Self-Concept, Self-Esteem, and Social Comparison

• Understanding of oneself answers the question "Who am I?"
• Self-concept is multifaceted and consists of different aspects of self that are activated in different situations.
• Working self-concept suggests the self is relatively malleable and only a small subset of self-knowledge is active any given moment.
• Perceived self-knowledge affects decision satisfaction, meaning in life, and moral behaviours.

Self-Esteem & Narcissism

• Self-Esteem (SE) is your overall opinion of yourself.
• Self-esteem's components are effective (a feeling) and cognitive (a judgment).
• High self-esteem can lead to aggression if inflated.
• Narcissism consists of:
• Inflated self-esteem
• Proneness to aggression
• Poor interpersonal adjustment

Social Comparison Theory

• Downward social comparison is comparing to those worse off, which boosts self-esteem.
• Upward social comparison is comparing to those better off, which can motivate or harm self-esteem.

Strategies to Maintain Self-Esteem

• Self-Serving Bias involves perceiving oneself favorably
• Self-Serving Attributions attribute positive outcomes to internal factors and negative outcomes to external factors
• Self-Handicapping involves creating obstacles to excuse failure, as Berglas & Jones (1978) showed through a performance-reducing drug choice
• Basking in Reflected Glory (BIRG) involves associating with successful others to share in their success
• Unrealistic optimism is believing "50% of marriages end in divorce, but mine won't."
• False consensus effect involves overestimating how common one's behavior is
• False uniqueness effect involves underestimating how common one's abilities/successes are

Cognitive Biases & Heuristics

• Priming makes concepts temporarily or chronically accessible.
• Representativeness Heuristic involves judging likelihood based on how much something resembles a "typical case."
• Availability Heuristic involves judging likelihood based on how easily examples come to mind.
• Confirmation Bias involves paying attention to information that supports existing beliefs, and ignoring or distorting contradictory information that contributes to illusory correlations & self-fulfilling prophecies
• Illusory Correlations involve perceiving a relationship between variables when none exists
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy is a belief that influences behavior to make itself come true as Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968) demonstrated with teachers' expectations about students
• Law of Contagion asserts objects that touch can transfer "essences."
• Law of Similarity asserts objects that resemble each other share fundamental properties.
• Zeigarnik Effect explains incomplete tasks are remembered more than completed ones.
• Dispositional Causes are internal traits and individual characteristics
• Situational Causes are external environments, constraints and social roles
• Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE) overestimates dispositional causes for others' behavior and underestimates situational factors
• Actor-Observer Effect explains actors attribute own behavior to situational causes, while observers attribute others' behavior to dispositional causes
• Self-Serving Bias involves taking credit for successes with internal attribution and blaming failures on external factors
• Attitudes are favorable or unfavorable evaluations of people, objects, or ideas

Cognitive Dissonance Theory (Leon Festinger)

• Psychological tension arises when holding two inconsistent cognitions or when behavior contradicts an attitude
• Dissonance is unpleasant, and we reduce it by changing behavior or justifying actions, beliefs, or feelings
• Dissonance is strongest when actions contradict self-concept/self-esteem
• Difficult Decisions create dissonance because chosen option's negatives & rejected option's positives
• Effort Justification asserts suffering for something makes it seem more valuable, as Aronson & Mills (1959) showed
• Insufficient Justification explains justifying an action with weak reasons increases dissonance, as the Festinger & Carlsmith (1959) Study demonstrated
• Participants who made a difficult decision between two similar appliances later rated their chosen appliance higher to justify their choice
• The key takeaways are as follows:
• Self-Concept is fluid & multifaceted and Self-Esteem is evaluative
• Biases and Heuristics maintain self-esteem
• Social comparison shapes how we see ourselves
• Attributions explain behaviour, but FAE errors can occur
• Cognitive dissonance motivates alignment of behaviour & beliefs

Cognitive Dissonance (Leon Festinger)

• When people experience inconsistency between their beliefs and behaviours, they feel psychological discomfort (dissonance), which motivates them to change either their beliefs or behaviours to reduce this discomfort
• Festinger & Carlsmith (1959): -- Participants were College students performing a boring repetitive task (turning pegs)
• Participants were then asked to lie to the next participant and say the task was enjoyable, and were paid either $1 or $20 for lying
• Measure was how much they actually liked the task afterward.
• The $1 Group reported actually enjoying the task more than the $20 group. The $20 Group knew they lied for money, so they didn't change their attitude.
• The $1 group experienced more cognitive dissonance because they had insufficient external justification for lying, so they changed their attitudes to justify their actions.
• People change their attitudes to match their behavior when external justification is minimal

Social Cognition and Attitudes (Hess & Pickett)

• People rely on schemas and heuristics to process social information which can influence attitudes and decision-making.
• Individuals given different descriptions of a political candidate, under Schema Activation Condition and Neutral Condition
• Participants judged the candidate in line with their pre-existing beliefs, even when facts contradicted them
• People use mental shortcuts (heuristics) to make judgments instead of processing all available information
• Schemas and heuristics shape how we interpret and remember social information, leading to biases in attitudes

Self and Identity (McAdams)

• Identity is constructed through narrative storytelling, where people create coherent life stories to define who they are
• Participants tell their life story, including major turning points and challenges, and Researchers analyzed themes in the stories
• Those with redemptive narratives had higher well-being and purpose
• People who lacked coherence in their narratives were more likely to struggle with identity confusion
• Personal identity is shaped by the stories we tell ourselves about our past and future

Social Comparison (Garcia & Halldorsson)

• The N-effect suggests that as the number of competitors increases, motivation decreases due to reduced social comparison.
• Students taking standardized tests, split into a Large test group or a Small test group
• Performance and effort measure
• Students in the small group performed better than those in the large group.
• In large groups, people feel less competitive pressure because they believe their chances of success are lower
• People are less motivated in large competitive settings because social comparison weakens when many competitors are present

Current Directions

• Cognitive Dissonance → Used in therapy, marketing (buyers' justification), and public health campaigns
• Social Cognition & Attitudes → Media influences beliefs through repeated exposure.
• Self & Identity → Identity formation is ongoing and shaped by culture and personal experience.
• Social Comparison → Social media increases upward comparisons, leading to lower self-esteem

Noba Vocabulary

• Cognitive Dissonance: Mental discomfort from inconsistent beliefs and behaviors
• Schemas: Mental frameworks that help process social information
• Heuristics: Mental shortcuts used to make quick judgments
• Narrative Identity: The life story a person constructs about themselves
• Upward/Downward Comparison: Comparing oneself to someone better or worse off
• N-Effect: Decreased motivation in large competitive settings