2. What does Social Psychology
mean?
It is the study of how our thoughts,
feelings, and actions are influenced by
other people
◦ Other people do not have to actually be
present in order to influence our actions and
feelings
◦ Is a science-therefore uses scientific method
1. How we think about ourselves;
2. How we think, feel, and act in the social
world;
3. How our attitudes and behavior shape the
social world.
3. How we think about ourselves
Self perception- how we think about
ourselves
◦ Social comparison based on environment
Self presentation- how we present
ourselves to others
Dove commercial
◦ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=litXW91Ua
uE
How do you think these results were affected by the
environment?
4. How We Think, Feel, & Act in the
Social World
Social Perception- how we make
conclusions about our environment
◦ Fundamental attribution error
◦ Social Cognition- how we think about our
social world and how we decide which
information to use to make conclusions
◦ Social Influence
5. How Our Attitudes & Behaviors
Shape the Social World
Self fulfilling prophecy: people’s
expectations about someone else’s traits
influence how they act towards that
person. Consequently, these actions
elicit the behavior that is expected.
◦ i.e. Be careful what you wish for
◦ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkuomtYl
ZME
◦ Self fulfilling prophecy and how it affects how
we might be treated (yes I know the video is
from like 1900)
9. This chapter is looking at things in our
environment that affect how we feel
about ourselves. How we feel about
ourselves is also affected by how we
present ourselves to other people.
10. Self Concept
An individual’s overall beliefs about his
or her own attributes
◦ What affects our relationship with ourself
◦ This is different than self-esteem which is
how much value we think we have as a
person
11. Personal Factors and the Self
Concept
Our self concept is affected by many
different things
◦ Introspection
what we think about our thoughts and our feelings
so our thinking about our thinking
◦ Self Awareness and Self Discrepancy
Theory-
how we think we compare to our ideal
◦ Self regulation
our ability to control ourselves
◦ Behaviors
◦ Motivations
12. Personal Factors and the Self
Concept
Introspection- when we sit back and
decide how we feel or think about
something in order to make a decision
◦ i.e. deciding what to eat to deciding
whether to break up with someone
◦ Many times people see people who do
this a lot as ―over analyzers‖
◦ Does this tend to help your self concept?
13. Personal Factors and the Self
Concept
Self awareness- this also affects how
our self concept, or how we see
ourselves
Self Discrepancy Theory
◦ Ideal (you would ideally like to be like this)
vs. actual vs. ought self (how you feel you
should be) and the differences between
these two
◦ What differences do they say contributes
to different mood disorders? i.e.
depression and anxiety
14. Personal Factors and the Self
Concept
Self regulation
◦ It’s a limited resource believe it or not!
◦ Self Control—huge area of research for
weight loss, addiction etc.
◦ It’s like flexing a muscle as it becomes
more and more tired with increased use
making to harder to re-exert
15. Personal Factors and the Self
Concept
Check Vohs &
Heatherton
(2000)—
examined self
regulation among
chronic dieters
https://www.csom.
umn.edu/Assets/7
1524.pdf
16. Summary of article
Female participants were identified as
chronic dieters or as non dieters
Asked to watch a documentary on sheep
to bring mood to baseline
Told they could help themselves to
snacks or that they should not take any
because they were being used for a
study later
While watching the movie the snacks
were either right next to them (high
temptation) or 10 feet away (low
temptation)
17. Summary of Article
After the video, participants filled out
questionnaires then asked to taste test
ice cream
Before leaving said by the way, help
yourself to any ice cream you want, we
have tons in the freezer
Measured amount of ice cream eaten in
grams
18. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo4WF3cSd9
Q&list=PL-
g8VON1uChyWcFdOWxLb8XrihiqgPevp
Please Post: After reading that article and
knowing what you know about self
regulation, how do you think these kids
would respond to having a whole bowl of
marshmallows in front of them after this
experiment compared to kids who were not in
the experiment previously and are presented
with a whole bowl of marshmallows
◦ question number 1 on the discussion board
19. Personal Factors and the Self
Concept
Behavior- we look at how we are acting to
form a self concept
◦ Behavioral activation-sometimes just getting up
and being active can help with depression
◦ Sometimes this can be negative if we are acting
in a way that we do not like
◦ Facial feedback—just go through the motions
20. Personal Factors and the Self
Concept
Motivation- Why are we doing what we
are doing, what is the purpose
◦ Intrinsic
◦ Extrinsic
◦ Over justification- an inference that we
performed a potentially enjoyable activity
for external reasons rather than because
we enjoyed it
21. Social Factors and the Self
Concept
Now we are looking at what social
factors in our environment affect what
we think about ourselves
Social Comparison Theory—what’s
the competition like?
Two Factor Theory-what we label it as
22. Social Factors and the Self
Concept
Social Comparison
Model
◦ There is a ton of
research on how we
compare ourselves to
people around us and
how that affects how we
view ourselves
This is sometimes even out
of our awareness
◦ How does advertising
play into this?
23. Knowing what you know about self
perception and how we present
ourselves to other people
2. Please post: How does this relate to
facebook and other social media outlets
and how people choose to present
themselves? Post on discussion board
number 2
24. Social Factors and the Self
Concept
Two Factor Theory
◦ How we label what’s going on in our body-
how physiologically aroused we are
◦ This plays into panic attacks a lot
◦ i.e. we might react differently to someone
who is making us made right after getting
out of the gym versus right before we are
going home to go to bed
25. Maintaining Positive Self
Concept
So how do we keep it positive?
Self Serving Bias- we tend to think of
ourselves as better than we actually are
Self Serving Beliefs- We are overall
glass half full type of people
Self Serving Comparisons- we surround
ourselves by people who make us feel
better about ourselves i.e. watching
jersey shore
Self Serving Behaviors -we set it up so
we can’t feel bad about ourselves i.e.
saying we didn’t study for a test so when
we fail it’s not that bad
26. Maintaining Positive Self
Concept
Overall we believe we are better than
our friends in many domains
◦ 88% of people believe they are above
average drivers
◦ 94% of professors estimate they are
above average teachers
◦ 89% of high school students think they
are above average at getting along with
others
◦ Why do you think this is?
27. Self Presentation
How do we present ourselves to those
around us?
Impression Management
Self Monitoring
28. Self Presentation
Impression Management- how do we
try to make ourselves look better
◦ Self promotion- used obviously in
interviews, behavior to make someone
respect us
◦ Ingratiation -behavior designed to make
people like you
◦ Self verification- we want others to
confirm our views of ourselves, want them
to agree with us
29. Self Presentation
Self Monitoring
◦ Higher versus lower
◦ How we adjust our behavior to fit with the
environment
30. How does this differ with culture?
Refer the section in the book and post:
If you were from a different culture
how would that affect how you would
present yourself differently?
(discussion board 3)
