Chapter 2 - the self in a social world

Question 1

spotlight effect

Answer 1

The belief that others are paying more attention to our appearance than they really are.

Timothy Lawson (2010)
- study where students wore a shirt that said american eagle
- nearly 40% of students were sure that others would remember the shirt
- but actually only 10% did

Question 2

illusion of transparency

Answer 2

The illusion that our concealed
emotions leak out and can be easily
read by others.

(Vorauer & Ross, 1999)
We feel especially transparent when we feel self-conscious and worry about being evaluated negatively
by others

Savitsky and Gilovich (2003)
focus on whether illusion of transparency may be present with inexperienced public speakers

invited 40 university
students to their laboratory in pairs. One person stood at the podium and
spoke for three minutes (on a topic such as “The Best and Worst Things
About Life Today”) as the other sat and listened. Then the two switched
positions and the other person gave a different three-minute impromptu talk.
Afterward, each rated how nervous they thought they appeared while speaking (from 0, not at
all, to 10, very) and how nervous the other person seemed.

People would rate themselves as seeming pretty nervous
but others would rate them as not seeming so nervous

next wondered whether informing speakers that their nervousness isn’t so obvious might help them relax and perform better.

They invited 77 more

university students to come to the lab and, after five minutes’ preparation, give a three-minute videotaped speech on race relations at their university. Those in one group—the
control condition—were given no further instructions. Those in the reassured condition

were told that it was natural to feel anxious but that “You shouldn’t worry much about what other people think. . . . With this in mind you should just relax and try to do your best. Know that if you become nervous, you probably shouldn’t worry about it.”
then explained the illusion of transparency and that others don’t think you are as nervous as you feel

After the speeches, the speakers rated their speech quality and their perceived nervousness

those informed about the illusion-of-transparency phenomenon felt bet-
ter about their speech and their appearance than did those in the control and reassurance conditions. What’s more, the observers confirmed the speakers’ self-assessments.

Question 3

Social surroundings affect our self-awareness

Answer 3

When we are the only members of
our race, gender, or nationality in a group, we notice how we differ and how others are reacting to our difference. For example, the only woman in an executive meeting is likely to be acutely aware of her gender. When travelling abroad, you may be keenly aware of being Canadian; while at home, however, you might not think about your nationality very much.

Question 4

Self-interest colours our social judgment

Answer 4

When problems arise in a close relationship, we usually attribute more responsibility to our partners than to ourselves. When things go well at home or work or play, we see ourselves as more responsible. After Canadians Frederick Banting and John Macleod received a 1923 Nobel Prize for discovering insulin, they both thought the discovery was primarily their own. Banting claimed that Macleod, who headed the laboratory, had been more a hindrance than a help. Macleod omitted Banting’s name in speeches about the discovery (Ross, 1981).

Question 5

Self-concern motivates our social behaviour

Answer 5

In hopes of making a positive impres-
sion, we agonize about our appearance. Like savvy politicians, we also monitor others’ behaviour and expectations and adjust our behaviour accordingly

Question 6

Social relationships help define the self

Answer 6

In our varied relationships, we have varying selves (Andersen & Chen, 2002). We may be one self with Mom, another with friends, another with teachers. How we think of ourselves is linked to the person we’re with at the moment. And when relationships change, our self-concepts can change as well. University students who recently broke up with a romantic partner shifted their self-perceptions and felt less certain about who they were—one reason breakups can be so emotionally distressing (Slotter, Gardner, & Finkel, 2010).

Question 7

The self

Answer 7

Self-concept
- who am I

Self-esteem
- My sense of self-worth

Self-knowledge
- How can I explain and predict myself

Social self
- My roles as a student, family member, and friend; my group identity

Question 8

self concept

Answer 8

How a person answers
the question “Who am I?” provides a
glimpse of their self-concept.

Question 9

self schema

Answer 9

Beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant information.

Schemas are mental templates by which we organize our worlds. Our self-schemas—our perceiving ourselves as athletic, overweight, smart, or whatever—powerfully affect how we perceive, remember, and evaluate other people and ourselves.

The self-schemas that make up
our self-concepts help us organize and retrieve our experiences.

Question 10

social comparison

Answer 10

Evaluating your abilities and opinions by comparing yourself to others.

Others around us help to define the standard by which we evaluate our-
selves as rich or poor, smart or dumb, tall or short: We compare ourselves with those around us and become conscious of how we differ. We then use others as a benchmark by which we can evaluate our performance and our beliefs.

Consider a study conducted by Penelope Lockwood of the University of Toronto and
Ziva Kunda of the University of Waterloo (Lockwood & Kunda, 1997). They exposed

first-year or fourth-year accounting students to an article about a superstar accounting student who had won numerous awards, attained a very high grade point average, and landed a spectacular job. For first-year students, this role model represented achievements they
could hope to attain. But fourth-year students students knew that—at this point in their studies—they could not hope to achieve such spectacular heights. As you can see in Figure 2–2,
comparisons to the superstar had strong effects on these students’ self-evaluations. When first- and fourth-year students did not read about the superstar, they had similar self-eval-
uations. But when they were exposed to the superstar, first-year students seemed inspired; their self-evaluations were substantially more positive. Fourth-year students, on the other hand, seemed dejected; their self-evaluations plummeted.

Social comparison explains why students tend to have a higher academic self-evalua-
tion if they attend a school with mostly average students (Marsh et al., 2000; Wang, 2015)

self-concept can be threatened after graduation when a student who excelled in an average high school goes on to an academically selective university. The “big fish” is no
longer in a small pond.

When facing competition, we often protect our shaky self-concept by perceiving the competitor as advantaged. For example, college swimmers believed that their competitors had better coaching and more practice time (Shepperd & Taylor, 1999).

Question 11

individualism

Answer 11

The 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.

more common in western cultures

Individualism flourishes when people experience affluence, mobility, urbanism, and mass media, and when economies shift away from manufacturing and toward informa-
tion and service industries (Bianchi, 2016; Grossmann & Varnum, 2015; Triandis, 2000).

Question 12

independent self

Answer 12

Construing one’s identity as an autonomous self.

One’s identity—as a unique individual with particular abilities, traits, values, and dreams—remains fairly constant.
Western culture assumes that your life will be enriched by believing in your power of personal control.

Question 13

collectivism

Answer 13

Giving priority to the goals of one’s groups (often, one’s extended family or work group) and defining one’s identity accordingly.

Most cultures native to Asia, Africa, and Central and South America
place a greater value on collectivism

emphasis on the interdependent self

Question 14

interdependent self

Answer 14

Construing one’s identity in relation to others

In these cultures, people are more self-critical and focus less on positive self-views

Question 15

Culture and cognition experiment

Answer 15

collectivism also results in different ways of thinking. When shown an animated underwater scene (Figure 2–4), Japanese respondents spontaneously recalled 60 percent more background features than did Americans, and they spoke of more relationships (the frog beside the plant). Americans look more at the focal object, such as a single big fish,
and less at the surroundings

Nisbett

studies examine activation in different areas of the brain (Goh et al., 2007; Lewis, Goto, & Kong,
2008). When shown drawings of groups of children, Japanese students took the facial expressions of all of the children into account when rating the happiness or anger of an individual child, whereas Ameri-
cans focused on only the child they were asked to rate (Masuda et al., 2008).

Question 16

Pen study

Answer 16

When Heejun Kim and Hazel Markus
(1999) invited people to choose one of these pens, 77 percent of Americans but only 31 percent of Asians chose the uncommon colour (regardless of whether it was orange, as here, or green). This result illustrates differing cultural preferences for uniqueness
and conformity, noted Kim and Markus.

Question 17

Culture and self esteem

Answer 17

In collectivist cultures, self-esteem is malleable (context-specific) rather than stable (enduring across situations). In one study, four in five Canadian students agreed that they
remain essentially the same person in different situations, compared with one in three Chinese and Japanese students (Tafarodi et al., 2004).

Question 18

planning fallacy

Answer 18

The tendency to underestimate how long it will take to complete a task.

those around you tend to know more accurately when you will finish a task than you do.

Question 19

Predicting feelings

Answer 19

Sometimes we will know how we feel

Other times we may mispredict our responses. Asked how they would
feel if asked sexually harassing questions on a job interview, most women studied by Julie
Woodzicka and Marianne LaFrance (2001) said they would feel angry. When actually asked such questions, however, women more often experienced fear.

Question 20

affective forecasting

Answer 20

Studies of “affective forecasting” reveal that people have the greatest difficulty predicting the intensity and the duration of their future emotions (Wilson & Gilbert, 2003). People mispredict how they would feel some time after experiencing a romantic breakup, receiving a gift, losing an election, winning a game, and being insulted (Gilbert & Ebert, 2002; Loewenstein & Schkade, 1999). Some examples follow:

eg.
- hungry shoppers
- People overestimate how much their well-being would be affected by both bad events and good events

Question 21

we often “miswant.”

Answer 21

People who imagine an idyllic desert island holiday with sun, surf, and sand may be disappointed when they discover “how much they require daily structure, intellectual stimulation, or regular infusions of
Pop Tarts” (p. 182). We think that if our candidate or team wins we will
be delighted for a long while. But study after study reveals our vulnerability to impact bias—overestimating

Question 22

impact bias

Answer 22

Overestimating the enduring impact of emotion-causing events.

We are especially prone to impact bias after negative events.

Moreover, said Wilson and Gilbert (2003), people neglect the speed and power of their

coping mechanisms, which include rationalizing, discounting, forgiving, and limiting emo-
tional trauma. Because we are unaware of the speed and strength of our coping, we adapt to

disabilities, romantic breakups, exam failures, layoffs, and personal and team defeats more readily than we would expect. Ironically, Gilbert and his colleagues report (2004) that
major negative events (which activate our psychological defences) can be less enduringly distressing than minor irritations (which don’t activate our defences). We are, under most
circumstances, remarkably resilient.

Question 23

The wisdom and illusions of self-analysis

Answer 23

We are unaware of much that goes on in our minds. Perception and memory studies show that we are more aware of the results of our thinking than of the process.

In nine experiments, Wilson and his
colleagues (1989) found that the attitudes people consciously expressed toward things or
people usually predicted their subsequent behaviour reasonably well. Their attitude reports
became useless, however, if the participants were first asked to analyze their feelings. For example, dating couples’ current happiness with their relationship accurately predicted whether they would still be dating several months later. But participants who first listed all the reasons they could think of why their
relationship was good or bad before rating their happiness were misled—
their happiness ratings were useless in predicting the future of the relationship! Apparently, the process of dissecting the relationship drew attention to easily verbalized factors that were not as important as harder-to-verbalize happiness. We are often “strangers to ourselves,” Wilson concluded (2002).

Question 24

dual attitudes

Answer 24

Differing implicit (automatic) and explicit (consciously controlled) attitudes toward the same object. Verbalized explicit attitudes may change with education and
persuasion; implicit attitudes change
slowly, with practice that forms new
habits.

Our automatic, implicit attitudes regarding someone or something often differ from our consciously controlled, explicit attitudes

Self-reports are often untrustworthy.

Question 25

self-esteem

Answer 25

A person’s overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth.

Self-esteem thus depends on whether we believe we have traits that make us attractive to others, and not necessarily on the traits
that we say we value most.

Question 26

study on self esteem

Answer 26

One intriguing study examined the effects of very general feedback on self-esteem. Imagine you’re getting your grade back for the first test in a psychology class. When you see your grade, you groan—it’s a D–. But then you get an encouraging email with some review questions for the class and this message: “Students who have high self-esteem not only get better grades, but they remain self-confident and assured. . . . Bottom line: Hold your head—and your self-esteem—high.” Another group of students instead get a message
about taking personal control of their performance or receive review questions only. So which group does better on the final exam? To the surprise of the researchers, the students whose self-esteem was boosted did by far the worst on the final; in fact, they flunked it (Forsyth et al., 2007). Struggling students told to feel good about themselves, the researchers suggested, may have thought, “I’m already great—why study?”

Question 27

study on upward comparison in romantic relationships

Answer 27

(Zuckerman & Jost, 2001). In contrast, researchers at the University of
Toronto found that people often react more positively to upward comparisons, rather than downward comparisons, to romantic partners (Pinkus et al., 2008). When a partner out-performs us in a domain important to both our identities, we may reduce the threat by affirming our relationship, saying, “My capable partner, with whom I’m very close, is part of who I am”

Question 28

terror management theory

Answer 28

Jeff Greenberg (2008) offers another perspective, called “terror management theory,” which argues that humans must find ways to manage their overwhelming fear of death. If self-esteem is only about acceptance, he counters, why do “people strive to be great rather than to just be accepted” (p. 51)? The reality of our own death, he argues, motivates us to gain recognition from our work and values. There’s a worm in the apple, however: Not everyone can achieve such recognition, which is exactly why it is valuable and why self-esteem can never be wholly unconditional (or not based on anything, such as when parents say, “You’re special just for being you”). To feel our lives are not in vain, Greenberg maintains, we must continually pursue self-esteem by meeting the standards of our societies.

Question 29

pursuing self esteem can back fire

Answer 29

However, actively pursuing self-esteem can backfire. Jennifer Crocker and colleagues found that students whose self-worth was contingent on external sources (such as grades or others’ opinions) experienced more stress, anger, relationship problems, drug and alcohol use, and eating disorders than did those whose sense of self-worth was rooted more in internal sources, such as personal virtues (Crocker, 2002; Crocker & Knight, 2005; Crocker & Luhtanen, 2003; Crocker & Park, 2004).
Ironically, note Crocker and Lora Park (2004), those who pursue self-esteem, perhaps by seeking to become beautiful, rich, or popular, may lose sight of what really makes them feel good about themselves. University students who tried to impress their roommates by emphasizing their good qualities and hiding their bad ones found that their roommates actually liked them less, which then undermined their self-esteem

Question 30

The Trade-Off of Low vs. High Self-Esteem

Answer 30

• People low in self-esteem are more vulnerable to anxiety, loneliness, and eating disorders.
• When feeling bad or threatened, those with low self-esteem often take a negative view of everything.

Question 31

Narcissism: Self-esteem’s conceited sister

Answer 31

High self-esteem becomes especially problematic if it crosses over into narcissism or having an inflated sense of self.

Most people with high self-esteem value both individual achievement and relationships with others. Narcissists usually have high self-esteem, but they are missing the piece about caring for others

Question 32

Narcisim, self esteem and agression

Answer 32

In a series of experiments conducted by Brad Bushman and Roy Baumeister (1998), undergraduate volunteers wrote essays and received rigged feedback that said, “This is
one of the worst essays I’ve read!” Those who scored high on narcissism were much more likely to retaliate, blasting painful noise into the headphones of the student they believed had criticized them. Narcissists weren’t aggressive toward someone who praised them
(“Great essay!”); it was the insult that set them off. But what about self-esteem? Maybe only the “insecure” narcissists—those low in self-esteem—would lash out. But that’s not
how it turned out; instead, the students high in both self-esteem and narcissism were the most aggressive. The same was true in a classroom setting: Those who were high in narcissism were most likely to retaliate against a classmate’s criticism by giving the person a bad grade (Bushman et al., 2009; Figure 2–7). Narcissists are especially likely to lash out when the insult is delivered publicly—and thus punctures their carefully constructed
bubble of superiority.

Question 33

self-efficacy

Answer 33

A sense that one is competent and effective, distinguished from self-esteem, which is one’s sense of self-worth. A sharpshooter in the military might feel high self-efficacy and low
self-esteem.

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.

Question 34

self-serving bias

Answer 34

The tendency to perceive yourself favourably.

Question 35

self-serving attributions

Answer 35

A form of self-serving bias; the tendency to attribute positive outcomes to yourself and negative outcomes to other factors.

managers usually blame poor performance on workers’ lack
of ability or effort while workers blame external factors, such as excessive workload or difficult co-workers

Question 36

explanatory style

Answer 36

A person’s habitual way of explaining life events. A negative, pessimistic,
and depressive explanatory style
attributes failures to stable, global,
and internal causes.

Question 37

defensive pessimism

Answer 37

The adaptive value of anticipating problems and harnessing one’s anxiety to motivate effective action.

Question 38

false consensus effect

Answer 38

The tendency to overestimate the commonality of one’s opinions and one’s undesirable or unsuccessful behaviours.

Question 39

false uniqueness effect

Answer 39

The tendency to underestimate the commonality of one’s abilities and one’s desirable or successful behaviours.

Question 40

temporal comparisons

Answer 40

Comparisons between how the self is viewed now and how the self was viewed in the past or how the self is expected to be viewed in the future.

Question 41

self-handicapping

Answer 41

Protecting one’s self-image with behaviours that create a handy excuse for later failure.

Question 42

self-presentation

Answer 42

The act of expressing yourself and behaving in ways designed to create a favourable impression or an impression that corresponds to your ideals.

Question 43

self-monitoring

Answer 43

Being attuned to the way you present yourself in social situations and adjusting your performance to create the desired impression.

Question 44

self-presentation theory

Answer 44

A theory positing that we are eager to present ourselves in ways that make a good impression.

Question 45

learned helplessness

Answer 45

The hopelessness and resignation learned when a human or animal perceives no control over repeated bad events.