The Self Flashcards
Self Regulation?
The deliberate exertion of control to alter one’s
responses (e.g., thoughts, emotions, and
actions)
We have…
- A set of standards and a commitment to them (cultural or individual)
- The ability to self-monitor
- The capacity for change
Willpower?
Mental energy needed to change activities of the self to meet desired standards
Ironic Process of Mental Control?
- To suppress “the thought” we must have…
- An automatic process that monitors “the thought”
- A controlled process to distract from “the though” and towards a competing topic
-> Must think about “the thought” to get rid of it!
One definition of ”The Self” from Sedikides & Gregg (2007)?
- Multiple
- Capable of self-reflection
- Responsive to the social world (real or imagined)
Self-Concept? Comprised of?
The description and evaluation of oneself,
including psychological and physical
characteristics, qualities, skills, roles, etc.
Comprised of self-schema which organize
information about the self with respect to
specific domains of your life
Working self-concept
Set of self-aspects that are currently activated by
situational cues and strongly influence thoughts,
feelings, and actions in the moment
Self-Complexity?
How much individuals have
different and relatively
independent ways of
thinking about themselves
Self-concept Clarity?
The extent to which one’s
self-concept is clearly and
consistently defined
Individualism/Collectivism as Types of Social Relations
- Individualistic emphasis on
people’s autonomy, private
fulfillment, uniqueness - Collectivistic emphasis on
interpersonal harmony, group
cohesion, and social duty
-> impacting self-construal
Independent self schema
- Bounded, unitary, stable self
- Behavior organized around internal repertoire of private thoughts, feelings, and actions
- Goals to be unique, express self, realize internal attributes, promote own goals
- Others important for social comparison
- Self-esteem based on ability to express self, validate internal attributes
Interdependent self schema?
- Flexible, variable self
- Behavior organized around statuses, roles, relationships
- Goals to occupy one’s proper place, engage in appropriate action, group goals
- Relationships (in specific contexts) important for self-definition
- Self-esteem based on ability to adjust, maintain harmony
Being multicultural effect on self schema? Chinise-Canadian study
- People born outside of Canada in a Chinese culture, could speak Chinese, spent equivalent amount of time in Canada
- Assigned to either Chinese or English language condition
- Open-ended self-description
- Chinese language condition -> more collective self-statements
- Activating individual or collective orientations
Levels of our social ”selves”, the personal self?
- Self concept: Individuated
- Evaluation: Tratis
- Frame of reference: Interpersonal comparison
- Social motivation: Self-interest
Levels of our social ”selves”, the relational self?
- Self concept: Roles and Relations
- Evaluation: Roles
- Frame of reference: Reflection
- Social motivation: Other’s Benefit
Levels of our social ”selves”, the collective self?
- Self concept: Social Identity
- Evaluation: Group Prototype
- Frame of reference: Intergroup Comparison
- Social motivation: Collective Welfare
Self-categorization Theory?
Self-categorization is inherently
variable and highly dependent on
contextual shifts in frames of
reference/situated goals and motives
Selves can be made salient, study?
- People read story about a trip to the city
- Asked to circle pronouns (We/Us, They/Them, or It)
- Completed 20 “I am” task and coded for personal, relational, and collective self-definitions
- More social self-descriptions by the “we” prime compared to the “they: and “it” conditions
Human capacity for introspection, definiton
Looking inward into conscious thoughts, feeling, motivations, and intentions
Human capacity for introspection, problems?
- Self-enhancement
- Variable
Social psychologists assert we have limited access to our internal attitudes, beliefs, traits, and psychological states?
- We don’t have the ability to really understand all the cognitive processes that are occurring in our brain
- Impact association test, where the explicit answers contradicts IAT
- This is a disciplinary position for social psychology, utilised when constructing experiments and questioning participants
Knowing the Self Though Seeing Ourselves Though the Eyes of Others, two conecpts?
- Symbolic Interactionism
People use their understanding of how others view them as the primary basis for knowing and evaluating themselves - The looking class self
Others reflect back to us (like a mirror) who we are by how they behave towards us
reflected appraisal?
what we think other people think about us
Significant others or the generalized
other make appraisals of you…
which you incorporate into your self-
concept
Not necessarily accurate
-> Maybe external but not internal
characteristics
Self-perception Theory?
We look at our past behaviors
to make judgments about
ourselves (as we would for
others)
Particularly when attitudes are
weak or ambiguous
Critically evaluating “power posing”
- Quite controversial, has not been able to be replicated
Intrinsic motivation?
Incentivized to engage in an
activity because one is
genuinely interested in it
Extrinsic motivation?
Incentivized to engage in an
activity because there is
expectation of punishment or
reward
Over justification Effect?
When rewarding leads to lower
rather than higher interest in the
activity (extrinsic reward
weakens intrinsic motivation
key to person’s original interest)
Study: Advertising energy saving programs. The potential environmental cost of emphasising monetary savings?
- People read as emphasizing the need to reduce the electricity bill, environmental impact, or both
- Enroll in energy-saving program
- Strongest effect when emphasizing on environmental benefits
Self-Esteem?
How positively (or negatively) you feel about yourself
Self-esteem can be?
Global:
Overall evaluation of your whole self (relevant to psychological well-being)
or
Specific:
How you feel about a particular aspect of the self, relevant to performance
Self-esteem can also be?
Trait:
General attitude toward self-esteem
Consistent (based on early life experiences)
Stable/Unstable -> Fragility of self-esteem
or
State:
Feeling about the self that can temporarily increase or decrease in response to changing circumstances, achievements, and successes
Varying based on achievements/setbacks
Higher self-esteem correlated with?
- Life satisfaction +
- Physical well-being
- Depression -
- Perceived stress -
We desire to protect and enhance feelings of self-worth, what happens when we don’t?
- Frustration of this goal -> psychological distress
- Culture’s impact? We all strive, but what matters varies
Sociometer Theory?
- Self-esteem serves “as a subjective monitor of one’s relational evaluation - the degree to which other people regard their relationships with the individual to be valuable, important or close”
- Evolved need to belong
- Self-esteem as information about our inclusion
Self-esteem as an anxiety buffer theory?
- We biologically desire life…
- But are are of mortality…
- This creates Paralysing terror!
- Solve the issue by creating culture, including self-esteem which makes us feel meaningful and easing our existential crisis
Defending Self-Esteem by?
- Better than average effect
- Self-seving attributional bias
- Theory of social comparison
- Self-evaluation maintenance theory
Better than Average Effect?
Judging that one is above average on most desirable characteristics
E.g., Intelligence, Humor, Driving Ability, Appearance, Negotiating Ability
The Dunning-Kruger Effect?
When a person’s lack of knwoldge/skills causes them to overestimte their own confidence
Self-Serving Attributional Bias?
Attributions = explanations for behavior
- Make external attributions for bad things that one does
- Internal attributions for good things one does
Self-serving attributions uplifts and protects, good for … but??
Good for mental health
Not great for accurate understanding of poor outcomes, cannot accept and therefore lern from constructuve feedback
Theory of Social Comparison Theory? + two types
- People compare themselves to
similar others (e.g., traits, skills, abilities) - Especially if there are not objective indicators of how they’re doing
- Contrasting own performance, ability, or situation with…
Downward social comparison
individuals who did less well, have weaker abilities or are in worse situations
Upward social comparison
Those of a superior person
Roger and Fellers experiment, people assessed peers’ excellent or poor essays and wrote one of their own. When people read a peer’s excellent essay they…
- Underminded ability to write an equally good essay
- Decreased feelings that writing ability was self-relevant
- Less likely to write a second essay
Self-evaluation Maintenance Theory?
People adjust how similar they think they are to successful others to minimize threat and maximize self-esteem
What is the relevance of domain and similarity of the outperforming other? + two potential soluions
High Relevance = High Similarity = Threat
Distance ourselves from other -> low similarity and comparison can’t be made
Make the task irrelevant to self-concept -> low relevance and bask in reflected glory (when we feel that we’re similar to someone and they’re doing well, we feel good “my friend is becoming a doctor”)
