The Social Self: Lecture #2 topics Who am I? How do we know who we are? How do we see ourselves? How do we want to be seen? How do we feel about ourselves?
Who am I? self-concept: sum total of beliefs we have of ourselves answers to “_________ ?” composed of self-schemas: mental templates that guide how we process _________ information
Who am I? “Korean” “female” “short” “Ph.D. student” “dog lover” “psychology”
Who am I? the self-reference effect: enhanced _________ & _________ of self- relevant information
How do we know who we are? introspection: looking _________ to our own thoughts & feelings can be inaccurate when causes of our own behaviour are not _________ e.g., Nisbett & Schachter’s (1966) fake pill study
How do we know who we are? RESULTS (Nisbett & Schachter, 1966): HIGH LOW
How do we know who we are? self-perception theory (Bem, 1972): observing our own _________ to infer our thoughts & feelings occurs when internal states are _________ / _________ can’t account for our behaviour
How do we know who we are? facial feedback hypothesis: changes in _________ can trigger changes in subjective emotions e.g., Strack’s (1988) & Laird’s (1974, 1984) studies
How do we know who we are? (courtesy of Gary Larsen)
How do we know who we are? social identities: _________ memberships; the “_________” part of our self-concepts our self-concepts are defined in relation to other people
How do we know who we are? social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954): we compare ourselves to _________ when we can’t _________ assess our own abilities, opinions, or emotions e.g., Schachter & Singer’s (1962) vitamin shot study
How do we know who we are? RESULTS (Schachter & Singer, 1962): placebodrug- informed drug- uninformed happy confederate angry confederate
How do I see myself? private self- consciousness: focus on _________ thoughts & feelings more likely to act according to _________ standards public self- consciousness: focus on _________ more likely to _________ behaviour to _________ social situation
How do I see myself? self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1989): discrepancy between how we are & how we want to be determines how we feel about ourselves actual self: who you are _________ ought self: how you _________ be ideal self: how you _________ to be
How do I see myself? an unfortunate victim of “choking”…?
How do I see myself?
dealing with excessive self-awareness: act _________ with personal values/ socially accepted ideals to reduce self-discrepancies withdraw from self-awareness completely e.g., _________, _________, _________, _________, _________, _________
How do I want to be seen? self-presentation: shaping what others think of us _________ _________- _________
How do I want to be seen?
self-presentation: shaping what others think of us strategic ingratiationself-promotion _________ - _________
How do I want to be seen? self-monitoring: controlling one’s behaviour to meet social expectations
How do I want to be seen? high self-monitors: _________ behaviour according to social expectations behaviour _________ across situations more likely to engage in _________ low self-monitors: less concerned about adjusting actions to fit social expectations behaviour _________ across situations more likely to be _________
How do I feel about myself? self-esteem: _________ component of the self consisting of _________ & _________ self-evaluations trait & state (context-dependent) self-esteem individual differences in stability
How do I feel about myself? sociometer hypothesis (Leary & Baumeister, 2000): based on evolutionary perspectives self-esteem = barometer of social _________ / _________ social inclusion = _________ self-esteem terror management theory (Greenberg et al., 1997): self-preservation vs. death awareness “_________ _________ ” help us cope with mortality high self-esteem = _________ adherence to worldviews
How do I feel about myself? Heine (1999): Canadian self-esteem scores: Low High Japanese self-esteem scores: LowHigh
How do I feel about myself? East Asian cultures: _________ interdependence emphasis on the _________ individual needs are _________ ego enhancement is _________ Western cultures: _________ independence emphasis on the _________ individual needs are _________ ego enhancement is _________
How do I feel about myself? To what extent are you: (1)…happy? (2)…friendly? (3)…smart? (4)…funny? (5)…friendly? (6) …hard-working? (7) …tidy? (8) …creative? (9) …confident? (10) …easy-going? not at alla littlemoderatelyveryextremely
How do I feel about myself? We’re all better than average: 50% of business people rate their morals as “90” on a scale from 1 to 100 86% of Australians rate their job performance as “above average” most university students believe they will live 10 years longer than their statistically predicted age of death
How do I feel about myself? false uniqueness effect: we’re more unique than we really are belief that our _________ are _________ common than they really are false consensus effect: _________ people support our opinions than they really do belief that our _________ are _________ common than they really are
How do I feel about myself? implicit egotism: _________ preference for the letters in our _________ over other letters in the alphabet influences preferences, career choice, residence, & other major life decisions
How do I feel about myself? St. John’s, NFLD Saskatoon, SK gin kangaroos So-Jin Kang surgeon
How do I feel about myself? taking credit for success, but not for failure: we make _________ attributions for _________ outcomes & _________ attributions for _________ outcomes unrealistic optimism: we’re more likely to experience _________ events & less likely to experience _________ ones
How do I feel about myself? self-handicapping: making excuses for past & future performance e.g., “ _________ ” sandbagging e.g., “ _________ !” self-sabotage e.g., “ _________ ” BIRG-ing: “basking in the _________ glory” of others
How do I feel about myself? self-evaluation maintenance: when a significant other outperforms us, self-esteem threatened? response unimportant domain no important domain yes
How do I feel about myself? downward social comparisons: comparing ourselves to people who are _________ off than us most likely to occur after a _________ event self-sabotage downward temporal comparisons: we’re better today than we were in the past
How do I feel about myself? self-esteem is beneficial: optimism & other positive illusions help us cope with adversity promotes happiness, caring, & productivity high self-esteem people: _________ adjusted on personality tests
How do I feel about myself? self-esteem has a dark side: people with extremely _________ self-esteem can be _________ : excessive self-love, unjustified positive & grandiose self-views e.g., Bushman & Baumeister (1998) noise blast study
How do I feel about myself? RESULTS (Bushman & Baumeister, 1998): HIGH LOW