ABOUT THE SELF_230910_035808_231217_111249.txt

WHAT IS THE SELF -In addition to our overall self-esteem, we hold specific evaluations of our abilities in particular areas. -Ali may have high self esteem but may know that he is not very diplomatic. -Ahmet may think negatively about himself generally but Know that he is very good in table ten...

WHAT IS THE SELF -In addition to our overall self-esteem, we hold specific evaluations of our abilities in particular areas. -Ali may have high self esteem but may know that he is not very diplomatic. -Ahmet may think negatively about himself generally but Know that he is very good in table tennis. -Usually the researchers study the explicit self- esteem, that is the concrete positive or negative evaluations we make of ourselves. But there is an implicit self-esteem too. -Implicit self-esteem can be defined as the less conscious evaluations people make of themselves. -Asians, especially the Japanese, are much less likely to answer explicit self-esteem scales in a self-enhancing manner. -In tests of implicit self-esteem Japanese students value letters in their names more than the other letters in the alpnabet. -How does a sense of self develop? -According to Erik Erikson (1963) issues of self or identity are especially important in adolescence and young adulthood. -But, the sense of self begins to develop in infancy with the recognition that one is a seperate individual. ~Very young children have fairly clear concepts of their personal qualities and what they do and don’t do well. ~The development of the sense of self is, in reality, a life-long process. WHERE DOES SELF-KNOWLEDGE COME FROM -It comes from many sources. -Some of it may seem to be spontaneous: a realization that something is true of one’s self without any certainity about where that knowledge comes from. -But, usually the origins of self-knowledge can be identified in specific experiences. ~-Now, let us see where self-knowledge comes from. Socialization Much of our self-knowledge comes from socialization. Children are treated in particular ways by parents, teachers and friends and they participate in religious, ethnic, or cultural avtivities that later come to be Significant aspects of them. -As a result of taking Kur’an courses at a mosmque and going to Friday Prayers a muslim boy may come to regard being a muslim as an important part of his identity. Socialization forms the core of early experiences and the regularity of those experiences may eventually come to be internalized as important aspects of the self concept. Reflected Appraisal We also learn about ourselves through the reactions that other people have to us. -C.H. Coley (1902) develeped the concept of the «looking-glass self» which maintains that people perceive themselves as others perceive and respond to them. Our perceptions of how other people react to us are called reflected appraisals. Baldwin, Carrel and Lopez, showed some Catholic Students a scowling picture of the Pope and others a picture of an unfamiliar person. - Later the students were asked to evaluate some of their own qualities. Practicing Catholics who were exposed to the picture of the scowling pope evaluated themselves more harshly than did both the unpracticing Catholics who were exposed to the same picture of the pope and the Catholics who were exposed to the unfamiliar other person. It seems that the picture of the scowling pope was enough to shake the self image of these students. Feedback From Others ~Sometimes people give us explicit feedback about our qualities. This process often begins in socialization, when parents tell their children not to be so shy, that they are good at playing football, that math is not their strong point, or that they are good in writing. -Generally there is a strong relationship between what parents think of their children’s abilities and children’s own self-conceptions abut these same dimentions. -In later childhod and early adolescence, feedback from peers may be more important. -Adolescence birings with it additional sources of direct feedback. -~Such as whether one is asked out on dates by many people or few, or whether the people that one asks out accept or decline. -Also, students get direct feedback from their teachers as comments and grades. -Research shows that, on the whole, people prefer objective feedback about their attributes because it is regarded as less biased. Self-Perception People observe their own behavior. -In the process of this observation they see tehmselves consistently preferring certain activities over others, certain foods over others, or certain people over others. From observing these regularities they may gain self- knowledge. However, as Daryl Bem’s self-perception theory Suggests, this source of knowledge may be useful primarily for aspects of the self that are not very important. For example, if I hate onions I don’t look at my behavior to know that I hate onions. Labeling Arousal States Another source of self-knowledge is our own physiological arousal. We respond to things that we perceive (a threatening dog, an attractive opposite sex) and recognize our emotions by considering our mental or physiological reactions. But many physiological reactions are biochemically Similar. » We can distinguish high arousal from low arousal but often not specific emotions. - Stanley Schahter (1964) suggested that perceptions of our own emotions depend on: The degree of our physiological arousal The cognitive label we apply to our arousal such as happy, in love etc To arrive at a cognitive label, we review our own behavior and the situation. For example, if we feel physiologically aroused and are laughing at a comedy show on TV, we might infer that we are happy. But usually our arousal states are not ambigious. We usually know what is causing our emotional states. Schahter’s theory seems to apply more to those circumstances in which our emotional states are ambigious and we must infer them from what goes on around us. Environmental Distinctiveness Our environment provides us with other cues about our personal qualities. -In particular, self-concept is heavily influenced by factors that make us distinctive. For example, McGuire and his associates (1982) asked students to «tell us about yourself» and found that students often mentioned aspects of themselves that make them distinctive. For example, a boy usually mentions his gender if he is the only boy in his family. Comparative Self Assessments ~Sometimes when we want to evaluate ourselves on a particular dimension or quality, information is not readily available. -For example, if you want to know if you are a good dancer, there is no test you can take to find out. ~So, sometimes we asses our own personal qualities by comparing ourselves to others. This process is called social comparison. -Frequently people evaluate their current situation in terms of their past. -For example, our memories let us know how much progress we made on particular skills or let us asses our current qualities. »>Have we become more or less tolerant with age? Am I better at table tennis than I was two years ago. -A warning, however, is that such comparisons are often biased, because it is easy to distort one’s prior position on an attribute when trying to gauge (measure) progress. Social Identity -Social identity may be defined as the part of an individual’s self-concept which drives from his or her membership in a social group or groups (family, work, religious, political, ethnic and other) together with the value and emotional significance attached to that membership. AS people get older, the attributes they value in themselves lead them to choose social groups that highlight (emphasize) and reinforce these values. -Self-concept and social identity mutually determine and shape each other. -Much of the research on social identity has focused specifically on ethnic identity. Ethnic identity can be defined as the part of an individual’s self-knowledge that is related to his or her membership in a particular ethnic group. -Developing a sense of self can raise particular issues for minority group members. -During the adolescent and young adult years, when people are developing their sense of themselves, reconciling ethnic background with main stream culture can be difficult, as is the case, for some of the second and third generation Turks in Germany. »-As can be seen in Table 4-2, some adolescents may identify with both mainstream culture and their ethnic group, creating what is called a «bicultural> or «integrated identity.» -Others may maintain a strong ethnic identity put few ties to the majority culture, maintaining a separated identiy. -Individuals who give up their ethnic heritage in favor of mainstream culture are said to be assimilated. Finally, some people develop only weak ties to both their ethnic culture and mainstream culture and feel marginal, like outsiders in both cultures. Four Identity Orientations Based on the Degree _ of Identification with one’s Ethnic Group and the Majority Group. Ident. With the Ethnic Grou . Ident. With theMajority Group Strong Weak Strong Integrated Assimilated Accultured Bicultural Seperated Marjinal Etnically ident. Etnically embedded Disassociated Source: Phinney (1990) - These distinctions are important because they predict the amount of contact that the individuals will have with their ethnic group and with the larger society. -Dona (1991) found that Central American refugees in Canada who were assimilated spent less time with other Central Americans than did those who were integrated or those who maintained a seperated identity. In turn, those who were integrated had more contact with Candian society than those who were seperated. -An interesting aspect of etnic identity and of social identities is that they can lead to self- stereotyping. Self-stereotyping can be defined as perceiving oneself as a member of a particular group and consequently behaving in line with that group. -~Sometimes this means that people assume the negative as well as the positive attributes of the group with wich they identified. -For example, a professor may identify with the stereotype that professors are smart but absent-minded. ae -Research shows that ethnic identity is related to high self-esteem but only when accompanied a positive mainstream orientation. -Among individuals who hold a strong ethnic identitiy without some adaptation to the mainstream culture, self-esteem can be more problematic. -The notion of bicultural competence (being adapted to both cultures) has been related to successful functioning in two cultures. -What leads to become higly identified with one’s ethnic or racial group? -In one study (Baldwin et. all., 1990) on African-American college students it was found that Those whose parents were members of predominantly black organizations,and Db) Tnose who themselves had experienced racism or racial prejudice were highly identified with their ethnic groups. Culture and the Self -Cross cultural research shows that concepts of self vary greatly, depending on the culture. -In the US there is a strong empnasis on individuality and how one can best distinguish oneself from others by discovering and makig use of one’s unique talents This independent self is a bounded, unique, more or less integrated motivational and cognitive universe, a dynamic center of awareness, judgement and action. -The interdependent self of many Eastern, southern Eurapean, and Latin cultures can be defined as seeing oneself as part of an encompassing social relationship and realizing that one’s behavior is determined and dependent on wnat one perceives to be the thougnts, feelings, and actions of others in the relationsip. -Westerners define independence as a fundamental task of socialization and teach their children how to be independent. This conception of self as independent versus interdependent is very important because it influences how people think about their own personal characteristics, how people relate to others, what emotions are experienced in diffrent Situations and what motivates people to engage in action. -Culture, Cognition an Emotion. Different interpretations (construal) of self have potentially important cognitive consequences. -For example, those with an independent sense of self see themselves as distinctive. -In contrast, those with interdependent selves, see the self as part of a specific social context in which both (self and others) are embedded. That is the self and others are quite smilar. - The factors underlying personal motivation to achieve may be different too. -For example, Americans tend to strive for personal achivement, wheres Japanese tend to strive for the achievement of group goals. -Personal choise of tasks or activities enhances motivation for those in the US, whereas it has a lesser effect on Asian students’ intrinsic motivation. The Measurement of Independent and Interdependent Self-Construals (conceptions). Indicate the extent to which you agree or disagree with each of the fallowing items based on the below scale: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Strongly agree Strongliy disagree _1. I have respect for authority _2. Iam comfortable with being singled out for praise or rewards _3. My happiness depends on the happiness of those around me. _4. I should take into consideration may parents’ advise when making education and career plans. (1,3,5 interdep; 2,4,6 indep) _5. Speaking up in class is not a problem for me. _6. My personal identity independent of others is very important to me. -People with independent versus interdependent selves may experience fundamentally different kinds of emotions » Those with an independent sense of self, as found in the US culture, frequently experience ego-focused emotions such as pride (I did well), or frustration (I was treated unfairly). -In contrast, cultures with interdependent conceptions of self tend to experience other- focused emotions. -Similarly, self esteem is likely to vary depending on the sense of self (indep. or interdep.) that a person Nas. -Think about such items as «I feel Iama person of worth» that are used to measure self esteem. -This kind of items are endorsed more by the members of cultures with independent sense of self than is done by the members of cultures with an interdependent sense of self. -Generally, the importance one attaches to self-esteem and its implications for life satisfaction vary between independent and interdependent cultures. -Diner and Diner (1995) in a study covering 31 countries, found that the relation between self-esteem and life satisfaction was lower in interdependent or collectivist countries, whereas, in countries with independent sense of self, high self-esteem is associated with high life satisfaction. -In collectivist cultures, social norms (such as, Social approval) are better predictors of life Satisfaction, whereas individual emotions are Stronger predictors of life satisfaction in individualistic cultures. -So different these patterns are that some questioned how psychologists should measure self-esteem, arguing that important components of self-esteem in interdependent cultures are missing from traditional Western definitions. -People are capable of thinking themselves in more than one culture Simultaneously. -~How does, then, biculturalism affect a person’s self-esteem? -Ross and his associates (2002) gave several questionnaires to Chinese-born students, who were randomly assigned to participate in either Chinese or English; Canadian born participants served as a control group and participated in English. -The results of the study showed that Chinese- born participants who responded in Chinese, endorsed more collective self-statements in their self-desriptions, scored lower on Self- esteem, and expressed more agreement with Chinese cultural views than did their Chinese- born counterparts responding in English. ~The results suggest that Chinese-born students had both East Asian and Western identities, with each being correspondingly activated by its associated language. -Individualistic motives versus interdependent ones are even used to organize information about the social world in memory. -People with independent self-construals are more likely to ignore the context in the inferences they make about the social environment, whereas those with interdependent self-construals process social Stimuli by paying attention to their relation to the context. (independents talk about actors and their personal qualities, interdependents talk about the social groups). -Despite differences, there are similarities too betwen independent and interdependent cultures conserning self. Those who see themselves especially positively have higher levels of self- esttem in both. -Members of interdependent cultures who Nave more independent self-concepts appear similar to those from independent cultures. For example, they show self- protective responses to negative feedback. -Measures of implicit self-esteem suggest that in interdependent cultures too, there is some tendency to self-enhance indirectly, as by overevaluating the letters in one’s name. -Relatedly, although Westerners are more likely to express the independent sense of self just described, there is much variability in the degree to which this is true. -Members of some Western ethnic and religious groups see themselves in interdependent or relational terms, despite living in a Western culture. -Women are more likely than men to Nave an interdependent sense of self and to think of themselves in terms of their relationships with others rather than primarily as independent from others Self-Schemas -A schema is an organized, and structured set of cognitions about some concept or stimulus. -Just as people hold schemas about the nature of other people and events, they also hold schemas about themselves. -Self-schemas describe dimentions along which we think about ourselves. -For example, you may be very concerned about maintaining or displaying your independence. -You might refuse to take money from your parents for college, might do your own laundry, or might not ask others for help in Statistics. -Or you might consider yourself more dependent ensuring help from pepole around you. -In either case you would have a strong self- schema concerning the independence- dependence dimention. -QOn the other hand, you might not think of yourself very much in connection with that dimension, in whicn case you are not thinking schematically on this dimention. -Tnat is, you would be described aschematic on the dimension of independence- interdependence. -People are schematic on dimentions that are important for them, on which they think themselves as extreeme, and on which they are certain that the opposite ts not true. -Not all schemas are positive. People also nold well developed, highly organized negative beliefs about themselves. -For example, someone who thinks of herself as overweight she will quickly notice that eating situations relevant to ner; she might plan what she will eat and may count the calories she consumes. -She is also likely to notice weight- relevant behaviors in others. -People hold self-conceptions not only about their current qualities, but also about traits that may become self-descriptive at some time in the future. -~Schemas that people hold concerning what they may be or could become in the future are called possible selves. For example, Orhan is going to be a doctor and has a possible self of himself as a doctor. Most possible selves are positive but some represent fears concerning what one might become in the future, like becoming an alcoholic. -Possible selves function in much the Same way as self-schemas. They help people to articulate (clear) their goals and develop behaviors that will enable them to fulfill those goals. -In a study by Ruvalo and Markus (1992) participants were told to imagine themselves being successful at work, lucky at work, failing at work despite clear effort, failing at work because of bad luck. ~The results of the study showed tnat participants who imagined themselves as Successful because of their own efforts worked longer on the task than did those who imagined themselves failing because of bad luck, presumably Decause they had a vision of the successful possible self in mind. Thus, possible selves provide focus and organization for the pursuit of goals. They hnelp people gather appropriate Knowledge and develop plans so they can rehearse the actions they need to undertake in persuit of their goals. - Then, self-schemas, including possible selfves, Nave important functions regarding self- Kowledge and the self in action. -Knowing our personal qualities enables us identify quickly whether situations are relevant to US. -Self-schemas help us to remember scheama- relevant information. They help us make inferences about the meaning of our past behavior and to make decisions and judgements that guide our future benavior. Self-Discrepancies -The personal attributes one would like to have are called the ideal self and the personal attributes one believes one should have are called ought self. -When we perceive a discrepancy between Our personal qualities now (our actual self) and what we would ideally like to have (our ideal self), we experience disappointment, dissatisfaction and sadness as well as a reduction in self-esteem. - Discrepancies between actual self and what we think we ought to be (ought self) produce agitation (disturbance) related emotions such as fear or anxiety. -To test these points Higgins and his associates (1985) had college students fill out a questionnaire for themselves that assessed their self perceptions, including how they would ideally like to be and how they felt they Ought to be. -Later they filled it out this time from the Standpoint of their father, mother and the closest friend. - Discrepancies between the actual self and the ideal self were producing dejection (depression)-related emotions and loss of self- esteem. -For example, wanting to be editor of the school news paper but failing to get the positon produced disappointment and Sadness. -Perceived discrepancies between one’s actual self and and a friend’s or parent’s ideal self produced anxiety. Increased importance hightened the resulting emotion. -According to self discrepancy theory we are predisposed, and may be taugnt as well, to think in terms of becoming our ideal self or meeting the standarts of others. -In general, people who are more concerned with becoming their ideal self recall having been raised by their parents in a warm and supportive way, whereas, those who are more concerned about the opinions of others report a parenting style marked more by rejection. -Cultural differences also affect whether the ideal or ought self governs self- regulatory behavior. -People with an independent sense of self are more likely to be motivated by discrepancies between themselves and their ideal selves. Those with an interdependent sense of self are more attentive to the concerns or demands of others. SELF REGULATION How do people take all this information about themselves and use it in their daily lives? Self regulation is defined as the ways we control and direct our own actions. People have enormous quantites of information about themselves, including their personal Charactersitics and desires and their conceptions of themselves in the future. -Here, we deal explicitly with how coceptions of self regulate tought, emotion and action in social situations. -Much of this self regulation occurs virtually automatically without any awareness or conscious thought. People respond to the cues that are salient in the environment and that guides their benavior. -But other times we consciously and actively intervene to control our thougts, reactions and behaviors. Now we begin with the working self concept. 62 The Working Self-Concept -~Which aspect of the self does influence our thoughts, and ongoing behavior? This depends in large part on what aspect of the self-concept is relevant to a particular Situation. The aspect of the self-concept that is accessed for a particular situation is called the working-self concept. -In a classroom situation the academic self is likely to be the dominant determinant of our thoughts and feelings. -If we are reminded about a party on Saturday evening, social self may be accessed. -The working self-concept is important because it draws on (makes use of) our overall self-concept but guides social behavior in specific situations. -The working self-concept, in turn, may be modified by what goes on in the Situation. - Self-esteem may be based on different attributes for different people. -For example, an atlete’s self-esteem may be based on his performance during a game. -On the other hand, a gifted student’s self- esteem may be based on his or her academic performance. Therefore, in situations that call for attributes that are central to one’s self-esteem, the self may be especially vulnerable (to increases and decreases). -Crocker and his associates (2002) studied students who applied for graduate school and then, examined their self-esteem on days when they heard from graduate programs to which they had applied. Participants who based their self-esteem heavily on academic competence showed greater increases in self-esteem on days they nad been accepted, and greater decreases on days when they nad been rejected than students whose self-esteem was less based on their academic competence. - Thus, the working self-concept can sometimes be incongruous with the stable self-concept. Think about an event in relation to a friend of yours, you had an argument with him and Snapped at her. -Afterwards, you probably didn’t feel good about yourself and she probably didn’t think much of you either. -Yet you probably have a stable sence of yourself aS a nice person who is easy to get along with. -You may not have thought well of yourself for a while after that particular incident. -Over time, however, your stable self-concept won out, and you again thought yourself as pleasant and easy to get along with, even though occasionally you are not this way at all. -Can changes in the working self-concept produce changes in the permanent self- concept? -Yes, but only when the changes in the working self-concept are stable over time. Self-Complexity -Another aspect of the self that is important for self-regulation is self- complexity. »Self-complexity can be defined as the number of dimensions people use to think about themselves. -Some people think of themselves in one or two predominant attributes, whereas, others think of themselves in terms of a variety of qualities. -For example, a university student may think of himself primarily as a student and focus his attention on beliefs about himself and on how well he does in his courses. -Another may think of himself in more complex ways, as a student, a son, a boy friend, a table tennis player, and a member of the student body. -According to Linville (1985) persons with Simple self-conceptions are buoyed (elevated) by success in their area of importance but are very vulnerable to failure. -For example, the student who focused primarily on her grades and who gets a bad grade may feel very upset and depressed because of it. -People who have more complex self-concepts , however, may be elevated by success but have other aspects of themselves that buffer them in the case of failures and setbacks. >The student who Nas an academic setback but has a complex self may temporarily turn her attention away from her school work and think of the other aspects of her self that are important for her. Therefore, self-complexity can act as a buffer (protector) against stressful life events and may help prevent people from becoming deppressed or ill in response to setbacks. -Researcah demonstrates the importance of complexity for buffering people against setbacks but with one caviat (warning): -Only positive complex self-conceptions serve this function. -Negative complex self-representations, by contrast, represent a risk factor for depression and predict poorer recovery from depression. Self-Efficasy and Personal Control -Other aspects of the self that influence self- regulation inciude self-efficasy beliefs. Self-efficacy may be defined as the expectations that people hold about their abilities to accomplish ceartain tasks. Whether we will undertake a particular activitiy or strive to meet a particular goal depends on whether we Delieve we will be efficacious in performing those actions. >The smoker will not stop smoking unless she believes she can do it, no matter how badly she may want to stop. -Faced with a challenging paper, the student who believes he has the ability to do a good job will be more likely to start it and persist on it more than the one who has doubts about nis ability to complete it successfully. -Early experiences with success and failure lead people to develop fairly stable conceptions of their self-efficacy in different life domains. - Self-efficacy beliefs are highly specific, control related perceptions of one’s ability to perform a particular behavior. They are not general feelings of control. Therefore, for example, if you want to Know if someone will work hard to try out for the tennis team, you need to Know his self-efficacy beliefs specifically related to making the tennis team, not his general feelings about himself as an effective person. -More generally, a sence of personal control enables people to plan, cope with setbacks, and generally engage in self- regulatory processes. -A sense of personal control, whether generally true of one’s life or true with respect to specific goals, plays an important self-regulatory role in helping people plan and make progress toward their futures. Behavioral Activation and Inhibiton Self-regulation involves fundamental decisions about what people and activities to approach and which ones to avoid. -According to psychologists people have two quite independent motivational systems that control these tasks: Benavioral activation system (BAS) Benavioral inhibition system (BIS) ~When BAS is activated, people tend to approach people or activities; ~*When BIS is activated, people are more likely to avoid people and activities. This distinction can be thought of as an individual difference. Some people are more BAS oriented and some people are more BIS oriented. -People who experience a lot of positive events and positive affect have a strong BA system and those who experience a lot of negative events and affects have a stronger BI system. -If good things are happening to you, you are more likely to be in an activation state (BAS) than in an inhibited state (BIS). -Discrepancies from one’s ideal self facilitate efforts toward attaining the ideal self (activation), whereas, concerns that one may not meet the expectations of others (e.g. father) represent a prevention (inhibition) orientation. Self-Awareness -Self-regulation is also influenced by our direction of attention, specificaly, whether attention is directed inward toward the self or outward toward the environment. -Usually our attention is directed outward toward the environment but sometimes it is focused inward toward ourselves. -Certain experiences focus attention inward, such as catching sight of ourselves in the mirror, having our picture taken, being evaluated by others, or being minority group member in a Situation. -During these experiences we begin to think not as moving actors in the environment but as objects of our own and others’ attention. -This state is called self-awareness -In general, self-awareness leads people to evaluate their behavior against a standard and to set an adjustment process in motion for meeting the standart. -For example, Suppose you and your date are in a restaurant sitting on a table and you see yourself in the mirror on the wall across you. Self-attention causes people to compare themselves to standards, such as those physical appearence, intellectual performance, athletic ability or moral integrity. -People attempt to conform to the standard, evaluate their behavior against that standard, decide that it either matches the standard or does not, and continue adjusting and comparing until they met the standard or give up. -This process is called feedback and the theory is called cybernetic theory of self-regulation. -Self-awereness is often experienced as aversive, so people try to find ways to reduce objective self-awareness, that is, to direct their attention away from themselves. -For example, by watching television, taking a walk, going to a cafe and talking with others and the like. Because self- awerenes points out to a flaw of us. -People differ in the extent to which they attend public or private aspects of themselves. -This aspect has been called «public» versus «private» self-consciousness. -People high in public self-consciousness are concerned with autonomy and issues of identity. They worry about what other people think about them, the way they look, and how they appear to others. -People high in private self-consciousness try to analyze themselves, think about themselves a great deal and are more attentive to their inner feelins. When their attention is diverted outward, they are more likely to place weight on social norms. They seem to have better developed self- schemas, and they are more aware of their inner dispositions. -When public self is made salient people tend to place more weight on their personal attitudes. These two forms of self are not opposites, people can be high in both and low in both. MOTIVATION AND SELF We have considered the working self-concept, self-efficacy expectations and focus of attention among other determinants of how people regulate their activities in the environment. -It is also important to Know the motivations that drive self-regulation. In general, people seek an accurate, stable and positive self-concept and will seek out situations or behave in ways that further those aspects of self. The Need for an Accurate Self- Concept >TO make their future outcomes predictable and controllable, people need to have a fairly accurate assesment of their abilities. -According to Trope (1983) in the absence of factors that might induce (lead) people to save face or strive to succeed, they tend to pick tasks that will be most informative about their abilities, tasks that he calls «diagnostic». »-However, when people receive discrepant feedback from others, they may be especially motivated to focus active attetion on the threat to a consistent self-conception and thus act to dispel the incorrect view. -Self-verification can also influence whether people feel the need to self- enhance or not. 90 i, For example, if you are a college student and want to know if you are a good table tennis player, you are unlikely to go to a children’s table tennis class or to the Turkish table tennis championship games. You know, that you will do extreemely well in the first setting and extreemly poor in the second. The situation most diagnostic for your table tennis ability is a faculty table tennis tournament. Accurate self-assesment enables us to anticipate and control our future performance. People are most likely to seek accurate self-relevant information when they anticipate that the news will be good but sometimes they may desire an accurate assessment of such information when they expect that the news will be bad. 91 The Need for a Consistent Self- Concept -Related to the need for accuracy is the need to have a consistent sense of self. -People do not want to think of themselves as changing dramatically from sitution to situation; on the contrary, they need to believe that they have certain intrinsic qualities that remain relatively stable over time. -We seek out situations and interpret our behavior in ways that confirm our preexisting self-conceptions. This process is called self-verification. -For example, imagine that a seminar has just ended and a classmate comes up to you and says, «Boy, you don’t talk much in class, do you?» -Perhaps you didn’t talk in class that particular day, but you may think of yourself as somebody who uSually does. -You may find during next class that, you talk even more than you usually do in order to convince your classmate, as well as yourself, that your conception of yourself as an active class participant is a correct one. -In one study (Reed and Swan 1981b) college students were led to believe that other college students’ evaluations of them would be either consistent or inconsistent with their own self-image. -When given a chance to see those evaluations, the students spent more time perusing (examining) consistent than inconsistent feedback. This was true even when consistent attributes were ones on which people perceived themselves negatively. -When interacting with others people also use behavioral strategies that confirm their self-conceptions. -That is, they deliberately act in ways that confirm the existing self image, especially when they are certain of their Sself-views. -This tendency is especially strong when people believe that others have incorrect beliefs about them. >This need to see the self in a consistent manner extends to several other Strategies of self-regulation. -We selectively interact with others who see uS aS we see ourselves. -We like people who see us positively on the attributes that we are confident we alelier -We choose signs and symbols in our clothing and appearence that say things about who we are. »~We remember feedback that is consistent with our self-attridutes better than we remember incongruent feedback. -What we said so far suggests that people Spend much of their time seeking out situaitons or ways of behaving in accordance with their existing self- concept but in actuality this is not true. -Generally, people are able to maintain their views of themselves without any active or conscious effort. - Self-verification can also influence whether people feel the need to self-enhance or not: when we are accepted for who we are by people who are important to us, our need to bolster self-esteem may decline. The tendency to seek self-verifying information is influenced by self-esteem; people with high self- esteem tend to seek self-verifying feedback whether it is positive or negative. But people with low self-esteem, who are especially concerned with self protection, tend to seek positive feedback more, even when that positive feedback is non-self-verifiying. - The need for consistent self may reflect a cultural value. Self-Improvement People are also motivated by the desire to improve their self. Many people try to improve their performance in sports and job skills in their work rather than maintain a Static level of activity. What kinds of information and situations do we seek when our goal is self-improvement? According to Markus, by clearly articulating visions of ourselves in desired activities (possible selves), we are able to set appropriate goals, make progress toward achieving those goals and see how well we are doing with respect to those goals. 99 Self-improvement may also be facilitated by social contact with other people. Specifically, comparing the self with someone who possesses a desired skill or attribute can enable a person to improve. This process is called upward comparison. -For example, a college football player may keep pictures of his favorite professional players on his wall to inspire him and remind him of the steps he needs to take to reach the Same level of success. > Self-improvement is often motivated by critisism, whether explicitly from others or implicitly in one’s performance. The perception that one has failed or not achieved as much as one hoped can be esteem reducing. Self-improvement processes are more pronounced, and negative reactions are weaker when failure is particular to a specific task, rather than to a more global trait such as intelligence. ~The specifity of the failure can be self- protective inspiring improvement in the specific situation or skill. In this way overall self-esteem may be maintained. Self-Enhancement -In addition to the need to have accurate information conserning our self-image we also need to set goals, acquire new skills and information, and generally improve on the abilities and skills that are important to us. Yet our self-regulatory activities are also heavily determined by the need to feel good about ourselves and to maintain self-esteem. The self-enhancement needs appear to be important most of the time and they become especially important following situations of threat, failure or blows to self-esteem. 102 > reen?! One of the ways people satisfy their self-enhancement needs is by holding self-perceptions that are falsely positive and somewhat exaggerated with respect to their actual abilities, talents and social skills. Taylor and Brown (1988) have called these positive illusions. There are at least three types of positive illusions: People see themselves more positively than Is true. They believe they have more control over the events around them than actually the case. They are unrealistically optimistic about the future. -For example, when students are asked to describe how accurately positive and negative personality adjectives describe themselves and others, they evaluate themselves more favorably than others. -People remember positive information about themselves, but negative information often slips conveniently from the mind. -We respond to threats by bolstering our self-perceptions in other life domains -We recall our successes more easily than our failures. -We believe we are more likely than others to engage in selfless, kind and generous acts. -We often remember our performance as more positive than actually was. -We believe we are happier than most other people. -We see ourselves as less biased than we believe others to be. -People are more likely to attribute positive than negative outcomes to themselves. -When our football team wins we attribute it to our team’s spectacular play, but attribute the loss to a «bed day or bad field» -The bride who can not dance says her sleeves are too tight. -When we are reminded of our negative qualities, we often regard them less important than our positive qualities. -Althougn we remember rather ambigously that we have no talents in some areas of our lives, we keep those negative self-perceptions away from the mind by avoiding thinking about them, avoiding situations that would bring them to the fore. -Alternatively, we may develop unique definitions and shortcomings, so that we value highly the things ve do well than the things we do poorly -Well, are there conditions when people are more accurate or balanced in their self-appraisals ? -It appears that when people are about to receive feedback from others they are reasonably realistic, even when they are pessimistic about the news they will get; when they are in the process of deciding between alternative courses of action, or setting goals, they are fairly accurate and honest with themselves. -People who are low in self-esteem or moderately depressed may be more evenhanded (unbiased) in their self perceptions. They tend to recall both positive and negative information, their self- perceptions are more congruous with others’ evaluations of them, they are less likely to show the self-serving attributional bias of taking credit for Successes but not for failures. - People are also more modest in their self- appraisals when they expect that others will have accurate information about their abilities, when their self-descriptions can be easily verified. -In summary, they are likely to exaggerate their self assessments when they won’t get caught with their white lies than when disconfirming evidence is likely to be forthcoming. - Why are most people so self-enhancing in their self- perceptions ? Because, self-enhancing positive illusions are adaptive. Unrealistic optimism about the future and a false sense of personal control may help us feel better about ourselves and persist longer in trying to achieve our goals. When we feel good about ourselves, we are happy, our social interactions go more smoothly, and we are more likely to help others. -In sum, self-enhancing self-perceptions may foster many of the tasks that are regarded as evidence of successful life adjustment: a sense of personal well- being , pleasant social interactions and the ability to engage in creative, productive work. Positive self-perception is thougth to foster good social relationships as well; however, it appears that this relation has an upward limit. People who are noticeably self-enhancing may alienate their peers. -Feeling good about ourselves (not feeling thretened or undermined) is important in other aspects of personal and social life. -When people are less threatened, they are more receptive to negative information about themselves. -When people are feeling good about themselves, they are less likely to be negative about other people. -Are people primarily motivated to be accurate or self-enhancing in their self- assessments? The answer depends on the circumstances in which feedback is sought. -Self-ennancement is more evident when personal qualities are ambiguous than they are concrete; people are more accurate if their self-assessments can potentially be disconfirmed. - Self-enhancement is more evident when a course of action has been selected than when it is under debate. Thus, people are most likely to be self- enhancing when the chances that they will be proven wrong are negligible, but they are more accurate and modest in specific situations when exaggerated self-assessments may be subject to scrutiny or might lead them down risky paths. -Are there cultural differences in the tendency to self-enhance? Yes (in individualistic vs interdependent cultures). - Self-Affirmation. According to psychologists, self-enhancement needs become especially important under threat conditions. -When people have received a blow to their self-worth brought about by a failure at some important task, they may try to emphasize or otherwise turn to positive features of themselves in order to compansate for the setback. -For example, an attractive male who fails an exam may seek out female student classmates who will flatter his ego. -Self-affirmation theory, developed by Claude Steele (1988), predicts that people will cope with sepecific threats to their self-worth by affirming unrelated aspects of themselves. -In an experiment that tests these points Brown and Smart (1991) gave students who were either high in self-esteem or low in self-esteem, a success or failure experience through an alleged test of their intellectual ability. - Subsequently, the students were asked to rate themselves on a series of threat adjectives. Half the items referred to social traits and attributes and half referred to traits and attributes that were related to the task on which the students had received feedback. Participants high in self-esteem who had failed on the intellectual task exaggerated the positivity of their social qualities; this result is consistent with the predictions of self-affirmation theory. Participants low in self-esteem however, did the opposite. They generalized the failure experience: both their self ratings of intellectual attributes and self- perceptions about social activities were low. 117 - The predictions of self-affirmation theory appears to be true generally, but they may be more true of individuals who are high in self- esteem than of those low in self-esteem. Self-affirmation theory also suggests that once a certain level of self-esteem is reached, activities that might enhance it further are more liklely to be avoided. We are satisfiers not maximizers. -When people have the opportunity to self- affirm, they may also be less defensive and more accepting of potentially negative information. The reason is that they feel good about themselves. -Terror Management Theory. Threat is an important stimulus to enhance the self, and there is, perhaps, no greater threat than death itself. Terror management theory maintains that people are vulnerable to fears about their own mortality and seek ways to manage and minimize the anxiety that this vulnerability Causes. -For example, when death is made salient, people actively suppress death-related thougnts. 119 -According theory, the terror of mortality is kept under control by at least two factors: 1) a cultural world view that makes sense of an otherwise threatening world and 2) personal self-esteem that confirms one is an object of value in a meaningful universe. On the first point, the theory maintains that Subscribing to and living up to culturally approved standards of behavior protect people from the anxiety that their vulnerability to death might otherwise create. - The theory also predicts that people are most likely to act on their world view when a mortality threat is made salient -For example, in one study, people were more likely to aggress against a person who challenged their world view when their mortality had been made salient; they were less likely to do so if no threat of mortality had been made. High self-esteem is also thought to help people manage the terror of mortality by allowing them to reaffirm their value and importance. -Tesser’s Self-Evaluation Maintenance Model. Abraham Tesser and his associates have suggested another social mechanism whereby people facilitate and maintain their positive impressions of themselves, namely, now they deal with the performances of otner people around them who might threaten or enhance their own sense of self-esteem. -For example, Mehmet’s best friend, Adnan, recently won a prestigious prize for writing a Short story. How will Mehmet react? *Will Menmet be overjoyed and eager to tell others about his friend’s success or will ne be envious of Adnan’s success and unhappy to be reminded that he is a less talented writer? More generally, when does the successful performance of another individual enhance our seli-evaluation, and when does it threaten our sence of self-worth? Tesser developed a self- evaluation maintenance theory to answer this question. -The performance of other people in our social environment can affect our seelf evaluations, especially when we are psyhologically close to them. -In Tesser’s model, perceived closeness can came from having a relationship with another person, such as a friend or relative. -But closeness can also be based on Shared characteristics, such as race, gender, religion or physical proximity. cI dl, = VeIIaVIUI Ul VDCUDVDITC WII are close to us has greater impact on us than the behavior of people who are psychologically distant. -In addition Tesser focuses on situations in which the other person performs relatively better than we do. The performance of others is less important to us when it is mediocre or poor. -According to Tesser the critical situation arises when a person we are close to 9erforms well. ~Do we take pride in the other person’s accomplishments or do we compare ourselves negatively to that person? -A key factor is whether the performance is relevant to our self definition. -If it is relevant, then it is likely to threaten Anmet’s self-evaluation and lead to feelings of envy and discomfort. -If it is not, Anmet is likely to take pride in the success of his friend because it poses no threat to his self-evaluation. -In short, the main ideas of Tesser’s theory are as fallows: The comparison effect. When another person outperforms us on a behavior that is relevant to our self definition, the better his or her performance and the closer our relationship, the greater is the threat to our self-evaluation. We feel envious, frustrated, or even angry. -2. The reflection effect. When another person outperforms us on a behavior that is irrelevant to our self definition, the better his performance and the closer our relationship, the more we can gain in self- evaluation. A process of reflection leads us to feel positive and to take pride in the other person’s SUCCESS. -Culture and Self-Enhancement. [here may be cultural differences in terms self- enhancement. For example, Japanese people are far more self-critical than are their Western counterparts The self-serving attributional bias is another example. AS we Nave seen, people tend to see themselves as the origin of actions that have good, not bad, consequences. -Such attributions are said to have self- enhancing qualities. > Takata (1987) found no self-enhancing bias among Japanese students, but the opposite: a bias in a self-effacing (humble) direction. »When Japanese students outperformed another person, they tended to regard their Success as situationally caused, whereas, when they were outperformed by another, they were inclined to see that other person’s qualities as responsible for his or her success. -But there are findings indicating that self- enhancement may take different forms depending on the values of the culture. SOCIAL COMPARISON THEORY -Comparisons with other people can be an important source of self-knowledge. »~When one wants to know where he or she stands on a particular quality or ability and objective information is not available, one may compare himsel or herself with others. This strategy is the core of one of the most important theories in social pychology: social comparison theory. -Leon Festinger (1954), a pioneer in modern social psychology, developed social comparison theory. -Festinger believed that people are motivated to make accurate assessments of their level of ability and the correctness of their attitudes. -To do this, they assess their own standing in comparison to that of others like themselves. For example, beginning chess players compare themselves to other beginners rather than to master players. -Festinger’s theory of social comparison can be summarized in there points: 1, People have a drive to evaluate their opinions and abilities. In the absence of direct pyhsical standards, people evaluate themselves through comparisons with other people. In general, people prefer to compare themselves to similar others. - The scope of social comparison theory nas been broadened. -It is now Known that people make comperative judgements about not only their abilities and opinions, but also their emotions, their personality, and their outcomes on such dimensions as salary and prestige. -The process of social comparison affects many aspects of social life. 124 tie hn -For example, the belief that our current dating partner is more wonderful than anyone we have ever dated before or could be dating now has important implications for our satisfaction and commitment to the relationship. -Relative deprivation can increase discontent and intergrup conflict because of social comparisons. -In fact, virtually any circumstance that makes the self salient can evoke social comparisons. The Goals of Social Comparison -Festinger’s (1954) contention that accuracy is the goal of social comparison Nas been challenged. -It now appears that social comparisons can be made in the service of a variety of other personal goals and motives. These motives are the same ones that drive self-regulation more generally. -Accurate Self-Evaluation According to Festinger (1954) people sometimes desire accurate knowledge about themselves, even if the feedback is not favorable. -For example, learning that you are the worst player on the volleyball team may Stimulate you to greater effort or encourage you to change sports -Self-Enhancement. Instead of seeking truthful self-evaluations, people may look for comparisons that will show them in a favorable light. -In particular, when self-esteem has been threatened by unfortunate or frustrating circumstances people often prefer to compare themselves with someone worse off than themselves. -A desire for self-enhancement can lead people to make downward comparisons. These comparisons are made with others who are less fortunate, less Successful or less happy which guarantees that one look better by comparison. -In cases of unfavorable comparisons, emphasizing one’s positive qualities may alleviate the effect of the social comparison. Example, the man with no shoes. - Self-Improvement. People sometimes compare themselves to others who can serve as models of Success, especially, if their standard is achievable. Contrary to what Festinger assumes, an aspiring chess player may compare his opening strategies to those of great masters to gain an assesment of his stage of learning. That is, the desire for self-improvement can lead to upward social comparisons with people who are more successful. The danger, with this is that comparisons with much better performers can be discouraging and lead to feelings of incompetence, jealosy, shame or inadequacy. For example, after rating models from popular women’s magazines, women who based their self esteem heavily on their appearance had worse self-esteem. -Sense of Communion (solidarity). So far, in the social comparison theory, we saw that comparisons result in contrast effects, wnereby one sees his own attributes different relative to others. -But people often compare their feelings or reactions wiht those of others in situations that may yield a sense of bonding. -When people are making social comparisons for the pupose of bonding, they are less likely to make upward comparisons, rather, they make «horizantal> comparisons with similar others which enhance a sense of solidarity. »Locke and Nekich (2000) had undergraduate students record their spontaneous social comparisons for a week. They found that the students often compared their subjective responses in situations and events with the other people they were close to during these events. -For example, in talking about their reactions to a test, they would often make statements such as «we all thought it was a really tough test.” The Comparison Process Festinger focused on situations on which a person chose to make social comparisons. -For example people may actively seek to compare their reactions with those of the others’ (neighbors, friends). -But other times social comparisons are not intentially sought but forced on people by the Situation. For example, when elementary school children play basketball, usually it is very clear who is good who is not. -And children may not want to undergo a comparison experience, but they find it an unavoidable part of their school life. -Smilarly, self-esteem is likely to vary, depending on the sense of self that a person holds ( dependent or interdependent). -~Members of cultures with an independent sense of self endorse self-esteem scale items such as «I feel I am a person of worth» more than members of cultures with an interdependent sense of self. -Unsolicited (not requested or asked for) comparisons can have important effects on a person. >In one study (Kenneth and Gergen, 1970) participants were undergraduate Students who responded to an ad in the school newspaper offering two part time jobs in «personality research.» -When each student arrived for his job interview, he was asked to fill out some questionnaires that included a measure of self-esteem. -He was then exposed to another applicant who was brought into the same room to fill out the application material. - The experimental manipulation varied the appearance of the other jop applicant. -Half the participants confronted with «Mr Dirty,> a young men wearing ripped trousers, a smelly sweat shirt, and no SOCKS. -He seemed very disorganized and glanced around the