The Self I Flashcards
EXAMPLE
JO DECIDING TO BREASTFEED/NOT
- people who breastfed may feel negatively
- Jo’s reviewed relevant research; opinion may change/be rational BUT…
- may think their way is still better (#lactivist)
- feel motivated to defend choice to breastfeed
- augment antagonism level against bottlefeeders
- self-service/defensive attribution
DESIRE TO SEE POSITIVE SELF
- an ordinary bias (?)
- not just about processing system limits compromising accuracy BUT…
- subjective biases arise from own desires/needs ie. high self-esteem/control/affiliation
- aka. positivity bias/ego-protection/self-esteem enhancement/positive illusions
MOSKOWITZ (2005) - motivated to enhance positivity of self-conceptions to protect self from negative info
POSITIVE ILLUSIONS
- seeing self as positive = healthy unless delusional
- 3 categories:
1. unrealistically positive views of self
2. unrealistic optimism
3. exaggerated perceptions of personal control
UNREALISTIC POSITIVE VIEWS OF SELF
- self-serving bias (ie. handed work in late because printer malfunctioned due to think jumper)
- robust cross-cultural finding
ATTRIBUTION RELATION - illusions occur as we attribute negative outcomes to situation BUT…
- positive outcomes = stable dispositional causes
UPVOS: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE
STEVENS & JONES (1976)
- mean methodolgy
- attribution measured via 100 points shared between ability/effort/task difficult/luck; scales rated factors
RESULTS: success = personal ability; failure = bad luck; extreme = self-esteem low as consensus = well (18% personal ability; 40% luck)
- aka. defensive attribution pattern
MOTIVATED SCEPTICISIM
- how are we sheltered from self-esteem damaging feedback?
1. feedback = usually positive/sugar-coated
2. choose friends w/similar views
3. ambiguous feedback = positive light; ignored if unambiguous/negative
4. denigrate negative feedback source
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE REDUCTION (EG)
- applicable to dealing w/bad things about self
EXAMPLE - smoking despite knowing it’s poor for health; cognitive reconciliation = ?
- importance of dissonance elements to self
- more dissonance in high/low self-esteem?
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE REDUCTION
- eliminating negative beh as discrepant cognition source = not always easy (ie. giving up smoking)
- justifying/rationalising discrepant act accommodates undesirable beh
BLUFFER’S GUIDE TO RATIONALISATION
- seek cognitions consistent w/discrepancy
- change attitude so no discrepancy
- affirm sense of self = positive in other domains
- trivialisation
DEFENSIVE PESSIMISM & SELF-HANDICAPPING
- defensive pessimism (DP) = chronic tendency to prepare for the worst
- “I am doomed to fail” = often false so why?
- do some fears protect self-esteem?
- self-handicapping = increase failure chance to excuse failure occurrence (ie. getting drunk night before exam)
UNREALISTIC OPTIMISM
- we don’t like to think of negative events occurring to us = good self-preservation plan
- dif between optimism VS unrealistic optimism = future prediction
- eg. motivated inference
MOTIVATED INFERENCE
KUNDA (1987)
- biased theory generation
- warding off links between negative outcomes/attributes
- pps read of divorced/married person (introvert/extrovert/etc); asked how attributes contributed to marital status
- pps assessed own attributes (+target) relating to future event (marriage)/marital success
- shared attributes = promoted good marriage
- outcome info affected ratings
AKA. negatively implicating info = criticised; favouring info = accepted
THE CAFFEINE STUDY
KONDA (1987)
- study 3
- caffeine consumption; links to fictitious diseases associated w/breast cancer
- evaluations affected if article = personally threatening
- caveat = positive illusions help preserve mental health BUT ^ poor physical health chances
BETTER THAN AVERAGE EFFECT (BTAE)
- tendency to perceive abilities/attributes/personality traits as superior against average peer
BTAE: META-ANALYSIS
ZELL ET AL (2020)
- 124 BTAE published articles; 950k pps
- robust across studies w/little publication bias evidence
- larger w/personality traits > abilities; positive > negative dimensions
- cultural difs (esp. individualistic traits)
- moderately associated w/self-esteem/life satisfaction
