1  The Social Self

2  Overview

3  The Self-Concept

Who are you?

4  The Self-Concept

• 1) Physical Description: I’m tall, have blue eyes...etc.

• 2) Social Roles: We are all social beings whose behavior is shaped to some extent by the roles we play. Such roles as student, housewife, or member of the football team not only help others to recognize us but also help us to know what is expected of us in various situations.

• 3) Personal Traits: These are the third dimension of our self-descriptions. “I’m impulsive...I’m generous...I tend to worry a lot”...etc.

• 4) Existential Statements (abstract ones): These can range from "I’m a child of the

universe" to "I’m a human being" to "I’m a spiritual being"...etc.

• 

5  The Self-Concept

•   The sum total of an individual’s beliefs about their own personal attributes

•       Typically consists of many                 self-schemas                                          

•        Beliefs about one’s self that guides processing of relevant information

6  Functions of Self-Concept

•   Organize and interpret personal experiences

•   Regulate thoughts, feelings, behaviors

•   Control our social world through impression management

•   Assess our competence, verify self-conceptions, enhance self-image

7  Development of Self-Concept

Important developmental steps

1.    Seeing ourselves as a distinct entity in the world

2.    Imagining what others think of us, and incorporating these perceptions

–Looking-glass self (Cooley, 1992)

8  Sources of Self-Knowledge

• Introspection

• Socialization

• Feedback from Others

• Self-Perception

• Social Comparison

9  Source: Introspection

•   Examining one’s own thoughts, feelings, motivations and beliefs

– “No one knows you better than yourself”

•   Research shows that introspection is           often not very accurate                                            

–  Often too busy to analyze and understand our thoughts/behaviors

–  Tend to overestimate the positives in our self-assessments

10  Introspection

•   Better Than Average Effect

•   Affective Forecasting

– The process of predicting how one would feel in response to future emotional events.

11  Source:                             Socialization                             

•   Process by which we learn the norms, rules, and values of our family and surrounding culture(s)

–  Learn and acquire our various belief systems

–  Learn what are desirable and undesirable attributes and behaviors

12  Source: Feedback from                    Others                                 

•   Direct Feedback

–  Explicit feedback given by others

•  Solicited and unsolicited feedback

•    Reflected Appraisal (indirect feedback)

– Learn about ourselves through other’s reactions to us

•   Note, feedback does not need to be accurate to influence our self-concept

13  Self-Perception Theory (Bem, 1972)

•   Theory that we infer our attitudes and feelings from _observing our own behaviors        

– E.g., the Ben Franklin effect

•   Self-perception and our emotions

– Facial Feedback Hypothesis: changes in facial expressions can lead to

corresponding changes in emotion

14  Self-Perception of Motivation

•   Also infer our motivations from our behaviors

–                   Intrinsic                  Motivation: motivation that comes from factors within a person

–                   Extrinsic                 Motivation: motivation that comes from factors outside the person

15  Paradoxical Effects of

Reward on Intrinsic Motivation

16  Self-Perception of Motivation

•   Overjustification Effect

–  Tendency for rewards or extrinsic factors to diminish our intrinsic motivation for activities

–  Note, often depends on how the external reward is framed/perceived

•  “Bonus” or unexpected rewards can                     increase                intrinsic motivation

17  Source: Comparisons with Others

•   Social                            Comparison                                        Theory (Festinger, 1954)

–  Evaluate our abilities and beliefs by comparing them to the abilities and beliefs of others

–  More likely to compare self to (similar) others when we are uncertain or lack an objective measure

18  Social Comparison and Social Media

•   Facebook “depression”

–  More time looking at others’ social media predicts lower happiness with own life

–  Upward Social Comparisons

•  Comparing ourselves to those                       who are better than us           

•  Feel worse about ourselves, especially if they are better than us in areas that are important to us

19  Social Comparison and Emotion

•   Two-factor theory of emotion

1.                         Physiological                                arousal

2.    Our                  interpretation                            of that arousal

•   May compare ourselves to others to interpret our own emotional state

– E.g., Schacter and Singer (1962) epinephrine study

-       The two-factor theory of emotion has two components, physiological arousal and our interpretation of that arousal. The main conclusion of the study showed that when people are unclear about their own emotional states, they sometimes interpret how they feel by watching others. 

20  Schacter & Singer (1962) – Stage I

•   Cover Story – Testing a vitamin injection

•   Injected with epinephrine (adrenaline) or placebo

•   Emotion-inducing cognition

– Put in a room with a confederate who was either extremely happy or extremely angry

21  Schacter & Singer (1962) – Conclusion

22  Schacter & Singer (1962) – Conclusion

•   When people are unclear about their own emotional states, they sometimes interpret how they feel by watching others.

•   BUT...

–  If physiological arousal is TOO strong, it won’t matter what others are doing

23  Culture and the Self

• Individualistic and collectivist cultures typically differ in regard to what is valued and reinforced

24  Individualistic Culture

• Emphasizes independence, autonomy, and self-reliance

• Attaining personal goals is often more important than group allegiances

• Individualism also strongly values uniqueness

• More likely to describe self with individual traits

25  Collectivist Culture

• Emphasizes interdependence, cooperation, and social harmony

• Group affiliation is often the highest priority

• Collectivism values putting the group’s goals before personal goals

• More likely to describe self in terms of group affiliations

26  What’s Your Preference:

Similarity or Uniqueness?

27  Self-Esteem

•   The                                       evaluative component of the self                                                                                

– How you feel about who you are

•   Also made up of many different self-schemas

– Different schemas are important to different people

•   Varies over our lifetime, but remains fairly stable when compared to others

28  Self-Esteem Over the Course of a College Career

29  Self-Esteem and Sociometer Theory

•   Sociometer theory (Leary & Baumeister, 2000)

–  We are social creatures that need to ______connect with others                        

–  Purpose of self-esteem: serves as a gauge that tells us whether our behaviors are acceptable to others

30  Self-Esteem and Terror Management

•   Terror management theory (Greenberg, Solomon, & Pyszczynski, 1997)

–  We are biologically programmed for self-preservation, but aware that we will die

–  Culture and worldviews give meaning to our lives

–  Purpose of self-esteem shields us from               existential dread and anxiety 

31  Self-Discrepancy Theory (Higgins, 1989)

•   Actual Self vs Ought Self vs Ideal Self

–  Actual: who you think you actually are

–  Ought: who you need to be to meet your obligations and responsibilities

–  Ideal: the kind of person you would like to be

•   Self-esteem lowered when our actual self falls short of the ought and ideal selves

•   Self-esteem increases the more these                       selves align                                       

32  Self-Awareness Theory

•   Self-focused attention leads us to notice self-discrepancies (which lowers self-esteem)

•   Self-attention thereby motivates us to either:

– “                   shape up                       ”

•  Take steps to reduce these discrepancies

– “                   ship out                       ”

•  Escape from our self-awareness and distract ourselves from thinking about these discrepancies

33  Mechanisms of Self-Enhancement

34  Better than Average Effect

•   Tendency to think we are better than the average person, especially for traits that are important to us

– E.g., driving ability, intelligence, competency, etc.

35  Implicit Egotism

•   We tend to have a (nonconscious) preference for things that we have associated with ourselves

– E.g., Numbers, letters, names, locations, etc.

36  Self-Serving Beliefs

•   Tendency to take credit for successes but distance ourselves from failures

–  You did well on exam -> due to your hard work

–  You did badly on exam -> the professor is a jerk

•   Note that we tend to overestimate how much control and influence we actually have over situations

–

37  Self-handicapping

•   Tendency to self-sabotage our future performance to give an excuse for this failure

•   Afraid we will fail, so we generate external excuses to protect our self-esteem

–  “I didn’t do well because I didn’t have time to study”

•  Failure was due to uncontrollable, external factors, rather than your ability as a student

38  Basking in Reflected Glory

•   Associate with others who are successful

– E.g., “I can’t believe we won the playoffs!”

•   Distance ourselves from those who fail or are low status

– E.g., “I can’t believe they lost the playoffs”

39  Downward Social Comparisons

•   May compare ourselves to those                                    who are worse off                                                      

•   Such comparisons often make us feel better about our own situation

•   Note, opposite of upward social comparisons

–  Compare ourselves to those better off than ourselves

–  Makes us feel worse about ourselves/situation

40  Are Illusions Adaptive?

• Self-enhancement helps preserve our self-esteem

• These positive illusions help:

•  Promote happiness

•  Desire to care for others

•  Productivity

• But can also lead to chronic patterns of self-defeating behavior

41  Self-Presentation and Self-Monitoring

42  Self-Presentation

•   Strategies that we use to shape what others think of us

•   Two main types of self-presentation

–  Strategic                                self-presentation                                                   

–  Self- verification     

43  Self-Presentation:

Strategic Self-Presentation

•   Motive is to shape others’ impressions of us in order to gain influence, power,

approval, etc.

•   Common strategies

–                          Ingratiation                           : behaving in ways to become more likeable to the target

–                          Self-promotion                          : purposefully presenting oneself in ways to maximize positive aspects

and minimize negative aspects

•     

44

Self-Presentation:

Self-Verification

•   The desire to have others perceive us        as we truly perceive ourselves                                      

–  Want others to confirm/verify our own self-concept

–  Can lead us to selectively ask for, remember, and accept feedback that confirms our self-conceptions (even when negative)

45  Self-Monitoring

•   We all differ in regards to how concerned we are with self-presentation

•   Self-monitoring (Synder, 1987)

–  Individual difference that refers to our tendency to change behavior in response to self-presentation concerns of the situation

–  Individuals can be high or low in self-monitoring

46  Self-Monitoring

• High self-monitor = more concerned with their public image and presentation

•        Modify behavior to meet demands of situation (fickle)

• Low self-monitor = less concerned with social standards or presentation

•        More consistent behaviors even across diverse situations (stubborn)

47  Self-Determination Theory

•   Deci and Ryan

•   A theory of motivation and personality that addresses three universal, innate and psychological needs:

–                                competence                                

–                                autonomy                               

–                                Psychological relatedness