Psychological motives Sheldon, Elliot, Kim, & Kasser (2001) – a describe most satisfying event in last week, month, or semester (three studies) –Autonomy/Control – “that my choices were based on my true interests and values” –Competence – “that I was successfully completing difficult tasks and projects” –Relatedness – “a sense of contact with people who care for me, and whom I care for” –Self-esteem – “that I had many positive qualities”

Self-concept & Self-esteem Self-concept –Attributes, physical characteristics, values, attitudes, abilities, etc. that a person sees as descriptive of self –Motivated to maintain self-concept Self-esteem –Evaluation (or attitude) toward self (appraisal of self) Motivated to maintain self-esteem Both are relatively stable but fluctuate as things change –Self concept change with life changes – getting job, married, having children, etc. –Self-esteem can change with success/failure Dijksterhuis (2004) – increased with subliminal conditioning (pairing “I” and “intelligent”

Self-concept –Actual self – attributes that we believe we possess Traits – honest, supportive, consistent, athletic, etc. Values – personal freedom, relations with others Career Etc. –Ideal self – aspirations for self Serves as guide and motivating force –Motivated to move actual self toward idea –Motivated to remain at ideal if actual and ideal are equal Positive affect when we move toward ideal Negative affect when we fail to do so

Self-concept Multiple self-views or ideal selves –Spouse, traits, parent, career, friend, etc. –People vary in self-complexity Some have singular self focus (e.g., career) Other focus on many aspects Complexity is better – allow one to adapt to different circumstances, overcome negative things, Self-concept related to competencies –Person who is good at something (athletics, leadership, etc.) will view self in those terms

Self-esteem Effects of self-esteem –High: associated with: Better mental health Confidence, curiosity, independence, self-motivation Adapt to change and stress Set difficult goals Relatively healthier Feelings of pride –Low: risk factor for Depression (mild depression leads to more accurate predictions) Poor academic/job performance Drug use Spouse and child abuse Feelings of shame

Self-esteem Low self-esteem tends to continue –Attributions Do not make personal attributions for positive things (e.g., success due to luck) Make personal attributions for negative things (e.g., failure due to low ability) Self-handicapping – do things to create reasons for failing Changing this way of thinking is important for conditions such as depression in which people have low self esteem –Goals Set low goals to avoid failure (difficult goals lead to more improvement)

Others and self-esteem Self-evaluations require comparisons with others –Comparison process & outcomes Our performance better than others – increase in self-esteem Our performance worse than others – decrease in self- esteem Changes depend on whether task performance is relevant to self –Self-esteem is more affected if task somehow reflects our self concept

Others and self-esteem Basking in reflected glory –Self-esteem increases when close others do well or associated group does well –What if close other does well in task that is relevant to us? Tesser & Smith (1980) –Provide clues to participant (friend or stranger) to help them guess a word –Some clues are easy & others difficult (wool vs. hooves for sheep) –Task is described as either relevant (assesses leadership, intelligence, etc.) or not relevant (not relevant to leadership, intelligence) to you –What would you do – help or hurt your friend (by picking easy or difficult cues)?

Maintaining Self-esteem Change effort in task –Increase effort to insure success (raise self- esteem) Own past behavior suggests success –Decrease effort to protect self-esteem Close other does well in relevant task but don’t think that we can beat their performance Provides excuse for not doing well – didn’t try

Maintaining Self-esteem Engage in self-handicapping behaviors –Not studying for test, going out drinking the night before, etc. Alter relations with close others –Basking in reflected glory – team wins more likely to use “we” and “they” to loss Distort own or other’s performance

Maintaining Self-esteem Cognitive Dissonance as threat to self-esteem –People attempt to reconcile dissonant cognitions –People also do things to raise self-esteem –Self-esteem and self-concept affect dissonance change Priming attributes relevant to dissonant action (e.g. honest) will cause more dissonance change than priming attributes not relevant to dissonant action (e.g., intelligent)

Self-esteem Is self-esteem an important psychological need? –The outcome of other needs? –Competence – “that I was successfully completing difficult tasks and projects” Self-esteem closely tied with competence and self-concept Self-concept partly determined by competence Competence in things related to our self-concept important for self-esteem –Relatedness – “a sense of contact with people who care for me, and whom I care for”

Self-esteem and relatedness Leary & Baumeister (2000) –Successful reproduction requires offspring who in turn produce offspring (raising children to adults) –Living in groups provides tremendous advantages Share knowledge Divide labor –Relationships – stable, involve affective (emotional) concern, frequent contact, & continuation

Self-esteem and relatedness Self-esteem –Self-esteem is the internal mechanism for monitoring social relations Pain for damage, hunger for food, etc. High self-esteem is perception that one is valued by others –Self-esteem monitors actual and potential relations Trait self-esteem – degree to which person is generally valued by others and groups State self-esteem – current relational value –Decreases in self-esteem motivates behavior for “restoring & maintaining” relations

Self-esteem and relatedness Groups and relations –Unappealing social-attributes to groups Unpleasant Incompetence Violate rules or norms –Characteristics that are important to groups are primary dimensions that affect self-esteem For example – information suggesting others find you pleasant or unpleasant will raise or lower self-esteem –Optimal number of relations Not motivated to be acceptable by everyone Limited number of people/groups are important (varies across individuals) Too many relations can be detrimental because it limits close relations Events with non-important people can affect self-esteem because it may reflect possibility of devaluation by those that are close

Self-esteem and relatedness Supporting Evidence –Inclusion or exclusion powerfully influences on self- esteem (rejection or inclusion in group, moving to new situation, loss of close person, etc.) –Effect of public events more powerful than private –Dimensions that affect self-esteem valued by others (friendliness, competence in valued tasks, abilities, etc.) –Importance of different domains is socially determined (e.g., intellectual, athletic, social, etc.)

Self-esteem and relatedness Self-deception –If self-esteem is the monitor for relations it should be accurate (similar to hunger, pain, etc.) –People interpret things about themselves in favorable ways (nearly everybody perceives themselves as better than average) –Theory doesn’t do a great job of explaining it because self-deception can lead to problems People don’t like others who view themselves to favorably