Lecture 6 - The self: self-concept & self-esteem

self-concept

  • what we know about ourselves

  • directs and regulates our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors

    • lets us seek out situations that match our capabilities

    • personal goals determine emotional responses

  • sources of our self-concept

    • perception of our own behavior

    • own thoughts and feelings

    • others’ reactions

    • social comparison

own behavior, thoughts, feelings

own behavior

  • self-perception theory (Bem, 1967)

    • we make inferences about our personal characteristics on the basis of our overt behaviors

    • when internal cues are weak or ambiguous

    • when we do noit have a good sense of who we are in a particular domain

    • when we choose a behavior rather than doing it for some external reason

      • intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation (Lepper at al. 1973)

  • imagery exercises, mental training

own thoughts and feelings

  • more reliable sources for inference than behavior (Andersen, 1984)

others’ reactions to us

  • “looking glass self” (Cooley, 1902)

    • explains how our self-concept develops through our perception of how others see us

    • key components:

      1. we imagine how we appear to others

      2. we imagine how others judge that appearance

      3. we develop feelings about ourselves based on these perceptions

    • It highlights the importance of social interaction in the development of the self.

    • reactions serve as a kind of mirror, reflecting our image (e.g. Miller et al., 1975)

  • Direct and indirect (subtle) cues

social comparison

  • social comparison theory (festinger, 1954)

    • self-concept is often shaped by comparisons between ourselves and others

    • the most accurate information about themselves by seeking out similar others for comparison

  • contrast effect - an effect of a comparison standard or prime that makes the perceiver’s judgement more different from the standard

  • assimilation effect - an effect of a comparison standard or prime that makes the perceiver’s judgement more similar to the standard

  • uniqueness - attributes that distinguish us from most others become central (can change; McGuire & McGuire, 1981)

Knowledge about us vs. others

  • greater quantity and variety of cues

    • more time and situations

    • us: flexible/adaptable; others: rigid

  • inner thoughts and emotions

    • even if the behavior is the same, thoughts and emotions behind it can differ

    • we are aware of our inner reactions to different external stimuli (see actor-observer bias)

      • alternative attributions for us than for others (but motivation can overwrite it)

    • not necessarily more accurate

Multiple selves

  • our typical behaviors, thoughts, and feelings depend on what we are doing

  • self-aspects - summaries of a person’s beliefs about the self in specific domains, roles, or activities

  • self-complexity - the extent to which a person possesses many and diverse self-aspects

  • yet, individuals come to have a sense of unity and constancy about themselves

    • self-schema - few core attributes we believe characterize us uniquely among people and consistently across situations

    • only a subset of our self-knowledge and self-aspects is accessible at any time

    • selective memory - we tend to forget inconsistencies

  • a coherent self-schemata is less important in collectivist cultures

self-esteem

  • the positive or negative evaluation of the self - how we feel about it

  • a signal of how well we are doing in successfully adapting to our social world

  • trait vs. state

  • accuracy vs. self-enhancement - wobegon effect - it describes the self-enhancement bias: most people believe they are better than average on positive traits.

    • Examples:

      • 90% of drivers think they're better-than-average.

      • Students think they're more ethical or intelligent than their peers.

self-esteem & social comparison

  • self-evaluation maintenance model (Tesser, 1988)

    • closeness of the other & centrality of the attribute in the self-concept

    • determines how others’ performance (vs. ours) affects our self-esteem

  • choice for comparison target is motivated (less successful/more unfortunate)

differences related to self-esteem

  • gender

    • women - connectedness

    • men - sucesses/failures

  • culture

    • lower level of reported self-esteem in collectivist countries

    • = self-criticism - how I fulfill my obligations

    • domain specific self-enhancement - being outstanding/adaptable