5 The self Flashcards
What is the self in terms of social cognitive scientists?
- the self concept is an information structure about ourselves
- its should organise our futures, should have some impact on or futures because we learn from the world around us
- constantly learning new things about ourselves which might influence the way we act tomorrow
chameleon concept
chameleon:
we change certain things about ourselves to match our environments but there will always be certain things that say the same (e.g. a chameleons curly tail)
What is a schema?
an information structure - the whole structure of connected concepts that are linked to each other
e. g. if you see something you’re schema’s will be activated and all the relevant concepts will all spring to mind
e. g. you walk into your first lecture but you already know what to do thanks to your schemas (sit down, get your paper out etc )
self schemas do what?
influence and guide future interactions
can be general or specific
e.g. ‘i’m a shy person’ or the specific memory of being shy and not interacting with people/of trying and failing so you don’t want to do it again
schema for a given domain will:
- aid information processing of this domain
- enable search for instances of behaviour to support this
- help to predict future behaviour
- resist information contrary to the schema
Markus 1977
people were put into groups of perceiving themselves as dependent or independent or don’t care (a-schematic - don’t have a schema for this)
-then time on responding to adjectives was measured and independent schematics responded to the independent adjectives the fastest
did experiments on schemas
Markus 1977
Marcus 1977 2
Made up suggestibility test - wanted to measure if you told someone something about themselves that was incongruent with their schema, would they take it on board
Marcus 1977 2 how
to the independent people attached electrodes to their fingers and then told the participants ‘‘because of these wires we know you are a very suggestible person’’ - at odds wit their schema
People with low importance/weak schema’s took the information on board very easily and went along with it
People with strong schema’s resisted the information and refused to believe it
The fluid self
-is the self really stable?
context dependence of self
what if self schemas/perception conflict with social salient identities
The fluid self who?
Onorato and Turner’s (2004)
Onorato and Turner’s (2004) which concept?
the fluid self
How does the fluid self link in with SIT/SCT
We shift from individual to group identity when the group demands it….fluid self
what could the view of the self vary because of:
- culture
- gender
Markus and Kitayama (1991)
looked into the difference in concept of self in different cultures
independent self vs interdependent self
independent self
Markus and Kitayama 1991
- independent is more western -recognition of inherent separateness of distinct persons
- define yourself in terms of traits and characteristics
- acting in a way to promote your own goals
Interdependent self
Markus and Kitayama 1991
- think of yourself as part of an organised whole
- define yourself in terms of roles and relationships
- acting in a way to promote group goals
