L - 18 The Self II Flashcards
Cooley’s (1902) Looking Glass Self refers to what?
The Looking Glass Self refers to making inferences about ourselves based on the reactions of others; using others as a mirror.
What is Festinger’s (1954) Social Comparison Theory?
Social comparison theory states that we learn about ourselves by making comparisons to others.
When are social comparisons likely to occur?
Social comparisons may occur when:
- there is no objective standard to measure yourself against.
- when you experience uncertainty about yourself in a particular area (e.g. an assessment mark compared to peers).
When can social comparisons be spontaneous and automatic?
Social comparisons may happen automatically if there is a salient target to compare to.
This can lead us to make inappropriate comparisons, however if we have enough cognitive resources, these comparisons can be ‘un-done’.
Outline the Gilbert, Giesler, and Morris (1995) experiment which demonstrated that automatic social comparisons can be un-done given sufficient cognitive resources.
They told participants that they would be testing their “schizophrenia testing ability”, before being shown an instructional video of a model doing the test.
The model in the video either performed poorly (scored 4/18), or well (16/18), however participants in both conditions were told the model performance was staged.
Half the participants were made cognitively busy (remember an 8 digit number) or not, while the completed the task.
All participants were given ambiguous (10/18) scored feedback before rating their own ability on the task.
What were the results of Gilbert, Giesler, and Morris’ (1995) social comparison experiment?
Cognitively busy participants who had viewed the model perform well on the task rated themselves as significantly worse than cognitively busy participants would had viewed the model perform badly.
This suggests that cognitive load leads people to not consider that the models performance was staged, and comparison is inappropriate.
Participants who were not made cognitively busy showed not significant difference between model conditions, suggesting that they can take the context into account and undo the inappropriate social comparison.
Who did Festinger suggest that we compare ourselves to in these comparisons?
Festinger suggested that we make comparisons to people who are similar to ourselves in order to perceive ourselves accurately.
What is the difference between upward and downward social comparisons?
Upward social comparisons are those which we compare ourselves to people who are better than we are, these show us what we may aspire to.
Downward social comparisons are when we compare ourselves to people who are worse than us, making us feel better about ourselves.
What are the 3 types of self-motives?
Accuracy perception.
Self-verification.
Self-enhancement.
What is accuracy perception?
The motivation to have an accurate and valid informations about of ourselves.
What is self-verification?
The motivation to confirm what we already know about ourselves.
What is self-enhancement?
The motivation to maintain or increase the positivity of the self. The protection and enhancement of one’s self-image.
