Social Psychology Chapter 2: The Social Self PDF

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Chapter 2 The Social Self THE SELF what i think abt myself how u feel abt urself 2 ▪Self Concept cognitive - what u think abt urself ▪Self Esteem affective/emotional - how u feel abt urself...

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY Chapter 2 The Social Self THE SELF what i think abt myself how u feel abt urself 2 ▪Self Concept cognitive - what u think abt urself ▪Self Esteem affective/emotional - how u feel abt urself ▪Self Presentation behavioural - what u do / how do u intereact w/ ppl  SELF CONCEPT type of person u r / vales/likes/ expectations for future anything abt thinking ▪ Sum of the beliefs you have about yourself sum of ur knowledge of a topic ▪ Self-Schema ▪ Beliefs about yourself that guide how you process information. gender / values / position in family / etc each have their lvl of importance of things abt themselve we compare ourselves by using other ppl SELF AND SOCIAL COMPARISONS the way how we think abt ourselve is dependent on the situation we are in - exaplining urself in school vs. w/ friends we explain outself that seperates from other ppl (what makes u differ from other ppl) types of comparison we make influences how self concept is developed ▪ We compare ourselves to others and are conscious of those differences. ▪ Lockwood and Kunda (1997) found that social comparisons can have either positive or negative effects. lake woebegone effect = SELF AND SOCIAL COMPARISONS Other people’s judgments doesnt matter how well we do smth in general / we do it to compare it w/ others  Positive and negative judgments have different effects  The looking-glass self  How we imagine others see us we are terrible how ppl actually see us 6 SELF AND CULTURE 7 SELF AND CULTURE Culture and self-esteem  Collectivist cultures: give prioroty to the needs of ur group / succes + contribution to the group set more on group than individua = tied to how harmonious u are in group memebers ▫ Self-esteem is relational and malleable tend to think in growth mindsets ▫ Persist longer on tasks when failing ▫ Upward social comparisons ▫ Balanced self-evaluations  Individualist cultures: give priotity to urself more personal = based on ur achievements ▫ Self-esteem is less relational and more personal ▫ Persist longer on tasks when succeeding ▫ Downward social comparisons "im better than those ppl" ▫ Self-evaluations biased positively tend to think ouselves in fixed traits - i am gud at math > i will cont to do math - if im bad at math > imma just stop 8 SELF AND CULTURE 9 SELF-KNOWLEDGE how gud r u at at knowing urslef? - nah u dont LUL bad at predicting our future behav Predicting behaviour we underrestimate how long we take we tend to focus on the endpoint, neglecting the process  Planning fallacy: the tendency to underestimate how long it will take to complete a task bad at predicting how we feel abt things Predicting feelings emotion tend to overestimate how we feel + underestimate on how long we feel abt the event  Affective forecasting: prediction about future feelings overstimate how much its gonna bother us due to other facors contributing to that feeling  Impact bias: overestimating the enduring impact of emotion-causing events 10  SELF-KNOWLEDGE  Dual attitude system: unconscious  Implicit (automatic) attitudes formed slowly on prev exposure (whole history that u been fed)  Change slowly, with practice that forms new habits  Explicit (consciously controlled) attitudes  May change with education and persuasion  Practical implications: may not actually reflect ur behav  Self-reports are often untrustworthy  Sincerity does not guarantee validity 11  SELF ESTEEM how u feel abt urself ▪ The affective component of the self, how you feel about yourself. ▪ Our sense of self-esteem functions as a sociometer, and indicates how well we are doing in the eyes of other people ▪ Self-esteem maintenance motive ▪ Self-esteem feelings as a fuel gauge doing nice things abt others fuels SE ▪ Compassion is a route to self-esteem seen as a measure/marker on how well ur doing in ur social world/relatioship age varies w/ SE - older = higher SE LOTS OF individual diffs many ppl like to keep SE at a higher lvl/back to normal SELF-EFFICACY cog - beleif of ur competence ▪ A belief in your own competence ▪ Differs from self-esteem, which reflects how much a person likes themselves 13  SELF ESTEEM where is this coming from? (what is this linked to?) ▪ Does high self-esteem lead to better life outcomes? the harder u try to maintain high SE, more liekly to backfire - becomes more anxious/worry abt maintaining a high SE/positivity  THE TRADE-OFF OF LOW VS. HIGH SELF-ESTEEM  Low self-esteem associated with more anxiety, loneliness, and eating disorders for ppl w/ high SE  Often higher in gang leaders, terrorists, and imprisoned men who have committed violent crime ppl w/ high SE feel they are worthly/value their achievements but still care abt u Narcissism: Self-esteem’s conceited sister  Those high in both narcissism and self- esteem tend to be more aggressive thinks they are better than others in general / value themselves+achievments but doesnt care abt u  Narcissism seems to have increased over the past decades overt narcissism = P who brag how great they are < has high SE covert narcissim = P who doesnt have high SE / they think they are better but thinks that other ppl cant appreciate? them 15 WHAT IS THE NATURE AND MOTIVATING POWER OF SELF-ESTEEM? 16  SELF ESTEEM the bigger the gap b/w the 2 selves = lower SE not in txtbook / diff vers of ourselves Self-Discrepancy Theory who we actually are Actual versus Guilt, anxiety, shame who we are supposed to be (from enviornment) Ought self Actual Disappointment, frustration, who we want to be versus Ideal sadness self SELF ESTEEM ▪ Maintained by self-serving bias ▪ The tendency to attribute personal failure to external forces and personal success to internal forces way to protect our SE ▪ Self-Enhancement ▪ Implicit egotism nonconios form / smth associated to u = tend to like it more ▪ Self-serving attributions attribute succcess to ourselves... ▪ Positive illusions tend to think they are above avg > develops SC ▪ Downward social comparisons beleiving u r gud at smth = higher SE fixed mindset helps perform better than growth mindset UNREALISTIC OPTIMISM ▪Most people are predisposed to optimism related to better emotional health abt ourselve ▪Unrealistic optimism about future events ▪ Supported by being pessimistic about the future of others ▪ E.g., undergraduates believe they are far more likely than their classmates to get a good job when optimism is too strong > sets up difficulties ▪ Illusory optimism increases vulnerability doesnt think too much abt the situation and as a reulst backfires on u ▪Optimism promotes self-efficacy = focus on making backup plans for the worse case scenario ▪Defensive pessimism helps people prepare for problems. ` 19 ▪ Ironic Mental Processes anytime u try to control a thought process = u just think abt it immediately gets wrose under stress /menta; overload the harder u try to be happy = harder to be happy  FALSE CONSENSUS AND UNIQUENESS not so positive/socially desriable opionion < tend to overestimate others will think of this way ▪ False consensus effect ▪ Overestimating the commonality of one’s opinions and one’s undesirable or unsuccessful behaviours have a desirable/gud beleif < tend to underestimate others would do the same thing ▪ False uniqueness effect ▪ Underestimating the commonality of one’s abilities and one’s desirable or successful behaviours temporal... ? = conceptiosn abt our past selves are not accurate (how we felt in the past is disotrted of our current self) 22 EXPLAINING SELF-SERVING BIAS 23 SELF-HANDICAPPING way to proetc one's image (espically to proectc one's family) eg. failed math test < doesnt study for it - finds ways to make an excuse to not own up to that expectation - way to maintain SE Protecting one’s self-image with behaviours that create a handy excuse for later failure: ▪ e.g., partying the night before an exam 24 we try to shape how others see us IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT try to present in a way what others would want to see us as ▪ Self-presentation: wanting to present a desired image to the world adjusts their behav/appeaance/etc to match their social cirlce / "social cameleons" ▪ Self-monitoring: being attuned to the way one presents oneself in social situations and adjusting one’s performance to create the desired impression eg. social media - think how it woudl be posted + how it shouwld be presented` 25  trying tp shape other ppl's view of u to match a certain area - eg. dressing up for job interview SELF PRESENTATION ▪ Strategic ▪ Ingratiation = praising the other person ▪ Self-promotion = promoting on how great u are ▪ Self-Verification trying to get other ppl to see how u actually are (i want u to see who i am) - dont wish to keep up a mask