The self Flashcards
Freud- iceberg analogy & thought (2)
- Conscious thought (tip of iceberg)
- Unconscious thought (under surface & cant actively see)
Freud- iceberg analogy: 3 parts of self» (3)
> ID= animal drives, basic instincts (4F’s: feeding, fighting, fleeing, fucking)
EGO= conscious thought; maintains balance between motivated behaviour (the 4F’s) & rational thought
Super Ego= unconscious thought, keeper of social norms
What is the self? & Decartes»
-looked at epistemology (study of how do you KNOW something)
- concluded “i think, therefore i am”
self-schemata=
who you are & what you are
schema=
organised sets of knowledge, beliefs and feelings that can guide information processing
self-schema includes (4)=
- behaviours
- personality traits
- physical characteristics
- interests
Aschematic=
ideas/ attributes unimportant to you; not within self-reference schema
What can effect can aschematic ideas/attributes have?
change the way we think about things (e.g. faster accessibility to words related to self-concepts)
self-schemata- study (markus, 1977)>
- study desgined to measure speed of accessibility to words related to self-concepts
-method= - had people rate themselves on a series of attributes (one being independence)
- gave a text & asked to find all the words related to the concept of independence-themed words
- findings=
“independents” were quicker to identify with independence-themed words
self-reference effect= (Kihlstrom et al, 1988)
individuals remember info when they can relate it to themselves
self-schema- us vs others> (2)
- we attribute more to ourselves than others
- our attributions to self are often in conflicting terms> as we recognise ourselves as 3D characters (sande, 1990)
schemes are activated by?
priming
schemes activation by priming: studies (2)
> chronically lonely people have negative schemas (Frankel & Prentice-Dunn, 1990)
alcohol reduces self-awareness; ability to access self-referential info (steele, southwick & critchlow, 1981)
Observing ourselves: we generally like ourselves. What does this cause by extension? (3)
preference for
- similarity in names (of people), letters and numbers (related to name) (pelham, mirenberg & jones, 2002)
- nominal determinism= motivated by names (not of people)
- overvaluing things that are ours (e.g. lottery tickets)
observing ourselves: physiological feedback>
we are aware of our bodies (e.g. heart rate, sweaty palms) & associated meaning in self
observing ourselves: heart rate study» (6)
> method=
- group of men given headphones which played the sound of a heart beating
- wired up to ECG, to make think they were hearing their own heart
- showed them pictures of women, promiscuously dressed
- some men had heart slowly beating played & some had it racing
- then asked to rate attractiveness of women
> findings=
- men with racing scenario rated women a lot more attractive than those who had slow heart beat
self esteem=
a proxy for what we think others think about us
Spotlight effect of self-esteem
idea everybody is paying attention to & focused on us
gender differences in self esteem (3)
- pre-pubescent equally feel good about self
- once hit puberty self esteem declines (more for w than m)
- continued trend of decreased for w against m until 60