Week 3 - The Self and Social Identity

Question 1

4 different examples

What makes you, you?

Answer 1

• personality traits
• history of things done
• unique social relationships
• group memberships

Question 2

What two categories is the ‘self-concept’ split into?

Answer 2

• ‘social identity’ (British, University student., etc).
• ‘personal identity (daughter of… flatmate of…, etc).

Question 3

What are the 3 levels of self-identity?

Answer 3

1. personal (individual)
2. relational (interpersonal)
3. collective (group)

Question 4

Traits of the ‘independent’ self:

Answer 4

• is bounded, stable, and autonomous.
• has personal attributes that guide action.
• formulates personal goals.
• is responsible for their own behaviour.

Question 5

Traits of interdependent self:

Answer 5

• is connected, fluid, and flexible.
• meets obligations and conforms to norms.
• is cooperative.
• subsumes self in the collective.

Question 6

What are the 3 different types of ‘schemas’?

Answer 6

• schema for self
• schema for other
• relationship schema

Question 7

How do the 3 different types of schemas combine?

Answer 7

Combine to build a pattern of interaction which routinely occurs and is activated by the social situation.

Question 8

5 different examples

‘Who are we’? Dependant on:

Answer 8

• experiences
• situation
• social surroundings
• social judgement and norms
• personality traits

Question 9

What is the working self-concept?

Answer 9

Any self-concept that is constantly changing

Question 10

response times for ingroups and outgroups

What is the study of the Ingroup and the self (Smith & Henry., 1996):

Answer 10

• 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.

Question 11

What did Swann., (2011) state validity, consistency, and favourability is?

Answer 11

• 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).

Question 12

Comparing the bad with the good

What is the self-affirmation theory (Steele., 1988):

Answer 12

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.

Question 13

explicit/implicit

How to measure self-esteem?

Answer 13

• 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.

Question 14

What are two ways we can measure self-esteem?

Answer 14

• 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).

Question 15

What did Cohen et al., (2009) study?

Answer 15

• self-affirmation.
• longitudinal study over 2 years with secondary school students (12+)
• self-affirmation buffers stereotype thrat, improving performance in marginalised groups.

Question 16

Process of identification

What is the Social Identity Theory?

Answer 16

• 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.

Question 17

grouping, boundaries etc

What did Wilkes (1963) study?

Answer 17

• grouping objects and people.
• boundaries influence perceptions of similarity & dissimilarity.
• what works in the physical world also works in the social world.

Question 18

Minimal group paradigm study

What did Taijfel et al., (1971) study?

Answer 18

• the minimal group paradigm studies.
• 64 boys were categorised.
• dot estimator task.
• criteria irrelevant to people, with no interaction between group members whatsoever.

Question 19

:( Ingroup bias - ethnocentrism

Answer 19

• Ppts decides on the distribution of profit for both ingroup and outgroup members.
• ingroup favouritism.

Question 20

e.g., adaptation….

What is self-affirmation?

Answer 20

• 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)

Question 21

What is downward social comparison?

Answer 21

Compare us to those who are worse off than us on the comparison point.

Question 22

What is ingroup heterogeneity?

Answer 22

• 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)

Question 23

What is Outgroup homogeneity?

Answer 23

• where outgroup members are all the same, they are unfamiliar.
• we have no experience with distinguishing between out-group members.

Question 24

Favourable/unfavourable behaviour

What did Howard et al., (1980) study?

Answer 24

• descriptions of behaviours were favourable vs unfavourable.
• attributed to an ingroup vs an outgroup member.
• outcome measure: proportions of behaviours correctly assigned.

Question 25

What did Haslam et al., (2003) state?

Answer 25

The importance of social identity approach for management, being a link between individual actions and collective perceptions in organisations.