1. EXPLORING THE SELF Ferdinand Leal La Puebla
Assistant Professor, Department of Social Sciences

2. Topic Objective To appreciate exploring the Self
To be able to help the students apply their increased self-knowledge to improve how they deal with situations in everyday life

3. Outline I. Introduction II. Our Sense of Self III. Self and Culture
Self-concept
B. Development of the Social Self
III. Self and Culture
IV. Self-knowledge

4. Outline V. Perceived self-control VI. Self-esteem
VII. Self-serving bias
VIII. Self-presentation
IX. Concluding Statements

5. I. Introduction
Social psychology is a science that studies the influences of our situations, with special attention to how we view and affect one another.
It is the scientific study of how people think about, influence, and relate to one another.
Focuses more on individuals and uses more experimentation
How individuals view and affect one another

6. I. Introduction
Exploring the Self in Social Psychology is within Social Thinking
Social thinking includes:
How we perceive ourselves and others
What we believe
Judgments we make
Our attitudes
Research on the self has a long history because the self organizes thinking, feelings, and actions and is a critical part of our personality.

7. WHO AM I? II. Our Sense of Self
Self-concept is defined as your answers to:
WHO AM I?

8. A. Self-concept The elements of self-concept are the specific.
Self-schemas
Specific beliefs by which you define yourself
Mental templates by which we organize our worlds
Self-schemas are our perceiving ourselves as athletic, overweight, smart, or whatever – powerfully affect how we process social information.
These schemas influence how we perceive, remember, and evaluate both other people and ourselves.

9. A. Self-concept Illustration of Self-schema
If athletics is a central part of your self-concept or one of your schemas, then:
you will tend to notice others’ bodies and skills;
you will quickly recall sports-related experiences;
you will welcome information that is consistent with your self-schema.

10. A. Self-concept Self-schemas
Beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant information and the possible selves that we dream of or dread

11. A. Self-concept Self influences memory … Related Concepts:
Self-reference effect:
A phenomenon which says that when information is relevant to our self-concepts, we process it quickly and remember it well.
Possible selves:
Images who we might become (+ or -)

12. B. Development of the Social Self
Social experience influences our personality and self- concepts and among these influences are:
the roles we play,
the social identities we form,
the comparisons we make with others,
our successes and failures,
how other people judge us, and
the surrounding culture.

13. B. Development of the Social Self
1. The roles we play:
We enact a new role = STUDENT
We initially feel self-conscious
We play the roles
Observing ourselves can be self-revealing
We may now perceive ourselves as holding ourselves the views we expressed.
ROLE PLAYING BECOMES REALITY.

14. B. Development of the Social Self
2. The social identity:
Your self-concept – your sense of who you are also contains not just your personal identity but also your social identity
Personal identity is your sense of your personal attributes
Social identity: social definition of who you are – race, nationality, religion, gender, academic major, and etc.
Implies also of who you are not

15. B. Development of the Social Self
3. Social comparisons:
Evaluating one’s abilities and opinions by comparing oneself to others.
Much of life revolves around social comparisons.
Social comparisons can also breed misery.
Should we compare even if we have different social experiences?

16. B. Development of the Social Self
4. Success and failure:
Our self-concept is also fed by our daily experiences.
To undertake challenging yet realistic tasks and
To succeed is to feel more competence
Example:
After experiencing academic success, students develop higher appraisals of their academic ability which stimulates them to work harder and achieve more.

17. B. Development of the Social Self
5. Other people’s judgments:
Recognized achievements boost self-concept because we see ourselves in other’s positive appraisals.
When people think well of us, it helps us think well of ourselves.
Children whom others label as gifted, hard working, or helpful tend to incorporate such ideas into their self-concepts and behaviors.
We feel the pain of low self-esteem when we face social exclusions

18. How you describe your social identity?
III. Self and Culture
How you describe your social identity?

19. Individualism Collectivism
Individualism defines identity as self-contained and it is enriched by defining your possible selves and believing in your power of personal control. (independent self)
Concept of giving priority to one’s own goals
Self-esteem is more personal and relational.
Collectivism prioritizes on group’s or family’s goals and defining one’s identity accordingly
Self esteem is “what others think of me and my group”.
People have less regard to positive self-regard and identity is defined more in relation to others.
This concept nurture what Shinobu Kitayama and Hazel Markus (1995) as interdependent self.

20. Culture & Self-Esteem
People maintain their self-esteem even with a low status by valuing things they achieve and comparing themselves to people with similar positions.

21. III. Self and Culture Self-concept: Independent or interdependent
Identity is
Personal, defined by individual traits and goals
Social, defined by connections with others
What matters
Me – personal achievement & fulfillment; my rights and liberties
We – group goals and solidarity; our social responsibilities and relationships
Disapproves of
Conformity
Egotism
Illustrative motto
“To thine own self be true”
“No one is an island”
Cultures that support
Individualistic Western
Collectivistic Asian and Third World

22. IV. Self-knowledge “Know Thyself.”
Sometimes we think we know, but our inside information is wrong. We dismiss factors that matter and inflate others that don’t.
Love is blind.
People happily playing in flooded areas…

23. IV. Self-knowledge 1. Explaining our behavior
Why did you choose UP?
Why did you choose your college?
Why did you fall in love with that special person?
We produce plausible answers and when causes are subtle, are self-explanations are often wrong.

24. IV. Self-knowledge 2. Predicting our behavior
Predicting the fate of their relationships
Focusing on the positives, lovers may feel sure they will always be lovers.
Predicting negative behaviors such as crying or lying, self-predictions are more accurate than predictions by one’s mothers and friends.
Best advice: is to consider past behavior from similar situations. Experience is the best …

25. IV. Self-knowledge 3. Predicting our feelings Questions like…
Big decisions predict our future feelings
Questions like…
Would marrying this person lead to lifelong contentment?
Would entering this profession make for satisfying work?
Would going on this vacation produce a happy experience?

26. IV. Self-knowledge
3. Predicting our feelings “When a feeling was there, they felt as if it would never go; when it was gone, they felt as if it had never been; when it returned, they felt as if it has never gone.” - George MacDonald, What’s Mine’s Mine, 1886

27. IV. Self-knowledge
4. The wisdom and illusions of self-analysis
Our intuitions are often dead wrong about what had influenced us and what we will feel and do.
But, when the causes of our behavior are obvious and visible and the correct explanations fits our intuition, our self-perceptions will be accurate.

28. IV. Self-knowledge
4. The wisdom and illusions of self-analysis
Our intuitions are often dead wrong about what had influenced us and what we will feel and do.
But, when the causes of our behavior are obvious and visible and the correct explanations fits our intuition, our self-perceptions will be accurate.

29. V. Perceived self-control
We have considered what a self-concept is, how it develops, and how well we know ourselves.
People who exert self-control by forcing themselves to eat radishes rather than chocolates, or by suppressing forbidden thoughts – subsequently quit faster when given unsolvable puzzles.

30. V. Perceived self-control
People who tried to control their emotions to an upsetting movie exhibit decreased physical stamina.
Effortful self-control depletes our limited willpower reserves as it operates similarly to our muscular strength.

31. V. Perceived self-control
Self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997)
An optimistic belief that one is competent and effective, distinguished from self-esteem, one’s sense of self-worth.
Competence plus persistent striving equals accomplishment > self-confidence grows then self- efficacy grows with hard-won achievements.
Children and adults with strong feelings of self- efficacy are more persistent, less anxious, and less depressed. They also live healthier lives and are more academically successful.

32. V. Perceived self-control
Locus of control (Rotter, 1973)
The extent to which people perceive outcomes as internally controllable by their own efforts and actions or as externally controlled by chance or outside forces.
“No matter what I do, things just don’t go my way. She’s going to get ahead of me.”
“I control my destiny. With enough effort, I could win this race.”

33. V. Perceived self-control
Learned helplessness
When animals or people experience uncontrollable bad events, they learn to feel helpless and resigned.
Stressful and several diseases are associated with feelings of helplessness and diminished choice.

34. Learned Helplessness
When unable to avoid repeated adverse events an animal or human learns helplessness.

35. VI. Self-esteem
A person’s overall self-evaluation or sense of self- worth that influences how we appraise our traits and abilities.
Psychologists aim to help people feel better about themselves.
Self-esteem motivation is a motivational engine that powers our cognitive machinery. Facing failure, high self-esteem people sustain their self-worth by perceiving other people as failing too, and by exaggerating their superiority over others.

36. VI. Self-esteem The dark side of self-esteem:
Low self-esteem predicts increased risk of depression, drug abuse, and some forms of delinquency.
When feeling threatened, only high self- esteem people became significantly more antagonistic-arrogant, rude and unfriendly (from Heatherton & Vohns,2000).

37. VII. Self-serving bias The tendency to perceive oneself favorably.
Self-serving bias is seen as a by-product of how we process and remember information about ourselves.
As we process self-relevant information, a potent bias intrudes. We readily excuse our failures, accept credit for our successes, and in many ways see ourselves as better than average. Such self-enhancing perceptions enable most people to enjoy the bright side of high self-esteem, while occasionally suffering the dark side.

38. VII. Self-serving bias as Adaptive
Self-serving bias and its accompanying excuses also help protect people from depression and the biological costs of stress.
as Maladaptive
People who blame others for their social difficulties are often unhappier than people who can acknowledge their mistakes.
If most group members believe they are underpaid and underappreciated relative to their better-than-average contributions, disharmony and envy are likely.

39. VII. Self-serving bias Explaining Positive and Negative Events
Experiments have found that people accept credit when told they have succeeded. They attribute the success to their ability and effort, but they attribute failure to external factors such as bad luck or the problem’s inherent “impossibility”
In explaining their victories, athletes commonly credit themselves, but they attribute losses to something else: bad breaks, bad referee calls, or the other team’s super effort or dirty play.

40. VII. Self-serving Bias
Can we all be better than average?
Most people see themselves as better than average, more ethical, friendlier, more intelligent, etc.

41. VII. Self-serving bias Unrealistic Optimism Art Markman Ph.D.
Art Markman, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology and Marketing at the University of Texas at Austin. He got his Sc.B. in Cognitive Science from Brown and his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Illinois.
He has published over 150 scholarly works on topics in higher-level thinking including the effects of motivation on learning and performance, analogical reasoning, categorization, decision making, and creativity.
Drinking leads to more drinking
Unrealistic optimism about problem drinking is dangerous.

42. VII. Self-serving bias Unrealistic Optimism
Illusory optimism increases our vulnerability
Unrealistic optimists may pay less attention to the consequences of their drinking than the realists in order to maintain their self-concept that they are not problem drinkers.
Unrealistic optimists are not good at recognizing the potential dangers of drinking.

43. VII. Self-serving Bias False consensus effect
The tendency to overestimate the commonality of one’s opinions and one’s undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors.
People tend to believe that their opinions are common. People believe that the consensus opinion (or majority opinion) agrees with their own, regardless of what their opinion is.

44. VII. Self-serving Bias False uniqueness effect
The tendency to underestimate the commonality of one’s abilities and one’s desirable or successful behaviors.
Individuals or groups believe that their own attitudes, beliefs and worldview are negatively correlated with those of a target population. It is the tendency to underestimate the commonality of one's abilities and one's desirable or successful behaviors.
" My neighbor is more likely to have better quality of life than our family".

45. VIII. Self-presentation
Act of expressing oneself and behaving in ways designed to create a favorable impression or an impression that corresponds to one’s ideals.
Aside from humans perceiving themselves in self- enhancing ways, they also present themselves favorably to others.

46. VIII. Self-presentation
False Modesty
Behavior in which a person pretends to have low opinions of the own abilities and achievements. (I am a fool, etc.)
Self-Handicapping
People sabotage their chances for success by creating impediments that make success less likely.
Perform poorly at the beginning of the task in order not to create unreachable expectations.

47. VIII. Self-presentation
Impression Management
Attuning their behaviors to the situations, they are more likely to espouse attitudes they don’t really hold.
“I tend to be what people expect me to be.”
Acting like social chameleons
Self-monitoring: being attuned to the way one presents oneself in social situations and adjusting one’s performance to create the desired impression.

48. IX. Concluding Statements
“No topic is more interesting to people than people. For most people, moreover, the most interesting person is the self.” - Roy F. Baumeister, The Self in Social Psychology, 1999 “There are three things extremely hard, Steel, a Diamond, and to know one’s self.” - Benjamin Franklin

49. References
Myers, D. G. (2005). Social Psychology, 8th ed. New York: McGraw Hill Companies, Inc.
Myers, D. G. (2013). Social Psychology, 11th ed. New York: McGraw Hill Companies, Inc.

50. THANK YOU FOR LISTENING AND SEE YOU IN RECIT CLASSES 