Lecture 2 - Construction of a Self Flashcards
William James
“A man has as many selves as there are individuals who recognize him and carry an image of him on their mind
But to make any one of them the actual, the rest must be suppressed, The seeker of his truest, strongest, deepest self must review the list carefully and pick out the one on which to stake his salvation”
Distinctiveness theory
A person notices their distinctive traits and personal characteristics more readily because of their greater informational richness and value for discriminating self from others.
ie - useless to describe yourself as a McGill student among a cohort of McGill students
Example - distinctiveness theory
3 Examples, 4 studies
EXAMPLE 1: ATYPICAL ATTRIBUTES
6th graders complete who am I task
5 characteristics that describe you
Students atypical in age, height, weight, eye color etc mention those more than those with typical characteristics (McGuire & Padawer-Singer)
EXAMPLE 2: ETHNICITY
Minorities in a majority group are more likely to mention ethnicity
EXAMPLE 3: GENDER
FAMILY if the gender of a family is more commonly one sided and you are the opposite sex, more likely to use gender as a characteristic than if not
CLASS COMPOSITION if the class gender is one sides, more likely to define in terms of gender (if the opposite sex)
If you experimentally manipulate groups so some are gender mixed and some are not, you see the effect; the people in the groups which make their gender the minority are more likely to use gender as a characteristic for the exercise. This supports an idea of CAUSALITY
Are we the same across situations?
different in different situations
We do not do this strategically but spontaneously according to the circumstance we find ourselves in
What comes to mind when we describe ourselves is partly driven by the situational context
Dynamic Self-Concept (basics)
(Markus & Wurf, 1987)
The self is malleable to a degree
It is a collection of representations/schemas/beliefs about the self
Some are core and strongly held, central to one’s sense of self
Some are not and more peripheral
Some may even contradict others
Dynamic Self-Concept (working self)
“The working self concept is that set of representations that is accessible at any one moment”
The self is ALL representations
The working self is the representations that are COGNITIVELY ACCESSIBLE NOW
It is like a spotlight, you illuminate only one part of the stage (self)
Dynamic Self-Concept (accessibility)
Description & Implications
Is the activation potential of available knowledge (Higgins)
Is a function of:
1) frequency of activation
2) recency of activation
So stuff you do more regularly will be more readily recalled when presenting your self. So too will representations you have accessed recently.
Self-knowledge will be accessed according to the triggers in a situation.
IMPLICATIONS
1) Different situations can activate different schemas and this produces a different version of the self
2) People can be manipulated by having them comb through their stock of self views in a biased manner
Is a model for hoe the self concept can be changed
Dynamic Self-Concept (evidence)
Contextual Activation
2 experiments
rude words
extraversion
EXP1
Study where participants were told they were validating a new questionnaire
In reality, it was designed to manipulate people to feeling more extroverted (what would you do if you wanted to liven up a party) or introverted (what things do you dislike about loud parties).
Those in extroverted condition:
Describes themselves ad more extroverted
AND acted more extroverted in a situation (spoke longer to a confederate, sat closer to a confederate)
EXP 2
Study assessing “language ability”
Given 5 words. Told to make a sentence with 4 of them. One was chosen from a list of rude or polite words. The idea was to prime the participants into being rude or polite.
After they did the second task, help a confederate.
In rude prime, interrupt faster (by 3 mins)
65% of rude but only 15% of polite ever interrupted.
Evidence that the self and be influenced by the situation
Problems with priming
Does not always directly replicate (like old people walking study)
But many studies conceptually replicate priming
We do not have a definite mechanism for this so it is harder; not knowing why it happens means we cannot always predict when.
Could be due to unknown moderators
This seems like a massive excuse to me but for the purposes of this course, we assume priming is real
How might priming work (Wheeler & DeMarre, 2009)
Concept and first and last parts
Idea that there might be 3 paths by which a stimuli might prime a mind to influence its processes.
FIRST its stimuli would activate the mental construct we have of the stimulus (for example seeing a briefcase would activate our mental representation of a briefcase).
LAST - you would see an observable behavior
Contextual activation via priming
How might priming work (Wheeler & DeMarre, 2009)
Path A-B (Direct activation 1)
PATH A - B
A - activated construct - behavioral representation. observed behavior
Perceptual input directly influences behaviour. You see the thing and it influences behavior
Example: Yawn; you see it, more likely to do it
Contextual activation via priming
How might priming work (Wheeler & DeMarre, 2009)
Path A-C-P (Direct activation via goals)
Moderating Factors
A - activated construct > C - Goal representation > Behavioral representation > observed behavior
The stimulus triggers representation which then activates goals within the mind associated with this representation
Eg: briefcase - goals activated (money, power, status, success). These could then influence behavior.
The moderating effect here
(1) The goals associated with the representation might be more readily activated in some people (briefcase might trigger more salient goals for a business major than a nurse)
(2) Behaviors associated with goals may differ between people (perhaps a briefcase makes people think of success and then a business major acts competitively and a nurse collaboratively)
Could be that different people with different personalities act in different ways.
Contextual activation via priming
How might priming work (Wheeler & DeMarre, 2009)
Path A-D-J or A-D-K-P (Indirect via person perception)
Construct > PERCEOTION OF OTHERS >behavioral representation > Observable behavior
The input and mental representation may bias one’s perception of others. If you were to prime “unkind” you might see the person acting more competitively in cooperate/compete games
Presumably because the priming has lead you to ascribe the unkind onto other people in the situation and act accordingly
Prisoner's dilemma game cooperate/cooperate=everyone wins compete/cooperate=you win cooperate/compete=they win compete/compete=they win
Contextual activation via priming
How might priming work (Wheeler & DeMarre, 2009)
Path A-E-L or A-E-M-P (Indirect via situation perception)
Representation biases the perception of the situation
Prisoners dilemma game
Prime competitive or cooperative
Asks ptps what is a better name for the game; Th wall street game or the community game.
Wall st for competitive priming
community for cooperative priming
Ascribed the priming to the situation
Contextual activation via priming
How might priming work (Wheeler & DeMarre, 2009)
Path A-F-N or A-E-L-P (Indirect via self perception)
The representation may influence one’s self-perception
Men primed with a secure relationship described themselves as more communal (warm etc) than those primed with insecure.
PHYSIOLOGICAL REPEAT
Ptps come in on 2 days. On one day give intracranial oxytocin. The other day placebo.
On the oxy day, men describe themselves as more communal
ESPECIALLY true for men who were not in fact communal
SO this has been shown physiologically and via priming.
