Lecture 18 - The Self II (Self-Knowledge & Self-Motive) Flashcards
What is the self-perception theory?
We infer who we are from what we do. Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation. When pre-schoolers were asked to play with pens, they played with it for longer if they were not told about a future reward.
What is the Social Comparison Theory?
A way in which we learn about the self is through social comparison, i.e. comparing the self to those around us.
When do we compare ourselves to this?
- No objective standard to compare yourself or you feel uncertain, so you compare with others.
- Appears to do be an automatic process where we will compare even when it is inappropriate.
- Participants watched a model pass or fail a schizophrenia-identification test (told they were models). Then given arbitrary feedback. Still compared with the model even though it was inappropriate under cognitive load.
Who do we compare ourselves with?
Similar people to ourselves because we want to view ourselves accurately. Upward social comparison occurs when you aspire to be at the top level. Downward social comparison is making yourself feel better by comparing yourself to those who did worse.
What is self-motive?
Inclination that is aimed toward establishing or maintaining a particular state of self-awareness, self-representation or self-evaluation.
What is the temporal self-comparison bias?
We think the present self is better than the past self. In a study, participants were asked to rate themselves now and then 3.5 months ago, or do the same for an acquaintance. Acquaintance condition saw no significant changes while self-rating saw significant change.
How are biased attributions effected by self-motives?
Success is attributed to the self, while failure is attributed to outside influences. Players/coaches made internal attributions 83% of the time after winning but 50% after losing.
What is self-handicapping?
Create obstacles to protect the self. Participants were given solvable or unsolvable analogies (‘IQ test’). Solvable participants are told they did well (internal) while unsolvable are told they got lucky (external). Asked to redo it but with an enhancing/impairing drug. Solvable condition chose enhancing, but unsolvable picked impairing -> excuse for expected failure.
