Social Psychology: Spotlight Effect & Self-Concept

• People often feel like everyone is looking at them.
• The feeling that everyone is looking at you is likely mutual.
• The feeling that everyone is looking at you is caused by the spotlight effect, and the illusion of transparency.

Spotlight Effect

• Feeling that we are the center of attention.

Illusion of Transparency

• Feeling that all our inner feelings are obvious to others.

Self Concept

• What we know and believe about ourselves

Self-Schemas

• The specific beliefs by which we define ourselves

Social Comparisons

• Because we define ourselves against other
• We use social comparisons because we cannot know where we stand without comparing ourselves to others
• It's important to remember that you don't get to see all of other people's reality
• Social comparisons can be upwards or downwards, depending on the fragility of our self-esteem at that moment

How The Social Self Develops

• Genetics
• Culture
• Social roles
• Social comparisons
• Social Identities
• We use other people as a mirror to see ourselves, the looking-glass self.

Individualism

• One of two basic ways there are to define yourself
• Your identity is mostly self-contained
• I am me
• Also known as having independent self

Collectivism

• One of two basic ways there are to define yourself
• Your identity is mostly created by your groups and relationships
• I am a member of these groups
• Also known as having interdependent selves

Individualistic People

• Westerners (U.S., Canada, Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand) tend to be individualistic.
• Individualistic types tend to be self-reliant
• Individualistic types tend to be self-contained
• Individualistic types tend to be focused on uniqueness
• Individualistic types tend to be self-centered
• Individualistic types tend to be dependent on maintaining high self-esteem

Collectivistic People

• Natives of Asia, Africa, Central and South America, and Polynesia tend to be collectivistic.
• Collectivistic types tend to be self-critical
• Collectivistic types tend to be dependent on social connections
• Collectivistic types de-center themselves
• Collectivistic types focus on what binds them to others

Associations with Individualism

• Worldwide individualism is associated with affluence.
• Worldwide individualism is associated with education.
• Worldwide individualism is associated with urbanism.
• Worldwide individualism is associated with high media consumption
• An educated Japanese person living in Tokyo could be more individualistic than a less educated American in the Deep South.

Collectivistic Areas in the USA

• The U.S. is the most individualistic country in the world.
• The Deep South, Hawaii, and Utah are more collectivistic than other areas of the U.S.
• Appalachia may be collectivistic

What We Are Bad At Knowing

• What makes us happy or sad.
• Why we behave the way we do.
• How long it will take us to do something-planning fallacy
• The intensity and duration of our future emotions
• Impact bias-We bounce back from negative events more quickly than we think we will, and take less pleasure from positive events

Bottom Line for Self Knowledge

• Self-reports are untrustworthy, no matter how sincere the person may be.
• Too much self-analysis makes judgements less accurate.
• When someone else points out something about yourself, listen

Self-Esteem

• Our overall self-evaluation
• It's different for everyone.
• Specificity matters.
• For the most benefit, compliments should be specific and realistic.
• Good self-esteem is important for well-being.
• When self-esteem is threatened, we compensate or collapse.

Staying Positive

• Individualists are hurt more by personal attacks.
• Collectivists are hurt more by attacks to their groups.
• Individualists feel best after personal achievements.
• Collectivists feel best during social engagement

Why Have Self-Esteem

• Helps maintain relationships by letting us know when we might be rejected.
• Helps counter our fear of death and living our lives in vain.
• Terror management theory holds that much of human behavior comes from holding off our fear of death
• Self-esteem should not come from external sources like money, looks or grades.

Narcissim

• Narcissism means overly high self-esteem
• Narcissists are entitled, aggressive, tyrannical, and don't care about others.
• Collective narcissism means believing your group is vastly superior to others.
• Contrary to popular belief, narcissism is NOT a cover for deep insecurity.
• U.S. rates of narcissism have risen dramatically over time.
• Possible causes of narcissism include self-esteem programs in school and the rise of social media and personal technology.

Self-Control

• Self-control reserves are limited.
• When our stores are depleted, our behavior becomes unpredictable.

Self-Efficacy

• How competent we feel
• Those with high self-efficacy are more likely to succeed.
• Those with high self-efficacy if they feel like they are in control.

Locus of Control

• Addresses if you are in control of your life
• Internal locus of control means you are in control
• External LOC-chance or fate is in control
• Having an internal LOC has shows better well-being outcomes.
• It is possible to have too strong of an internal LOC.
• Positive thinking can only do so much.

Increasing Self Control

• Learned helplessness means feeling that nothing you do will make a difference
• Self-control can be taught.
• Provided people are given even small amounts of control, people will do better on a number of measures.

Choice

• Choice is good.
• Too much choice is not
• Too much choice can cause depression and decreased satisfaction.
• People are more satisfied when we can't take back our choices.

Self-Serving Bias

• The tendency to perceive ourselves favorably
• Self-serving attribution-when I succeed, it's because of my talents, but when I fail, it's for some external reason.
• People have a bias against seeing their own bias.
• Collectivists do this less than individualists.

Optimism vs Pessimism

• Humans tend towards optimism, and it appears to be necessary for well-being.
• People who are slightly pessimistic often judge a situation and their own abilities more accurately.
• People who are too optimistic don't take proper precautions and suffer negative outcomes.

False Consensus Effect

• When people think others agree with them more than they actually do

False Uniqueness Effect

• When people see themselves as unusually talented, moral, etc.

Exceptions

• People tend to think their failures are normal but their virtues exceptional.

Self-Handicapping

• Setting ourselves up to fail.
• Self-handicapping helps protect self-esteem in situations where we think we will fail.

Self-Presentation

• Presenting our desired image to others

Self-Monitoring

• Constantly managing our self-presentation
• People can be high or low on self-monitoring.
• Social media amplifies self-monitoring and self-presentation.

The Riddle

• Too little self-esteem and self-efficacy is bad.
• Too much self-esteem and self-efficacy is bad.
• It is bad to have too much internal or too much external LOC.
• To prevent incorrect self-esteem, LOC, and unrealistic optimism, we must know ourselves
• Humans are bad at knowing ourselves.
• Humans also lie to ourselves.

Explore the social self, spotlight effect, and illusion of transparency. Understand how self-concept develops through social comparisons, genetics, and culture. Learn about self-schemas and their role in defining ourselves.