Psychology Week 4: Introspection & Self-Awareness

Examining your own thoughts, feelings, and motives.

Becoming aware of oneself often leads to negative self-evaluation.

A way to know yourself by observing your actions.

Evaluating yourself by measuring against others' behavior.

A study where people were paged repeatedly to examine their self-affect.

A feeling of negativity when thinking about yourself.

Participating in a voluntary activity, like watching TV, can lead to negative self-feelings.

Introspection, observing behavior, and comparing self to others are methods to understand yourself.

Self-awareness leads to evaluating actions against internal standards, potentially changing behavior to align with ideals. Introspection (examining internal thoughts and feelings) plays a big role.

Studies show increased self-awareness, like seeing one's reflection, can reduce cheating. Participants in experiments with mirrors were less likely to cheat.

Higher self-awareness makes people less likely to follow negative social norms. Seeing one's face can encourage better behaviour in online environments, like commenting.

We figure out our attitudes and feelings by reviewing our behaviour and the situation. Body reactions or actions suggest how we feel.

We often misunderstand why we feel or think a certain way. We are not always accurate in determining the reasons behind our actions or feelings.

We infer how we feel by observing our actions and surrounding situations. For example, we might assume we like someone based on smiling.

Increased self-awareness, such as seeing one's reflection, reduces cheating on timed tests.

Studies show we are often wrong when it comes to explaining our own feelings and behaviours. This is a common limitation when observing ourselves.

Attributing feelings to one cause when they're actually caused by something else (e.g., confusing fear with attraction).

Evaluating ourselves by comparing ourselves to others.

Comparing ourselves to someone better than us.

Comparing ourselves to someone worse than us.

Studied misattribution of arousal, showing that fear can be mistaken for attraction.

Calmer voices in conflict can reduce emotional reactivity in both the speaker and listener, influencing feelings and behavior.

We learn about ourselves by comparing to others. This includes evaluating behavior, abilities and opinions.

A person's behavior can be influenced by numerous variables, making interpretation complex.

Comparing yourself to people at the same skill level.

Comparing yourself to people doing worse than you to boost your self-esteem.

Comparing yourself to people doing better than you to improve your self-esteem.

Contrast: Comparing yourself to others to highlight differences, Assimilation: Identifying with someone successful to feel like them.

Comparing to others can inspire hope and gratitude, leading to positive self-evaluation.

Comparing to others can lead to envy, regret, and worry about yourself.

Reasons for comparing ourselves to others include self-enhancement, self-evaluation, self-improvement, and altruism.

Upward comparisons can threaten self-esteem. People may act negatively if they cannot improve themselves.

This theory explains how we maintain our self-esteem when someone we care about outperforms us. It suggests we either try to downplay the importance of the task, distance ourselves from the friend, or even sabotage their success.

When someone close to us outperforms us in an area we care about, we might unconsciously try to sabotage their success to protect our self-esteem. This could involve giving them unhelpful clues in a task or spreading negative rumors about their performance.

Narcissistic individuals tend to have a strong need to feel superior and often distance themselves from friends who outperform them. They prefer to surround themselves with individuals they can beat.

This study provided evidence for the Self-Evaluation Maintenance Theory. Participants gave more difficult clues to their friends when the task was important, suggesting they were subconsciously trying to sabotage their friends' success.

The more we care about a comparison with someone (e.g., a close friend), the more threatened we feel when they outperform us. This can lead to efforts to reduce the threat by distancing from the friend, minimizing the importance of the task, or actively sabotaging their success.