Barangay Council for the Protection of Children (BCPC) Orientation.pptx
THE SOCIAL SELF (Psych 201 - Chapter 3 - Spring 2014)
1. THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST
ARTIST
SONG
(PSYCH CONCEPT)
1 Meredith Brooks Bitch
(Self-Complexity)
2 Skee-Lo I Wish
(Self-Discrepancy Theory)
3 Morrissey We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful
(Social Comparison Theory)
4 Missy Elliott Lose Control
(Ego Depletion, Self-Control)
5 Beck Loser
(Low Self-Esteem)
6 LMFAO Sexy And I Know It
(High Self-Esteem)
7 Mike Posner Cooler Than Me
(Downward Social Comparisons)
8 Tal Bachman She’s So High
(Upward Social Comparisons)
9 Lorde Royals
(Self-Verification Theory)
5. THE SOCIAL SELF
○ Self: A person’s particular nature or qualities that make
him/her unique and distinguishable from others.
!
● Who are you?
!
○ Social Self: The parts of self-knowledge that are
derived from social relationships.
!
● How do other people teach you more about yourself?
6. ARE YOU...
○ A) The oldest sibling
!
○ B) A middle child
!
○ C) The youngest sibling
!
○ D) A twin/triplet/multiple
!
○ E) An only child
7. SIBLING RIVALRY?
○ Birth Order
!
● OLDER SIBLINGS: More
dominant, achievement oriented,
conscientious, want to maintain the
status quo.
!
● YOUNGER SIBLINGS: More
agreeable, open to new experiences,
rebellious, want to challenge the
status quo.
!
○ This is on average, meaning it
might not apply to every family.
8. SIBLING RIVALRY?
Fun Facts
!
○ There are significantly more first-born children among...
● U.S. Presidents (24/44)
● First 23 astronauts sent into space by NASA (21/23)
● Nobel Laureates (40%)
9. SIBLING RIVALRY?
Fun Facts
Many famous people known for being revolutionary or
going against the status quo were last-born children.
10. SIBLING RIVALRY?
Fun Facts
!
○ Most revolutionaries are later-born children.
● Most scientists who opposed Darwin’s theories at the time
were first-born; most who supported them were later-born.
● The odds of accepting revolutions or revolutionary theories
(e.g. Copernicus, Einstein’s theory of relativity) are
consistently higher among later-born children.
!
○ Of sibling pairs in MLB, the younger brother tried to
“steal” bases more often in 90% of the pairs.
12. WHY ARE SIBLINGS DIFFERENT?
○ Biology
● Traits are heritable
● Evidence of brain activity differences in extraversion
13. WHY ARE SIBLINGS DIFFERENT?
○ Biology
● Traits are heritable
● Evidence of brain activity differences in extraversion
○ Environment
● People treat siblings differently based on expectations
● There is no such thing as “the same environment”
○ One twin will always be treated differently from the other
● Boys and girls are socialized differently
○ No preference for “girl” or “boy” toys until they are taught
14. WHY ARE SIBLINGS DIFFERENT?
○ Biology
● Traits are heritable
● Evidence of brain activity differences in extraversion
○ Environment
● People treat siblings differently based on expectations
● There is no such thing as “the same environment”
○ One twin will always be treated differently from the other
● Boys and girls are socialized differently
○ No preference for “girl” or “boy” toys until they are taught
○ Hindsight Bias/Correlation and Causation
● Easier to notice things about your life that “confirm” your
expectations when you are looking for them.
17. THE SELF & CULTURE
○ Two Fundamental Aspects of Self
!
● Personality
○ Are you outgoing? Moody? Adventurous?
!
● Social roles
○ Are you a student? An American? An only child?
!
○ Some people more influenced by one or the other.
!
● Think back to individualism and collectivism! This is an
important theme in this class and will pop up over and over!
20. INDEPENDENT CULTURES INTERDEPENDENT CULTURES
Self = Distinct From Others Self = Linked To Others
Importance of Acting On One’s Own Importance of Collective Action
Individual Distinctiveness Group Cohesion & Harmony
21. INDEPENDENT CULTURES INTERDEPENDENT CULTURES
Self = Distinct From Others Self = Linked To Others
Importance of Acting On One’s Own Importance of Collective Action
Individual Distinctiveness Group Cohesion & Harmony
Prefer Egalitarianism &
Achievement-Based Status
(Meritocracy)
Prefer Hierarchy &
Social Group-Based Status
Rules About Behavior Should
Apply To Everyone
Rules About Behavior Should
Consider Context, Relationships, and
Group Concerns
23. INDEPENDENT CULTURES INTERDEPENDENT CULTURES
If you want a job done right,
do it yourself.
It takes a village
to raise a child.
Pull yourself up
by your own bootstraps.
No need to know the person,
only the family.
24. INDEPENDENT CULTURES INTERDEPENDENT CULTURES
If you want a job done right,
do it yourself.
It takes a village
to raise a child.
Pull yourself up
by your own bootstraps.
No need to know the person,
only the family.
27. INDEPENDENT: MEN INTERDEPENDENT: WOMEN
More attuned to internal responses More attuned to the situation/context
More likely to see selves as
autonomous
More likely to describe selves in terms
of relationships
28. THE SELF AND THE SITUATION
!
!
!
You have certain characteristics that are “staples”...
!
...but overall, your “self” varies based on the situation
29. STATE VS. TRAIT
!
!
○ Trait: Relatively stable across time and situations
● The “average” version of you
!
!
!
○ State: Changes based on the context
● How you are in different situations
37. ARE YOU ALWAYS THE SAME?
Would Be
Very Weird
Makes More
Sense
38. THE SELF AND THE SITUATION
Think of your “selves” like different notebooks you
have for different classes.
Would you bring every one to every class?
39. THE SELF AND THE SITUATION
○ We do the same thing with self-concepts
!
○ We increase mental activation/accessibility of parts of the
self that will be most useful in a given situation
!
○ The part of your self-concept relevant to extraversion
would be activated at a party, but not here in class
Think of your “selves” like different notebooks you
have for different classes.
Would you bring every one to every class?
41. DISTINCTIVENESS HYPOTHESIS
○ We identify what makes us unique in each context
○ We highlight that in our self-definition
“I’m a woman...”
42. DISTINCTIVENESS HYPOTHESIS
○ We identify what makes us unique in each context
○ We highlight that in our self-definition
“I’m a woman...” “I’m 5’5”...”
46. SELF-COMPLEXITY
○ How do you define yourself?
!
○ What are your most important identities, hobbies,
group memberships, jobs, or interests?
47. SELF-COMPLEXITY
○ The number of self-defining domains that you have
matters – and so does the amount that they overlap!
!
○ People with more domains and non-overlapping
domains tend to be happier and healthier.
48. WHY?
○ It has to do with SELF-ESTEEM.
!
!
○ If you face failure in one domain, it helps to have other
domains you can use to “buffer” your negative feelings
!
!
○ If you define yourself entirely as a “girlfriend” or
“boyfriend,” a “student,” or a “runner,” when you face
failure in that domain it can be really demoralizing.
49. SO FAR, WE KNOW THAT...
○ The “self” is made up of (1) traits and (2) social roles
!
○ We have different “selves” that we can call upon in different
situations, as we deem appropriate.
!
○ The more domains that you use to define yourself, the happier and
healthier you will be.
!
○ Culture, gender, distinctiveness, and birth order can influence the
domains by which we define ourselves.
!
What are some other ways that the people around us might
influence our self-definitions?
51. SELF-KNOWLEDGE
!
OUTGOING
!
!
!
!
Is the font of this
word big or small?
!
MOODY
!
!
!
!
Does this rhyme
with “outgoing”?
!
ADVENTUROUS
!
!
!
!
Is this a synonym
for “moody”?
!
FRIENDLY
!
!
!
!
Does this
describe you?
STRUCTURE SOUND SEMANTIC SELF
• Participants given a list of 40 trait adjectives
• Outgoing, moody, adventurous, etc.
• For each set of 10, participants were told to focus on a
different aspect of the word.
52. SELF-KNOWLEDGE
An hour later, participants were asked to remember the 40 words.
They remembered one category of words much better than the
others.
!
Which category do you think it was?
!
○ A) Structure (“Is the font big or small?”)
!
○ B) Sound (“Does this rhyme with ___?”)
!
○ C) Semantic (“Is this a synonym for ___?”)
!
○ D) Self (“Does this describe you?”)
53. SELF-KNOWLEDGE:
THE SELF-REFERENCE EFFECT
0
0.75
1.5
2.25
3
Structure Sound Semantic Self
• People remembered
words significantly
better when they
processed them in
reference to
themselves
• The more you
personalize
something, the
better you will
remember it
WordRecallAccuracy
54. WHY?
○ When you learn something new, you integrate it into existing
knowledge structures.
!
○ Our “selves” are our favorite topic! Your “self” knowledge
structure is very well-formed. If you integrate new
information into your “self” network, you will process it more
deeply and integrate it into your knowledge base better.
!
○ This can help you!!
○ If you need to remember something important, apply it to
yourself. When remembering facts from this class, try
relating them to your relationships, upbringing, etc.
55. SELF-KNOWLEDGE & INFORMATION
!
○ Turn to the person next to you.
!
!
○ Ask one question to get to know him/her better.
!
!
○ Ask a question that you think would be most helpful for
you to get to know this new person.
!
○ It can’t just be what his/her name is.
56. SELF-KNOWLEDGE & INFORMATION
What was the first thing that you asked about?
!
○ A) Something school-related (e.g. major, favorite class)
!
○ B) Where he/she is from (e.g. hometown)
!
○ C) Social group membership (e.g. Greek affiliation)
!
○ D) Hobbies/interests (e.g. favorite book/movie)
!
○ E) Other
57. SELF-KNOWLEDGE & INFORMATION
The questions that you asked actually give me
some clues about what you consider important
about yourself!
58. SELF-IMAGE BIAS
○ Tendency to judge others’ personalities according to
their similarity to our own personality
!
○ When it comes to judging others, we overweight things
that we consider important to our own personalities
● Intelligent people look for intelligence; funny people look for
humor; fashionistas look for fashion.
!
○ People use their own personality to define personality
● How smart is smart? Conveniently, just as smart as you are.
61. SOCIAL COMPARISON THEORY
Leon Festinger, 1950s
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
Just like we can’t understand the results of an experiment
without a control condition, we can’t understand ourselves
without a reference group.
63. SOCIAL COMPARISON:
WHEN DO WE DO THIS?
!
○ (1) There is no clear “objective standard”
!
○ (2) We feel uncertain about ourselves
!
!
○ Social Comparisons are like a ladder...
● ...you can either look upward or downward
64. MOTIVATED COMPARISONS:
LOOKING UPWARD
○ Compare self to others who are slightly better than you
● How good could you become?
!
○ Motivation to pursue your goals
○ Helps you improve your abilities
65. MOTIVATED COMPARISONS:
LOOKING DOWNWARD
○ Compare self to others who are slightly worse than you
● How much better are you than others?
!
○ Boosts self-esteem, improves well-being & happiness
○ Helps you feel better about your abilities
66. UPWARD OR DOWNWARD?
!
○ The same person (or group) can be an upward or a
downward comparison, depending on what you are
focusing on/comparing.
!
!
○ You could be focusing on different domains.
!
!
○ You could be construing the domain in different ways.
67. SOCIAL COMPARISON THEORY
○ Upward is not necessarily better...
!
!
○ People quitting smoking have more success when they
compare themselves with others who have done better...
!
○ ...but breast cancer patients fare better when they compare
themselves with patients who have it worse.
!
It depends on what will benefit you the most:
Motivation to pursue goals,
or hope, self-esteem, and well-being?
68. SOCIAL COMPARISON THEORY: REVIEW
○ Happens most frequently when..
● No objective standard that people can use for judgment
● People feel uncertain about their self-concepts
● The people around are similar to them in target domain
!
○ Upward
● Compare self to relevant others who are slightly better
● Good for motivation
!
○ Downward
● Compare self to relevant others who are slightly worse
● Good for self-esteem
69. SELF-ASSESSMENT
!
○ What kind of grade do you think you will get in 201?
!
● A. Very below average
● B. Below average
● C. Average
● D. Above average
● E. Very above average
70. “BETTER THAN AVERAGE” EFFECT
Most Westerners report that they are better than average
on a majority of traits and mundane skills.
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
Sadly,
it’s literally impossible for everyone to be “above average.”
71. EXPLANATION
!
○ Interpretation of reality
● What does it mean to be a good driver?
○ Careful
○ Skillful
○ Polite/Courteous
● People shift their definitions in order to come out on top
!
○ Occurs more for “vague” traits than “concrete” traits
● You can shift what it means to be a good driver
● You can’t shift whether or not you’re a professional athlete, or
whether or not you can juggle.
73. SELF-KNOWLEDGE & MOTIVATION
○ Actual self
● The person we truly think we are
!
○ Possible selves
● Ideal self: The person we want to be
● Ought self: The person we feel we should be
!
○ Self-Discrepancy Theory
● People want to reduce discrepancies between who they
currently are and who they want to and/or should be.
○ This motivates our behavior; we are constantly trying to
improve and reach our “ideal” or “ought” selves.
74. SELF-KNOWLEDGE & MOTIVATION
○ Pursuing “Ideal” = Promotion Focus
● Focus on attaining desirable outcomes
● Sensitive to reward; approach motivated
● Associated with positive feelings
● If we fail, we feel depressed or sad
○ Pursuing “Ought” = Prevention Focus
● Focus on avoiding undesirable outcomes
● Sensitive to punishment; avoid motivated
● Associated with negative feelings
● If we fail, we feel anxious or guilty
75. SELF-KNOWLEDGE & MOTIVATION
○ People can have overall tendencies, but also situational!
!
!
○ At the start of the semester, most students are promotion
focused (“I’m going to read everything and get an A+!”)
● Ideal self: A+ student
● Promotion strategy: Approach work, focus on rewards
● Result of not achieving: Feel sad
76. SELF-KNOWLEDGE & MOTIVATION
○ People can have overall tendencies, but also situational!
!
!
○ At the end of the semester, most students are prevention
focused (“I need to study so I don’t fail!”)
● Ought self: Someone who doesn’t fail
● Prevention strategy: Avoid failing, focus on punishments
● Result of not achieving: Feel stressed, anxious, guilty
!
Self-Regulation:
The process of trying to effectively pursue goals
77. SELF-REGULATION:
SELF-REGULATORY RESOURCE MODEL
!
○ Self-control is a limited (but renewable) resource
○ Can be depleted by stress, regular exertion, or overuse
○ Replenishes itself over time (and with glucose)
!
!
It can be built up in the long-term (like a muscle).
!
The more you exercise self-control,
the better you get at exercising self-control
(and the more self-control you can exert at a time).
78. SELF-REGULATION:
EGO DEPLETION
○ A state that occurs when all (or most) of your self-control
resources have been used up.
!
○ Harder to exert self-control, easier to make (stupid) mistakes
on difficult tasks.
!
!
!
!
!
Ego-depletion can be “cured” by resting
or consuming a snack that contains glucose.
79. SELF-REGULATION:
RADISH-COOKIE STUDY
○ Students entered a lab that smelled like fresh cookies
○ Saw a bowl of cookies and a bowl of radishes on the table
!
○ Under the cover of a “taste testing” study, ½ of them were
assigned to eat the cookies, and the other ½ had to ignore
the cookies and eat the radishes instead.
!
○ Afterward, they all did a puzzle task
○ They didn’t know, but the puzzle was impossible.
!
How long did they spend trying to solve it?
82. SELF-ESTEEM: TRAIT & STATE
○ The positive or negative evaluation we have of ourselves
!
○ An individual’s attitude toward the self
• Trait: Enduring level of
regard for yourself;
relatively stable across time
• State: Your current
feelings; based on recent
events, changes throughout
the week/day, etc.
83. CONTINGENCIES OF SELF-WORTH
○ Self-esteem relies on success & failure in (self-defined)
important domains, called contingencies of self-worth.
!
○ Domains that are usually important:
● Academics / Work
● Sports / Fitness / Health
● Social life
● Can be anything that you find important...no matter how silly.
84. SELF-ESTEEM
○ Remember self-complexity theory!
!
○ The more domains on which you base your self-worth, the
more resilient your self-esteem will be after failure.
● If all you care about is school, a D will be devastating.
● If you care about academics, sports, and social life, a D will still
hurt, but it will hurt less and for a shorter amount of time (as
long as you’re still doing well in those other domains).
85. SELF-ESTEEM
○ After experiencing failure in one domain, thinking about
other domains in which you excel will protect self-esteem
● This is a very functional and protective mechanism!
• It also helps to think about other
domains before the self-esteem blow.
• If you fear failing in an important
domain, focusing on other domains in
which you are currently succeeding can
help “buffer” the negative feelings
86. SELF-ESTEEM’S ORIGINS:
SOCIOMETER HYPOTHESIS
○ Why do people have self-esteem?
!
○ Sociometer Hypothesis (Leary et al., 1995)
!
○ Self-esteem is an internal index of how likely it is that
other people will like us and include us in things.
○ Self-esteem is a quick-and-dirty way to assess how we
stand in the eyes of others.
!
Self-esteem is like a
how-much-do-people-like-me thermometer.
87. SELF-ESTEEM’S ORIGINS:
SOCIOMETER HYPOTHESIS
○ Why do people have self-esteem?
!
○ Sociometer Hypothesis (Leary et al., 1995)
!
○ Self-esteem is an internal index of how likely it is that
other people will like us and include us in things.
○ Self-esteem is a quick-and-dirty way to assess how we
stand in the eyes of others.
!
Social rejection is the fastest way to lower
someone’s self-esteem.
88. MOTIVATION FOR SELF-ESTEEM:
SELF-EVALUATION MAINTENANCE MODEL
○ We are motivated to view ourselves positively (to have
positive self-esteem)
!
○ To do this...
● We seek out evidence to support this conclusion, rather than
using evidence to form them objectively.
● We act like lawyers, not detectives.
!
○ Some people also engage in self-affirmations
!
○ Two of the most common processes used to maintain
self-esteem are reflection and comparison.
89. MOTIVATION FOR SELF-ESTEEM:
REFLECTION (BASKING IN REFLECTED GLORY)
○ We flatter ourselves by “basking in the reflected glory”
of people we know or are associated with.
!
!
!
!
○ If the Illini win a football game, you’re more likely to wear
blue and orange on Monday & talk about “our” win.
!
○ If the Illini lose, you’re more likely to wear anything but
blue and orange, and you’ll talk about “their” loss.
90.
91. MOTIVATION FOR SELF-ESTEEM:
DOWNWARD SOCIAL COMPARISONS
Comparison is likely when:
!
• The person is a relevant other
• The domain of success is important to us personally
!
Reflection and social comparison motivate us to maintain
friendships with people who are:
(a) Successful in domains that we don’t prioritize
!
and
!
(b) Less successful in domains that we do prioritize.
!
92. ○ Two pairs of friends entered the lab
!
!
!
○ Played “Catchphrase”
!
!
!
○ Game either described as
● “Word Game” (low relevance)
● “Verbal Ability Task” (high relevance)
MOTIVATION FOR SELF-ESTEEM:
DOWNWARD SOCIAL COMPARISONS
93. When it’s low relevance,
people help their friends do well.
0
1.3
2.5
3.8
5
Low Relevance High Relevance
Friend
Stranger
DifficultyofClueProvided
MOTIVATION FOR SELF-ESTEEM:
REFLECTED GLORY
94. When it’s high relevance,
people make the clues just as hard for friends as for strangers!
0
1.3
2.5
3.8
5
Low Relevance High Relevance
Friend
Stranger
DifficultyofClueProvided
MOTIVATION FOR SELF-ESTEEM:
DOWNWARD SOCIAL COMPARISONS
95. ○ For things that are relevant to our self-concepts
(contingencies of self-worth), we would choose friends who
are worse than us (downward comparisons)
!
!
○ For things that are not relevant to our self-concepts,
we would choose friends who are better than us (basking
in reflected glory)
!
○ Note: This is not necessarily what everyone does, and there
are reasons why you’d want to do the reverse. This is just
what you should do if maintaining high self-esteem is your
only motivation.
MOTIVATION FOR SELF-ESTEEM:
SELF-EVALUATION MAINTENANCE MODEL
96. SELF-VERIFICATION THEORY
○ People strive for stable, accurate beliefs about themselves
– whether they’re good or bad.
!
!
○ These beliefs make things seem coherent and allow us to
predict outcomes.
!
!
○ This means that people with negative self views should
actually prefer negative feedback and prefer to interact
with people who will give them negative feedback.
97. SELF-VERIFICATION THEORY:
RELEVANT STUDIES
• Identity Cues: Things that
we own/wear/do to signal our
identities to others (also
known as conspicuous
consumption).
!
• When we question our own
identities, we can point to
those things as examples of
who we are for self-
verification.
98. BUT...
○ If the Self-Evaluation Maintenance Model
says that people are motivated to maintain high
self-esteem, no matter what...
!
!
○ ...and Self-Verification Theory says that people
are motivated to maintain consistent self-views,
even if these self-views are negative...
!
How can these both be true?
99. ANSWER:
SEMM AND SVT GUIDE DIFFERENT PROCESSES.
!
!
○ Self-Evaluation Maintenance Model:
● Emotional responses to feedback.
!
!
○ Self-Verification Theory:
● Cognitive assessment of validity.
100. SEMM VS. SVT
○ Gave participants with positive or negative self-beliefs
either positive or negative feedback about themselves.
!
!
○ Participants with negative self-beliefs thought that the
negative feedback was more diagnostic, accurate, valid,
and believable than the positive feedback.
● Self-verification prevailed.
!
○ However...
● All participants felt emotionally better about getting the
positive feedback and disliked getting the negative feedback.
101. SEMM VS. SVT
!
○ Just because people with negative self-views found the
negative feedback more accurate/diagnostic doesn’t mean
they “liked” it or that it made them feel good.
!
!
○ We want to verify our senses of self (cognitive; self-
verification theory) while also feeling good (emotional;
self-evaluation maintenance model).
102. SELF-ESTEEM QUESTION
You are a great runner; you recently ran a half-marathon,
and you finished in the top 5% of runners in your age
group. Given your success, you decide to try taking up
swimming. You get in the pool, and quickly realize that
you are horrible at swimming. You get tired very easily,
and you can’t go fast at all.
!
It’s now time to exercise again.
Which workout do you want to choose?
!
A) Running
B) Swimming
103. SELF-ESTEEM AND CULTURE
○ Individualists care about self-esteem
● Create situations to make people feel good about themselves.
○ Collectivists care about self-improvement
● Create situations to improve themselves (often requires
reflecting on failure…bad for self-esteem, good for motivation).
30
35
40
45
Japanese
B
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broad
Japanese
R
ecent
A
sian
Im
m
igrants
L
ong-T
erm
A
sian
Im
m
igrants
Second-G
eneration
A
sian-C
anadiansT
hird-G
eneration
A
sian-C
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E
uropean-C
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Self-EsteemScore
The longer Japanese people have been in Western
countries,
the higher their self-esteem scores.
104. SELF-ESTEEM AND CULTURE:
HEINE ET AL. (2001), CREATIVITY TEST
○ Canadian and Japanese subjects did a “creativity” task
● Canadian = Individualistic
● Japanese = Collectivistic
!
○ Participants were given false feedback about the task
● ½ randomly told they scored “very high”; other ½ “very low”
!
○ Able to work on a similar task for as long as they wanted
!
!
○ Canadians worked longer if they had done well before.
○ Japanese worked longer if they had failed before.
105. SELF-ESTEEM AND CULTURE
○ If you are a collectivist and fail at a task, you are more
likely to want to do it more (so you can get better).
● If you are good at running but bad at swimming, you would
want to swim more so you can improve.
!
○ If you are an individualist and fail at a task, you are more
likely to want to do it less (so you don’t feel bad).
● If you are good at running but bad at swimming, you would
avoid swimming so you don’t ding your self-esteem.
!
○ BUT...
● Doing the task more often is how you get better!
106. DANGERS OF SELF-ESTEEM
○ Threats to high self-esteem (in people who care about self-
esteem) can lead to aggression and violence.
● Remember: When self-esteem is threatened in one domain,
people try to reclaim it from another domain.
● Especially likely when the high self-esteem is unearned
!
○ Many psychopaths, murderers, and violent gang members
have exceptionally high self-esteem.
● They tend to be assertive, defiant, and narcissistic
● They really like themselves.
107. SELF-ESTEEM DANGERS
○ Emotion is at the core of motivation.
● Remember Self-Discrepancy Theory!
● Discrepancies between actual and ideal/ought selves motivate
behavior through negative emotions like guilt or sadness.
!
!
○ If you feel incredibly satisfied with yourself, why would
you do anything to improve or change?
!
!
High self-esteem can lead to
LESS goal-directed behavior.
108. SELF: ILLUSIONS & BIASES
○ Unrealistic positive views about the (“actual”) self
● Believe positive traits describe you better than negative traits.
• Positive traits are unique to you...
• “No one is as creative as I am, at least
not in the same way.”
!
• ...but negative traits are shared.
• “Everybody blows off class sometimes.”
!
Are positive illusions
healthy or unhealthy?
109. ILLUSIONS & BIASES:
UNREALISTIC OPTIMISM
People believe that positive (negative) events are
more (less) likely to happen to them than to others.
Life Event How much more likely to happen to you?
Liking your eventual job 50 times
Own your own home 44 times
Get an award for your work 13 times
Live past 80 11 times
Have a mentally gifted child 6 times
110. ILLUSIONS & BIASES:
UNREALISTIC OPTIMISM
People believe that positive (negative) events are
more (less) likely to happen to them than to others.
Life Event How much more likely to happen to others?
Have a drinking problem 58 times
Attempt suicide 56 times
Get divorced after a few years 49 times
111. POSITIVE BIASES: BENEFITS & COSTS
○ Benefits
● Elevate positive mood, lower negative mood
● Foster healthier social bonds by increasing altruism
● Promote goal-directed behavior
!
!
!
!
○ Costs
● Overestimation of abilities can lead to poor performance
● Disconfirming evidence can lead to aggression and hostility
112. SELF: ILLUSIONS & BIASES
○ These illusions are mostly found in Western samples
!
○ East Asian samples show fewer illusions/biases and
don’t show the negative effects of low/negative self views
!
○ Why?
!
○ Positive self-views, autonomous control, and optimism
are largely individualistic (independent) values.
● Westerners typically hold independent values
● East Asians typically hold interdependent values
115. IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT
○ Trying to get others to see us how we want to be seen
● The process of self-presenting to keep the “face” you want
!
!
○ The face you keep with your friends is probably different
from the face you keep with your family
!
!
○ Manage impressions differently with different groups
● Similar to self-concepts/self-schemas
● Remember the different notebooks!
116. PUBLIC VS. PRIVATE SELF
○ Public self-consciousness
● Our awareness of what other people think about us
● Our public identity
!
○ Private self-consciousness
● Our awareness of our interior lives
● Our private thoughts, feelings, and sensations
!
○ Even if you’re nervous (increased heart rate, anxious
emotion), you may try to appear calm to others.
117. SELF-MONITORING
○ Paying attention to your behavior to fit into the situation
!
○ There is a lot of variability across people
!
!
!
!
!
!
○ Some people really try to behave appropriately for the
situation, others don’t care or aren’t capable of attending to
that information
118. SELF-MONITORING
○ Chameleons
!
!
○ Try to fit into the situation
!
!
○ Not fake, just flexible
○ Internal Preferences
!
!
○ Pay attention to selves
!
!
○ Don’t change themselves to
fit different situations
High Self-Monitors Low Self-Monitors
119. SELF-MONITORING
○ Low Self-Monitors pay a lot of attention to themselves,
not a lot of attention to the situation (low “monitoring,”
high amounts of self-attention)
● Danielle Staub from Real Housewives of NJ is a Low Self-
Monitor; she is focused on her own experience, and doesn’t pick
up on situational cues (2:40 – 4:40)
!
○ High Self-Monitors are chameleons; good at changing
their behavior to fit the situation and different norms
(high “monitoring,” low amounts of self-attention)
○ Frank Abagnale, Jr. in Catch Me If You Can is a High Self-
Monitor; he can adjust to any situation and blend in
120. SELF-HANDICAPPING
○ The tendency to engage in self-defeating behaviors in order to
prevent others from drawing unwanted attributions about you
!
!
!
○ Two main types
● Actually setting up obstacles
● Making excuses
!
• Done to “save face”
• Face: How others view you
121. SELF-HANDICAPPING
○ Allows you to have a situational excuse for failure
● This way, people will be less likely to make a dispositional
attribution when you fail.
!
!
○ If you fail, you have a convenient excuse.
● If I didn’t drink so much last night, I would’ve gotten an A!
!
○ If you succeed, you look even better.
● He got an A even though he was so hungover!
122. SELF-HANDICAPPING
○ Sometimes people provide fake self-handicaps
● Example: Secretly working really hard but hiding this from
your friends/classmates and acting like you don’t
!
○ Your textbook calls this “sneaky bookers”; in college, we
called this “effortless perfection”
!
○ People think that you didn’t put in a lot of effort; didn’t
try your hardest (even though you did)
● If you fail, no one knows how hard you worked – they
attribute your failure to simply not putting in any effort
● If you succeed, everyone thinks you did well even though you
barely put in any work, so you look especially good
123. SELF-HANDICAPPING:
GENDER DIFFERENCES
○ Both men and women are equally likely to self-handicap
!
!
○ Men are more likely to do behavioral self-handicapping
● Actually doing things to cause failure
● Going out until 5 AM the night before a big exam
● Not training properly for the Illinois marathon
!
○ Women are more likely to do claimed self-handicapping
● Sneaky booking, talking up excuses, hiding actual work
● Telling people you went out until 5 AM, even if you didn’t
● Hiding how much you’ve really been training, just in case
124. CH. 3: IMPORTANT POINTS
○ Forming The Self
● Self-Complexity Theory
● Sibling Diversification
● Cultural Differences
!
○ Self-Esteem Boosters
● Self-Evaluation Maintenance Model
● Basking In Reflected Glory
● Downward Social Comparisons
!
○ Self-Verification Theory
○ Self-Improvement
● Self-Discrepancy Theory
● Upward Social Comparisons
● Self-Regulation
!
○ Self-Related Biases
● Self-Image Bias
● Better-Than-Average Effect
● Positive Illusions
!
○ Impression Management
● Self-Monitoring
● Self-Handicapping
