The self

1
The self

• Self-awareness A state in which the self is the
  object of attention
• Self-concept The full store of knowledge that
  people have about themselves
• The nature of the self depends on social
  relationships and on context

2
Who and what is self-aware?

• Gallup et al. (1977)
• Chimps and orangutans appear to be self-aware
  other mammals do not
• Lewis Brooks-Gunn (1979)
• Most children appear to be self-aware by the age
  of 18 months

3
Beyond mere self-awareness

• Who am I?
• Transition from concrete to abstract self-concept
• Independent view of self Views the self as
  separate from others and emphasizes self-reliance
  and pursuit of personal success
• Interdependent view of self Self-concepts are
  largely determined by social roles and personal
  relationships

4

• Write down all the different domains and roles in
  which you view yourself as being a fundamentally
  different kind of person, then make a short list
  of traits that describe you in reference to each
  domain or role
• Take 5 minutes and think carefully
• about this

5
Self-complexity

• The number of distinct aspects people use to
  define themselves, based on
• The number of different domains or roles they
  list
• Overlap between traits across domains

6
Self-esteem

• The evaluative aspect of the self-concept
• Low self-esteem is associated with psychological
  problems
• Luckily, most people have high self-esteem

7
Self-promoting biases

• Illusion of Control People tend to believe that
  they have more control over their outcomes than
  they really have
• Langer (1975), twice
• Self-serving bias People tend to attribute
  favorable outcomes to themselves and unfavorable
  outcomes to external or situational causes
• Brown Rogers (1991)
• Lau Russel (1980)

8
More self-promotion

• Unrealistic optimism People are unrealistically
  optimistic about their own futures
• Better than average effect People tend to
  overestimate their own skills, abilities, and
  competencies

9
The joys of bias

• Taylor Brown (1988)
• Illusions of control and other biases are less
  prevalent among depressed individuals, people in
  bad moods, and people with low self-esteem
• Therefore, positive illusions might be beneficial
• Positive illusions are related to happiness,
  ability to care for others, and capacity for
  creative and productive work

10
Why not positive illusions?

• Blame the victim mentality associated with
  illusions of control
• Conflicts about what is most beneficial in
  certain situations like accidents
• Behavioral self-blame Blame your specific
  behavior for undesirable outcomes
• Characterological self-blame Blame your enduring
  characteristics for undesirable outcomes (bad
  idea)

11
Positive illusions about others

• Swann, Silvera Proske (1995)
• Positive illusions can lead to unnecessary risks

12
Social Comparison

• People evaluate their own attributes by comparing
  with other people
• Unidirectional drive upward We should want to
  compare with people who are equal or slightly
  better than we are
• Downward comparison But we often dont, as
  comparing with inferior others makes us feel
  better about our own abilities

13
Basking in Reflected Glory (BIRGing)

• Sometimes we gain self-esteem benefits by
  comparing with successful others
• Self-evaluation maintenance model Choice to
  socially compare or BIRG depends on
• Closeness of comparison other
• Performance quality
• Relevance of performance domain
• Tesser and Smith (1980)

14
Self-enhancement

• The motivation to maintain a positive view of the
  self
• People seek more information about their
  strengths than about their weaknesses
• Positive traits are viewed as more
  self-descriptive than negative traits
• People overestimate their contribution to group
  efforts
• People view their flaws as common but their
  virtues as rare and distinctive
• People view themselves as better than others