Chapter 3 - The Self

1. Chapter 3 - The Self • What is the Self? • Where Self-Knowledge Comes From • Self and Information Processing • Self Esteem, Self-Deception, and Positive Illusions • Self-Presentation

2. What is the Self? • Self Knowledge • Self Awareness • Interpersonal Self • Public Self • Agent Self • Executive Function

4. True Self – Two Approaches • Self as impulse • Inner thoughts or feelings • Self as institution • Public behaviors, especially official roles

5. Cultural Differences of Selfhood • Independent self-construal • What makes the self different • Interdependent self-construal • What connects the self to the group

6. Purpose of the Self • Gain social acceptance • Play social roles • Society creates and defines roles • Individual seeks and adopts them

7. Self-Awareness • Attention directed at the self • Private self-awareness • Public self-awareness • Usually involves evaluative comparison

9. Self Compared to Standards • Concepts of how things might possibly be • Ideals, norms, expectations, moral principles, laws, past experiences • Around age 2, begin use of standards • Beginning of self-awareness

10. Self-Awareness and Behavior • Self-awareness • improves behavior • enables people to be more socially desirable • When self-awareness feels bad – seek to escape it • By drinking alcohol – removing inhibitions • Through suicide – extreme escape

11. Purpose of Self-Awareness • Self-regulation • Adopt the perspective of other people • Manage behavior in pursuit of goals

12. Food for Thought - Eating Binges and Escaping the Self • Importance of self-awareness • Eating allows escape from negative thoughts about self • Eating can serve as a distraction from negative thoughts about self

13. Food for Thought - Eating Binges and Escaping the Self • Dieters are high in public self-consciousness • Low in private self-awareness • Includes ignoring hunger • Losing awareness of “fullness”

14. Where Self Knowledge Comes From

15. Looking Outside • Looking-Glass Self (Cooley, 1902) • You imagine how you appear to others • You imagine how others will judge you • You develop an emotional response as a result of imagining how others will judge you • Generalized Other (Mead, 1934) • Feedback from others tell us who and what we are

16. Evaluating Looking-Glass Self • People do respond to feedback from others • May not know how people regard them • People are reluctant to give negative comments • People may not be receptive to negative comments

17. Looking Inside • Introspection • Privileged Access • Limitations of Introspection • Development – Children under 11 • Nisbett and Wilson attack on privileged access (1977) • We may know what we think and feel, but not why

18. Looking At Others • Social Comparison • Upward social comparisons • Downward social comparisons

19. Self-Perception and Overjustification Effect • Self-Perception Theory (Bem, 1965) • Intrinsic motivation • Extrinsic motivation • Overjustification Effect • Intrinsic motivation diminishes for activities associated with expected rewards

21. Fluctuating Image(s) of Self • Phenomenal Self (Working Self-Concept) • Unusual aspects about you become prominent • Being lone member of some category • Heightens self-awareness • Can impair performance

22. Why People Seek Self-Knowledge • Appraisal Motive • Looking for the truth about oneself • Self-Enhancement Motive • Looking for flattering things about self • Consistency Motive • Looking for confirmation about current belief about self

23. When Motives Compete • Appraisal Motive • Weakest motive • Self-Enhancement Motive • Strongest motive (emotional appeal) • Consistency Motive • Second preference (cognitive appeal)

24. Tradeoffs - Self-Handicapping • Self-Handicapping • Failure can be blamed on obstacle • Success assumes higher competence • Berglas & Jones (1978) experiment • Noncontingent choose obstacle to maximum performance on second IQ test

26. Self-Knowledge and the Duplex Mind • Automatic Egotism • Automatic, self-enhancing • Modesty • Conscious, deliberate control

27. Self and Information Processing

28. Self and Information Processing • Self-Reference Effect • Information bearing on self is processed more deeply and remembered better • Endowment Effect • Items gain in value to person who owns them

30. Can Self-Concept Change? • Self-Concept is consistent with public self • People expect you to stay the same • Changing social environment may change inner self • Convince others that you have changed • Allow others to see your changed behavior • Memory Shifts to Fit New Self-Concept

31. Self-Esteem, Self-Deception, and Positive Illusions

32. Self-Esteem • High Self-Esteem • Positive views • Low Self-Esteem • Absence of strong positive views

33. Is Bad Stronger Than Good? Basking and Blasting • Group membership may enhance positive feelings about self (Cialdini et.al, 1976) • Basking - Linking oneself to winners • Blasting - Criticizing a rival group • People show a stronger tendency to blast (negative) than bask (positive)

34. Is Bad Stronger Than Good? Basking and Blasting • Loyal fans experience changes in their own confidence level based on the success or failure of their team • Losing had a stronger effect than winning

35. Low Self-Esteem • Research on Low Self-Esteem • Do not want to fail • Self-concept confusion • Focus on self-protection • More prone to emotional highs and lows • Myth of Low-Self Esteem in United States

36. Feel Good About Failure? PLAYVIDEO

37. Distorted Perceptions of Nondepressed • Positive Illusions • Overestimate good qualities • Underestimate faults • Overestimate control over events • Unrealistically optimistic

38. Self-Deception Strategies • Self Serving Bias • More skeptical of bad feedback • Junk Mail Theory of Self-Deception • Comparisons with those slightly worse • Skew impressions of others to highlight own good traits as unusual

39. The Social Side of Sex Self-Esteem and Saying No to Sex • Evidence does not show that high-esteem is associated with youngsters saying no to sex • Link between self-esteem and virginity in men (age 20) but not women • Women with high self-esteem ignore pregnancy risk and underestimate dangers of sex

40. Benefits of High Self-Esteem • Initiative • Confidence you can do the right thing • More adventurous in activities • Feels Good • Helps one to overcome bad feelings • If they fail, more likely to try again

41. Why Do We Care About Self-Esteem? • Sociometer Theory • Self-esteem is a measure of social acceptability • Self-esteem feels good • Theory of terror management

42. Negative Aspects of High Self-Esteem • Narcissism • Subset of high self-esteem • Tend to be more aggressive and violent • Higher Prejudice • Tend to think their group is better

43. Pursuit of Self-Esteem • May have harmful consequences • Can compromise pursuit of competence • Impairs autonomy • Pressure to meet expectations of others • Weakens individual intrinsic motivation • Impairs learning • Can damage relationships • Can be harmful to health

44. Self-Presentation • Behaviors that convey an image to others • Public Esteem • More important than private self-esteem • Public Behavior • Acting for the audience

45. Functions of Self-Presentation • Social Acceptance • Increase chance of acceptance and maintain place within the group • Claiming Identity • Social validation of claims to identity

46. Good Self-Presentation • Demonstrate Positive Traits • Behave with Consideration of Audience • Tradeoff • Tendency toward favorable presentation • Modesty • More prevalent in long-term relationships • Risky Behaviors

47. What Makes Us Human? • What makes us special? • Self-Awareness • Self-Concept • Self is a human tool for • Gaining social acceptance • Participating in culture