Lecture 2 - Self and Identity Flashcards
What is identity?
An individual’s sense of self defined by a set of physical, psychological, and interpersonal characteristics that is not wholly shared with any other person and a range of affiliations (e.g., ethnicity) and social roles. Identity involves a sense of continuity, or the feeling that one is the same person today that one was yesterday or last year (despite physical or other changes). Such a sense is derived from one’s body sensations; one’s body image; and the feeling that one’s memories, goals, values, expectations, and beliefs belong to the self. Also called personal identity.
Give an outline of the history of the self
- Medieval times – identity was shaped by family membership, social rank and place of birth
- 16th century – started to change due to issues including secularisation, industrialisation and enlightenment
- Early 20th century – Psychodynamic self
- 1990s - Over 31,000 articles about the self in the previous 20 years (Ashmore & Jussim, 1997)
What is self-image?
This does not necessarily have to reflect reality. Indeed a person with anorexia who is thin may have a self image in which the person believes they are fat. A person’s self image is affected by many factors, such as parental influences, friends, the media etc.
Detail Kuhn’s (1960) investigation of the self-image
Kuhn (1960) investigated the self-image by using The Twenty Statements Test.
He asked people to answer the question ‘Who am I?’ in 20 different ways. He found that the responses could be divided into two major groups. These were social roles (external or objective aspects of oneself such as son, teacher, friend) and personality traits (internal or affective aspects of oneself such as gregarious, impatient, humorous).
Typically young people describe themselves more in terms of personal traits, whereas older people feel defined to a greater extent by their social roles.
What is self-esteem?
Self-esteem (also known as self-worth) refers to the extent to which we like accept or approve of ourselves, or how much we value ourselves. Self-esteem always involves a degree of evaluation and we may have either a positive or a negative view of ourselves.
What is the meta-perspective?
Meta perspective is the perspective that one believes another person to attribute to him or her. Schrauger and Schoeneman (1979) reviewed 62 studies and found that people did not tend to see themselves as others saw them and instead saw themselves as how they thought others saw them.
What is self-awareness?
Awareness is a state in which you are aware of yourself as an object, much as you might be aware of a tree or another person (Duval & Wicklund, 1972).
Carver and Scheier (1981): 2 forms of self
- Private self – try to match behaviour with internal standards
- Public self – presenting yourself in a positive light
Describe Higgins (1987) self-discrepancy theory
The self-discrepancy theory states that individuals compare their “actual” self to internalized standards or the “ideal/ought self”. Inconsistencies between “actual”, “ideal” (idealized version of yourself created from life experiences) and “ought” (who persons feel they should be or should become) are associated with emotional discomforts (e.g., fear, threat, restlessness). Self-discrepancy is the gap between two of these self-representations that leads to negative emotions.
Discrepancies create two major types of negative physiological situations: absence of positive outcomes, which is associated with dejection-related emotions, and the presence of negative outcomes which is associated with agitation-related emotions.
Explain searching for the self
Sedikides (1993) Enhancement was found to be stronger than verification which was stronger than assessment
- Self assessment – seeking out new information about ourselves in order to find out what sort of person we really are
- Self verification – seeking out information that confirms what we think we already know about ourselves
- Self-Enhancement – the motivation to promote a favourable image of self
Outline the Van Gyn et al., (1990) study
Participants assigned to one of 4 conditions:
1. Power training on a bike + imagery
2. Power training on a bike without imagery
3. No power training + imagery
4. No power training without imagery
Findings: Power training improved performance using imagery also improved performance
Conclusion = Imagery improves self-conception which improved performance
What is social comparison?
- Festinger (1954) we learn about ourselves by making comparisons with other people
- Wills (1981) we try to make comparisons with people who are slightly worse than us
- Upwards comparison can have a negative impact on our self-esteem (Wood, 1989. People tend to have an upwards comparison, more healthy to have a downwards comparison towards the less fortunate. Impact on social media?
- Selkf Evaluation Maintenance model (Tesser, 1988) – to avoid this, we downplay our similarity to the target or withdraw from the relationship
Detail Medvec et al., (1995) study on counterfactual thinking
In a classic study, Medvec, Madey, and Gilovich coded the facial expressions of Olympic medalists. Not surprisingly, Gold medalists exhibited the most joy. However, bronze medalists showed more positive emotional expressions than silver medalists. Objectively, this doesn’t make sense because the silver medalist had just outperformed the bronze medalists. However, the reference point for silver medalists was likely “If only I had just run a little faster, I could have won the gold medal!”. One can imagine that after years of training, missing on a chance to be considered the greatest in the world, an opportunity that might not present itself again, could be incredibly disheartening.
Bronze medalists were less likely to think about if they had been a little faster they would have won a silver medal. Instead, bronze medalists appeared to focus on the fact that they could have easily slipped to fourth place, in which case they would have missed out on a medal. Instead, they won a bronze and they could find joy in the fact that they will always be recognized as an Olympic medalist.
Detail Steele’s study (1975)
Results of 2 experiments with a total of 221 housewives support the prediction that name-calling, by conveying a negative judgment, would enhance Ss’ willingness to comply and their actual compliance with a later request for help. Negative names produced more compliance behaviour than positive names. Also, whether or not the negative name was related to the help request made no difference in the percentage of Ss who agreed to comply.
Mormon women received 2 phone calls:
- Called to ask if they would list everything in their kitchen to help with a new community food cooperative project (Baseline 50% agree)
- A few days earlier they had been called by a ‘pollster’ and told one of 3 things:
- A. uncooperative with community projects (95%)
- B. Not concerned about driver safety (95%)
- C. cooperative with community projects (65%)
How do you get people to like you?
Jones (1990) identified 4 strategies:
- Agree with people’s opinions in a credible way
- Be selectively modest – make fun of yourself in relation to unimportant issues
- Avoid appearing desperate for other’s approval
- Basking in reflected glory
What are the 3 key threats to our self-concept?
- Failures – test, job interview or break-up
- Inconsistencies – unusual and unexpected events that make us question the sort of person we are
- Stress – Sudden or enduring events that may exceed our capacity to cope
