Week 9

Question 1

Sense of Self

Answer 1

Sense of self emerges about 18-24 months

Question 2

Sense of Self- Animals

Answer 2

Most animals don’t have a recognizable sense of self … but some exceptions

Question 3

Personality

Answer 3

-Measures of predictive behaviour
-genetics (40-60%)
-Acting differetnly across different situations
-more extrovert means less introvert
-

Question 4

Barnum effect

Answer 4

The tendency for people to believe that personality descriptions are tailored specifically to them, when in fact they are vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people

Question 5

Strangers to ourselves

Answer 5

Studies show that our peers and acquaintances are often better at predicting our future behaviour than we are. Why?

People have a good grasp of human nature … we understand how social behaviour is shaped by various constraints. But we exempt ourselves from this understanding, thinking instead that our own actions are more a product of our intentions and free will.

Question 6

Self-concept (looking-glass self)

Answer 6

How we think others see ourselves rather than what others actually see us

Question 7

Self-perception theory

Answer 7

people gain self-insight by observing their own behaviour

Question 8

social comparison theory

Answer 8

We tend to compare ourselves to others to assess our own traits and abilities
Social comparisons offer us information … it’s only through comparison that we can gauge the extent to which we’re funny, smart, tall and so forth
-Upward comparisons make us feel bad eg. below average
-Downward comparisons makes us feel better eg. doing bad but being told its above average

Question 9

spotlight effect

Answer 9

Refers to the tendency for people to believe they are being noticed more than they really are.
This can be quite reassuring … the illusion of being noticed is particularly obvious when we’ve done something embarrassing
-also wearing clothes that seem embarrassing but people do not notice

Question 10

Illusion of transparency

Answer 10

Refers to the tendency for people to believe that others understand our mental states more than they really do.
Can be negative … we think people “get” us more than they really do. Also may be implicated in bystander non-intervention (we don’t read other people’s signals of concern as well as they presume we do).
But, like the spotlight effect, it can also be reassuring. A common feature of public speaking is for people to over-estimate how much an audience “sees” that they are nervous.
Learning about the illusion of transparency has been shown to improve performance among anxious public speakers.

Question 11

How to measure self-esteem

Answer 11

As an explicit unidimensional scale (e.g., Rosenberg self-esteem scale)
As an explicit 2-dimensional scale (e.g., self-liking / self-competency scale)
Implicitly, through implicit association tasks, name-letter effects, signature effects etc.

Question 12

Explicit vs Implicit self esteem

Answer 12

If you’re high on both this is called “secure self-esteem”. If you’re high in explicit but low on implicit self-esteem, it’s called “fragile” or “defensive” self-esteem. People with this pattern are more likely to show verbal defensiveness, more likely to display ingroup bias, and less likely to offer forgiveness to others.
BUT … a review of 7 measures of implicit self-esteem showed very weak correlations among each other … big problem.

Question 13

High Self-esteem

Answer 13

HAPPINESS
Yes, high self-esteem people are happier; low self-esteem people are more prone to depression and eating disorders.

SPEAKING UP
Yes, high self-esteem people are more likely to speak up and to criticize the group’s approach … indirectly linked with leadership potential.
BUFFERING AGAINST STRESS
Some evidence that high self-esteem helps buffer people against stress, making them more resilient in terms of well-being. But the research is mixed on this.

BUFFERING AGAINST EXISTENTIAL THREAT
High self-esteem is theorized to offer people a ready-made sense of meaning and purpose. Accordingly, high self-esteem people should be less reactive to existential threats (e.g., mortality salience). The evidence for this is pretty consistent
SCHOOLWORK
High self-esteem people tend to do better at school … but there’s little evidence that promoting self-esteem among students successfully improves performance.

WORKPLACE SUCCESS
Also limited evidence that high self-esteem causes good performance at work … with the exception that high self-esteem does seem to help people persist in the face of failure.
RELATIONSHIPS
People high in self-esteem feel more liked, and feel as though they’re more attractive to others. But objective measures seem to disconfirm this.
Self-esteem doesn’t predict the quality or duration of relationships.

RISKY ADOLESCENT BEHAVIOUR
Common perception that low self-esteem causes kids to engage less in smoking, drinking, drug-taking, early sex etc. But no consistent evidence for this … and some evidence for the opposite (high self-esteem people more likely to experiment).

Question 14

Low Self-esteem

Answer 14

Many different answers to this question, including:
Having a large discrepancy between your actual and ideal self
Receiving persistent negative feedback from the universe
Being uncertain about your qualities (whether good or bad)
Feeling like you’re not accepted by others (sociometer theory)

Question 15

Sociometer Theory

Answer 15

According to sociometer theory, self-esteem is a measure of whether you feel accepted or rejected by others. Just like physical pain signals that you need to attend to a physical wound, low self-esteem is designed to flag that you need to work harder to build acceptance with others.

Question 16

Narcissism

Answer 16

Narcissism originally used as a clinical construct (about 1% of people have “narcissistic personality disorder”).
In social psychology more often used as a personality variable, the scale for which incorporates qualities considered “normal” and positive (google “Narcissistic Personality Inventory” and do it yourself)

Question 17

Narcissists

Answer 17

Narcissists think they are better than others
Narcissists exaggerate their positive qualities … particularly when it comes to competence
Narcissists feel low levels of guilt and social anxiety
Narcissists see themselves to be unique and special … and spend a lot of time nourishing that identity
Narcissists behave more selfishly than most and feel more entitlement
Narcissists are highly oriented toward success
Narcissists have a relative lack of interest in warm and caring interpersonal relationships

Question 18

Narcissism- Good or bad?

Answer 18

Narcissism – as measured by the Narcissism Personality Inventory – is often associated with high functioning
Narcissists often comes across a charismatic and likeable in short doses, but become less likable over time.
Narcissist have a tendency to use their relationships in the service of the self (want partners who make them look and feel good)
Prone to attention-seeking, hogging conversation, stealing credit, speaking loudly, showing off, bragging.
Can respond to negative feedback aggressively.

Question 19

Narcissism the rise?

Answer 19

Those high in narcissism are more likely to post selfies on social media sites (but only among men).

Does that mean that the “selfie-obsessed” millennial generation are more narcissistic?

Some evidence for this, but the data are very weak and patchy. Seems to be a stereotype of every new generation since the 1970s.

Question 20

Ego threats and lashing out

Answer 20

In one study, participants were given false feedback that they’d done poorly on a task. They were then told that the task was a measure of achievement potential (ego threat condition) or “an experimental task” (control condition).

Later, in a supposedly unrelated part of the experiment, participants engaged in a “getting to know you” exercise with another student.
- eg. positve or negative IQ feedback

Question 21

Self affirmations

Answer 21

According to self-affirmation theory, if people have the opportunity to reflect on values that are important to them, they are less likely to react defensively when confronted with threatening information. Can be used as an escape or a buffer

Question 22

How do we know self-affirmation works?

Answer 22

In research on this topic, participants self-affirm by writing an essay about a personally relevant variable, or they respond to a scale in which they choose values that are important to them.

Compared to a control condition, participants who have the chance to affirm have lower cortisol levels after a social stress task.

Physiological effects can also be seen outside the lab: students who self-affirmed during a heavy assessment period produced less catecholamine levels in their urine.
Participants who self-affirm are more objective and less likely to sink into denial when interpreting threatening health information.

Women concerned about losing weight were recruited into a self-affirmation study. Those who self-affirmed had lower body mass index at the end of the study than those who did not self-affirm.

African American and Latino American students who completed a values essay 7-8 times over a 2-year period received higher grade point averages (this did not occur for White students).