The Social Self: Understanding Beliefs and Identity in Social Contexts

1. Chapter 3 The Social Self

2. Nature of the Social Self • The Principles of Psychology (1890) • Individual self are beliefs about our unique personal traits, abilities, preferences, tastes, talents, and so forth • Relational self are beliefs about our identities in specific relationships • Collective self are beliefs about our identities as members of social groups to which we belong

3. Origins of Self-Knowledge • Family influence and sibling dynamics • Diversification • Siblings may take on different roles in the family to minimize conflicts • Birth order may influence personality traits • Older siblings are often more responsible and supportive of the status quo, younger siblings are often more rebellious and open to new experiences

4. Family and Other Socialization Agents • Reflected self-appraisals • Beliefs about what others think of our social selves

5. Situationism and the Self Aspects of the self may change depending on the situation

6. Situationism and the Self • Distinctiveness • May highlight aspects of the self that make us feel most unique in a given context • For instance, age may seem more important to self-definition if you are surrounded by much older people

7. Situationism and the Self • Working self-concept • Subset of self-knowledge that is brought to mind in a particular context

8. Situationism and the Self • Relational self-beliefs • Beliefs about our identities in specific relationships • For instance, who you are as a son/daughter feels different than who you are as a boyfriend/girlfriend

9. Situationism and the Self • Collective self-beliefs • Beliefs about our identity as members of important social categories • Examples could be identity based on citizenship, ethnicity, gender, profession, and so on

11. Situationism and the Self • Social context • Sense of self may shift dramatically depending on with whom we are interacting • For instance, may feel different about the self when interacting with authority figures than when interacting with subordinates

12. Culture and the Social Self • Independent view of self • Self seen as a distinct, autonomous entity, separate from others and defined by individual traits and preferences

13. Culture and the Social Self • Interdependent view of self • Self seen as connected to others, defined by social duties and shared traits and preferences

14. Culture and the Social Self • Independent views of self more prominent in North American and Western European cultures

15. Culture and the Social Self • Interdependent views of self more prominent in many East Asian, South Asian, Mediterranean, Latin American, and African cultures

17. Gender and the Social Self • Across cultures, men generally have more independent and women have more interdependent views of self • Women likely to refer to relationships when describing self • Women more attuned to external social cues whereas as men more attuned to their internal responses

18. Gender and the Social Self • Differences may be due to socialization • Cultural stereotypes, parental feedback, educational treatment

19. Gender and the Social Self • Evolution may contribute to gender differences • Independent views of self may advantage males in acts like physical competition and hunting • Interdependent views of self may advantage females in acts related to maintaining social bonds and care giving

20. Social Comparison • Social comparison theory • The hypothesis that we evaluate ourselves through comparisons to others • Downward social comparisons may boost self-esteem by making us feel better about the self • Upward social comparisons may motivate self-improvement

21. Narratives about the Social Self • Self as a narrative • Construct a story about the self to make sense of who we are and how we’ve changed over time • Individualists may recall life events from their own perspective • Collectivists may recall life events from others’ perspective

22. Organization of Self-Knowledge • Knowledge about the self helps organize how we behave in different situations and with different people • Social self-beliefs • Beliefs about the roles and duties we assume in different groups

23. Organization of Self-Knowledge • Self-schema • Knowledge about the self • Conclusions about our behaviors and preferences and about how we are viewed by others

24. Organization of Self-Knowledge • Self-reference effect • Better memory for information related to the self • For instance, better memory for a list of adjectives if considering whether the adjectives apply to the self

26. Organization of Self-Knowledge • Self-complexity • The tendency to define the self in terms of multiple domains that are relatively distinct from one another in content

27. Self-esteem • Self-esteem • The positive or negative overall evaluation that each person has of himself or herself

28. Self-esteem • Contingencies of self-worth • An account of self-esteem that maintains that self-esteem is contingent on successes and failures in domains on which a person has based his or her self-worth

29. Social Acceptance and Self-Esteem • Sociometer hypothesis • A hypothesis that maintains that self-esteem is an internal, subjective index or marker of the extent to which a person is included or looked on favorably by others

30. Culture and Self-Esteem • Members of individualistic cultures tend to report higher levels of self-esteem than members of collectivistic cultures • Feeling good about the self as an individual is more valued in Western cultures • For instance, many Asian languages have no equivalent word for the idea of self-esteem

31. Culture and Self-Esteem • Members of collectivistic cultures place more value on self-improvement • Less emphasis on feeling good about the self and more emphasis on feeling good about one’s contribution to collective goals

32. Culture and Self-Esteem • Contact with other cultures can influence views of the self • For instance, Asians with greater contact with Western cultures report higher levels of self-esteem than those with less contact

34. Dangers of High Self-Esteem • People with high self-esteem may be more sensitive to threats, insults, and challenges • If high self-esteem is unwarranted, these may make the person feel insecure • Those people may react more aggressively when self-esteem is threatened

35. Dangers of High Self-Esteem • Inflated self-esteem can be counterproductive • Many psychopaths, murderers, rapists, and violent gang members have very high self-esteem • High self-esteem may allow individuals to be satisfied with the self despite poor life outcomes

36. Self-Enhancement • Positive illusions and mental health • Most assume that proper mental health is marked by realistic views of the world • Research suggests that most well-adjusted people may have slightly unrealistic views about themselves

37. Self-Enhancement • Benefits of positive illusions • Elevate positive mood and reduce negative mood • Foster social bonds by making people more outgoing • Promote pursuit of and persistence at goals

38. Cultural and Positive Illusions • Positive illusions about the self are more common in individualistic cultures • Members of collectivistic cultures are less likely to report enhanced feelings of control, less likely to rate themselves as better than average, and less likely to be unrealistically optimistic

39. Cultural and Positive Illusions • Individualistic cultures place greater value on positive views of the self than collectivistic cultures • Positive illusions promote feelings that the self is unique, independent, and good

40. Motives Driving Self-Evaluation • Better-than-average effect • Most Westerners tend to have a positive view of the self • Tend to rate the self as better than average on most traits • Weight abilities we excel at as more valuable

41. Motives Driving Self-Evaluation • Self-evaluation maintenance (SEM) Model • A model that maintains that people are motivated to view themselves in a favorable light and that they do so through two processes: reflection and social comparison

42. Motives Driving Self-Evaluation • Self-verification theory • Motivated to have views of the self that are accurate, consistent, and coherent • Desire accurate views of abilities to ensure more success and less failure in social interactions

43. Self-Regulation • Self-regulation • Processes that people use to initiate, alter, and control their behavior in the pursuit of goals, including the ability to resist short-term awards that thwart the attainment of long-term goals • Possible selves • Hypothetical selves that a person aspires to be in the future

44. Self-Regulation • Self-discrepancy theory • Behavior is motivated by cultural and personal moral standards • Individuals want to resolve discrepancies of who they are with who they want to be or ought to be

45. Self-Regulation • Types of self • Actual self: the person we believe ourselves to be • Ideal self: the person we wish we could be • Ought self: the person we feel we should be

46. Self-Regulation • Promotion focus • Focus on positive outcomes and moving toward becoming our ideal self • Prevention focus • Focus on negative outcomes and attempt to avoid not living up to our ought self

47. Ego Depletion • Regulating behavior requires mental energy, but mental resources are limited • Ego depletion • State where previous acts of self-control drain ability to control future behavior • For instance, participants who controlled behavior by eating healthy radishes instead of delicious cookies gave up faster when they had to solve a puzzle later

48. Automatic Self-Control Strategies • Automatic self-control strategies • Influence behavior as well as thoughts, leading people to approach goals and to avoid temptations

49. Automatic Self-Control Strategies

50. Self-Presentation • Self-presentation • Presenting the person that we would like others to believe we are