The self

1. The self

2. History of self research • Festinger’s social comparison theory (1957) • Mini-theory criticism • More recent: cultural, TMT

3. What is a self? • Who am I? 20 statements • Baumeister definition • Reflexive consciousness • Interpersonal relations • Making choices and exerting control • Components • Individual • Relational • Collective • Approaches • Cognitive • Motivational • Emotional

4. Tri-partite self (Sedikideset al., 2013) • How are our levels of self similar? • Does everyone have all 3? • What evidence is their for each being important? • Complements and criticisms of evidence presented?

5. Comparisons of individ vs. collective self • 1. Wrote about unique qualities or those they share with group—then wrote about potential threats. • DV=whether wrote about threat or avoided it • 40% wrote off topic for personal threat, 7% group • 2. Individuals or groups got good or bad feedback on Prisoner’s Dilemma game • DV=how angry • More anger if insult at individual than group • 3. UNC-CH women or unique you and got feedback that moody or emotionally expressive • DV=impact of feedback, similarity, identification • More impacted by individual feedback, more shift of self for individual threat

6. 4. median split of ID with UNC. Creativity test, negative feedback for self or group • DV=ratings of importance of creativity, mood • No effect of ID. More when individual feedback • 5. Meta-analysis • No effects of ID or type of group • More affected by individual than group feedback

7. Comparisons with relational self • AIQ-IV: http://academics.wellesley.edu/Psychology/Cheek/aiq_iv.html • Across cultures, relational more important than collective, but sometimes more or less than individual • Cultural effects • 1. Reactions to losing each self • DV=effect on life, mood, which is real you • Indiv, then relational, then collective • 2. Write about negative experience study • Indiv, then relational, then collective

8. 3. How much money would you give to each self (UK and China) • Individ, then relational, then collective • 4. List goals and attribute to each self in US and China • Individ, then relational, then collective

9. Sedikides et al. other issues • Strengths and weaknesses of research • What are alternative explanations? • What about possible moderators? • Are there examples where individual self is not more important? • How do they explain the lack of cultural differences? • What about implicit measures? • Are there developmental differences in self primacy? • Where do these come from (evolutionary)?

10. General self questions • Where is the self in the brain? • Are these studies generalizable? Are college students a problem for self studies? Why or why not? • Is introspection a good method for studying the self? What other options are there?

11. How do we know our “self”? • Self-awareness theory (Duval & Wicklund, 1972) • Escape from self (Baumeister, 1991) • Self-concept vs. self-schema • Self-reference effect • Self-perception theory (Bem , 1965) • Overjustification effect • Self-enhancement vs. self-verification • Self-serving biases

12. What is self esteem? • What is it good for? • Sociometer theory (Leary, 1995) • Is high SE always good?

13. Narcissism • Narcissistic Personality Inventory • http://psychcentral.com/quizzes/narcissistic.htm • Authority, self-sufficiency, superiority, exhibitionism, exploitativeness, vanity, entitlement • 3 parts (Campbell & Foster, 2007) • Positive self • Relative lack of interest in types of interpersonal rels • Self-regulatory strategies

14. More self research • Self-presentation • Self-handicapping • Self evaluation maintenance theory (Tesser, 1988) • Reflect vs. compare • Closeness, relevance, performance • Dual process theories • Promotion vs. prevention focus –regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997) • Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1995)

15. Ego depletion and glucose • Does sugar = willpower? • Does it have an effect via energy (metabolic) or through activating brain centers (motivational)? • Sanders et al., 2012

16. Terror management theory • www.flightfromdeath.com • Existential psychodynamic theory (Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986) • Evolutionary theory • Becker’s ideas • Humans unique in knowledge of own death • Buffered by CWV and SE. Examples? • MS leads to proximal defenses to delay to distal defenses • Subliminal or DTA can go directly to distal • Basic tenets? • Mortality salience hypothesis • Anxiety buffering hypothesis

17. TMT research • MS manipulations • What is role of the delay? • DTA measures—what effects would they have • Measuring it changing it (Gergen) • Self-report vs. indirect and types of indirect • What things affect whether MS leads to DTA? • What things directly affect DTA? • What are some examples of how MS and DTA affect us? • Where do our cultural worldviews come from?

18. Hayes et al., 2010 • MS DTA studies • Death association DTA studies • Why would thinking of the meaning of life lead to DTA? • Anxiety buffer and DTA • Threats to SE, CWV, attachment bonds leads to DTA • Dispositional DTA • Fundamentalism • Self-consciousness • Other variables that might affect?

19. Other individual differences that might affect DTA or its effects? • Alternative explanations for these effects? • Implicit vs. explicit measure of death thoughts

20. How would TMT explain • Phobias • Disgust with body functions • People doing unhealthy things to fit in (smoking) • Why women, not men, wear makeup • Creativity • Increases in birth rates after wars • Bush’s positivity ratings after 9/11 • Judgments of those who do immoral things even though they don’t affect us (e.g., cheating on spouse) • Opposition to gay marriage

21. Next week • Cultural differences in cognition and emotion • 2 Science articles • AESP available through google scholar • PB on disgust