Week 3 - The Self and Social Identity Flashcards
4 different examples
What makes you, you?
- personality traits
- history of things done
- unique social relationships
- group memberships
What two categories is the ‘self-concept’ split into?
- ‘social identity’ (British, University student., etc).
- ‘personal identity (daughter of… flatmate of…, etc).
What are the 3 levels of self-identity?
- personal (individual)
- relational (interpersonal)
- collective (group)
Traits of the ‘independent’ self:
- is bounded, stable, and autonomous.
- has personal attributes that guide action.
- formulates personal goals.
- is responsible for their own behaviour.
Traits of interdependent self:
- is connected, fluid, and flexible.
- meets obligations and conforms to norms.
- is cooperative.
- subsumes self in the collective.
What are the 3 different types of ‘schemas’?
- schema for self
- schema for other
- relationship schema
How do the 3 different types of schemas combine?
Combine to build a pattern of interaction which routinely occurs and is activated by the social situation.
5 different examples
‘Who are we’? Dependant on:
- experiences
- situation
- social surroundings
- social judgement and norms
- personality traits
What is the working self-concept?
Any self-concept that is constantly changing
response times for ingroups and outgroups
What is the study of the Ingroup and the self (Smith & Henry., 1996):
- in-group students were asked to describe themselves, an ingroup, and a corresponding outgroup.
- a survey was used for each description
- response times were faster for traits shared by both the self and the ingroup, being slower for unshared traits.
What did Swann., (2011) state validity, consistency, and favourability is?
- validity through the environment by watching other people (self-verification).
- consistency through wanting to say how we feel the consistency of being a good person is (self-confirmation).
- favourability through wanting out self-esteem to be enhanced (self-enhancement).
Comparing the bad with the good
What is the self-affirmation theory (Steele., 1988):
e.g., I am a smoker (society see it as bad) but I am a mother (rewarding and positive role) - can be counteracted by self-affirming this bad thing with a good thing.
explicit/implicit
How to measure self-esteem?
- with explicit and implicit measures.
- if the idea we have of ourselves is not static, then there must be forces that guide our self-construal on an everyday level.
What are two ways we can measure self-esteem?
- Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale (how we operationalise self-esteem).
- the Stroop task (if I can match colours then there is no inference, but if I don’t then my self-concept will interfere with matching a colour).
What did Cohen et al., (2009) study?
- self-affirmation.
- longitudinal study over 2 years with secondary school students (12+)
- self-affirmation buffers stereotype thrat, improving performance in marginalised groups.
Process of identification
What is the Social Identity Theory?
- major theoretical driver in European social psychology.
- brings together self, groups, and social cognition.
- identifies social identity and the process of identification as a main driver for a whole range of inter/intra group processes.
grouping, boundaries etc
What did Wilkes (1963) study?
- grouping objects and people.
- boundaries influence perceptions of similarity & dissimilarity.
- what works in the physical world also works in the social world.
Minimal group paradigm study
What did Taijfel et al., (1971) study?
- the minimal group paradigm studies.
- 64 boys were categorised.
- dot estimator task.
- criteria irrelevant to people, with no interaction between group members whatsoever.
:( Ingroup bias - ethnocentrism
- Ppts decides on the distribution of profit for both ingroup and outgroup members.
- ingroup favouritism.
e.g., adaptation….
What is self-affirmation?
- individuals adapt to information/experiences that are threatening to their self-concept.
- The discomfort/dissonance when there is a threat to our concept (we do this by looking at our competency on a dimension that is completely unrelated)
What is downward social comparison?
Compare us to those who are worse off than us on the comparison point.
What is ingroup heterogeneity?
- ingroups are different.
- we make more fine-grained distinctions with members of our groups.
- we know them better, and are more used to them (due to more experience)
What is Outgroup homogeneity?
- where outgroup members are all the same, they are unfamiliar.
- we have no experience with distinguishing between out-group members.
Favourable/unfavourable behaviour
What did Howard et al., (1980) study?
- descriptions of behaviours were favourable vs unfavourable.
- attributed to an ingroup vs an outgroup member.
- outcome measure: proportions of behaviours correctly assigned.
