Upload
hollie-newman
View
242
Download
1
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Chapter 3The Social Self
©2011 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Gilovich • Keltner • Nisbett
Social Psychology
Social Psychology
SECOND EDITION
Personality Development• Biological dispositions
– Five-factor Model of Personality
• Five traits that are basic building blocks of personality• Openness to experience,
conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism• Traits are highly heritable and are
linked to specific biological processes
Personality Development
• 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 often more responsible
and supportive of the status quo, younger siblings often more rebellious and open to new experiences
Culture and the Self
• Independent view of self– Self seen as a distinct, autonomous
entity, separate from others and defined by individual traits and preferences
• Interdependent view of self– Self seen as connected to others,
defined by social duties and shared traits and preferences
Culture and the Self
• Independent views of self more prominent in North American and Western European cultures
• Interdependent views of self more prominent in many East Asian, South Asia, Mediterranean, Latin American, and African cultures
Gender and the Self
• Across cultures, men have more independent views of self and women have more interdependent views of self
–Women more likely to refer to relationship when describing self
–Women are more attuned to external social cues whereas as men are more attuned to their internal responses
Gender and the Self
• Differences may be due to socialization– Cultural stereotypes, parental feedback,
educational treatment
• 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 caregiving
Situationism and the Self
• Aspects of self may change depending on the situation
• Social context– Sense of self may shift dramatically
depending on who we are interacting with• For instance, may feel different about
self when interacting with authority figures than when interacting with subordinates
Situationism and the Self
• Distinctiveness
–May highlight aspects of 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
Self Construals
• Social Comparison Theory
– The hypothesis that we evaluate ourselves through comparisons to others
– Downward social comparisons may boosts self-esteem by making us feel better about self
– Upward social comparisons may motivate self-improvement
Self Construals
• Self as a narrative
– Construct a story about self to make sense of who we are and how we’ve changed over time
– Individualists may recall life events from own perspective
– Collectivists may recall life events from others perspective
Self Construals
• Better-than-Average effect
–Most Westerners tend to have positive view of self.
– Tend to rate self as better than average on most traits
–Weight abilities we excel at as more valuable
Self Knowledge
• Knowledge about 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
Self Knowledge• Relational self-beliefs– Beliefs about our identities in specific
relationship• For instance, who you are as a
son/daughter feels different than who you are as a boyfirend/girlfriend
• Collective self-beliefs– Beliefs about our identity as members of
important social categories• Examples could be identity based on
citizenship, ethnicity, gender, profession, etc.
Self-Knowledge Organizes Information
• Self-reference effect– Better remember information related to
self• For instance, better remember list of
adjectives if considering whether the adjectives apply to self
• Self-Schema– Knowledge about self – Conclusions about our behaviors and
preferences and about how we are viewed by others
Self-Knowledge Organizes Information
• Self-Image bias
– Tendency to weight our evaluations of other people by how we view our self
– Traits that are valued in oneself are valued in others• For instance, If you view yourself as
intelligent you may judge others heavily by how intelligent you perceive them to be
Self-Knowledge Motivates Behavior
• 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
– 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
should be
Self-Knowledge Motivates Behavior
– Promotion Focus• Focus on positive outcomes and
moving towards becoming ideal self
– Prevention focus• Focus on negative outcomes and
attempt to avoid not living up to our ought self
Ego Depletion
• Regulating behavior requires mental energy, but mental resources are limited
• Ego Depletion– State where previous acts of self-control
drains 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
Illusions about Self• 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
• Benefits of positive illusions– Elevate positive mood and reduce
negative mood– Foster social bonds by making people
more outgoing– Promote pursuit and persistence at
goals
Illusions about Self
• Costs of positive illusions
– Positive illusions may be detrimental if overestimation of abilities leads to poor performance
Common Positive Illusions• Unrealistically positive views of self– Believe positive traits are more true of
self than negative traits– Believe positive traits are unique but
negative traits are common
• Exaggerated perceptions of control– Believe have more control over events
than we do• Personally would rather throw dice to
win a game. Feel as if we can somehow throw it just right
Common Positive Illusions
• Unrealistic optimism
– Believe positive events more likely to happen to self than to other people
Cultural and Positive Illusions
• Positive Illusions about self more common in individualistic cultures–Members of collectivistic cultures less
likely to report enhanced feelings of control, less likely to rate themselves as better than average, or be unrealistically optimistic
Cultural and Positive Illusions
• Individualistic cultures place greater value on positive views of self than collectivistic cultures– Positive illusions promote a feelings that
the self is unique, independent, and good
Self Evaluation
• Self-esteem– Overall positive or negative evaluation
we have of ourselves– Trait self-esteem• Enduring level of regard we have for
ourselves• Fairly stable across time
– State self-esteem• Dynamic and changeable feelings
about self felt at different moments in time
Self Evaluation• Contingencies of Self-Worth– Domains that are important to an
individual evaluation of self• For instance, someone who values
academic competence would show a boost in state self-esteem after getting a good grade
• Self-Complexity may protect self-esteem– People who have man contingencies of
self-worth may have smaller decreases in self-esteem after failures in any one domain
Motives for Self-Evaluation
• Self-evaluation maintenance model–Motivated to maintain positive self-
esteem– Positive self-evaluations maintained
through reflection and strategic social comparisons• Reflection – associating ourselves
with the accomplishments of others• Social comparisons – choose to
compare self to others in ways that favor ourselves
Motives for Self-Evaluation
• Motivations for friendships– Prefer friends who don’t outshine us in
domains contingent to our self-worth– Having friends who excel in other
domains can boost self-esteem by allowing us to bask in their reflected glory
Motives for Self-Evaluation
• Self-verification theory–Motivated to have views of self that are
accurate, consistent, and coherent– Desire accurate views of abilities to
ensure more success and less failure in social interactions
Motives for Self-Evaluation
• Verifying information–May maintain consistent view of self by
selectively paying attention to information consistent with self-view
–May associate with people who provide preferred feedback about self
– Use identity cues to display our self-view to others
Culture and Self-Esteem
• Members of individualistic cultures tend to report higher levels of self-esteem than collectivistic cultures– Feeling good about the self as an
individual is more valued in Western cultures
– For instance, many Asian language have no equivalent word for the idea of self-esteem
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
• Contact with other cultures can influence views of self– For instance, Asians in more contact
with Western cultures report higher levels of self-esteem than those without Western contact
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 it
may feel insecure. May react more aggressively when self-esteem is threatened
Dangers of High Self-Esteem
• Inflated self-esteem can be counterproductive–Many psychopaths, murderers, rapists,
and violent gang member have very high self-esteems
– High self-esteem may allow individuals to be satisfied with self despite poor life outcomes
Self-Presentation• Impression management– Attempts to control how other people will
view us• For instance, by managing how you
dress, behave in public, who you associate with, what you reveal about yourself to others
–When interacting with others present a public face that we want others to believe
• Public self-consciousness– Awareness of what others think of us
Self-Presentation
• Private self-consciousness– Awareness of our own internal feelings,
thoughts, and preferences
• Self-monitoring– The tendency to monitor and scrutinize
one’s behaviors when in a public situation
– High self-monitors try to fit their behavior to the situation whereas a low self-monitor is more likely to behave follow internal preferences
Self-Handicapping
• Self-handicapping– Tendency to engage in self-defeating
behavior to prevent others from assuming a poor performance was due to a lack of ability
• Self-handicapping may be a strategy for protecting the public self
Self-Handicapping
– Self-handicapping provides an excuse for poor performance and emphasizes good performance
• For instance, partying all night before an important exam.• If you do poorly, you can blame it on
the party the night before and not on a lack of ability. • If you do well, then you and others
may conclude that you have tremendous ability
Self-Presentation and Language
• May strategically communicate in ways to preserve the public face or ourselves and others
• On-record communication– Direct honest language meant to be
taken literally• “Did you like the movie” “Actually, I
didn’t think it was very good”
Self-Presentation and Language
• Off-record communication– Indirect and ambiguous language that
hints at ideas and meaning but not explicitly stated• “Did you like the movie” “Umm.. It
was very interesting”• Behaviors like flirting and teasing are
examples of off-record communications–Want the other person to infer
meanings from what we say without us saying it directly