Chapter Five

1. Chapter Five The Person in the Situation: Self-Concept, Gender, and Dispositions

2. Dispositions and Self-Esteem • Dispositions are consistencies across time and settings • like traits, they are enduring individual differences • Self-esteem is a kind of disposition • people’s judgments of their own worthiness

3. Self-Concept and Identity • Who am I? Who am I?! • self-concept is the information about ourselves that resides in memory • identity is the collection of important concepts that define an individual • Self-concept is formed through social comparison and self-perception

5. Priming and Situational Distinctiveness • Spontaneous self-concept is the collection of aspects of identity that are available to awareness at any time • priming those aspects of identity brings them to the forefront of consciousness • the distinctiveness of an identity trait in a given situation makes that aspect of identity salient

6. Me v. We • Identity is also shaped by social and cultural factors • social identity theory addresses our identification with a group and the benefits we derive from it • the minimal intergroup situation demonstrates that we favor members of our ingroup, to the detriment of members of an outgroup

7. Optimal Distinctiveness Theory • Sure, we identify with an ingroup • but we also want to be seen as distinctive individuals • Optimal distinctiveness theory examines how we strike a balance between similarity (with an ingroup) and distinctiveness (as an individual)

8. Cultural Differences in Identity • Independent versus interdependent selves • our membership in an individualist versus collectivist culture can shape our identity • identity may be a matter of “me” in an individualist culture, and “we” in a collectivist culture • nonetheless, members of a collectivist culture can appreciate their personal distinctiveness

9. Self-Esteem: Liking for the Self • Most, but certainly not all, people have positive self-esteem • Self-esteem derives from personal experience, reflected appraisals by others, relationships, social comparison, group comparisons

10. High Self-Esteem: Yippee! • People with high self-esteem typically have more certain self-views • People with high self-esteem engage in self-serving judgments • People with high self-esteem are happier than those with low self-esteem • People with high self-esteem have greater satisfaction with their personal relationships

11. High Self-Esteem: Eh? • Narcissism represents an exaggerated love of the self • threatened egotism predicts the sometimes hostile reaction by narcissists to challenges to their self-views • People with secure high self-esteem confidently hold positive self-views • People with defensive high self-esteem hold positive self-views that are fragile and vulnerable to threat

12. Concept Review

13. Gender and Social Behavior • Gender stereotypes are expectations about how women and men should behave • Women and men don’t differ on most dispositions • however, men are higher in homicidal aggression than are women • women and men differ in aspects of mate selection and romantic attraction • women and men differ in helping styles

14. Causes of Gender Differences • Biological explanations • hormonal differences, evolutionary basis of parental investment • Social and cultural explanations • socialization, cultural constraints • A little of both? • evolutionary and social factors interact to predict gender differences in behavior

15. Interactions Between Persons & Situations • Self-monitoring: individual differences in relying on external or internal cues to guide behavior • Need for cognition: individual differences in liking to think • Achievement motivation: individual differences in performance goals • Uncertainty orientation: individual differences in learning new things about oneself

16. Dispositions and Health • Dispositional optimism is associated with lower distress in several areas • Intelligence is positively correlated with health and longevity • Type-A coronary-prone behavior is associated with stress-related illness