • Guilt is you believe that actions are the reason why we fall short

    

Path to Pride

• Event (midtem pick up) -> survival (no) -> self-representations (yes) -> identity goals (yes)  -> congruence (congruent) -> Locus attribution (internal private)-> unstable, controllable, specific = pride

• If you attribute it to action =pride

• If attribute it to self = hubris

  

Envy

• Feelings of inferiority, hostility, and resentment caused by a comparison with a person or group of persons who possess something we desire

• Comparison must be in an important domain

• Sense that the envied person’s advantage is unfair

• Relatively little empirical research

  • Why?

    • Similar to other emotions

Envy vs. Longing

• Envy

  • Involves focusing on the person who possesses what one desires

  • Involves feelings of hostility towards the person who possesses what one desires

  • Is often kept secret

• Longing

  • Involves focusing on the thing itself that one would like to possess

  • Lacks antagonistic implications

  • Lacks worry that others will miscontrue one’s feelings

Envy vs. Jealousy

• Envy

  • Involves two people

  • Occurs when one lacks something enjoyed by another

  • Experience is less intense than jealousy

• Jealousy

  • Fear of losing someone

  • Involves three (or more) people

    • afraid someone else is gonna take someone from us

  • Occurs when one fears losing someone to another person

  • Experience is more intense than envy

Envy vs. Resentment

• Envy

  • Sense of injustice (or unfairness) is subjectively derived

    • No objective evidence

• Resentment

  • Sense of injustice is objectively derived

    • Clear violation of agreed upon standards for treatment

Beyond These Emotions

• Compassion

  • Self-compassion?

• Contempt

  • Something inferior about someone else

  • Self-contempt?

    • We feel we are morally unworthy

Summary

• The main self-conscious emotions - envy, embarrassment, pride, hubris, guilt and shame - differ from the basic emotions in that their experience requires the self

• There are 4 core features of the self-conscious emotions

• Self-discrepancy theory predicts that certain mismatches between our self-concept and relevant self-guides produces self-conscious emotions

• Tracy & Robin’s Process theory of emotions uses attributions to specify when self-conscious emotions will be experienced

Lecture 8 ~ March 12th

Self- & Culture

What is Culture

• “A unique meaning and information system, shared by a group and transmitted across generations, that allows the group to meet basic needs of survival, pursue happiness and well-being, and derive meaning from life.”

What are the Contents of Culture?

• Objective contents

  • Objective, explicit elements that are physical

    • Ex. A building, a coffee cup, a mug, a thermos, etc

    • Ex. Architecture, clothing, books, foods, art, eating utensils, etc.

• Subjective contents

  • All those parts of a culture that do not survive humans as physical artifacts

    • Ex. Psychological processes, values, beliefs, attitudes, behaviours, norms, worldviews, etc

Cultural Values

• 6 dimensions

  • Power distance: ( acceptance of unequal distributions of power_

  • Uncertainty avoidance: (threatened by unknown or ambiguous situations)

  • Masculinity vs femininity: (importance of success/money vs caring for others

  • Long- vs short-term orientation: (delayed gratification of material, social and emotional needs)

  • Indulgence vs. Restraint: (pursuit of happiness vs. control thorugh social norms

  • Individualism vs collectivism: (focus on self & immediate family vs members of larger in-group)

Schwartz

• Embeddedness (conservation)

  • Ex. Respect for tradition, social order, obedience

• Intellectual autonomy

  • Ex. Individual pursuit of ideas

• Affective autonomy

  • Ex. Individual pursuit of positive experiences

• Hierarchy

  • Ex. Modesty, self-control

• Egalitarianism

  • Social justice, equality

• Mastery

  • Ex. Independence ambition

• Harmony

  • Unity with nature, world peace

Culturally-Divergent Self-Construals

Culture and Self

• Universal aspects of self

  • Ex. Self-continuity & self-coherence

  • Ex. Inner, private self

• But there is cultural divergence

  • Ex. Content, structure & importance of inner, private self vs. Outer, public self

• Why is there divergence?

  • Based on implicit, normative tasks that various cultures hold for what people should be doing with their lives

Independent Self-contrual

• Western cultures

• Normative imperative

  • To become independent from others

  • To discover and express one’s unique attributes

• How is that reinforced?

  • People are encouraged to…

    • Discover their uniqueness

    • Find a way to stand out from relevant others

• Independent self-construal

  • Self as an individual whose behaviour is organized by reference to one’s own internal repertoire of thoughts, feelings, and actions

• Features of the independent self-construal:

  • Unique

  • Bouded

  • Singular

  • Autonomous

  • Continuous across time and contexts

• Self must be responsive to the social environment

  • Social interactions as a means to best express or assert the internal attributes of the self

  • Others primarily important for social comparison and reflected appraisal (i.e., self-evaluation)

Interdependent Self-Contrual

• Non-western cultures

  • Normative imperative:

    • To maintain interdependence among individuals

  • How is that reinforced?

    • People are encouraged

      • Find a way to fit in with relevant others

      • Fulfill and create obligation

      • Become part of various interpersonal relationships

• Interdependent self-contrual

  • Self as an individual who is a part of an encompassing social relationship whose behaviour is determined, contingent on, and organized by what the actor perceives to be the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others

• Features of the interdependent self-construal

  • Connected others

  • Less differentiated from others

  • Flexible and variable across time and contexts

    • Internal attributes understood as situation-specific

    • Emphasis on socially appropriate sentiment and behaviour

  • Internal attributes only assigned secondary roles

    • Must be constantly controlled and regulated because of primary role of interdependence

    • Greater tendency toward personal adjustments and accommodation

  • Self must be responsive to the social environment

    • Social interaction fostered for the sake of responsiveness itself

      • Others participate actively and continuously in the definition of the interdependent self

    • Does not…

      • Result in the merging of self and other

      • Imply that one must always be in the company of others

      • Imply that people do not have a sense of themselves as autonomous agents

      • Imply that attention to other is indiscriminate

Independent vs Interdependent Self-Construal

• Little evidence supporting only 2 culturally-divergent self-construals

  • Except neuroscientific evidence

• More evidence supporting a view that cultures are not associated with a single sense of self or even a primary sense of self

• Mixed support for assumption that American culture is more individualistic than east asian cultures

Culture and Development of Self-Knowledge

Wang (2006)

• Development of self-knowledge

  • Process of cultural adaptation in which children, guided by socialization agents, internalize cultural views about the self into their own self-understanding and remembering

• Self- concept

  • Compared to Chinese children, EA children described more…

    • abstract dispositions and inner traits (compared to more situation-bound characteristics and overt behaviours)

    • Positive self-evaluations (vs. Neutral terms)

• Autobiographical memory

  • Cultural views about the self…

    • Influence how individuals sample, process, retain, and retrieve autobiographical information

      • Directs cognitive resources toward processing and encoding certain information about one’s experiences of events

      • Memories for certain events thus become richly represented and highly accessible

  • Emphasis on autonomy

    • Directs cognitive resources toward elaborate encoding of personal experiences, specifically events unique to the individual and focusing on individual’s own roles and perspectives

    • Help individuals distinguish self from others and reaffirm their unique identity

  • Emphasis on relatedness

    • Directs cognitive resources toward elaborate encoding of social knowledge

    • Help individuals maintain and promote social harmony and group solidarity by directing behaviour

• Family memory sharing may be a critical way to transmit cultural views of the self

  • Parents…

    • Model to children appropriate ways of organizing, evaluating, and sharing their past experiences

    • Help children build their critical link between self-concept and autobiographical memory

  • Emphasis on individuality

    • Use of memory sharing as a means of helping children construct elaborate personal stories to build a unique individual identity

  • EA mothers

    • Frequently supplemented, embellished, information and commented and expanded on children’s memory responses

    • Focused on the child, child’s roles and predictions

      • Scaffolds children’s participation and provides a narrative structure for the construction of personal stories

  • Emphasis on relatedness

    • Use of memory sharing to instill social  knowledge and a sense of belonging

  • Chinese mothers

    • Took a directive role in posing questions, provided less embellishment, and provided feedback

    • Focused on social norms and behavioural expectations, and placed past events in a more social-relational context

      • Situates the child in a relational hierarchy, encourages them to abide and develop a sense of belonging

Consequences of Culturally Divergent Self-Construals

Consequences of self-continuity

• Tafordi et al. (2004)

  • Purpose

    • To examine the experience of continuity of the inner self across different cultures

  • Compared to Western cultures, in non-Western cultures

    • Inner self-experience as less continuous, i.e., less coherent and less constant

Tafordi et al (2004)

• Although previous studies showed cultural differences in identity consistency

  • Self-descriptions may have reflected beliefs about which descriptive features are relevant and appropriate to share

    • Private thoughts about the self do not to be consistent with public statements about the self

  • Some self-descriptions may reflect short-term activities and states

  • Fulfilling social expectations of how one should act in a given situation does not require that one is the action

• Method

  • More cross-national comparisons than cross-cultural

  • 100 European Canadian, Japanese, and Chinese participants

  • Participants responded to several questions regarding their inner self and its expression in their behaviour

    • Categorical responses (yes, no, undecided) versus rating scale

• Results - differences

  • Both Chinese and Japanese Ps were less likely than Canadians to agree that their inner selves remain the same across activity domains

    • Not due to confusion

  • East Asians expressed inner self in fewer activities compared to Canadians

    • The most frequent activities were similar across the 3 groups

• Results - Similarities

  • No differences in terms of

    • How good it feels to behave in a manner that contrasts with it

    • Extent of striving for inner self-expression

• Implications and limitations

  • There are consequences for self-continuity

    • Some evidence supporting hypothesis that East Asians experience a less continuous inner self than do Canadians

    • But the difference is not as stark theories propose

  • Self-reports may reflect reports of cultural norms or beliefs about the self and not the actual experience of the self

  • Reliance on university students

Consequences

For emotion

• Independent

  • Ego-focused

    • Ex. Anger, frustration, pride

    • Individual’s internal attributes as the primary referent

    • Results from the blocking, satisfaction or confirmation of one’s internal attributes

    • Experience and expression also highlights these self-defining, internal attributes

• Interdependent

  • Other focused

    • Ex. Sympathy, empathy, shame

    • Other’s needs as the primary referent

    • Result from being sensitive to others, taking their perspective and attempting to promote interdependence

    • Experience and expression also highlights interdependence, cooperation, reciprocity

For Motivation to Avoid Cognitive Conflict

• Independent

  • Motivated to avoid cognitive conflict

    • Internal attributes are regarded as the significant attributes of the self

    • Less tolerant of contradiction and incompatible

• Interdependent

  • Less concerned with cognitive conflict

    • Internal attributes are not regarded as the significant attributes of the self

    • Private feelings are regulated in accordance with requirements of the situation

    • More tolerant of contradiction and incompatible personal beliefs

For Motivation to enhance Self-esteem

• Independent

  • Derived from possessing good personal qualities and attributes, and personal success and achievement

• Interdependent

  • Derived from fulfilling the tasks associated with being interdependent with relevant others

    • Belonging, fitting in, occupying one’s proper place

    • Self-esteem more based on ability to exert control over own desires and needs so that one can fit in and belong

• Early studies

  • Members of individualistic cultures scored higher on self-esteem measures than members of collectivistic cultures

  • Not actually that they have higher self-esteem, Self-enhancement vs self-effacement

• Better than average effect

• More recent studies

  • Self-enhancement in culturally valued domains

    • Tactical self-enhancement

    • Mutual enhancement

      • More implicit

  • Satisfies universal need to enhance self-esteem

Summary

• While there are some aspects of the self are universal, there exist differences that are culturally dependent

• Culture influences both self-concept and autobiographical memory primarily through interactions with primary caregivers

• Culturally divergent self-construals have consequences for subjective experience of the self, emotion, and motivation

Lecture 9 ~ March 19th

Self & Close Relationships

Attachment

• A long-enduring, emotionally meaningful tie to a particular person

John Bowlby’s Attachment Theory

• Infants are biologically-biased to develop attachments to caretakers

  • Why?

    • Evolutionary pressures favoured certain behaviours in infants

    • … because these behaviours elicited a response in adults that increased infant’s likelihood of survival

    • We evolved an attachment behavioural system

      • An inborn, preset program that functions to protect a person (esp. during infancy) from danger by ensuring that proximity to caring, supportive others is maintained

Attachment Behavioural System: Core Features

• Purpose of system is to increase likelihood of survival and reproductive success by protecting individual, esp. during times of threat

• Includes a set of interchangeable, functionally-equivalent behaviours for goal attainment (strategies)

  • Bowlby: Proximity-seeking is the primary strategy

    • Ex. Active approach behaviours, overt displays of negative affect, mental representations

    • Felt security when successful; distress when unsuccessful

      • Main & Cassidy: Can use secondary strategies if primary strategies fail

        • Hyperactivation

        • Deactivation

          • Suppressing need for the parental figure

• Associated with cognitive operations

  • Involves processing person-environment information

    • Ex. Monitoring internal and external environments

  • Monitoring and appraising attachment figure’s responses to proximity-seeking attempts

  • Monitoring viability of chosen strategies

• Associated with cognitive operations

  • Leads to the creation of Internal Working Models (IWMs)

    • Mental representations of person-environment interactions

      • Experiences are internalized and integrated with representations of self (e.g., one’s efficacy and value) and others (e.g., attachment figures’ responses)

      • Help guide behaviour, plan responses and shape sense of self

      • Organizational, motivational, protective and regulatory functions of the self

• With repeated activations of attachment behavioural system, IWMs become more stable and generalized, producing a stable individual

Infant Attachment: Mary Ainsworth

• Secure attachment

  • Connection to Bowlby’s Attachment Behavioural System:

    • Primary strategies successful

      • Felt security

    • Attachment figure seen as safe haven and secure base

• Insecure Avoidant Attachment

  • Connection to Bowlby’s Attachment Behavioural System:

    • Primary strategies unsuccessful

      • Distress

    • Deactivation Strategies

• Insecure: Resistant Attachment

  • Connection to Bowlby’s Attachment Behavioural System

    • Primary strategies unsuccessful

      • Distress

    • Hyperactivation strategies

• Disorganized/ Disoriented Attachment

  • Connection to Bowlby’s  Attachment Behavioural System

    • Breakdown of organized primary and secondary strategies

Infant Attachment to Adult Attachment

• Several theoretical links between infant attachment and adult attachment

  • We carry our early internal working models (IWMs) with us (Bowlby; Mikulincer & Shaver, 2003))

  • Over time, IWMs are strengthened and consolidated into stable relational schemas

    • i.e., Adult Attachment

Adult Attachment

• Adult Attachment Interview (Main et al., 1985; George et al., 1985)

• 60 mins

• Questions about the past

• Questions about the present

• Questions about the future

Adult Attachment — Dimensions

• Adult Attachment Interview (Main et al., 1985; George et al., 1985)

• Bartholomew (1990); Frayley et al (2000)

• Autonomous and securely attached adults

  • Honest, open and clear about their

    relationships

• Preoccupied, fearful

  • Past negatives

• Dismissing

  • Avoid close relationships

  • Suppressing attachment needs

    

• Views of self: Anxiety about abandonment

• Views of caregiver: Avoidance of intimacy

Self-Expansion Model of Close Relationships

Cognitive interdependence

• Committed partners think of themselves less as separate individuals, but more as a couple

• Inclusion of other and the self measure

  • A scale designed to assess the extent to which we have incorporated our partner into our self-concept

• Self-expansion

  • In new relationships, people more rapidly expand their sense of self

  • We start to incorporate the othe person into our self

Consequences of Close Relationships

Intimacy Building Within Relationships

• Self-knowledge (& self-evaluation) is important for building intimacy & can provide important validation of the self

  • Self-disclosure important for increasing knowledge (a component of intimacy)

  • Disclosure that is met with responsiveness helps to validate and reinforce one’s sense of self

    • Intimacy as a process involving responsiveness (Reis & Shaver)

    • Promotes further disclosure and responsiveness

Self-evaluation Maintenance Model

• Self-evaluation Maintenance Model (Tesser 1988)

  • Assumes that:

    • 1. Individuals behave in a manner that will maintain or increase self-evaluation

    • 2. Relationships with others will have a substantial impact on self-evaluation

  • Two dynamic processes involved

    • 1. Reflection

    • 2. Comparison

• The impact of either reflection or comparison on self-evaluation depends on:

  • Closeness

  • Relative performance

  • Personal relevance

• The “double-edged” nature of close relationships

  • When close other performs better than the self

    • Reflection: Enhance self-evaluation

    • Comparison: Derese self-evaluation

  • Personal relevance determines which process dominates

    • Personal relevance low: reflection

    • Personal relevance high: comparison

• So how can we enjoy the benefits and avoid the costs of having a close relationship when the other is doing better than we are?

• Decrease personal relevance

  • May have detrimental effects depending on the domain

• Decrease closeness

  • May lead to relationship dissolution

• Decrease relative performance

  • Reduce other person’s performance

  • Increase one’s own performance

Summary

• Our earliest social relationships can have profound effects on our sense of self & self-evaluations

• There are connections between infant attachment and the attachments we form in adulthood

• Closeness in relationships can have positive and negative effects on how we view & evaluate ourselves

Lecture 10 ~ March 26th

Self & Identity

What is Identity?

• Identity

  • Sameness and continuity of a person’s psychological functioning, interpersonal behaviour, and commitments to roles and beliefs

• There are 3 levels at which can be defined:

  • Relational

    • Who are in terms of your social roles (interpersonal relationships) and their meaning

  • Collective

    • Who you are as a function of your social groups

  • Material Identity?

• There is no clear distinction in the literature between the self and identity

  • Some theorists argue that there is no difference

    • The terms “self” and identity” are interchangeable

  • Some theorists propose that there is a distinction

    • Ex. Self-determination theory

      • Self: human’s innate tendency to grow and move forward, driven by 3 innate, universal needs

      • Identity: set of characteristics, values and representations people use to define themselves

• There is no consensus on whether identity is something that we discover versus something that we construct

  • Discovery perspective: “true” self (or potential) exists beforehand, and the ultimate goal is to find and actualize that “true” self

  • Constructivist perspective: sense of identity does not exist beforehand, we have to build it

• Can we reconcile these two views?

  • Self-construction is the pathway to actualizing one’s potential

  • Self-construction leads to the subjective feeling of authenticity, which we interpret as the “true” self

Theories of Identity Development

Erik Erikson (1959, 1963, 1968)

• Erik Erikson, a student of Freud’s emphasizes the ego as a powerful independent part of personality worthy of attention, ego psychology

• A primary function of the ego is to establish a secure identity

  • Identity — inner sense of who you are, of what makes you unique, sense of continuity over time & feeling of wholeness

  • When we feel desperate & confused about who we are, we are experiencing an identity crisis

• Personality development continues throughout lifespan & proceeds through a series of 8 stages of psychological development

• Each stage characterized by a psychosocial conflict (or crisis) that needs to be resolved

  • If conflict is unresolved, the identity development is arrested & person becomes preoccupied by that crisis

• Adolescence: Identity vs Role Confusion

  • People with a sense of identity make decisions about personal values and religious questions

  • Failing to develop a strong sense of identity leads to role confusion

• Adolescence: Identity vs. Role Confusion Crisis

  • The adolescent’s identity results from a mutual recognition between the young person and society

    • The adolescent forges an identity, but at the same time, society identifies the adolescent

    • Constant tension between the need to explore what is unique about oneself and the need to develop an identity that is accepted and validated by important others

  • Key to resolution lies in social interactions

• Children unconsciously accumulate identifications

  • Identify with parents and others who are admired

• Adolescence is a time for reflection upon those identifications

  • Formal operational thinking

  • More sophisticated perspective-taking abilities

  • Gives rise to adolescent egocentrism

    • Ex. Imaginary audience & personal fable

• Course of identity development varies by culture and historical era

  • Ex. Many more career options for women than in the past means more complicated choices to make

• The more alternatives that are available, the more difficult it is to establish a sense of identity

• Because of these complications, adolescents may need a “time out” to figure out identity before entering adult roles

• Psychological Moratorium

  • “Time out” from excessive responsibilities and obligations

    • Responsibilities of adulthood are postponed

    • Experiment with different roles without harsh penalties

    • 3 main domains of life: work, love, ideology

  • Luxury of the affluent?

    • What if introspection and exploration interfere with survival or cultural beliefs and norms?

• Identity diffusion

  • Incoherent, disjointed, incomplete sense of self

  • May experience disruptions in sense of time, excessive self-consciousness, interpersonal difficulties, concerns over sexuality

• Identity forclosure

  • Bypassing the period of exploration and experimentation

  • Premature commitment to a role or series of roles

• Negative identity

  • Identities that are undesirable to parents or the community

  • Environment may make it difficult to establish an acceptable identity

Marcia (1980, 1991)

• Based on Erickson’s idea of management of identity ‘crisis.’

• Identity crisis is resolved by progression through different phases or statuses

• Examines whether someone has struggled with or explored their identity, and whether or not they have committed to an identity

Marcia’s Identity Status Model

• Adolescents in moratorium

  • Trying out different roles and have not committed to or decided on an identity

    

• Identity foreclosure

  • Commit to an identity

  • Low exploration

• Identity diffusion

  • Lack an identity of who they are

  • Have not eplored ot comitted

  • adrift

Identity Development: Crisis  Resolution

• Identity generally not established before age 18

• During college, vocational plans solidify

• College may prolong psychosocial moratorium

• Individuals may move from one identity status to another, particularly during adolescent and young adult years

  • Regression is possible

    • Disequilibrium, rigidification, disorganization

Extensions of Marcia’s Identity Status Approach

• Ex. Coté and Levine (1996)

  • Resolvers

    • actively engaged in the process of forming an identity, capitalize on opportunities provided & motivated by desire to optimize their potential

  • Searchers

    • Driven by unrealistic high standards, making them unable to commit, so become locked in state perpetual exploration or in despair about inability to commit

  • Guadians

    • Internalized values of parents/society that provide strict guidelines for adulthood that prevents emotional and intellectual growth

  • Drifters/ refusers

    • Lack steady commitments to adult lifestyle and community

      • Refusers have more resources but seem unable or uninterested in using them

      • Drifters have few resources they can use

Berzonsky’s (2003a, 2004a,) Identity Styles

• “Informational” orientation

  • Actively seeking out self-relevant information

  • Approach identity-related decisions with an open mind

• “Normative” orientation

  • Conformity to family and other social expectations

  • Try to get identity-related decisions over as quickly as possible

• “Avoidant” orientation

  • Procrastinate and avoid identity-related decisions

Identity Development: Berzonsky’s (2003a, 2004a,) Identity Styles

Narrative Identity

• Construct a “life story” composed of individual memorable event stories involving events that somehow have significance to one’s understanding of self over time

  • Often, the 3-year-old’s memories are retained “the beginning” of the life story

  • Primarily a linguistic product & draws heavily on cultural norms and the images, metaphors and themes associated with social life

• In adolescence…

  • The narrative takes on significance in terms of life goals, achievements, failures, intimate relationships, joys and tragedies

  • A means of making meaning

• McLean & Thorne (2003) defined meaning-making as the report of lessons or insights

  • Lessons

    • Specific meanings that are often behaviourally driven and are applied only to similar kinds of events in parallel situations

    • Less developmentally advanced and more common in younger participants

  • Insights

    • Broader meanings that extend to other parts of the self beyond those indicated in the narrated event

Social (collective) Identity

Social Identity Approach

• How do social categorizations become a part of the self as social identifications?

  • Social Identity Approach

    • Categorization involves differentiation of self and others into meaningful categories

      • Ex. Category-based stereotypes

    • Therefore, I can perceive myself in terms of:

      • Personal identity

        • Perception of self in terms of individual characteristics and traits

      • Social Identity

        • Perception of self in terms of stereotypical in-group attributes

          • Any in-group

• How are personal identity and social identity different?

  • Points along a continuum

    • Different levels of abstraction of self-categorization

  • Functionally Antagonistic

    • If self-categorization becomes salient at one level, self-categorization becomes less salient at a lower level

      • Ex. If “Simone as Caribbean” becomes more salient, “Simone as University instructor” becomes less salient

    • The self-categorization is flexible and influenced by contextually-bound comparisons

  • How do individuals subjectively experience a self that is continuous?

    • Stability in individuals’ social comparisons and social frames of reference

      • i.e., stability in their social relationships and networks

        • Ex. Ethnicity

          • Meaning and evaluation of ethnicity can vary depending on the comparison others and social context

Social Identity ~ Barber, Eccles & Stone (2001)

Adolescent Identity: Crowds

• Increasing cognitive sophistication allows adolescents to abstractly define and label peer groups as crowds

  • Ex. “Jocks” vs “the kids who play basketball during lunch and after school.”

• Membership is based on reputation and stereotype

  • Ex. Don’t have to be an athlete to be a member of the jock crowd

  • Can be a member of more than one crowd

Adolescent Social Identity

• Adolescents develop socially construed representations of their peers’ identities that serve as:

  • Pre-existing, symbolic categories used for peer recognition

  • Public identities for themselves that are recognized and accepted by peers

• Voluntary participation in activities…

  • Helps structure peer group membership

    • Stimulates assessment of one’s talents, values, and interests

    • Offers opportunities for personal expression

    • Offer opportunities to belong

• Question:

  • Are there long-term consequences to adopting a particular social identity in adolescence?

Barber, Eccles & Stone (2001)

• Long-term consequences of the following adolescent social identities:

  • ‘The athlete”’

  • ‘The Princess’

  • ‘The Criminal’

  • ‘The Basket Case’

  • ‘The Brain’

• 900Ps from 4 waves of the Michigan study of Adolescent Life Transitions

  • 10th grade, 12th grade, 2 years after high school, 6 years after high school

  • 10th grade: breakfast club social identity, activity involvement (prosocial, team sports, performing arts, school involvement)

  • All waves: Substance use and psychological adjustment (depressed mood, social isolation, self-esteem, clinically significant behaviour

  • 6 years after high school: academic outcomes, Job characteristics

• Results and Implications

  • Participation in high school activities predicted later substance use, psychological adjustment & educational and occupational outcomes

    • Ex. 10th-grade prosocial activities predicted lower substance use and higher self-esteem up to 8 years later

    • Ex. 10th grade team sports predicted positive educational and occupational outcomes up to 8 years later and lower levels of social isolation, but higher levels of drinking

  • High school social identity predicted later substance use, psychological adjustment & educational and occupational outcomes

  • There were some common patterns

    • Ex. Both participation in prosocial activities and the “brain” social identity were predictive of lower rates of substance use and higher self-esteem

    • Ex. Both participation in performing arts and the “basket case” social identity were predictive of clinically significant behaviour

  • But there were some inconsistencies

    • Ex. “Brain” social identity related to more positive outcomes than just engaging in prosocial activities

    • Ex. Participation in sports related to more positive educational and occupational outcomes than “jock” social identity, which was related to better psychological adjustment

  • Yes, there are long-term consequences

  • BUT…

    • Not a 1:1 relation between activity involvement and Breakfast Club identity

      • For some outcomes, there are benefits of adopting a particular social identity, whereas for others, the benefit comes from just voluntarily engaging in an activity

Ethnic Identity: Development

• Unquestioning view of oneself displaced or upset by a crisis

  • Ex. Encountering prejudice, awareness of groups’ underrepresentation, feeling different from adolescents from other backgrounds

• Period of exploration

  • Learning about ethnic heritage

  • Increases self-esteem

• As value of having a strong ethnic identity becomes clear, the individual establishes a more coherent sense of personal identity that includes ethnicity

Ethnic Identity

• How a minority individual responds to awareness of their ethnicity depends on:

  

  • Identification with ethnic group

  • Identification with majority culture

Identity & Globalization

• Increasing globalization & immigration related to the development of:

  • A bicultural identity

    • One part of identity is rooted in local culture, while another part stems from awareness of relation to global culture

  • A hybrid identity

    • Integrating local culture with elements of global culture

  • A multicultural identity or complex hybrid identity

    • Ex. Combination of native culture, the local culture to which they have immigrated, and the global culture, along with various hybrid identities

Summary

• Identity refers to the Sameness and continuity of a person’s psychological functioning, interpersonal behaviour, and commitments to roles, values, and beliefs

• Several approaches to identity development highlight adolescence as a key life stage, however, identity-related tasks span the lifespan

Lecture 11 ~ April 2nd

Self & Adjustment

What is Adjustment

• Several definitions within psychology

  • Physical health

  • Mental health

    • Psychopathology

  • Well-being vs Ill-being

    • Subjective well-being

    • Psychological well-being

  • Personal functioning

  • Interpersonal functioning

  • Optimal functioning

Self-concept Differentiation

• How is SCD related to age & adjustment?

  • Diehl, Hastings & Stanton (2001)

    • Lower SCD related to higher well-being

      • Higher self-esteem, positive affect, psychological well-being

      • Lower negative affect, depressive symptoms

    • But…

    • Age moderates the relation between SCD and well-being

      • Low SCD was associated with higher positive psychological well-being and lower negative psychological well-being for BOTH young and older adults, but…

        • This was significantly stronger for older adults

          • Why?

            • Protective effect of a more coherent self-concept more important in old age

Negative Self-Views

• Anxiety and depression

  • Learned helplessness (Abramson et al, 1978; Miller & NOrman, 1979; Seligman, 1975)

    • People become anxious and/or depressed when they make an attribution that they have no control over the stress in their lives

      • Internal, uncontrollable (culture plays a role)* attribution for negative events

    • Depressive attributional style

      • Internal, Stable, Global attribution for negative events

      • Leads to a sense of hopelessness about ever regaining control over one’s life

• Depression

  • Negative cognitive styles (Beck, 1967;1976)

    • Cognitive errors that depressed individuals make

      • Ex. Arbitrary inference, overgeneralization, catastrophizing

    • (Depressive) Cognitive triad

      • Cognitive errors in thinking negatively about themselves, the world and their future

    • A series of negative events in childhood may lead to the development of a negative schema

      • Ex. self-blame schema

      • Ex. Negative self-evaluation

Perfectionistic Self-Views

• Negative self-views have been implicated in eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa & binge-eating disorder

• Several studies show a link between perfectionism & anorexia nervosa

• But what is perfectionism?

• Sherry, Hewitt, Flett, Lee-Baggley & Hall (2007)

  • Trait perfectionism

    • Other-oriented Perfectionism (OOP)

      • Demanding perfection of others

    • Self-oriented perfectionism (SOP)

      • Demanding perfection of oneself

    • Socially prescribed perfectionism (SPP)

      • Perceiving that others are demanding perfectionism of oneself

  • Perfectionistic Self-Presentation

    • Perfectionistic self-promotion

      • Proactively promoting a perfect image of the self

    • Nondisclosure of imperfection

    • Nondisplay of imperfection

DSM-5 Personality Disorders

• DSM-5 personality disorders

  • Enduring pattern of inner experience and behaviour that deviates markedly from the expectations of the individual’s culture and results in distress or impairment

    • Cluster A

      • Paranoid, schizoid, Schizotypical

    • Cluster B

      • Antisocial, borderline, histrionic, narcissistic

    • Cluster C

      • Avoidant, dependent, obsessive-compulsive

Perfectionism & Personality disorders

• Sherry et al (2007) examined the relationships between perfectionism and personality pathology

  • OOP related to Cluster B disorders

    • Antisocial and narcissistic PP

      • Entitled, aggressive interpersonal behaviour

      • Role of agreeableness and other Big 5 traits

    • SOP related to cluster C disorders

      • Obsessive-compulsive PP

  • SPP related to Cluster B disorders

    • Negative interpersonal expectancy that drives turbulent interpersonal patterns

      • Expectations of others as critical and demanding

  • SPP related to Cluster C disorders

    • Anxious and fearful PP

      • Gravitate toward dominant and demanding others who offer strength and guidance and who expect a lot in return

      • Paralyzing sense of ineffectiveness may magnify unrealistic expectations

  • Perfectionistic self-promotion implicated in Cluster B disorders

    • May be an attempt to construct a socially desirable identity

    • May be an attempt to bolster unstable self-views or confirm inflated self-views

      • i.e., self-verification

  • Non-disclosure implicated in Cluster A disorders

    • Communication style

  • Non-display implicated in Cluster C disorders

    • Obtain interpersonal rewards and avoid costs

Dimensional Approach to Personality Disorders

• Personality disorders represent a (1) disturbance in the continuum of the healthy self and (2) the presence of 1 or more pathological traits

  • Self-Direction

    • Meaningful short & long-term goals consistent with identity

    • Sense of what is productive for society & appropriate social interaction;

    • Appropriate self-reflection

  • Indentity

    • Self as unique person with stable boundaries between self and others

    • Self-continuity

    • Accurate self-perceptions and self-appreciation

  • Positive Interpersonal Relationships

    • Empathy and intimacy

• Negative Affectivity (vs Emotional stability)

• Detachment (vs. Extraversion)

• Antagonism (vs. Agreeableness)

• Disinhibition (vs. Conscientiousness)

• Psychoticism (vs. Lucidity)

• Example: ASPD:

  • Positive interpersonal relationships

    • Lack of concern for others’ feelings

    • Exploitativness

    • Dominance/intimidation

  • Self-direction

    • Personal gratification

    • Lack of prosocial standards

    • Failure to conform to legal/ethical standards

  • Identity

    • Egocentrism

  • Antagonism

    • Manupilativeness

    • Callousness

    • Deceitfulness

    • Hostility

  • Disinhibition

    • Risk taking

    • Impulsivity

    • Irresponsibility

Dissociative Identity Disorder

• Characterized by a poorly integrated sense of self

  • Person does not experience their thoughts, feelings, or actions of a well-developed “I”. Rather, the person experiences different "personalities” at different times

  • Shows alterations in behaviours, attitudes, and emotions when in alternate personalities

  • Recurrent gaps in memory for personal information or everyday events

  • May also report experiencing trance states, sleepwalking, conversion symptoms episodes, PTSD symptoms, dissociative amnesia and fugue

  • Personalities may be aware of each other (Average ~15 alternate personalities)

• DID is a complex disorder related to trauma occurring before age 6

Positive Illusion & Adjustment

• Historically, self-views that were consistent with reality were thought to be a critical component of mental health, but…

  • Taylor & brown’s (1988) assertions

    • Most individuals hold and maintain positive illusions

    • Positive illusions may have positive benefits to mental health (e.g., positive affect, social skills (ex. Caring for others), intellectual functioning, motivation, performance)

• Major criticisms of Taylor & Brown’s (1988) assertions

  • Operationalization of positive illusions

  • Operationalization of adjustment

    • Self-reports of adjustment

      • Contaminated by same bias

• Robins & Beer (2001)

  • Purpose

    • To examine the short-term and long-term consequences of unrealistically positive self-views

  • Study 1 (short-term)

    • Positive illusions = discrepancy between self-evaluations of own performance and peer evaluations

    • Results

      • General self-enhancement effect

      • Individual differences in self-enhancement

      • Self-enhancers were more likely to experience a short-term boost in PA

  • Study 2

    • Positive illusions = discrepancy between self-evaluations and own academic ability and actual academic ability (ex. SAT scores and high school GPA)

  • Both short-term benefits and long-term costs of positive illusions

Positive Illusions and Interpersonal Adjustment

• Long-term interpersonal benefits of positive illusions

  • Murray et al. (1996, 1996b)

  • Ps were more satisfied with their marriage when:

    • They had positive illusions about their partner

    • When their partner had positive illusions about them

• Long-term interpersonal costs of positive illusions

  • Colvin, Block & Funder (1995)

    • Self-enhancers were described more negatively 5 years later by firends and trained assessors who had no prior experience with Ps

• Swann Jr., De La Ronde & Hixon (1994)

  • Dating couples

    • Regardless of Ps self-views, greater intimacy was associated with more favourable partner evaluations

  • Married couples

    • For Ps with positive self-view, greater intimacy was associated with favourable partner evaluations

      • But…

    • For Ps with negative self-views, intimacy was associated with unfavourable partner evaluation

• Baumeister et al., 1999

  • If you choose to accept negative feedback then your self-esteem will be lowered

  • If you reject the feedback, but now you will feel a need to defend and protect your own self-views maybe a the cost of the person who gave you the negative feedback

    

The Self-& Well-Being

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

• Needs are hierarchically organized with basic needs at the bottom, self-actualization needs at the top

  • Physiological Needs

  • Safety needs

  • Belongingness and Love needs

  • Esteem needs

  • Need for self-actualization

Importance of the Self for Well-Being

• Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan)

  • Remember the self & identity

  • 3 basic psychological needs motivate the self (growth tendencies)

    • Autonomy, competence, relatedness

• Psychological well-being

  • Autonomy, mastery (competence, self-acceptance, positive relationships, purpose, personal growth

Summary

• There are several different ways to conceptualize adjustment

• The self-concept is implicated in negative & positive adjustment in many ways

• Positive illusions may be beneficial or harmful to well-being, depending on the duration & domain (& operationalization)

• Need-based theories implicate the satisfaction of self-related needs & goals in well-being