Lecture 19: Self IV Flashcards
better than average effect
Kruger
- majority rated themselves as: above average on ability to get along with others
- you consider skills= according to difficulty
- ability to get along with others= not that difficult= so you think ah im better than average
- mechanics (ex. fixing computer)= difficult= so you don’t think you’re above average
- compare yourself to other students in class on 8 skills (4 easy and 4 difficult)
- for each skill= make ratings of: own ability and peers’ ability
- 1= very unskilled; 10= very skilled
- absolute ratings of own ability= predicted comparative judgements
- but, absolute ratings of peers’ ability did not
= egocentric judgement accounts for better-than-avg- effect
- we only think of our ability when predicting if we are better than average or not
can cognitive factors account for better than avg effect?
- our ability to compare judgement= EGOCENTRIC
- egocentric, as in we just focus on our own abilities–> not thinking about others= so you forget to compare yourself to others
- we tend to evaluate assessments on own level of ability– how skilled am I?
- if task easy= think we’re good at it
- if task hard= think we’re not good at it
- we don’ t think about skills of comparison group= we don’t ask: how skilled are my peers?
cultural differences in self-E
Heine
- meta-analysis
- saying that self-E= not universal
- westerners= more likely to self-E than east asians
- within westerners= sig enhancement bias
- within easterners= sig self-criticism bias= v critical about themselves
- strong difference between the 2 cultures
- BUT
- westerners + easterners= both self-E– but they self-enhance on DIFF TRAITS
- westerners= enhance on individualistic attributes (independent, self-reliant, unique)
- easterners= enhance on collectivistic attributes (cooperative, self-sacrificing)
- easterners= engage in relationship enhancement (fam, friends, boyfriend= think they are better than yourself)
cultural differences to failure
Heine
- canadian students and japanese students
- did association test– guess what these words all have in common
- manipulated success vs failure
- easy version of test + scored above average or difficult version of test + scored less than average
- given opportunity to work on task again if they wanted
- so, how long did they persist?
- in success condition:
- canadians kept going= felt good about themselves, of the fact that they did well
- japanese= less than canadians= did well, so move on
- in failure condition:
- canadians= didn’t persist
- japanese= persisted way more= feel like they need to improved a lot– failing is red flag
self-E adaptive or nah?
Dufner et al
- meta-analysis
- self-E: defined it as the tendency to maintain unrealistically positive views of self (positive illusions)
- tested whether self-E predicted personal adjustment or interpersonal adjustment, or both
what is personal adjustment
- subjective well-being + mental health
- high life satisfaction, positive emotions
- self-report
what is interpersonal adjustment
- social valuation
- how much a person is valued by others
- informant reports– how others rate you
self-E + personal adjustment: theories
self E= costly– makes people:
- set unrealistically high goals= greater risk of failure
- see no reason to improve self= greater likelihood of stagnation
self-E= beneficial– positive illusions promote:
- positive mindset, not much stress
- sense of mastery
- ability to be creative, be productive
self-E + personal adjustment: results
- self-E= positively related to personal adjustment
- positive well being, positive emotions
- for:
- males + females
- older + younger samples
- easterners + westerners
- so self-E is beneficial for personal adjustment= good for MH
self-E + interpersonal adjustment: theories
- leads people to be egoistic= alienate others
- self-E is beneficial:
- positive mindset–> appeals to others– wanna hang around with confident people
- form of self-deception that allows people to deceive others–> impress others, get more resources (ex. white lie)
evolutionary theory of self-deception
- deceive others a lot to get resources
- we will be more successful at deceiving others if we deceive ourselves
- self-E biases boost self-confidence–> makes other people perceive us more positively
- SO= self-E= makes us advance socially + materially (acquire resources)
experiment to prove self-deception
Epley + whitchurch
- actual, 10%, 20%…
- pics of less attractive self
- pics of more attractive self
- likely to pick 10% more attractive self
- we self deceive ourselves= we truly believe that we’re better to feel better about ourselves
self-E + interpersonal adjustment: results
- results not as clear cut as for personal adjustment
- overal= no sig relationship between a person’s extent of self-E + how they were evlauated by others
- BUT
- results depende on whether informant previously knowen person they were evaluating
- not previosualy known= + relationship= create more positive impression, so s-E works here
- longer acquaintance= no sig relationship= cause you get to know them
self-E adaptive?
personal adjustment= yes
interpersonal= depends
so should we encourage people to self-E?
depends– need more work
studies are only correlational= doesn’t tell us the cause
also meta-analysis depends on quality
