Slideshow Transcript

1. Slide 1: Social Psychology Lecture 2, Week 2 The Social Self Semester 2, 2008 Lecturer: James Neill
2. Slide 2: Overview ● What is the “self”? ● Self-complexity ● What is the “social ● Social comparison self”? ● Social feedback ● Self-constructs ● Strategic self- ● Evolutionary functions presentation ● Adaptational functions ● Self-monitoring ● Self-regulation
3. Slide 3: What is the self?
4. Slide 5: What is “self”? ● Describe yourself e.g., ● “I am…” statements ● What do I promote? ● What do I defend? ● Usually includes social roles e.g., ● Gender, ethnicity ● Social identity ● Group memberships
5. Slide 7: Environ- ment Culture Self Note: Groups Fuzzy boundaries
6. Slide 8: What is the “self”? Many, varied theories about the purpose and function of the ‘self’ – e.g., in arts, philosophy, science, culture, religion, and through history.
7. Slide 9: What is the “self”? Psychologically... collection of cognitively-held beliefs that a person possesses about themselves.
8. Slide 10: What is the “self”? However… “Self” seems to extend beyond the physical self (body), to include psychologically meaningful personal possessions and personal space.
9. Slide 11: What kinds of impressions are these people trying to make, using their clothing?
10. Slide 12: What is the “self”? “The self is an important tool with which the human organism makes its way through human society and thereby manages to satisfy its needs.”
11. Slide 13: What is the “self”? Traditionally, “self” was seen as representing stable, genetically determined “character” – or later, “personality”.
12. Slide 14: What is the “self”? More recently, “self” was understood to evolve during a lifetime, i.e. Partly stable, partly changing.
13. Slide 15: What is the “self”? Most recently, “self” has been further complexified and increasingly seen as: ● Dynamic & changeable ● Multiple / Plural ● Hierarchical ● Situationally & cognitively influenced ● Culturally constructed
14. Slide 16: What is the “self”? The psychological self includes: ● Attitudes ● Cognitions ● Emotions ● Group Memberships (Social Identity) ● Ideal / Imagined Selves ● Memories ● Possessions ● Self-Beliefs ● Self-Concepts ● Self-Images ● Social Roles
15. Slide 17: What is the “self”? To determine “What is self”, use diagnostic clues: ● Who am I? ● What are you prepared to defend?
16. Slide 18: 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
17. Slide 19: Which ones are most aware of their own race?
18. Slide 20: What is the “social self”? ● Humans are gregarious, group-based creatures. ● A significant portion of our ‘self’ and its ‘behaviour’ is socially directed and influenced.
19. Slide 21: What is the “social self”? Some argue that ‘self’ is entirely a function of the environment. e.g., “Self” as a construct of post- industrial, capitalist society and political systems which promote self-identity and choice-making, and then markets to the “self”.
20. Slide 22: What is the “social self”? ● Interpersonal self or social self part of self that engages face-to-face, in relation with others. ● Social roles -> Social identity or Societal self can include ethnicity, gender, age, place of residence or any other social categorization that helps characterize a person’s identity.
21. Slide 23: Purpose of the self ● Gain social acceptance ● Play social roles ● Society creates and defines roles ● Individual seeks and adopts them
22. Slide 24: Self-Constructs (Operationalization) Self-Esteem Self-Concept Self-Efficacy Self-Congruence illustrate how social psychologists study people’s selves, in cognitive, affective, and behavioral terms.
23. Slide 25: Self-esteem ● Global feelings of self-worth ● Value placed in & degree of liking of self. ● Often based on and closely related to social comparisons. (e.g., too thin, too fat) ● People are motivated to see their self as worthy/worthwhile (Fiske, 2004).
24. Slide 26: Self-esteem ● High Self-Esteem ● Positive views ● Low Self-Esteem ● Absence of strong positive views
25. Slide 27: Self-esteem ● Healthy to have a slightly inflated sense of self value (Taylor). ● Self-esteem serves as a sociometer for one’s standing in a group (Fiske, 2004). ● Self-esteem has been overemphasized in Western society, to the detriment of actual skill (Baumeister)
26. Slide 28: 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)
27. Slide 29: 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
28. Slide 30: 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
29. Slide 31: Distorted perceptions of nondepressed ● Positive illusions ● Overestimate good qualities ● Underestimate faults ● Overestimate control over events ● Unrealistically optimistic
30. Slide 32: 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
31. Slide 33: Benefits of high self- ● Initiative esteem ● 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
32. Slide 34: 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
33. Slide 35: 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
34. Slide 36: 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
35. Slide 37: Self-presentation ● Behaviors that convey an image to others ● Public esteem ● More important than private self- esteem ● Public behaviour ● Acting for the audience
36. Slide 38: Functions of self- presentation ● Social acceptance ● Increase chance of acceptance and maintain place within the group ● Claiming identity ● Social validation of claims to identity
37. Slide 39: 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
38. Slide 40: Self-concept ● Cognitive representations of the self. ● Now commonly seen as a set of multi- dimensional and hierarchically organized domains of self-concept, e.g., ● Physical Self-Concept ● Academic Self-Concept ● Social Self-Concept ● Same-Sex Relations ● Opposite-Sex Relations ● Parent Relations, etc. ● Top-down vs. bottom-up debate
39. Slide 41: Self-efficacy ● Belief in one’s capacity to succeed at a given task. e.g. Public Speaking Self-Efficacy ● Bandura recommended specific rather than general measures of Self-efficacy.
40. Slide 42: Self-efficacy ● e.g. Social Self-Efficacy for Relating to Teachers 1. I can get along with most of my teachers. 2. I can go and talk with most of my teachers. 3. I can get my teachers to help me if I have problems with other students. 4. I can explain what I think to most of my teachers. 5. I ask the teacher to tell me how well I'm doing in class. (Hoover-Dempsey & Sandler, 2005)
41. Slide 43: Rogers: Self-congruence ACTUAL IDEAL EXPERIENCE Incongruence  Anxiety  Defense
42. Slide 44: Self has evolutionary functions ● Self-bias e.g., access to resources ● Self-organization / Self- complexity e.g., adaptability & self-insight/self-control ● Self-promotion e.g., for increased likelihood of mating ● Social comparison e.g., motivation to improve ● Social control e.g., storage of social norms and rules
43. Slide 45: Self has evolutionary functions ● Self-bias e.g., access to resources ● Self-organization / Self- complexity e.g., adaptability & self-insight/self-control ● Self-promotion e.g., for increased likelihood of mating ● Social comparison e.g., motivation to improve ● Social control e.g., storage of social norms and rules
44. Slide 46: Self has adaptational functions “People’s selves allow them to regulate their own behavior, an advantage for both self and group.”
45. Slide 47: Self has adaptational functions “The self can serve various social psychological functions; having a self is not only knowing where your skin ends, but also how to get along in a group.” (Fiske, 2004, p. 176)
46. Slide 48: Self-complexity People generally see themselves as more complex and others as less complex.
47. Slide 49: Self-complexity There are individual variations in self-complexity, with self- complexity being advantageous e.g., less depressed, better able to handle stress, etc.
48. Slide 50: Self-complexity …includes having multiple possible selves.
49. Slide 51: Social comparison Everyone uses social comparison to: ● Understand how they are doing (through comparison with similar others) ● Feel better (through downward comparison) ● To improve (through upward comparison)
50. Slide 52: Social feedback Symbolic interactionism: All self perceptions are based on one’s history of social interactions.
51. Slide 53: Social feedback Reflected appraisal: One’s sense of self is based on how one perceives that others perceives one.
52. Slide 54: Social feedback Spotlight effect: People tend to think other people notice and evaluate them more than they actually do.
53. Slide 55: Social feedback Transparency Effect: People tend to think that their inner self ‘leaks out’ and is more obvious than it really is.
54. Slide 56: Self-discrepancies Actual-Ideal -> Promotion Focus (failure -> Depression) Ideal-Ought -> Prevention Focus (failure -> Anxiety)
55. Slide 57: Self-discrepancies Self-evaluation maintenance theory ● More relevant the comparison, the more threat ● Closer the person is, the more emotion (+ve or –ve)
56. Slide 58: Strategic self-presentation ● Ingratiation (being liked) ● Self-Promotion (being competent) ● Intimidation (being in control) ● Exemplification (Worthy, saintly) ● Supplication (Helpless)
57. Slide 61: Self-monitoring ● High (adjusts behavior to situation; monitors situation) ● Low (principled attitudes guide behaviour)
58. Slide 62: Self-regulation ● Monitoring and controlling self- presentation and behavior uses up valuable self-regulatory resources.
59. Slide 63: Self-awareness ● Attention directed at the self ● Private self-awareness ● Public self-awareness ● Usually involves evaluative comparison.
60. Slide 64: Self-awareness In general, people spend little time actually thinking about themselves. (but a lot of time is spent thinking about self-presentation and self-preservation)
61. Slide 65: Self-awareness ● Certain situations (e.g., mirrors, cameras, audiences, self-development exercises, increase self- awareness) ● Individual differences in self- consciousness
62. Slide 66: 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
63. Slide 67: Self-awareness and behaviour Self-awareness ● Improves behaviour ● Enables people to be more socially desirable
64. Slide 68: Self-awareness Causes us to notice self- discrepancies and can produce temporary reductions in self-esteem.
65. Slide 69: Self-awareness To cope, we either adjust our behavior to meet our standards or withdraw from self-focusing situations. e.g., watch TV, play sport, alcohol, suicide.
66. Slide 70: Self-awareness
67. Slide 71: Purpose of self-awareness ● Self-regulation ● Adopt the perspective of other people ● Manage behavior in pursuit of goals
68. Slide 72: 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
69. Slide 73: When motives compete ● Appraisal motive ● Weakest motive ● Self-enhancement motive ● Strongest motive (emotional appeal) ● Consistency motive ● Second preference (cognitive appeal)
70. Slide 74: Self-knowledge and the duplex mind ● Automatic egotism ● Automatic, self-enhancing ● Modesty ● Conscious, deliberate control
71. Slide 75: 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 the person who owns them
72. Slide 76: Can self-concept change? ● Self-concept tends to be 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.
73. Slide 77: References ● Fiske, S. T. (2004). The self: Social to the core. In S. T. Fiske (2004). Social beings: A core motives approach to social psychology. (Ch 5, pp. 169 – 214). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley. ● Hoover-Dempsey, K.V., & Sandler, H.M. (2005). Final Performance Report for OERI Grant # R305T010673: The Social Context of Parental Involvement: A Path to Enhanced Achievement. Presented to Project Monitor, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, March 22, 2005.
74. Slide 78: Open Office Impress ● This presentation was made using Open Office Impress. ● Free and open source software. ● http://www.openoffice.org/product/impress.html