College 7

Question 1

The ABCs of the Self

Answer 1

Affect: how do we evaluate ourselves, enhance our self-images, and defend against threats to our self-esteem?

Behavior: how do we regulate our actions and present ourselves according to interpersonal demands?

Cognition: how do we come to know ourselves, develop a self-concept, and maintain a stable sense of identity?

Question 2

How many selfs are there, and what are they?

Answer 2

Five.
1. Personal self
2. Relational self
3. Social identity
4. Motivational component
5. Evaluative components

(Not necessarily in this order)

Question 3

What are the selves according to Kahneman?

Answer 3

The experiencing self and the remembering self.

Question 4

Self-concept

Answer 4

The cognitive representation that we have of ourselves.

In the past we looked at the self as something that was really static. So you had the self and maybe over time it changed a little bit, for instance, you scored on a dimension on the big five.

That was just the cognitive representation that we had of our self, that was the self-concept.

Question 5

Working self-concept (dynamic self)

Answer 5

Part of the self that is activated in a context.

Since the evolution of social cognition we started looking at the self in a much more dynamic way. So, we came up with the idea of a working self-concept, and that is the self-concept that we have that is activated in a certain context.

Question 6

Self-schema

Answer 6

Knowledge of a certain domain (e.g., Sailing) that is important for the self.

If a self-schema is active at that moment, due to the context for instance, suddenly all the knowledge that is related to that context will be much more available to me. And therefore I would probably describe myself more in those terms as well.

Question 7

What is the following an example of? Standing in front of the class you may think of yourself as a teacher but at your parents’ house you will think of yourself as a son/daughter.

Answer 7

Working self-concept (dynamic self)

Question 8

What is the relational self?

Answer 8

It’s about your relationships with significant others.

Question 9

What is social identity in self-definition?

Answer 9

A group membership

Question 10

Individualistic cultures

Answer 10

People strive for personal achievement.

Question 11

How would someone describe themselves in a individualistic culture?

Answer 11

They would describe their self more often with the individual self.

Question 12

Collectivistic cultures

Answer 12

People derive more satisfaction from the status of the valued group.

Question 13

How would someone describe themselves in a collectivistic culture?

Answer 13

They would describe their self more often in relation to others.

Question 14

True or false: everyone in a culture will describe themselves according to their culture. So, someone in an individualistic culture will describe their self with the individual self and someone in a collectivistic culture will describe their self in relation to others.

Answer 14

False. Within a culture, individuals also have a lot of different views about themselves.

Question 15

What would an independent view of the self look like in? (Think of a Venn diagram)

Answer 15

With the Self in the center, direct family are attached to the self but without overlap and friends and co-workers are not attached to the self but close by.

Question 16

What would a dependent view of the self look like in? (Think of a Venn diagram)

Answer 16

With the Self in the center, direct family has overlap with the Self and friends and co-workers also have overlap, but less overlap than family.

Question 17

Self-focus (self-awareness)

Answer 17

The extent to which we focus on ourselves vs. the context.

Self-awareness has everything to do with how much you are thinking about yourself in the context.

Question 18

How would someone with high private self-awareness write the letter E on their forehead?

And how would someone with high public self-awareness do this?

Answer 18

If you have high private self-awareness, you will write the E correct for yourself but not for the other.

Someone with high public self-awareness would write the E correct for others.

Question 19

Private self-awareness

Answer 19

Private self-awareness is much more about how you think about your own norms and values.

Question 20

Public self-awareness

Answer 20

Public self-awareness is much more about how you think that others will judge you at that moment.

Question 21

How could you manipulate self-awareness?

Answer 21

Using a mirror. If you put a mirror in front of someone they will suddenly start thinking about their own values.

Question 22

Are thieves more or less likely to commit a crime if there is a mirror in the store?

Answer 22

Thieves are less likely to commit a crime if there is a mirror in the store. And of course this mirror also has the aspect that other people can see them better because they are more visible fom certain angles, but research has shown that it could also be due to private self-awareness and thus thinking of your own norms and values.

Question 23

How could you manipulate public self-awareness?

Answer 23

By using a camera.

Question 24

What for effect does using a camera have on public self-awareness?

Answer 24

More socially desirable behavior.

Can for instance influence the rather robust bystander effect.

Question 25

Experiment by Marco about using a camera to influence the bystander effect.

Answer 25

In one condition an actor took money from a jar and a participant was nearby and could choose to either help or not help.

In another condition there were bystanders presents.

The other manipulation was that there was either a camera present or absent.

Question 26

What were the results of the experiment by Marco about the bystander effect by using a camera?

Answer 26

When the camera was absent, about 45 percentage of the people would help when a bystander was absent and about 15 percent helped when a bystander was present.

When the camera was present, about 25 percent of the people helped when there was no bystander, and when the bystander was present, about 45 percent of the people helped.

So it reversed the bystander effect.

Question 27

What is the result of the experiment done by Taifel & Turner (1979) about why reputation is so important.

Answer 27

People base (part of) their identity on group membership = social identity.

Compare groups with other groups to gauge our ‘value’ or worth.

Strife towards obtaining or keeping a positive social identity.

Strong tendency to protect social identity.

Question 28

How do personal and social identities effect self-esteem according to the Social Identity Theory?

Answer 28

Personal identity => Personal achievements => self-esteem

Social identities => Group achievements => self-esteem
Social identities => Favoritism toward ingroup and derogation of outgroups => self-esteem

Question 29

True or false: we fear the judgements of our peers

Answer 29

True

Question 30

Study by Zajonc on cockroaches

Answer 30

He looked at the performance of cockroaches in simple mazes. He found that cockroaches were sort of shy?

In an easy maze, cockroaches were faster when there were cockroaches looking. But when there was a more difficult maze, cockroaches were slower when there was an audience.

Question 31

Does the finding of Zajonc also occur in humans?

Answer 31

Yes.

Social facilitation

• Sometimes the presence of others improves performance.
• Sometimes the presence of others impairs performance.

Question 32

What are two frequently used ways to manipulate ostracism?

Answer 32

Cyberball

• You play with a ball with two others, but after a while they stop throwing it to you and only to each other.

Forever alone paradigm.

• People would do a personality test and they would get false feedback.
• E.g. “Maybe you have some friends right now but after you get a job you will grow apart and have trouble with finding meaningful connections. You will die alone.”

Question 33

What is a less frequently used way to manipulate ostracism?

Answer 33

The O-train. It is not used very often because it takes around half an hour to do.

Question 34

What is a problem when trying to manipulate ostracism?

Answer 34

Actors are never completely consistent.

Question 35

What are the consequences of ostracism?

Answer 35

Stress, pain

• An fMRI study showed that the brain communicates in a similar way as they do with physical pain.

Strong emotions (anger, sadness).

Fight (aggression) vs. Freeze (numbness) vs. Reconnect (OCB)

• More about this in another flashcard

People that are ostracized get a lower temperature!

Threatens four fundamental needs.

Question 36

What can be said about the Fight (aggression) vs. Freeze (numbness) vs. Reconnect (OCB) response on ostracism?

Answer 36

A fight response is more common with the forever alone paradigm than with the cyberball paradigm.

Some people think high school shooters are this aggressive because they feel ostracized, which made them have such a need to belong that just to make people acknowledge them they did such a horrible act.

What Marco often sees in his research, a lot of cyberball, is the numbness effect; people become number. Interestingly, he found that they become number towards themselves, so they would retreat, but they also become number towards others, so they become less helpful towards others.

But there is one study Marco found that showed that sometimes people try to get noticed by reconnecting. There was this great study where they looked at correlational ostracism and OCB in an organization. OCBs are organizational citizenship behaviors, they are behaviors that aren’t officially part of the job requirements (e.g., cleaning the fridge in the shared kitchen).

• They found that people who are ostracized would engage more in OCB types of behavior. But it was the only study about this, and it was mainly about women. So maybe ostracism affects people so much they will retreat or fight much more often than they would try to reconnect.

Question 37

What are the four fundamental needs?

Answer 37

1. Control
2. Meaningful existence
3. Self-esteem
4. The need to belong

Question 38

True or false: we need many friends to feel the fundamental need to belong.

Answer 38

False. We are always looking for a little bit of connection, we really don’t need many friends or a very romantic partner. The need to belong is more about a connection with some people, not that you need to have a huge friend group or something, just some connection.

Question 39

Still preoccupied with 1995: The need to belong and preference for nostalgic products. What are the results of this article?

Answer 39

Participants with ‘the need to belong’ as active goal, experience a significantly stronger preference for nostalgic products.

People that feel ostracized prefer nostalgic products.

Question 40

What is the result of Nordgren et al. (2012): Empathy gap observers and time

Answer 40

If you ask people in the moment how they feel about being excluded, they feel pretty bad. If you ask them in hindsight, they may not feel like it was so bad.

Question 41

Experiencing self

Answer 41

Lives in present.

“Does it hurt now?”

Question 42

Remembering self

Answer 42

Keeps score.

Maintains story of life.

“How have you been feeling lately?”

Question 43

Peak-end-rule

Answer 43

The global retrospective rating was well predicted by the average of the level of pain reported at the worst moment of the experience and at its end.

• If you can keep the pain low that is good.
• What is important are the peaks and the end.
• If at the end the doctor or dentist would wiggle his finger somewhere uncomfortable but not painful for 15 minutes, you would remember the procedure as less painful.

Question 44

Which patient suffered most when you ask them about it a day later?

Someone who had pain for only 10 minutes, with two high peaks of pain and ended high.

Or someone who had pain for 20+ minutes, had a lot of different peaks with different heights and ended on a low peak.

Answer 44

Patient number 1. Patient 1 will have remembered the procedure to be much more painful.

Question 45

Duration neglect

Answer 45

The duration of the procedure had no effect whatsoever on the ratings of total pain.

Question 46

Depends on motive: Reduce experienced pain or remembered pain.

Answer 46

Lower the peak intensity.

Time doesn’t matter so use it to gradually lower the pain until the end.

Question 47

Thought experiment: what if you were offered a vacation but you could not have any photos and your memory would be wiped? How would you feel about this?

Answer 47

A lot of people would do it, but they would value it less.

If you don’t think you will remember it, you will value it a lot less.

Question 48

Thought experiment: what if you need to have a painful surgery, but someone could wipe your memory of it. How would you feel about this?

Answer 48

People tend to say yes to this. During the surgery they tend to think of themselves as someone else, as though they are a bystander.

Question 49

What does Kahneman say about thinking about experiences?

Answer 49

“We don’t think about experiences, but about anticipated memory of experiences”

Question 50

What can we say about the present experience?

Answer 50

We think that it should count for a lot.

We forget the majority of it.

We remember it wrongly.

Somehow the remembering self handles time differently.

Question 51

True or false: we only consume very little of our memories.

Answer 51

True.

Think of how often you really look at vacation pictures.

Perhaps also for bragging rights and storytelling to others.

• We make stories with the photos.
• The story is what is really important, not the duration.

Question 52

1 great week vs. 2 great weeks

Answer 52

No new story so for remembering self it doesn’t matter!

Time isn’t really important according to Kahneman.

Question 53

Wirz et al. (2003): Choice of vacation is predicted by memory, not experience

Answer 53

They asked the participants beforehand whether they thought they would like it.

The experiencing self is not correlated at all with whether they would repeat the experience.

What is related is: predicted => online => remembered => repeat experience

Question 54

Wirtz et al., 2003: mismatch between expected, remembered and experienced enjoyment. What are the results?

Answer 54

Overall subjective experience

2 weeks prior: 4.7
2-4 days prior: 4.6
Online: 4.1
2-4 days after: 4.5
4 weeks after: 4.4

Question 55

Memories can be wrong

Answer 55

Tastes and decisions are shaped by memories, and the memories can be wrong.

• Due to duration neglect and peak-end-rule.
• But also due to:
  o Outside factors such as framing.
  o Inside pressures such as self-esteem.

Question 56

Framing and memory

Answer 56

Framing is very important with eyewitnesses.

In an experiment they let participants watch a video of a car crash.

They asked the question: “About how fast were the cars going when they … each other?”

They used different verbs, either ‘smashed’, ‘hit’ or ‘contacted’.

They found that the estimated MPH was the highest with the verb smashed, then with hit and then with contacted.

After a week they asked the question again, and it would be much more exaggerated; the memories would actually differ a lot.

Question 57

Auto-biographical memory

Answer 57

Essential for a coherent self-concept.

Recency rule: Typically report more events from the recent than the distant past.

The memories are often negative, but they can be positive as well.

Flashbulb memories serve as prominent landmarks in our autobiographies.

Question 58

Autobiographical memory and identity

Answer 58

Autobiographical memory is a vital part of, and can be shaped by, our identity.

• Often motivated to distort the past in ways that are self-inflated; to make themselves feel more important.
• Often people distort the memories to make it match their story more.

Question 59

What are exceptions to the recency rule?

Answer 59

• Reminiscence peak
  o When you pass 40 you will remember things from a long time ago more than recent things.
• Tendency to remember transitional “firsts”.

Question 60

Distortions in memory of high school grades

Answer 60

People that were very good in high school remembered it relatively correct.

People who were less good in high school try to (unconsciously) boost their self-esteem by remembering their grades to be higher.

Question 61

Life satisfaction and well-being (Diener et al.,, 2010)

Answer 61

In a study by Diener et al. (2010), participants looked at descriptions of someone’s life, and they were either positive or negative (the 30 or 60 years can be ignored for now).

Someone that had a really positive life, would either die in a car crash while living that positive life, or she would have this positive life and then live 5 years with a more moderate positive life and would then die in a car crash. What you see here is that if that person lived longer with a moderate period, people would rate that life as much less positive then without the moderate period.

The opposite thing happens when it is about someone with a negative life. People will rate it as very negative, but with an extra 5 years with a more moderate period they rate it less negative.

The authors want to call the positive life, the James Dean effect, and the negative life the Alexander Solzhenitsyn Effect.

Question 62

In what other ways can the article Life satisfaction and well-being (Diener et al.,, 2010) be explained?

Answer 62

By the less is more effect

• If someone has a lot of great features, but also some moderate features, you rate them as less positive.
  o Remember the school reports?

Peak-end-rule, especially with the negative life.

Question 63

What happens with online rating?

Answer 63

Small things can have a huge impact on general well-being ratings

• Small things in life can really boost your well-being for a moment.
• E.g., Dime on copy machine
• E.g., Football winning
• E.g., Weather

Question 64

What could the mechanism with online measuring be?

Answer 64

The mood as information mechanism or the availability/mood congruent recall mechanism.

They tested this in a weather study where people were told about weather’s influence on mood.

Question 65

Mood as information mechanism

Answer 65

You think that you feel good and therefore other things must also be good.

Just because the weather is nice, you start feeling better and therefore you feel like you have a higher general well-being.

But, if you tell people that they only feel nice because of the sun, then suddenly the positive effect of the weather diminishes.

More likely mechanism, because you are able to take it away.

Question 66

Availability/mood congruent recall mechanism

Answer 66

The same idea as the anchoring effect.

Because you are happy,

• you have more access to words, phrases or frames that are also about happiness;
• you think of other things that are related to being happy.

You aren’t able to take this away, so this is a less likely mechanism.

Question 67

Focusing illusion

Answer 67

Nothing in life is as important as you think it is when you are thinking about it.

• Due to WYSIATI
• Can bring comfort
  o The thought of buying a new bike will make you believe it makes you happier. Especially at the start.
• Creates a bias in favor of goods and experiences that are initially exciting.
  o Time is neglected.
  o Experiences that will retain their value over the long term are underappreciated.

Question 68

Hot-cold-empathy gap

Answer 68

Can’t relate to feelings you are not currently experiencing.

• When you are calm or cold it is hard to imagine hot states.

Famous for ice-water studies.

• Put hand in a bucket of cold water
  o Rate pain (online)
  o Rate pain retrospectively
  o The same happens with onlookers rating the pain
  o The remembered self sees the experiencing self as if it is an onlooker.

Question 69

What is important to take into account with rating pain retrospectively?

Answer 69

The peak end rule

Question 70

Day Reconstruction Method (DRM) by Kahneman

Answer 70

Participants list intensity of several feelings during the day

• Positive and Negative can exist at the same time!
  o Negative experience if negative feelings are more intense than any of the positive.
• Calculate the U-index (percentage negative of waking day). This is based on the waking hours.

Question 71

What are the problems with the Day Reconstruction Method (DRM)?

Answer 71

Retrospective problems => asking the remembering self.

• Unreliable eyewitness: would underestimate experiences of experiencing self.

It is about the waking time, but sleep is also very important. You can have nightmares or you can really relax if you have good sleep. Dreams are also really important for our general mood.

• Kahneman underestimates certain parts of sleep

Question 72

Calculating the U-index:
You were awake for 16 hours and you had 4 hours of which the negative experience would be higher than the positive experience.

What is the U-index?

Answer 72

The U-index would be 25%. Kahneman would see this as a generally negative experience.

Question 73

Unfair distribution of U-index across population and time

Answer 73

50% of the people don’t have any negative episodes over an entire day. Of course they will have negative emotions, but the positive will always outweigh the negative with these people.

Minority of people experienced emotional distress for much of the day.

• Small fraction of the population seems to do most of the suffering.
  o Mental illness
  o Unhappy temperament
   Hereditary
   You are born with your temperament
  o Personal tragedies

Lower on the weekend, 6% lower.

Question 74

Gallup experiment

Answer 74

They measure the well-being that people experience as they live their lives.

• “Taken all together, how would you say things are these days? Would you say that you are very happy, pretty happy, or not too happy?”

The judgement they make when they evaluate their life.

• Cantril Self-Anchoring Striving Scale
  o “Please image a ladder with steps numbered from zero at the bottom to 10 at the top. The top of the ladder represents the best possible life for you and the bottom of the ladder represents the worst possible life for you. On which step of the ladder would you say you personally feel you stand at this time?”

Question 75

Gallup experiment results

Answer 75

Experience is almost not correlated to evaluation.

Question 76

Studies on childbirth and well-being.

Answer 76

Right before the child is born people are relatively happy, when the child is born the happiness goes down again.

So, Kahneman thinks having children makes you relatively unhappy.

Question 77

What could be another explanation for the studies on childbirth and well-being?

Answer 77

Regression to the mean

Question 78

Money and well-being

Answer 78

Severe poverty amplifies negative events.

Law of diminishing returns.

No correlation above 75.000 euros

Question 79

Money and well-being: severe poverty amplifies negative events

Answer 79

Illness

• Rich people (top 2/3): headache brings sadness and worry 19 => 38%
• Poor people (low 10%): headache brings sadness and worry 38 => 70%
  o Maybe they will worry about losing their job because of being sick etc.

Weekend effect on U-index diminishes for poor people.

Question 80

Money and well-being: law of diminishing returns

Answer 80

When you keep getting money, in the beginning you start getting happier, but at one point that stops.

Question 81

Money and well-being: no correlation above 75.000 euros

Answer 81

Perhaps different in different areas.

Perhaps different due to inflation.

It allows for more purchases, improved living.

• But it doesn’t elevate emotional experience.
• It seems to reduce the ability to enjoy small pleasures.
  o Priming study with wealth => Less enjoyment of chocolate.

Question 82

How do goals effect your well-being?

Answer 82

How important (age 18) is income to you?

• If the goal is important: correlation between goal and well-being is high (.57 on 5-point scale).
• If the goal is less important correlation becomes low (.12 on 5-point scale).

Similar for other goals

• Important to accept the complexities of a hybrid view.
  o Well-being of both selves (and more?) should be considered.

Question 83

Conclusion

Answer 83

It is logical to describe the life of the experiencing self as a series of moments, each with a value.

The value of an episode could be seen as simply the sum of the values of its moments. But this is not how the mind represents episodes.

The remembering self also tells stories and makes choices, and neither the stories nor the choice properly represents time.

In storytelling mode, an episode is represented by a few critical moments, especially the beginning, the peak, and the end.

Duration is neglected.

Question 84

“We can use consumption of products to fulfil some of our fundamental psychological needs.”

Answer 84

True

Question 85

“When going to the dentist it is better to have a long session than one that is short but intensely painful.”

Answer 85

True

Question 86

“When going on a holiday it is best to put your camera away and enjoy the moment.”

Answer 86

False

Question 87

“Money can buy you happiness.”

Answer 87

To a certain extent.