The Social Self

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The Social Self

• I. What is the self-concept?
• James, Cooley, Mead
• Self-schemas
• II. Social Context
• Immediate Context
• Socio-cultural Context (broader context)
• Sensitivity to Context (Self-monitoring)
• III. Self-enhancement Mechanisms

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Theories of the Self

• William James (1890) A person has "as many
  social selves as there are individuals who
  recognize him and carry an image of him in their
  minds."
• Charles Cooley (1902) Views of self reflect the
  standpoints of significant others in our lives
  ("looking glass self")
• George Herbert Mead (1934) We imagine the
  perspectives of others and incorporate these into
  our self views -- and that this occurs
  continuously as we interact with others on an
  ongoing, moment to moment basis.

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Twenty Statements Test
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Self-schemas

• Self-schema (Markus) A set of well-elaborated
  knowledge about the self that guides the
  processing of self-relevant information and is
  based on past social experiences

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Self-schemas

• Schema in domain of independence
• Schematic Very self-descriptive and
  important/central to your view of self
• Aschematic Not highly descriptive and not highly
  important

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Self-schemas

• --Schematics faster than aschematics to endorse
  as self-descriptive words in schematic domain
  (e.g., independence)
• --Schematics resist evidence contradicting their
  view of themselves in the schematic domain.

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Spontaneous self-concept

• Spontaneous self-concept (McGuire) Specific
  aspects of self that are triggered by the
  features of the current situation. (Ex Saying
  Im a brunette in a room where everyone else is
  blond.)

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Self-awareness Theory

• Self-awareness theory (Duval Wicklund) The
  theory that self-focused attention leads people
  to notice self-discrepancies, thereby motivating
  either an escape from self-awareness or a change
  in behavior.

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Self-awareness Theory

• Trick-or-treat study
• IV Mirror present or not
• DV How much candy taken by trick or treaters
• Results

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Self-awareness theory

• Self-focus is associated with
• --a drop in self-esteem (probably because
  comparing self with a social standard)
• --behaving in line with socially desirable
  standards

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The self is social

• The way we develop our self-conceptions depends
  in part on our interactions with others.
• The immediate situational context (which often
  includes other people) can affect how we see
  ourselves at any given point in time.

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Broad Social Context Culture and the Self

• The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
• The nail that stands out gets pounded down.

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Culture and the Self

• Markus Kitayama
• Independent self-view Define self in terms of
  own thoughts, feelings, and actions emphasize
  uniqueness from others. (individualistic Western)
• Interdependent self-view Define self in terms of
  ones relationships to others emphasize
  connectedness to others (collectivistic Asian and
  Third World cultures).

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Role of Personality
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What is the self?

• The self-concept is complex and multifaceted.
• Universe of self-conceptions All of the ways in
  which you might see yourself (actual self, hoped
  for self, ideal self, etc.)
• Working self-concept Includes core
  self-conceptions along with less central
  self-conceptions that may vary depending on the
  situational context.

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Self-esteem

• Self-esteem Global positive or negative feelings
  about the self.
• Attributions about exam grades when succeed or
  fail
• Degree to which score reflects
• Your ability
• Situation (test was too hard)

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Mechanisms of self-enhancement

• Downward social comparisons Comparing ourselves
  to people who are worse off than we are on a
  particular trait or ability.
• Why?
• What did Shelley Taylor find in her research
  w/breast cancer patients?

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Self-evaluation Maintenance Theory (SEM)

• Cannot always use downward comparison
• SEM Sometimes ones view of self is threatened
  by another persons behavior, and the degree of
  threat depends on the closeness of the
  relationship to the other person and relevance of
  the behavior.
• Abraham Tessers research What happens when we
  compare ourselves with someone close to us?
  Video clip

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BIRGing

• Basking in reflected glory Increasing
  self-esteem by associating with others who are
  successful (BIRGing)

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BIRGing

• Cialdini et al. (1976)
• Monday morning after football games, college
  students (from Arizona State, Louisiana State,
  Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State, etc.) more
  likely to wear school sweatshirts when team won
  on the previous Sat. larger the victory, the
  more shirts worn.
• IV General knowledge test. ½ success, ½ failure
  feedback
• DV Describe outcome of recent football game.
• Results

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Self-handicapping

• Berglas Jones (1978)
• Cover Drugs and intellectual performance
• Independent variable Solvable or unsolvable
  problems
• Dependent variable Choice of Drug
• Drug A Helps intellectual performance
• Drug B Inhibits intellectual performance

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Self-handicapping

• Helps Inhibits
• Unsolvable problem
• Solvable problem

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Self-handicapping

• Self-handicapping When a person protects his/her
  self-image by setting up a situation that makes
  it difficult to succeed, but creates a handy
  excuse for failure.

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Defensive pessimism

• Defensive pessimism (Norem Cantor) A
  strategy in which a person expects the worst, and
  works harder because of this expectation.
• What did they find?

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Explanations for self-serving bias

• 1. Self-presentation--want to make a good
  impression on others
• 2. Motivation--we are motivated to protect and
  enhance our self-esteem.