Week 1 lectures (The self)

Question 1

What is a Schema?

Answer 1

A set of beliefs about an object

Question 2

How does Markus 1977 define a self schema?

Answer 2

‘Cognitive generalizations about the self…that organize and guide the processing of self related information’

Question 3

What does Schematic mean

Answer 3

Identities which contribute strongly to our sense of self

Question 4

What does Aschematic mean

Answer 4

Dimensions which do not contribute strongly to our sense of self

Question 5

What was the research question by Markus, Hamill & Sentis

Answer 5

Research question was will overweight women who are schematic on weight be quicker to identify words that are related to being overweight than those who are non schematic

Underlying this question is:

• do people identify self schematic informating as being more descriptive of them
• Are people more quick to identify self schematic information as more descriptive of them

Question 6

What was the method by Marcus, Hamill & Sentis

Answer 6

Questionnaire asking women to what extent they view themselves as overweight and how important their weight is to them

judged if schematic or aschematic

Then objectively weighed on scales

Then the activity was that Words were presented to them linked to being fat or thin and they had to push a button as quickly as possible to say if they think that word describes them

Question 7

What was the findings of Marcus, Hamill & Sentis.

Answer 7

People who were obese/overweight and schematic judged fat words as more relavent to them

Those who are aschematic has no sig difference of fat/thin words as relavent to them

Schematic obese and overweight identified fat words as descriptive of them much more quickly than they identified thin words as non descriptive (Lower response latency)

Aschemtic groups had no significant difference in response latency to the different sets of words

Implication: Having a schema for a particular dimension helps us identify info that’s relevant to us and helps us process information that’s relevant to us more quickly than info that isn’t

Question 8

What was the research question by Markus, Crane, Bernstein & Siladi?

Answer 8

Will people who are schematic on a particular gender show better recall of information thats consistent with their gender schema?

Question 9

What was the method by Markus, Crane, Bernstein & Siladi?

Answer 9

Participants rated how descriptive masculine, feminine and gender neutral words are of them

Sample categorised into masculine, feminine, high androgynous and low androgynous identities.

Participants asked to write down as many as possible of the words they have just seen, and judged on recall.

Question 10

What was the results of Markus, Crane, Bernstein & Siladi?

Answer 10

Those people with masculine self schemas recalled a greater number of words relating to masculinity

Those people with feminine self schemas identified a greater number of words relating to femininity

Question 11

What is a self concept?

Answer 11

A collection of self schemas

Question 12

What is a working self concept? (with quote)

Answer 12

A collection of activated self schemas

‘A continually active, shifting array of self knowledge…available for thinking about the self at any one time’ - Markus & Nurius 1986

Question 13

What are the 3 types of temporal selves according to markus and nurius?

Answer 13

The past self, the current self and the future selfe

Question 14

What are two types of possible selves according to markus and nurius?

Answer 14

The desired self and the feared self

Question 15

What are the functions of possible selves in the present according to markus and nurius?

Answer 15

Incentivise future behaviours
Criteria against which outcomes are evaluated

Therefore possible selves act as a source of motivation and affect

Question 16

What is higgins theory of the self called

Answer 16

The self-discrepancy theory

Question 17

What are the two types of possible self according to higgins?

Answer 17

The ideal Self

The ought self (What we believe will be socially desirable)

Question 18

According to higgins, What does the discrepancy between the actual and ideal self cause?

Answer 18

Dejection (disappointment in ourselves?)

Question 19

According to higgins. What does the discrepancy between the actual and the ought self cause?

Answer 19

Agitation (feeling as if we are failing to live up to expectations)

Question 20

What was the method of Higgins, Bond, Klein & Strauman?

Answer 20

Mood questionaire

Estimated level of self discrepancy by asking them to describe their current and then ideal or ought attributes

Selected people with the largest or smallest self discrepancies

Mood questionairre given again to judge emotion

Question 21

What was the research question of Higgins, bond, klein and strauman?

Answer 21

Does the discrepancy between current and desired selves predict our emotional states?

Question 22

What was the findings of Higgins, Bond, Klein and Strauman?

Answer 22

Salient self-discrepancies create negative emotions

A high actual-ideal discrepancy leads to high levels of dejection

A high Actual-ought discrepancy leads to high levels of agitation

This supports Higgins self discrepancy theory

Question 23

What was Duval and Wicklands theory of self awareness?

Answer 23

Drawing attention inwards activates self awareness

When self aware, we focus on context-appropriate behaviour standards and the consistency of our own behaviour with those standards

If not consistent, we adjust behaviour to fit standards

Question 24

What was the research question of Beaman, Klentz, Diener & Svanam?

Answer 24

Does self awareness reduce transgression of behavioural standards?

Question 25

What was the method by Beaman et al?

Answer 25

Real world study (participants not aware of study)

On Halloween 1976, participants were trick or treaters at Beamans House

Householder asked childs name and where they live. Said they may take a candy but only one, then left to go into another room.

Experimenter hiding behind a curtain to see what the child did.

In some houses there was a mirror in the front room and in other houses there wasnt.

Question 26

What was the findings of Beaman Et Al?

Answer 26

The presence of the mirror reduced the bad behaviour (taking more than one sweet)

Question 27

What was the theory by Froming, Walker & Lopyan?

Answer 27

There is Public vs Private self awareness

Public self awareness is awareness of observable aspects of self

Private self awareness is awareness of non observable aspects of self

Different stimuli draw attention to different aspects of self

Audiences activate public self awareness
mirrors activate private self awareness

The type of self awareness which is activated determines which behavioural standard we adhere to.

Question 28

What was the research question by Froming Et al?

Answer 28

Does activation of private vs public self awareness affect which behavioural standards are adhered to?

Question 29

What was the method of Froming Et Al?

Answer 29

Survey selected participants according to their views on the acceptability of physical punishment

Those that were selected believed that punishment was acceptable according to their own attitude, but that others attitudes deemed punishment unacceptable

Participants took part in a task acting as an experimenter and believing they were delivering electric shocks at incorrect answers

Task was in front of either:
mirror
audience
nothing (control)

Question 30

What was the findings by Froming Et Al?

Answer 30

Those doing task with mirror adhered more to own standards of punishment (gave greater level of shock)

Those doing task with audience adhered more to social standards of punishment (lower level of shock)

Question 31

What are 3 functions of self schemas?

Answer 31

Help create a consistent sense of self
Faster processing
Better recall of self relavent information

Question 32

What are two functions of possible selves?

Answer 32

Help us select for appropriate behaviours

Provide guides for evaluating our behaviours

Question 33

What is festingers theory of social comparison?

Answer 33

• We are innately driven to evaluate ourselves
• We can evaluate ourselves by objective criteria or subjective social criteria
• We compare against others we think are roughly similar to us on the target dimension
• we only compare ourselves on aspects of the self concept that are important to us

We engage in social comparison because it helps us understand how we can realistically better ourselves

Question 34

What are festingers 2 types of social comparison?

Answer 34

• Upward comparison

- Downward comparison

Question 35

What is Wills theory of downward comparison?

Answer 35

• Downward comparison can be a coping mechanism to boost self esteem
• passive Downward comparison = selecting people already worse off
• Active downward comparison = Making others worse off

Question 36

What is Bems self perception theory?

Answer 36

• We infer aspects of ourselves from observing our own behaviour
• This occurs where we are not sure of our own attitudes/emotions etc, and where we think we have free choice

Question 37

What was the Method of Lairds facial feedback study?

Answer 37

• Participants told they were taking part in an experiment about the activity of facial muscles
• Asked to contract muscles in particular ways to make either angry face or happy face, and told to hold position for the whole study
• Asked to sit through humorous cartoons
• Had to rate how funny they were and had to rate their mood

Question 38

What was the research question of Laird?

Answer 38

Will people infer their mood and humorousness from their current facial position?

Question 39

What was the findings of Laird

Answer 39

Participants with angry face pose rated aggression to be higher

Participants with happy pose rated higher on elation AND cartoons rated funnier

Question 40

What was one limitation of Lairds study?

Answer 40

There was no control condition

Question 41

What was the study by Strack, Martin and Stepper?

Answer 41

Facial feedback as a form of self perception

• Participants told it was a study on motor coordination
• Asked to do tasks with a pen in particular position in mouth
• Some asked to purse lips (prevent smiling)
• Some asked to hold in teeth (forces smiling)
• Some asked to hold in non dominant hand as control
• Main task was to rate humorousness of a set of cartoons

Question 42

What was the findings of Strack, Martin and Stepper and what does this indicate?

Answer 42

The participants forced to smile with pen in teeth found the cartoons more funny

This indicates that where we are uncertain about an attribute, we infer that by observing our behaviour (e.g whether or not we are smiling)

This supports Bems self perception theory

Question 43

What is one criticism of Strack, Martin and Stepper

Answer 43

Subsequent attempts to replicate facial feedback effects have failed (Wagenmakers Et al)

Noah Et al says there is a facial feedback effect but it is only replicable in certain conditions

Question 44

What is Leary and Kowalskis theory of impression management?

Answer 44

Impression management is when we attempt to control others impression of us

Why?

• To influence how others treat us
• To enhance our self esteem
• To allow us to develop our desired identities
• The impressions we like to give usually represent the best parts of our self concept
• These versions fit most our ideal or ought selves

Question 45

What was the study by Hardy, Hall & Prestholdt?

Answer 45

• Participants cycled at a low intensity next to another person
• They were told that the other person was cycling at the exact same intensity as them
• In one condition the other person made out of breath noises, and in the other condition participants made no noise
• Questionaire where people rate the level of exertion theyd given to the task

Question 46

What were the results of the study by Hardy, Hall and Prestholdt?

Answer 46

• In the condition where the other person was out of breath, the participant reported exerting more effort and vice versa

Question 47

What are some ways we can gather information about ourselves?

Answer 47

Social comparison

• Comparing attributes with similar others
• Means of evaluation where no objective benchmark
• Downward comparison makes us feel better about selves
• Upward comparison aids self improvement

Self-Perception
-Inferring attributes from our own behaviour

We carefully manage impressions to project a desired self