Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Companies Social Psychology David Myers 10e Copyright 2010 McGraw-Hill Companies

Chapter Two The Self in a Social World

Spotlights and Illusions Spotlight effect Belief that others are paying more attention to one’s appearance and behavior than they really are Illusions Illusion of transparency Illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and can be easily read by others

Research Close-Up: Being Nervous about Looking Nervous Examples of interplay between our sense of self and our social world Social surroundings affect our self-awareness Self-interest colors our social judgment Self-concern motivates our social behavior Social relationships help define our self

Self-Concept: Who Am I? A person’s answers to the question, “Who am I?” Take time to answer this question… Are your answers more relational (collectivist) or about self (individualist)?

At the Center of Our Worlds: Our Sense of Self Schema Mental templates by which we organize our worlds Self-schema Beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant information

At the Center of Our Worlds: Our Sense of Self Possible Selves Images of what we dream of or dread becoming in the future Oprah Winfrey

Development of the Social Self What Determines Our Self-Concept? Roles we play Social identities we form Comparisons we make with others Our successes and failures How other people judge us Surrounding culture

Development of the Social Self Roles We Play New roles begin as play-acting then become reality Social Comparisons We compare ourselves with others and consider how we differ We tend to compare upward Can diminish satisfaction

Development of the Social Self Success and Failure Our daily experiences cause us to have empowerment or low self-esteem Other People’s Judgments Looking-glass self How we think others perceive us as a mirror for perceiving ourselves

Self and Culture Individualism Concept of giving priority to one’s own goals over group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications Independent self Western cultures

Self and Culture Collectivism Giving priority to the goals of one’s groups and defining one’s identity accordingly Interdependent self Asian, African, and Central and South American cultures

Self and Culture Culture and Cognition Richard Nisbett’s The Geography of Thought (2003) Contends that collectivism results in different ways of thinking Asians tend to think more in relationships than Americans

Self and Culture Culture and Self-Esteem In collectivist cultures Self-concept is context-specific rather than stable Conflict takes place between groups In individualistic cultures Self-esteem is more personal and less relational Conflict takes place between individuals Crime Divorce

Self-Knowledge Explaining Our Behavior Predicting Our Behavior Planning fallacy Tendency to underestimate how long it will take to complete a task

Self-Knowledge Predicting Our Feelings Studies of “affective forecasting” reveal people have the greatest difficulty predicting the intensity and the duration of their future emotions Impact bias Overestimating the enduring impact of emotion-causing events Immune neglect Tendency to neglect the speed and strength of the “psychological immune system” which enables emotional recovery and resilience after bad things happen

Self-Knowledge The Wisdom and Illusions of Self-Analysis Dual attitude Automatic implicit attitudes regarding someone or something often differ from our consciously controlled, explicit attitudes

Self-Esteem Our overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth Specific self-perceptions have some influence Feedback is best when it is true and specific

Self-Esteem Motivation Self-esteem maintenance Self-esteem threats occur among friends whose successes can be more threatening than that of strangers

The “Dark Side” of Self-Esteem Narcissism Delroy and Williams (2002) “The Dark Triad” of negative traits Machiavellianism (manipulativeness) Antisocial psychopathology

Perceived Self-Control Effortful self-control depletes our limited willpower reserves Our brain’s “central executive” consumes available blood sugar when engaged in self-control

Self-Efficacy How competent we feel on a task Leads us to set challenging goals and to persist

Locus of Control Extent to which people perceive outcomes as internally controllable by their own efforts and actions or as externally controlled by chance or outside forces

Learned Helplessness versus Self-Determination Hopelessness and resignation learned when a human or animal perceives no control over repeated or bad events Martin Seligman Self-Determination Development of self-discipline in one area of your life may cause self-control in other areas as well

Excess Freedom The Costs of Excess Choice Too many choices can lead to dissatisfaction with our final choice People tend to be generally happier with decisions when they can’t undo them

Self-Serving Bias Tendency to perceive oneself favorably Explaining Positive and Negative Events Self-serving attributions Tendency to attribute positive outcomes to oneself and negative outcomes to other factors Contribute to marital discord, worker dissatisfaction, and bargaining impasses

Self-Serving Bias Can We All Be Better than Average? Most people see themselves as better than the average person on the following dimensions Subjective Socially desirable Common

Self-Serving Bias Areas in which we believe we are above average Ethics Professional competence Virtues Intelligence Tolerance Parental support Health Insight Attractiveness Driving

Self-Serving Bias Unrealistic Optimism Defensive Pessimism Is on the rise Illusory optimism increases our vulnerability Defensive Pessimism Adaptive value of anticipating problems and harnessing one’s anxiety to motivate effective action

Self-Serving Bias False Consensus Effect False Uniqueness Effect Tendency to overestimate the commonality of one’s opinions and one’s undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors False Uniqueness Effect Tendency to underestimate the commonality of one’s abilities and one’s desirable or successful behaviors

Self-Serving Bias Explaining Self-Serving Bias Self-serving bias is a by-product of how we process and remember information about ourselves Self-Serving Bias may be Adaptive Protects people from depression Maladaptive Group-serving bias

Self-Presentation Wanting to present a desired image both to an external audience (other people) and to an internal audience (ourselves) Self-Handicapping Protecting one’s self-image with behaviors that create a handy excuse for later failure Self-Monitoring Tendency to act like social chameleons