the social self Flashcards
what is ‘the self’?
- (Baumeister) ‘The individual’s belief about himself or herself, including the person’s attributes and wo and what the self is’
the self: what is symbolic interactionism?
symbolic interactionism - we’re defined through our interactions with others
the self: what is the ‘looking glass self’?
the looking glass self - we view ourselves how we think others see us
the self: who came up with social identity theory?
Tajfel and Turner
the self: what are the two fundamental aspects of ‘the self’ according to social identity theory?
- Social identity – defines the self in terms of group memberships
- Personal identity – defines the self in terms of our character traits and close relationships
the self: draw out the social identity theory flow diagram
sheet
single vs multiple selves: what is the contextual self?
contextual self - describing and behaving differently in different contexts
this means that different representations of the self become more or less pronounced depending on our situational factors
single vs multiple selves: what is actor-observer bias? how does it relate to the ‘contextual self’?
actor-observer bias - attributing other’s behaviour to their character, whilst attributing our own behaviour due to our situations
e.g ‘she stole because she’s a selfish thief’ vs ‘I stole because I was desperate’
relates to the contextual self as it demonstrates that we make ourselves more coherent with our environments
what is social identity salience?
social identity salience - the activation of an individual’s conceptualised social identity in response to social/environmental cues through self-categorisation
social identity salience: what is social categoraisation?
social categorisation - looking for minimal cues to categorise ourselves with others.
done to reduce social uncertaincy and leads to social salience
social identity salience: what is the minimal group paradigm?
- a method used to investigate the minimal conditions required for discriminations to appear between groups
- research reveals that even meaningless distinctions can trigger the tendency to favour one’s group, even at the expense of interacting with others
social identity salience: what is social self categorisation?
- describes the circumstances under which a person will perceive themselves/others as part of a group
- describes the function of being part of/perceiving groups in social understanding of oneself and others
social identity salience: draw out the social self categorisation flow diagram
sheet
what are the 2 key ways we understand ourselves?
cognitive ways
behavioural ways
what are the 2 key cognitive ways we understand ourselves according to social psychology?
self knowledge
self discrepancy theory (Higgins)
cognitive understanding of the self: what is ‘self knowledge’? how does this develop over time?
self knowledge - self-schemas which are built around the ideas/beliefs we hold about ourselves.
there are multiple self-schemas and they develop with age - i.e schemas become more complex at 13 with onset of gender schema formation
cognitive understanding of the self: what is ‘self discrepancy theory’?
- higgins
- we define ourselves through 3 key schemas - the ideal self, actual self and ought self
- discrepancy between these three causes discomfort
cognitive understanding of the self: what is the ‘ought self’ according to higgins’ self discrepancy theory?
the ‘ought self’ - what society/parents/culture thinks we should be
cognitive understanding of the self: given an example of what happens when you feel internal discrepancy according to higgins’ self discrepancy theory?
- Discrepancy between ‘actual’ and ‘ought’ – anxiety and not feeling like you ‘fit in’
what are the 2 key behavioural ways we understand ourselves according to social psychology?
self perception theory - bem
social comparison theory - festinger
behavioural ways of understanding the self: what is social perception theory? (4)
- bem
- argues that rather than attitudes driving behaviour, our behaviour helps us determine our attitudes
- our behaviour is determined by either intrinsic or extrinsic motivations
- if we do something with no extrinsic motivations, we assume that we actually want to do it - ‘attitude’
- of we do something with no intrinsic motivations, when extrinsic motivations are removed the behaviour is likely to stop
behavioural ways of understanding the self: what is social comparison theory? (4)
- festinger
- we compare ourselves to measure how well we’re doing
- by measuring ourselves we gain validation and find people who are at similar points to ourselves - how groups form
- the two main processes of comparison are ‘upward social comparison’ and ‘downward social comparison’
behavioural ways of understanding the self: what is ‘upward social comparison’ vs ‘downward social comparison according to social comparison theory?
upward social comparison: we see someone who appears to be doing better, can lower self-esteem but also motivate us to be better
downward social comparison: we see someone who seems to be doing worse, can elevate self esteem but also make us get overly protective of our status
putting together both cognitive and behavioural ways we know ourselves, what are the 4 steps we use to understand ourselves?
- We form self schemas and maintain them or minimize them to protect our self esteem
- We have actual, ideal and ought selves and work to resolve the discrepancies
- We observe our own behaviour to determine motivation
- We compare ourselves to others
