Self theories in personality: lecture 2

Question 1

Kitayama and Markus

Answer 1

culture and interdependent vs. independent self construal

Question 1

Western cultures of self

Answer 1

think of self as separate and distinct from others, and are also likely to focus on opportunities for advancing and promoting the distinct self. Deceptive self-enhancement is an effective way to promote this distinct self, especially if one is generally clueless about one’s own limitations

Question 2

Eastern cultures

Answer 2

self is embedded in relationships with others, and are likely to focus on preventing loss of face in these relationships. Impression Management is an effective way to protect this relational self, especially if one is unusually aware of how one comes across in public

Question 3

East-asian interdependent self-construal

Answer 3

self is connected to and embedded in relationships with others and social contexts

Question 4

asian interdependent self-construal

Answer 4

leads to awareness of ones behavior relative to group belongingness, group harmony, and social standards, roles, and obligations

Question 5

self-enhancement of the Western, Independent self

Answer 5

lot of pressure to enhance self when it is an autonomous agent that is separate from its social context, and is composed of a self-contained set of relatively immutable attributes that are presumed to both cause and regulate behavior

Question 6

self-serving bias

Answer 6

take credit for success and deny responsibility for failure

Question 7

false uniqueness effect

Answer 7

overestimate the uniqueness of ones own positive attributes

Question 8

Akimoto and Sanbonmatsu

Answer 8

found that Japanese-Americans tended to be more self-effacing in their descriptions of successful performances than european-americans
* their tendency to downplay success cause them to be evaluated less positively by others

Question 9

Kitayama et al. (1997)

Answer 9

found that americans regarded successes to be more relevant to self-esteem than failures, and Japanese tended to see failures as being more relevant to self-esteem than success

Question 10

Heine et al. (2001)

Answer 10

found that failure on a task caused both Canadians and americans to reduce effort on that specific task and to disparage it. conversely, failure caused Japanese subjects to try harder and persevere longer on that specific task, an to regard the task as more important and diagnostic

Question 11

self-improvement

Answer 11

reflect on the self. Identify weaknesses relative to shared standards of excellence and seek to improve them

Question 12

Kitayama

Answer 12

*Americans elaborate positive aspects and deemphasize negative aspects
* Japanese elaborate negative aspects and deemphasize positive aspects

Question 13

The voluntary settlement hypothesis of independent self-construal postulates that

Answer 13

1. voluntary settlers are likely to be autonomous, independent, goal-oriented folks
2. frontier life was so rough that if you weren’t independent and goal-oriented when you started, you learned to be
3. once established, dispositional lay theories of independence are ingrained in social life and transmitted to future generations

Question 14

self selection hypothesis

Answer 14

voluntary settlers are likely to be autonomous, independent, goal-oriented folks

Question 15

reinforcement hypothesis

Answer 15

frontier life was so rough that if you weren’t independent and goal-oriented when you started, you learned to be

Question 16

institutionalization hypothesis

Answer 16

once established, dispositional lay theories of independence are ingrained in social life and transmitted to future generations

Question 17

Hokkaido hypothesis

Answer 17

they become autonomous, independent, and goal-oriented then transmit these dispositions to future generations

Question 18

Hokkaido
Study 1: hypothesis: if folks are psychologically independent, their happiness should derive mostly from achieving personal goals and feeling proud
*if folks are psychologically interdependent, their happiness should derive primarily from feeling friendly with others in important social groups

Answer 18

Results: the pride-happiness link was especially strong among americans and hokkaido-born Japanese
*the feelings-happiness link was especially strong among Japanese kids raised on the Japanese mainland

Question 19

Hokkaido
Study 2: whether the voluntary-settler descended Hokkaido-born were more like Americans or Japanese in their attributional tendencies by looking at baeball
* subjects read about a professional baseball player who engaged in either desirable or undesirable behavior then asked to rate the extent that the behavior in question was caused by internal or external factors

Answer 19

Results: both Hokkaido-born and Americans were more likely to attribute behavior to internal causes

Question 20

socially desirable responding

Answer 20

responding in a manner that casts the self in a favorable light

Question 21

self-deceptive enhancement

Answer 21

try to convince self and others that you are skilled, competent, or attractive

Question 22

impression management

Answer 22

try to appear more normatively appropriate to self and others

Question 23

individualism

Answer 23

self is a separate and autonomous self that leads to the development of positive attributes that are both put on public display and privately affirmed

Question 24

collectivism

Answer 24

(interdependent self-construal) self is socially embedded self that leads to an awareness of ones behavior relative to group belongingness, group harmony, and social standards

Question 25

Lalwani et. al.
utilized both american and Hong Kong subjects as representatives of individualists and collectivists, and measured individualism vs. collectivism as an individual difference within a single culture

Answer 25

Results: DE was consistently associated with individualism and IM was consistently associated with collectivism