Self&Motivation

Question 1

Caveat 1 - multicultural minds

Answer 1

We all participate in multiple sociocultural contexts
- culture is more than just a nation

Question 2

Caveat 2 - cultures are not monolithic

Answer 2

Differences in group averages do not explain individual experience
- we’re not talking about individuals, we’re talking about group averages

Question 3

Caveat 3 - language matters

Answer 3

The way we talk about things, may make it sound stereotypical
We should say this (1) and not that (2)
Predominant settings in Korea elaborate on the values of being similar and fitting in (1) vs Koreans want to be like everybody else (2)

Question 4

Twenty-statements test

Answer 4

Measures how people describe themselves (answer the question ‘Who am I?’)
Split in two parts:
1. abstract traits, stable characteristics that exist by themselves (independent self)
2. Relationships and roles, context-dependent behaviours (interdependent self)

Question 5

Experiment showing intependent and interdependent selves

Answer 5

There are differences in how people describe themselves
- participants from Kenya and the US
- American and Nairobi undergrads don’t differ that much in how they describe themselves (both more in terms of independent self)
- Classification such as Africa/Kenya vs West/USA are too simplistic! There are substantial differences within countries (subcultures). Nairobi workers & undergraduates differ from Masai & Samburu.
- As we move from middle class to more working class, roles and membership become more salient
- Even more in two Kenyan tribes (Masai/Samburu) - the personal characteristics matter hardly at all

Question 6

What is a possible explanation to the phenomena observed in the experiment with Kenyans and Americans on two views of self?

Answer 6

1. Urbanization (living in the capital of the country)
2. Westernization (tv, media)
3. Lifestyle (not living within an extended family)
4. Education (having received formal schooling)

Question 7

Independent view of self

Answer 7

A model of self in which identity is thought to come from inner attributes that reflect a unique essence of the individual and that remain stable across situations and across the lifespan. Self is distinct from others.

Question 8

What are the four key aspects of independent self?

Picture 1

Answer 8

1. Self is experienced as distinct from others - circle of individual doesn’t overlap with others
   2.Self-defining aspects are within the individual (large X= core attitudes, traits, abilities)
2. Self is stable (circle around self is solid; see also Entity Theory of Self, where abilities & traits are fixed and resistant to change)
3. Ingroup boundaries are relatively permeable (still feel closer to ingroup but do not view outgroup as fundamentally distinct) → new relationships can be formed and old relationships can be dissolved without having a large impact on the person’s identity.

Question 9

Interdependent view of self

Answer 9

A model of self in which identity is contingent upon relationships with ingroup members; individuals are perceived not as separate and distinct entities but as participants in a larger social unit (relational entity). Others are an extension of the self.

Question 10

What are the four key aspects of interdependent self?

picture 2

Answer 10

1. Self overlaps considerably with an individual’s significant relationships. –> Interdependent individuals’ identities are closely connected with others.
2. Key aspects of the self (X) are based on significant relationships (roles). Roles govern how you feel, behave, not inner attributes. (X overalp with others)
3. Self is a fluid identity, situation-dependent, unstable (see also Incremental theory of self, where abilities & traits malleable, likely to change across situations/lifetime)
4. Solid ingroup – outgroup boarder (you do not easily become ingroup member, nor does ingroup dissolve easily. People might behave very differently towards outgroup members) → Obligations to others are an important part of ingroup relations.

Question 11

What did research find out about the self-concept and its appearance in the brain?

Answer 11

Participants (English-speaking expats in China or Chinese-native) were instructed to consider how well certain traits characterized themselves or their mothers

Results: Chinese participants’ brain activation did not differ when thinking of themselves or their mothers: Chinese self-representations for themselves and their mothers are not that distinct and both reflect on their self-concept. So, significant others form a core part of the self-concept for those with interdependent selves (medial prefrontal cortex / MPFC has been linked to self-representations). For Western participants, different brain regions were activated → represent themselves and their mothers in distinct ways (independent self)

Question 12

How do cullectivistic and individualistic cultural values shape the self?

Answer 12

The type of self-concept relates to the cultural values of the larger cultural context.
Collectivistic cultural values stress the importance of being connected with others through certain cultural practices (e.g., children co-sleeping with their parents, family deciding or having influence over your partner selection, etc.), which in turn nurture an interdependent view of self.
Individualistic cultural values stress the importance of being self-sufficient through certain cultural practices (e.g., elderly saving up for retirement homes, children having their own bedroom, students paying their tuition fees, etc.), which in turn nurture an independent view of self.

In this way, culture and psyche/self make each other up!

Question 13

How is physical and social enviornment important in shaping of the self? Give an example of a study

Answer 13

However, apart from the dominant cultural values, what is also important for the formation of one’s self-concept is the constraints and affordances of the physical and social environment.
Physical environment: this study shows that rice-growing regions in China showed higher prevalence of interdependent thinking and holistic reasoning than wheat-growing regions that showed higher prevalence of independent thinking and analytic reasoning. Why? Because rice cultivation requires a lot of coordination and cooperation with others, whereas for wheat cultivation you don’t need to rely on others. This is an example of a distal cause of culture: initial differences that lead to effects over long periods of time and often through indirect relations.
Social environment: much research shows a correlation between individualism and education/ social class within the same country. Exposure to higher education can make you more independent. This is an example of a proximal cause of culture: a cause that has direct and immediate relation with its effect.

Answer 14

The independent self-concept is more stable and the interdependent self-concept is more fluid
↪ Self-concept has consequences on a variety of psychological processes, including emotion, motivation, thinking style (how people think about themselves + others), but also on implicit theories of self, self-consistency, and self-awareness.

Question 15

What is the entity theory of self?

Answer 15

Aspects of the self are resistant to change across one’s life because they are innate - we are born with given traits are we’re supposed to discover them over our lifespan
↪ independent self-concept
↪ fixed mindset

Question 16

What is Incremental theory of self?

Answer 16

Aspects of the self are malleable and can be improved because they depend on one’s efforts
↪ Interdependent self-concept
↪ Growth mindest

Question 17

What are the implications of the different implicit theories of self on daily life?

Answer 17

• Our mindest affects our perfomrance
• Related to effort (is studying believed to make one more intelligent?)
• Related to reaction to & attribution of success vs. failure (attribution to inner ability & acceptance of failure vs. attribution to own efforts and strategies & react with extra training in the face of failure)
• people are extremely sensitive to the cues that we’re getting from our enviornment

Example: Is “studying hard” important for success in math?
60% of Chinese said Yes  intelligence depends on effort; admission at the uni is based on knowledge (ability to learn large amounts of info)
25% of North-Americans said Yes  intelligence is inborn; admission at uni is based on general IQ tests

Question 18

What experiment shows self-concept and self-consistency?

American and japanese twenty statements test

Answer 18

Experiment set-up: who is sitting next to student when filling out the twenty-statement test.
Picture 3
Results:
USA: higher positive self-views & stable view of self across situations.
Japan: lower positive self-views & variance between situations (more self critical when authority present, most positive about self when alone) (but…stable within situations)!
↪ May be related to more incremental theory of self because when you’re thinking about the areas that you’re not good at, you can think of ways on how to improve them
Why is consistency important to people with independent self-views? In USA (internal) consistency is related to likability, well-being, & social skills but it is not in Korea

Question 19

What is a second experiment studying self-concept and self-consistency?

The one with cognitive dissonance

Answer 19

Cognitive dissonance present in european canadians participants but not japanese - people with an independent self think of themselves as stable and consistent across situations but then when they act inconsistently with their beliefs, they have a need to fix it = cog. dissonance; for japanese people it’s not so unpleasant because they think about themselves more flexibly
However, in a follow up study they found that cognitive dissonance matters in japanese students when they think about choices they made for their friend
Consistency matters for a different aspect of their self depending on the culture
↪ researchers found that when ordering food for themselves versus for others, European Canadians show justification of their choices for themselves, but Japanese show justification of their choices for others (not for themselves)! (picture 4)

Question 20

What is the difference between different types of self-awareness?

Answer 20

Subjective SA: when we consider our self as an Acting Agent: (attention directed outwards, self not consciously aware) → more 1st person memory, high self-esteem, not very accurate in predicting own behavior/
Objective SA: when we consider our Self as an Observed Object: (consider how you appear to others, evaluation apprehension) → more 3rd person memory, more self-critical, accurate in predicting own behavior

Question 21

What was an experiment studying self-awarness?

Answer 21

What is the effect of self-enhancing stimuli (=mirror, video-camera) on judgements of discrepancy between ideal & actual self? If you are in the “I” modus, seeing yourself in a mirror forces a switch to “me” (goes hand in hand with a more critical evaluation of self: bigger discrepancy between ideal and actual self). Consistent with this, seeing oneself in mirror increases the gap btw ideal & actual self. Seeing self in mirror has little effect on Japanese but does have an effect on US-samples (cheat less, more self-critical, self-evaluation less positive/more similar to Japanese). Japanese chronically in “me-modus”.
Picture 5
The self as actor (“I”) vs. observed object (“me”)
Subjective self-awareness (“I”): attention outwards (more self critical when mirror present)
Objective self-awareness (“me”): attention inwards

Question 22

What is the Big 5? How was it constructed?

Answer 22

Personality researcher perspective: The main assumption is that you only need 5 uncorrelated dimensions to adequately describe personality. These are the most basic building blocks of personality. It’s assumed that this is true globally across cultures

Many trait words out there (shy, quiet, introvert)…but lots of overlap. Allport & Odbert identified 18,000 traits. Costa & McCrae did a factor-analysis and proposed that all traits can be reduced to 5 factors.
Openness: wide range of interests, eagerness to experience new situations, experiencing unfamiliar without anxiety/with pleasure
Conscientiousness: control and inhibition of behaviour, task-orientation
Extraversion: seeking new contacts with energy, confidence, enthusiasm, tendency to experience things positively
Agreeableness: kindness, empathy vs cynicism, hostility
Neuroticism: emotional instability, proneness to experience fear/shame/anger.

But: We might have missed factors due to taking a Western perspective in creating the inventory in the first place

Question 23

When factor-analysis was conducted in China what did they observe as the main personality traits?

Answer 23

Picture 6
CPAI (Chinese Personality Assessment Inventory) set up (Cheung et al., 1996): Made list of personality traits based on analysis of cultural messages (novels, proverbs, etc)/ put into questionnaire/ fill in by Chinese/ factor analysis.

Results:
4 factors emerged. Three have considerable overlap (in terms of correlations) with BIG 5
No overlap for Big 5 Openness & CPAI Interpersonal Relatedness. However Costa & McCrae had found them in China. What does this mean? Not (as) important in China? Differences in accessibility? Method bias?
Also, additional factor: interpersonal relatedness. replicated with Singaporeans & Hawaiians (Heung & Leung, 1998)
Openness to experience is the factor that emerges with the least consistency

Question 24

How universal is the structure of personality? What are the main issues of personality tests?

Answer 24

Big 5 is fairly cross-culturlaly robust (at least in industrialised populations of students) but…
The main issues of personality tests is Equivalence and Bias:
1. Construct equivalence: is personality conceptualized in the same way (e.g., how can we talk about a stable personality when people with an interdependent self-view experience self as fluid)
2. Reference-group effect: People tend to compare themselves to local norms (e.g., “I am very punctual” means a different thing in Italy and in the UK.)

Question 25

What is the solution to the personality traits?

Answer 25

Behavioral measures and objective observations (such as efficiency of postal workers and accuracy of public clocks) might be better/more objective, and it has indeed been found that these objective measures do not correlate well at all with self-reports on conscientiousness.

Question 26

How do we split the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs? What does each need mean and to which motivation does it lead to?

Answer 26

Picture 7
Biological needs: they express our direction towards survival (self-preservation)
Social needs: they express our direction towards establishing & maintaining relationships

1. Love and belonging need: the need to maintain significant relationships
2. Self-esteem need: the need to feel valued and respected
3. Self-actualization need: the need to achieve our full potential

Question 27

To what motivation does each need lead to? How universal is it?

Answer 27

Love and belonging need → Connectedness motivation: the motivation to feel connected with others – BUT: how those relationships are structured may differ

Self-esteem need → Self-enhancement motivation: the motivation to view oneself positively – BUT: there may be other ways to feel valued

Self-actualization need → Mastery motivation – BUT: What is actualized in the self and how people “master” their environment may differ across cultures

Question 28

How does connectedness motivation differ based on one’s self-concept?

Answer 28

The motivation to connect and belong is universal, but how people realize this varies cross-culturally
Independent self-concept → Concerned with sticking out → secure their uniqueness → act distinctively from others; acting as individual agents
↪it’s your choice to stay in a relationship
Interdependent self-concept → Concerned with fitting in → secure group harmony and group belonging → act consistently with others, in other words, be more conformist; acting as relational agents
↪ remain in the relationship because you feel an obligation to the role as a partner (doesn’t need to be a bad thing)

(in the book it is menioned as “motivation to fit in/to belong vs. motivation to stick out/ to be unique”)

Question 29

What was an experiment demonstarting connectedness motivation?

Answer 29

A study where participants had to pick a pen
Experiment set up: Researchers in an airport would ask prospective passengers to fill out a questionnaire. They would pull out of the bag a handful of 5 pens (which were either green or red), and participants had to choose between a minority- and a majority-color pen.

Americans → motivation for uniqueness; chose the minority-coloured pens
East Asians → motivation for fitting in / belongingness; chose the majority-coloured pen

Note: Similar patterns (preference for uniqueness vs. belongingness/fitting in) were also found between middle class and working class European Americans