Psych Main - Social Flashcards
3 forms of self that make up the self-concept (Brewer & Gardner, 1996)
- Individual (Personal)
- Traits, Feelings, Beliefs - Collective
- Social identities - Relational
- Connections and role relationships
3 tactics to achieve self-coherence (Baumeister, 1998)
- Restricting our lives to a limited set of contexts
- Revising and integrating our ‘autobiographies‘.
- Attributing change to the circumstances.
4 Sources of Self-knowledge
- Introspection (Thoughts/Feelings)
- Self-perception (How I see myself based on my behaviour)
- Feedback from others
- Social Comparisons
Van Gyn, Wenger & Gaul (1990)
Sports Bikes.
Miller et al. (1975)
School - Tidy vs. Untidy.
Snyder (1984)
Said person on the phone is an extrovert - therefore P’s treated them like an extrovert. Caused the person behind the phone to act like an extrovert.
Festinger (1954)
We tend to compare ourselves with those who are similar or a little bit worse.
3 Motives for seeking self-knowledge (Sedikides, 1993)
- Accurate self-assessment (least important)
- Self-Verification
- Self-Enhancement (most important)
4 Ways to maintain/enhance self-esteem
- Self-serving attributions
- Above average effect
- Unrealistic optimism
- False consensus and uniqueness (Everyone thinks/does the same things I do. But I’m also very unique)
3 Kinds of threats to our self-concept
- Failures
- Inconsistencies
- Stressors
Strauman (1993)
Threats to self-concept arouse negative emotions and they contribute to physical illness.
3 Main strategies of coping with threats to self-concept
- Escape
- Downplay the threat
- Attack the threat
Self-Handicapping (Bergles, 1987)
Setting up excuses for failure before the event (e.g. the exam)
- provides an excuse for failure
- makes successes seem greater
Berglas and Jones (1978)
Gave participants (easy or insoluble) problems; then manipulated feelings of security in their ability. They were told there were further similar problems to solve and the experiment was testing the effects of drugs on performance.
- The ‘secure’ (easy problems) group chose the drug which improves performance.
- The ‘insecure’ (insoluble problems) group chose the drug that inhibits performance i.e. a self-handicapping strategy.
Self-efficacy (Bandura, 1997)
Self-efficacy is your sense of competence and effectiveness
Locus of control (Rotter, 1973)
Some people feel that what happens to them depends on external factors, others that it depends on their own efforts and skills
Regulatory Focus Theory (Higgins, 1997/1998)
- Actual/Ideal/Ought Selves
- Two types of behaviours:
1. Promotion/Approach Strategy - Motivated to be the best
2. Prevention/Avoidance Strategy - Motivated to avoid failing
3 ways we present our self to others
- False Modesty
- Impression Management
- Self-monitoring
Manago et al. (2008)
- MySpace was used for identity exploration and for realising ideal and possible selves. Presenting in desired ways.
- ’audience’ comments provide feedback and validation of emerging selves
- social comparisons were also important in constructing selves
Zhao (2008)
We construct our identity on FB. But constrained by offline relationships.
- Pics, Lists, Descriptions
- We tend to be implicit - not direct in impressing but through our pics etc.
Back et al. (2010)
Compared personality measures for self and ideal-self with observer ratings of Facebook profiles, and concluded that Facebook is a medium for expressing and communicating real personality.
3 main types of automatic thinking
- Schemata
- Heuristics
- Biases
Kelley (1950)
Schema of a guest lecturer as a warm or cold person - affects students ratings and behaviour regardless of the truth.
2 Ways Schemas work and examples
- Guide what we notice by filtering out inconsistent inf.
- Vallone, Ross & Lepper(1985) both pro- and anti-Israeli students perceived the TV news items shown to them as hostile to their side - Influence what we encode and therefore the memories we construct
- Carli (1999) showed that participants ‘remembered’ details of the story of ‘Barbara and Jack’ which were consistent with the ending given.
Croxton et al (1984)
Students’ recall of person’s earlier behaviour depended on whether they were told that person liked or disliked them.
McFarland & Ross (1985)
Students rated their steady dating partners and were asked to do the same two months later. Their memories of the past fitted the current state of the relationship.
Holmberg & Holmes (1994) did a similar longitudinal study with newly weds after marriage and two years later – and noted a similar negative spiral.
Which Schemata is applied depends on what two things?
- Accessibility
2. Priming e.g. medical student syndrome
Why are schemas so resistant to change?
Confirmation bias
- Ross, Lepper and Hubbard (1975) asked experimental participants to look at suicide notes to determine which were real. A third each of the participants were told that they were right 10, 17 and 24 out of 25 times. They were then told that they had been lied to and asked to estimate more correctly. Those who had been told higher numbers continued to guess high.
Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968)
‘IQ bloomers’ study: teachers were led to believe that some (randomly selected) children in class had done well on IQ test. Eight months later, they had made significant improvement because teachers (unconsciously) paid them more attention.
Rosenhan (1973)
tested mental health workers’clinical judgements by getting themselves interviewed in different hospitals, complaining of hearing voices. They were admitted for treatment - workers had explanations and were sure they had schizophrenia.
Parker et al. (1995)
Showed that violations (not errors) are associated with accidents (violations are deviations from safe-driving practices; errors involve making mistakes or lack of skill and judgement)
Mansteadet al (1992)
In a survey of 1500 drivers, Mansteadet al (1992) found‘ regular violators’ made higher estimates of other’ violations, whereas ‘irregular’ violators underestimate
Sherif (1937)
The Autokinetic effect.
Individuals were asked to estimate how far they thought the light moved, then tested them together in a group. Estimates in the group converged as they established a ‘group norm’. This was close to the average of estimates they gave individually.
A group was asked to give estimates of how far they thought the light moved then they were asked to give individual estimates, these were very close to the group estimate.
Asch (1952)
Line Study: Asch measured the number of times each participant conformed to the majority view. On average, about one third (32%) of the participants who were placed in this situation went along and conformed with the clearly incorrect majority on the critical trials.
Over the 12 critical trials about 75% of participants conformed at least once, and 25% of participant never conformed. In the control group, with no pressure to conform to confederates, less than 1% of participants gave the wrong answer.
3 Main factors affecting the level of conformity people display (+ situation)
- Personality
- Gender
- females conform slightly more than males BUT the degree of conformity depends on the task – males conform more on ‘feminine’ tasks, females conform more on ‘masculine’ tasks (Eagly, 1978, 1983) - Culture
- Similar effects have been found in other countries, but members of collectivist cultures conform more (Bond & Smith, 1996)
2 Situational factors that increase Conformity
- Unanimity
- Allen & Levine (1971) compared the effects of a competent and incompetent supporter (wearing thick glasses) on a visual task. Both reduced conformity - Group Size
- Milgram et al (1969) had a number of people look up on a busy street, while the percentage of passersby who looked up was calculated - Groups of 5+ most effective.