Chapter 5: Understanding Ourselves in a Social Context

Question 1

what is self concept

Answer 1

The overall set of beliefs that people have about their personal attributes

Question 2

How Would you Know if you Had a Self? (researchers testing whether or not someone has a self)

Answer 2

The rouge test (do this with all species, put a mark somewhere on the face and put the species in front of a mirror and see if they notice it; if they reach up to the mark, they know they are looking at a reflection of themselves and you can know they have a concept of themselves)
-Some primates: great apes (chimps and orangutans) pass, lesser apes, do not
-Dolphins (specific ones)
-Chimps: start at 3 minutes
-Puppy (acting like it is playing with another dog)

Humans at 18 to 24 months (do not pass the rouge test until they are this old)
-maybe a bit later
-only species that consistently pass are humans, and certain kinds of apes

Question 3

why talk about the self in social psychology

Answer 3

-Self-concept shaped by people around us

Ex. Chimps raised in families pass the rouge test & Chimps raised alone do not

Question 4

how does our self develop

Answer 4

Child’s self-concept
-Concrete (e.g. I am a boy, I live here)
-References to characteristics like age, sex, neighborhood, and hobbies

Maturing self-concept
-Less emphasis on physical characteristics
-More emphasis on psychological states and how other people judge us

Question 5

what do we see as key attributes of other people’s selves

Answer 5

-Psychological things seem to be important for who we think we are and who we think other people are
-Asked if you saw a friend you have not seen in years and are told they are changed in some way, would you think their true self has changed at all based on the changes?
-Ex. Is now a racist or cruel, most people would say the self has changed
-Ex. Needs eyeglasses or likes different music, most people would say the self has not changed

Question 6

western influences on the self-concept

Answer 6

-Self is “independent”
-When we think of ourselves that is all we think about, not our family or friends or things like that
-Defined through own internal thoughts, feelings, and actions
-Independence and uniqueness valued
-“Squeaky wheel gets the oil.”
-If you want something to be better for you, you have to ask for it or do something about it, need to stand out

Question 7

eastern influences on the self concept

Answer 7

-Self is “interdependent”
-Defined through relationships to other people
-Recognition of impact of others
-Connectedness and interdependence valued
-Think you should be influenced by others and get along with others (this is different than the Western cultures)
-Uniqueness frowned upon
-“Nail that stands out gets pounded down hardest.”
-People who stand out are the problem, if you go along with everyone and are a good group member this makes you a good person

Question 8

explain differences within cultures and the study about them (baby names)

Answer 8

But there are also differences within cultures! Not all Westerners are independent and not all Easterners are interdependent. (see study below)
Date of Statehood and Frequency of Popular Baby Names

Looked at the names that parents name their children in different states, some states are newer and settled at a later time, and others are older states that have been around since the beginning of the U.S.
-States where you can have your own land and do your own thing would likely be more independent (western states), in eastern states this is harder to do
-Found that people in western states would give their children names that are less common than eastern states

Question 9

explain introspection

Answer 9

-The process whereby people look inward and examine their own thoughts, feelings, and motives
-People do not introspect very often.

Why not?
-Not always pleasant to think about ourselves
-Mor et al. (2010) – positive correlation between thinking about self and being in a negative mood
-Why?

Question 10

what is self awareness theory

Answer 10

-when people focus their attention on themselves, they compare their behavior to their internal standards and values
-what we believe we should be, how we should act

Explains why we don’t like this - we don’t like to be reminded of our shortcomings
-Typically we are not living up to our standards

Question 11

explain how self awareness is not always aversive (halloween study)

Answer 11

Example: if you have experienced a major success
-Can also remind you of your sense of right and wrong

Halloween Study (Deiner et al., 1976), this is a night where people do not get to be themselves they are dressed up as someone else, not really thinking about your own personal identity
-1300 trick-or-treating children
-Told to take 1 piece of candy

IV: asked for their name and street (or not)

Much less likely to take extra candy when asked for their name and street

Deindividuation (when you are in a costume you are in this state); asking about name individuates them again and brings their personal identity to the forefront

In another way they did this study, they did not say anything to the kids, kids either had to take a piece of candy in front of a mirror vs. not in front of a mirror
-Results: kids looking in a mirror are more likely to take only one piece (have to see themselves)

Question 12

explain public and private self consciousness

Answer 12

At least two aspects of how we think about ourselves…
-Private Self-Consciousness: our concern regarding how we view ourselves
-Public Self-Consciousness: our concern regarding how other people view us

Can be high in both, low in both, or be higher in one
-Tend to be positively related (but some people care about one and not the other)
-r = .24 (Fenigstein, Scheier, & Buss, 1975)

Question 13

explain public and private self-consciousness being dispositional or situational

Answer 13

-Part of personality
-Or influenced by the situation

Question 14

explain when people are high in private self consciousness

Answer 14

-More aware of internal states
-More angry when provoked (constantly paying attention to the way they feel, they are more introspective so when they feel mad they get mad)

Higher attitude – behavior consistency
-They believe recycling is important so they are going to recycle
-Less influenced by others’ opinions

Question 15

explain when people are high in public self consciousness

Answer 15

-Sensitive to others’ evaluations & rejection
-More influenced by others –Sensitive to whether others’ share their opinions
-More likey to draw “E” from outsider perspective
-Tend to draw the E so that others can read the E correctly, if you are not high in this you will draw it from your own perspective

Question 16

what is Self-perception Theory (how do you know yourself or how you feel about something)

Answer 16

-when our attitudes and feelings are uncertain or ambiguous, we determine how we feel by observing our behavior and the situation in which it occurs
-make inferences using our behavior about how we feel
-Similar to making attributions about others’ behavior

Example:
-a date that you feel ambiguous about
-example staying out late on a date because of inertia (or watching a tv show for a long period of time); you think to yourself that you spent a lot of time doing this so you must like it

Question 17

why do we engage in activities

Answer 17

intrinsic and extrinsic motivations

Question 18

what is an intrinsic motivation

Answer 18

-Engage in an activity because of enjoyment and interest, not external rewards or pressures
-Will do activity with no reward

Question 19

what is extrinsic motivation

Answer 19

-Engage in an activity because of external reasons, not because of enjoyment and interest
-no reward, no activity

Question 20

extrinsic motivation in the context of self-perception theory (giving rewards for things)

Answer 20

-Offering rewards may decrease desired behavior (once rewards are removed)
-Ex. BookIt! The average kid enjoys reading and will do it because they like it; when you give kids pizza for reading this does not happen in the real world; so when the pizza is taken away they will not enjoy reading as much
-Making play into work

Question 21

what is the overjustification effect

Answer 21

-When people view their behavior as caused by compelling extrinsic reasons they underestimate the extent to which it was caused by intrinsic reasons
-Likely to happen when someone is naturally interested in the task

Why did I do this?
-Ex. Looked at the frequency in which children played these mathematical games that are supposed to help them with math; we will reward children for playing these games when teachers see them doing it at recess
-Continued to look at how much children were playing with them after the reward period ended
-Children played the games less after the reward phases ended indicating that rewards had lowered intrinsic interest in the games (compared to a control group, they had a steady interest in these games overtime)

Question 22

how can we avoid over-justification when using rewards

Answer 22

-Rewards will undermine interest only if interest was initially high. (rewards can work for people who do not have initial interest in activity)
-The type of reward makes a difference.
-Task-contingent rewards can undermine intrinsic motivation
-Rewards that you get just for doing the task
-Performance-contingent rewards are less damaging to intrinsic interest
-Rewards come from how well you are actually doing at your job

Question 23

explain mindsets (2 kinds) and motivation

Answer 23

1) Fixed mindset
-We have a set amount of an ability that cannot change

2) Growth mindset
-Our abilities are malleable qualities that we can cultivate and grow

Mindset affects motivation
-Fixed mindset more likely to give up and do poorly on subsequent tasks after failure

Question 24

explain social comparison theory

Answer 24

-We learn about our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves to other people

The theory revolves around two important questions:
-When do you engage in social comparison?
-With whom do you choose to compare yourself?

Question 25

when do we engage in social comparison

Answer 25

-No objective standard exists to measure against
-When we experience uncertainty

Example: New office donation program, not sure what amount would be generous, you are especially likely to compare yourself to others.

Question 26

with whom do you compare yourself to

Answer 26

Initial impulse: anyone who is around
-Occurs quickly and automatically

But after that it may depend on our goal…

Question 27

explain goals and what kinds of comparisons people make

Answer 27

Goal: improve
-Upward social comparison:

Goal: self-esteem
-Downward social comparison:

Goal: accuracy
-Comparison to similar other:

Question 28

what is social tuning

Answer 28

The process whereby people adopt another person’s attitudes

Question 29

sinclair study with the niceness of a person and the kind of shirt they were wearing

Answer 29

-IV1: niceness of experimenter
-IV2: antiracist (or blank) shirt

Participants were interacting with an experimenter, woman was either nice or not nice (tried to endear them or make them angry), woman either had a blank shirt or an antiracist message

Gave them an IAT test, organizing things as good or bad, measure the time it takes to respond to these things and can measure implicit bias someone has;

Found an interaction: when the woman was likeable and wore an anti racist shirt people got a low score on implicit prejudice; when she wasn’t wearing an antiracist shirt she got a high prejudice score

When the woman was not likeable; people got more prejudice when she was wearing an antiracist shirt; and less prejudice when she was wearing a blank shirt

Question 30

explain the two factor theory of emotion

Answer 30

Stanley Schachter (1964)
-Experience of emotion is similar to other types of self-perception
-Infer our emotions by observing our situation

2 steps (not necessarily conscious, brain can do this automatically)
-Experience physiological arousal
-Find an appropriate explanation for it

Question 31

explain implications of the two factor theory of emotions

Answer 31

-Emotions are somewhat arbitrary.
-Emotions depend on our explanations for arousal.

Usually the thing causing our arousal is also causing our emotion
-Mugger
-Obvious why your body is aroused, you are fearful
-But sometimes this is not the case

Ex. Feeling anxious about your taxes way before your taxes are due; why am I so nervous about this?; oh I drank a big cup of coffee

Question 32

explain misattribution of arousal

Answer 32

-Making mistaken inferences about what is causing us to feel the way we do
Ex. Had people exercise and then showed them porn and had them rate how arousing the porn was; other condition had people read newspaper and then rate the porn

People who exercised said it was more arousing than people reading the newspaper

Arousal from one source (e.g., caffeine, exercise, a fright) can enhance the intensity of how the person interprets other feelings (e.g., attraction to someone).

Question 33

explain the suspension bridge study and how it shows misattribution of arousal

Answer 33

-Had a young woman approach men who are crossing the bridge; the woman approached men either in the middle of the bridge or on the other side of the bridge; asked them some questions and told them she was conducting an experiment
-After they answered the questions she wrote down her phone number and gave it to them and offered it to them to talk later on about the study
-The men who were approached in the middle of the bridge were more likely to call her than the ones who met her on the other side of the bridge
-Reasoning: similar to the idea that you should go to a scary movie with someone on the first date, aroused from the movie and they will misattribute the arousal to you

Question 34

explain self-control (self-regulation)

Answer 34

-Delaying gratification

Like a muscle
-Operates the same way a muscle operates, the more you use a muscle the more tired it gets, depletes your store of it for the time being
-But the more often you exercise it, the better you get in the future

Question 35

what is thought suppression and the white bear study

Answer 35

Doesn’t work well (white bear)
-The process of avoiding thinking about something actually causes you to think about something

Study: people who are told to not think about a white bear in a stream of consciousness think more about the white bear, then people who are told they are able to think about it
-Focus on behavior instead

Question 36

explain depletion effects

Answer 36

“White bear” then “don’t laugh”
-Did the white bear test, then were showed comedy clips and were told to not laugh at them; people who did the white bear test had a harder time not laughing

Time of day
-People say we have more inhibition in the morning than at night when we are tired
-(but replication controversy)

Question 37

how can self control be improved

Answer 37

Believing willpower is an unlimited resource
-Believing you can control yourself might help you control yourself

Implementation intentions
-Forming an intention to do a certain thing, tell everyone around you that you are not doing something, if you publicly say these things you are more likely to stick with it

Arrange environment
-Can manipulate your environment to ensure you are not going to do the things you do not want to do (e.g. putting your phone away when you are trying to study)

Question 38

what is impression management

Answer 38

Our attempts to get others to see us as we want to be seen

Question 39

what is ingratiation

Answer 39

Flattering, praising, and generally trying to make ourselves likable to another person, often of higher status

Question 40

what is self handicapping

Answer 40

-Creating obstacles and excuses for ourselves
-If you do poorly, you can avoid blaming yourself

To give yourself an excuse to protect yourself if you fail, you stay up all night playing video games before a test to give yourself an excuse if you do bad
-But what you did actually prevents you from doing well on something

Question 41

what is behavioral self handicapping

Answer 41

-Acting in ways that reduce the likelihood of success so that if you fail, you can blame it on obstacles rather than ability
-Example: pulling an all-nighter before a test

Question 42

what is reported self handicapping

Answer 42

-Rather than creating obstacles to success, you devise ready-made excuses in case you fail
-Example: complaining about not feeling well when you take a test

Question 43

explain self esteem and why it is good to have

Answer 43

-Really important!
-Good to have

-People high in it work harder to achieve goals (leads to a higher likelihood that you will achieve these goals)

Question 44

when can self esteem create problems

Answer 44

Terror management theory (people have anxiety about death/mortality and they try and boost their self-esteem to avoid this anxiety,
-Worldview offers symbolic immortality
-If we think about things that we are a part of or are a part of our lives that will exist when we are gone, this comforts us, because even though our body will die, we will live on through these things
-SE: Extent we’re living consistently with our worldview
-And we will defend our worldview

Question 45

studies about terror management

Answer 45

Confront people with their own death (e.g. sometimes will ask people what will happen to your body when you die); look at how much these reminders of death look at how racist people become; found that when you remind people they are going to die they become more racist to people who do not fit in their worldview (whatever your in group is, you hate the outgroup more when you think about your own death)

Question 46

what is narcissism

Answer 46

Self love & lack of empathy

Question 47

are people becoming more narcissistic

Answer 47

-Fail academically and at business
-Are disliked
-More violent
-Narcissism scores are increasing over the years as well as singular pronouns used in popular songs