Understanding the Self: Theories and Sources

1. Seminar 4: The self

2. Recap • People want to understand others. • They also want to understand themselves. • Self-serving bias • Spotlight effect • How/What do we see (in) ourselves?

3. The philosopher’s question How do you know you exist?

4. The psychologist’s answer

5. Theory of mind in elephants too!

6. There is no single theory of “the self” There are many theories of “the self” • William James • The known—”Me” • Repository of beliefs about self • The active knower—”I” • Active processor of information • Freud • Id, Ego, Superego • E. Tory Higgins • Ideal vs. Actual self • Collectivistic self vs. Individualistic self

7. Our focus today

8. Cognition: Self-knowledge How we come to define our self

9. What are the sources we draw from to determine who we are? • Introspection • Cultural • Our own behavior • Other people (social comparison)

10. Introspection General claim • People are remarkably poor at introspection • We don’t always know the source, process, outcome. • We rely on “causal theories” Stimulus “Cognitive blackbox” (mediator) Response Awareness? Awareness? Awareness? Nisbett & Wilson. (1977). Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes. Psy Rev.

11. Introspection and causal theories Personal theories about what causes what Buying this dress will make me happy Using a cell phone won’t affect my reaction time while driving a car The gender of another person won’t affect my evaluation of them (i.e. I am not sexist) I love her/him because _______

12. The Nisbett and Wilson (1977) thesis pre-existing causaltheories often easy to access Queries about mental states actual mental states often difficult to access Nisbett & Wilson. (1977). Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes. Psyc Rev.

13. One implication: Affective forecasting How would you feel—and how long would you feel that way if you… • found a ten dollar bill lying on the sidewalk? (note this is an American context) • got an A+ on the social psychology exam? • fell in love? • won the Nobel prize? • suddenly went blind? • found out your significant other was dating someone else? • got a divorce from someone you once loved? • discovered you were genetically at risk for cancer? • found out that you tested positive for HIV? • were sent to a concentration camp?

14. General findings from this literature People often think that their emotion reactions will be more extreme, and last longer, than is really the case.

15. Why is affective forecasting inaccurate? • Misconstrual • Inaccurate theories • Motivated distortions • Underestimation of emotional defense (survival) skills • “Focalism” + - + Other mundane events of everyday-life Focal event (+) - - + + -

16. Criticisms against Nisbett & Wilson Cited over 9300 times • It’s commonsense. • It keeps psychologists employed. • Is it falsifiable?

17. Cultural sources Singelis (1994) self-construal scale (30 items) To what extent do these statements describe you? • I will sacrifice my self interest for the benefit of the group I am in. • I enjoy being unique and different from others in many respects. • I feel it is important for me to act as an independent person. • Even when I strongly disagree with group members, I avoid an argument. • I should take into consideration my parents' advice when making education/career plans. • I do my own thing, regardless of what others think. Singelis. (1994). The measurement of independent and interdependent self-construals. Pers Soc Psy Bull.

18. Cultural sources General consensus among psychologists Individualistic self vs. Collectivistic self

19. Has this polarization always been that way? • Evidence suggests that individualism has increased over time (USA) • Any implications (consequences)? Twenge et al. (2012). Changes in pronoun use in American books and the rise of individualism. J Cross-Cul Psy.

20. American names become more unique N = 325 million US names Twenge et al. (2010). Trends in american parents' choices for children's names. Soc Psy Pers Sci.

21. Of course there are within-culture differences • Northern China: More individualistic • Southern China: More collectivistic • Similar pattern found in India Talhem et al. (2014). Large-scale psychological differences within china explained by rice versus wheat agriculture. Science.

22. Our own behavior Self-perception theory (Bem, 1972) I infer my attitudes from my behaviors. “IF I eat ice cream, THEN it means I like ice creams.” “IF I come to class, THEN it means I like the class.” “IF I do this sh** job without pay, THEN it means I like my job.”

23. By comparing myself with others Social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954) You score 90/100 for PSY202. You are here. You are here. You are here.

24. Social comparison • When do you compare with others? • Especially in high uncertainty, no objective standard • With whom to you compare to? • Depends on your motive/goal you have in mind • Two motives • To gain knowledge (skill-based needs) • To feel better (evaluative-based needs)

25. Motives for social comparison • The need for valuable knowledge- • Generally speaking, upward comparison better here • The need to feel good about yourself • Often, downward comparison serves this need • A different type of social comparsion • Present vs. past

26. Do we always want to be better than others? Compared to the typical Ashoka student, how much _______ are you? Smarter Moral Agreeable

27. Better-than-average effect Ashokkumar, Lutsky, Chan, in-prep

28. A more nuanced perspective Optimal distinctiveness theory • People depend on others to survive. • If you’re too different, ______________ • If you’re too similar, ______________ Assimilative ----------------------------------------------------Distinctive • Selecting of which identity depends on how that identity satisfy one’s psychological needs. Brewer. (1991). The social self: On being the same and different at the same time. Pers Soc Psy Bull.

29. Affect: Self-esteem Now that you know how you come to know yourself, what do you feel about yourself?

30. What is self-esteem? Evaluative part of the self-concept We all want to feel good about our selves (I hope) How can you do that?

31. The Self-Esteem Movement (in US) Everyone born after 1970… Researchers found that high self-esteem individuals had higher academic success Educators devised programs to increase students’ self-esteem Ironically increasing self-esteemed lowered academic success! • Branden. (1969). The psychology of self-esteem.

32. What happened? Two types of messages sent to students for 6 weeks “Keep your head up, feel good about yourself” vs. no-message control Forsyth et al (2007). Attempting to improve the academic performance of struggling college students by bolstering their self-esteem: An intervention that backfired. J Soc Clin Psy.

33. Why? Telling them to feel good about themselves made students complacent Different components contribute to self-esteem Raising “global” self-esteem without tying them to “grades self-esteem” backfired. Relationships Sports Grades Global self-esteem Forsyth et al (2007). Attempting to improve the academic performance of struggling college students by bolstering their self-esteem: An intervention that backfired. J Soc Clin Psy.

34. Self-esteem & narcissism Narcissism extremely high self-regard + lack of empathy towards others It’s all about ME… And no one else but ME!

35. “I think my strongest asset, maybe by far, is my temperament.

36. Implicit self-esteem Self-esteem = attitude towards self Attitudes can be implicit (recall Week 3: Social Cognition) (We will cover more about attitudes next week) Is there such a thing called implicit self-esteem?

37. Rosenberg (1960) self-esteem scale I feel that I am a person of worth, at least on an equal plane with others. I feel that I have a number of good qualities.. All in all, I am inclined to feel that I am a failure. I am able to do things as well as most other people. I feel I do not have much to be proud of. I take a positive attitude toward myself. On the whole, I am satisfied with myself. I wish I could have more respect for myself. I certainly feel useless at times. At times I think I am no good at all.

38. How else can you measure implicit self-esteem? A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z How much do you like ___ ? Name-letter effect Kooler & Pelham. (2003). On the nature of implicit self-esteem. The Ontario Symposium.

39. Behavior: Self-control The behavioral aspect of the self

40. Why do we need self-control? The world is filled with temptation.

41. Self-control is desirable Experimenter rolls dice Participant rolls dice Illusion of control predicted riskier bets in games of craps • Davis et al. (2000). Illusory personal control as a determinant of bet size and type in casino craps games. J Appl Soc Psy.

42. Want to increase self-control? Suppression is useless Leads to rebound effects Second task Try not to laugh during movie First task Don’t think about white bear

43. Resource allocation perspective • Research could explain: • Relapses among former smokers when stressed • Self-regulatory failures more likely in evening • Cheating tends to occur in stressed marriages Baumeister et al. (2007). The strength model of self-control. Cur Dir Psy Sci.

44. Learning points • There are many other self-related theories, e.g., hypnosis, self-justification, self-awareness, etc. • There are different sources of how we construct ourselves. • We want to feel good about ourselves, but this is not always beneficial. • Self-control is desirable, but not always achievable.

45. But not too much such that everyone else means nothing to you.