LECTURE 2 THE SELF

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LECTURE 2 THE SELF

• June 21st , 2005
• PSYC 2120 (A) 3.0 Social Psychology
• www.atkinson.yorku.ca/jsteele/psyc2120_I3.html

"No man is an island, entire of itself every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main
John Donne, 17th century poet
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Where We Test Our Hypothesis

• Laboratory
• Controlled environment
• Field
• Natural or everyday situations

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Why Use Deception?

• Experimental Realism
• Extent to which participants are genuinely
  involved and absorbed in study
• Mundane Realism
• Similarity to real world situations
• Demand Characteristics
• Characteristics that are cues that demand certain
  behaviours

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Ethical Guidelines

• Telling participants enough to ensure informed
  consent
• Using deception only if justified and there is no
  alternative
• Protecting participants from harm and discomfort
• Treating information confidentially
• Fully explaining experiment afterwards

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Road Map

• Knowing Ourselves
• How we come to know ourselves
• Self-control and self-efficacy
• Feeling Good about Ourselves
• Theories
• Self-serving Biases
• Self-Esteem

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Who am I?

• I am _________________________
• I am _________________________
• I am _________________________
• I am _________________________
• I am __________________________

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Who am I?

• Self-Concept the content of the self our
  knowledge about who we are

• Self-Awareness the act of thinking about
  ourselves
• Self-Schema beliefs about the self that organize
  and guide the processing of self-relevant
  information

Duality of our self-perception The
Known or Me (self-concept) and the Knower
or I (self-awareness)
William James (1842-1910)
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Self-Concept

• Children physical characteristics
• I have brown eyes
• Adults psychological traits, characteristics,
  how others view us

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Self-Concept

• Peoples Self-Concepts Differ
• Independent versus Interdependent Selves
• Possible Selves (Markus Nurius, 1986)
• The selves we wish or hope to be and the selves
  we fear becoming
• Self-concept clarity (Campbell)
• My beliefs about myself often conflict with one
  another
• In general I have a clear sense of who I am and
  what I am

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Function of the Self

• Three main functions
• Managerial
• Helps to define our relationship to the physical
  and social world
• Helps us to engage in long-term planning
• Organizational
• Self-schemas
• The information we notice, think about, and
  remember is organized around our self-view
• Emotional
• Helping to determine our emotional responses

AGAIN, ABCs Managerial (B), Organizational (C),
Emotional (A)
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Road Map

• Knowing Ourselves (self-concept)
• How we come to know ourselves
• Self-control and self-efficacy
• Feeling Good about Ourselves
• Theories
• Self-serving Biases
• Self-Esteem

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Knowing ourselves

• Two of several possible ways
• Introspection
• Social Interaction

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1. Introspection

• The process whereby people look inward and
  examine their own thoughts, feelings, and motives
• Problems
• Dont use it as often as you might think
• Believed reasons for thoughts and feelings may be
  wrong
• Self-contemplation is a curse that makes an old
  confusion worse Poetry by Roethke (1975)

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Introspection Dating Couples

• Wilson (1985) Distinct mental systems are used
  to control and explain our behaviours
• How happy are you with your relationship?
• Question predicted whether still dating months
  later
• Analyze your feelings about your relationship and
  then rate how happy you are with it?
• Did not predict whether still dating
• Might have analyzed less important factors

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Introspection Two-Factor Theory of Emotion

• Schachter Singer (1962)
• Physiological arousal
• Appropriate explanation
• Gave an arousing pill (epinephrine) or
  non-arousing pill to participants (told for
  vision)
• Given personal questionnaire that makes a
  confederate angry
• Measured outrage at an intrusive questionnaire
• When aroused, more outraged

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2. Social Interaction

• Looking Glass Self (Cooley, 1902 Mead, 1934) -
  We see ourselves as a reflection of how others
  see us.
• Social Comparison Theory
• We learn about our own abilities and attitudes
  by comparing ourselves to other people

Social relationships help to define the self. We
have different selves that respond to
different social situations.
William James (1842-1910)
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Social Interaction Social Comparison Theory

• We compare ourselves with others who are similar
  on important attributes or dimensions (or anyone
  who is around)
• We compare ourselves to others when there is no
  objective standard
• Downward Social Comparisons can make us feel
  better
• Upward Social Comparisons can inspire us
  (sometimes)

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Lockwood Kunda (1997)

• Superstars like me
• First- and final-year accounting students read
  about a final-year superstar accounting student
• Provide unrelated self-ratings of ability

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Lockwood Kunda (1999)

• Thinking about their usual self or their best
  self
• Read article about a more senior superstar

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Road Map

• Knowing Ourselves
• How we come to know ourselves
• Self-control and self-efficacy
• Feeling Good about Ourselves
• Theories
• Self-serving Biases
• Self-Esteem

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Self-Control

• the exertion of control over the self by the
  self
• An attempt to change the way he or she would
  otherwise think, feel, or behave
• Baumeisters self-control resembles a muscle

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Self-Efficacy

• a sense that one is competent and effective
• Believing that you are high in self-efficacy can
  lead you to persist when facing difficulties
• Differs across domains

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Road Map

• Knowing Ourselves
• How we come to know ourselves
• Self-control and self-efficacy
• Feeling Good about Ourselves
• Theories
• Self-serving Biases
• Self-Esteem

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Theories

• Self-Discrepancy Theory
• Higgins (1987)
• Self-Completion Theory
• Wicklund Gollwitzer (1982)
• Self-Evaluation Maintenance Theory
• Tesser (1988)
• Self-Verification
• Swann

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Theories Self-Discrepancy

• We become distressed when our sense of who we
  truly are (actual self) is discrepant from our
  desired or expected self-conception (ideal or
  ought self Higgins, 1987)
• Actual to Ideal discrepancy can lead to
  depression-related emotions
• Actual to Ought discrepancy can lead to
  anxiety-related emotions
• Want to minimize the gap
• Work harder
• Dismiss personal responsibility

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Theories Self-Completion

• When people experience a threat to a valued
  aspect of their self-concept, they are highly
  motivated to seek social recognition of that
  identity (Gollwitzer Wicklund, 1985).

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Theories Self-Evaluation Maintenance (SEM)

• Ones self-concept can be threatened by the
  behaviour of a close individual (Tesser, 1988)
• Determined by (a) closeness of individual and (b)
  relevance of behaviour

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Theories SEM continued

• Study by Campbell, Fairey, and Fehr (1986)
• Test 1 Both receive 6/12
• Test 2 You receive 8/12 other receives 11/12
• Which test do you prefer?

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Theories SEM continued

• If not a self-relevant domain (i.e., great hockey
  player) we can bask in the reflected glory of
  another.
• If is a self-relevant domain (i.e., great cook)
  we reduce the threat by
• Distancing from the person
• Redefine task relevance
• Become more skilled in the domain!

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Contrast Self-Verification

• Remember two main needs
• Verification of people's self-views (thoughts and
  feelings about the self).
• 95 married couples (Swann et al., 1992)
• Greater marital commitment when the spouses
  views matched their own

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Self-Serving Biases

• Explaining positive and negative events
• Better-than-average
• Unrealistic Optimism

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Biases Explaining Positive and Negative Events
Differently

• Upcoming Test
• If perform well, will make an internal, stable
  attribution (Im smart!)
• If perform poorly, will make an external,
  unstable attribution (I was unlucky)
• Group performance
• If succeed you contributed more than others
• If fail you contributed less to the failure
  than others

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Biases Better-than-average

• How many expect to do better than the class
  average on the next exam?
• Subjective dimensions (moral goodness) trigger
  this tendency more than objective dimensions
  (intelligence).
• Better-than-average attributes are considered
  more important.

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Biases Unrealistic Optimism

• How likely are you to Get divorced? Get fired
  from your job? Draw a good salary? Develop a
  drinking problem? Die from lung cancer if you
  dont stop smoking?
• Upside
• Promotes self-efficacy, health, and well-being
  (but need a dash of realism)
• Downside
• May not adequately prepare for the worst