Social Psychology Lecture 2 (Self Identity) PDF

Social Psychology Week 2: Self and identity Dr. Gary Ng National Chengchi University Our teaching assistant 詹宛臻 (Wan-Zhen Zhan) Email: [email protected] 2 Group member list Submission of group member list by September 25 (Wednesday), 5pm...

Social Psychology Week 2: Self and identity Dr. Gary Ng National Chengchi University Our teaching assistant 詹宛臻 (Wan-Zhen Zhan) Email: [email protected] 2 Group member list Submission of group member list by September 25 (Wednesday), 5pm – https://forms.gle/zVKxKJKSNmKvRfiw7 3 Content Spotlight effect Illusion of transparency Self-concept & social comparison Predicting our behavior and emotion Self-esteem – Self-esteem & self-efficacy – Self-discrepancy theory – Self-awareness theory 4 Spotlight Effect Belief that others are paying more attention to our appearance and behavior than they really are (Gilovich et al., 2000) – Seeing ourselves at center of stage – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRPtSy6i0B E 5 Illusion of Transparency Illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and can be easily read by others Being nervous about looking nervous – University students were asked to stand at the podium and do a public speech for 3 minutes with an observer – Both speakers and observers rated how nervous they thought they appeared while speaking – Self: 6.65, observers: 5.25 (Savitsky & Gilovich, 2003) 6  Illusion of Transparency Control condition: No further instructions Reassured condition: “just relax and try to do your best”, “if you become nervous, you probably shouldn’t worry about it.” Informed condition: “Research has found that audiences can’t pick up on your anxiety as well as you might expect” Adopted from Myers & Twenge, 2015 7 Self-concept & social comparison 8 Who am I? I am ………… I am ………… I am ………… 9 Personal vs. social identity Personal identity – Self-concept defined in terms of unique personal attributes – E.g. personality traits, attitudes, abilities, habits, etc. Social identity – Self-concept that derives from our membership of social groups – E.g. concrete roles, relationships, group memberships, categories, etc. 10 Two types of social selves Relational self – Connections and role relationships with significant others – E.g. I am a good friend of Peter Collective self – Differentiate in-group members from members of relevant out-groups – E.g. I am in NCCU basketball team Brewer & Gardner (1996) 11 Individualism vs. collectivism Individualistic cultures value the individual over group – Personal achievement – Responsible for self and immediate family – Stand out from the crowd – Personal identities are more important – E.g. US, UK, Netherlands 12 Individualism vs. collectivism Collectivistic cultures value the group over the individual – Tradition, conformity, and harmony – Responsible for entire group – Take pride in similarity to other group members – Social identities are more important – E.g. China, Japan, Taiwan 13 Independent vs. interdependent self Kassin et al. (2016) 14 Self-concept What we know and believe about ourselves How do we form our self-concepts? – E.g. How do we know whether we are rich, smart, or tall? 15 Social Comparison Evaluating one’s abilities and opinions by comparing oneself with others Money and well-being – More money doesn’t always lead to more happiness, but having more money than those around you can (Solnick & Hemenway, 1998) Facebook usage and happiness – Those who spent more time on Facebook were more likely to believe that other people were happier and had better lives than they did (Chou & Edge, 2012) – Facebook users are choosing to feature the more exciting and positive aspects of their lives 16 Social Comparison Having sex and happiness – Even people who have a lot of sex are less happy if their peers are having more sex than they are (Wadsworth, 2014) 17 How do you feel after watching this video? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOS76 PtwQrU 18 Social Comparison Schadenfreude – Pleasure coming from another person's misfortune 19 Social Comparison Looking-glass self – Use of how we think others perceive us as a mirror for perceiving ourselves People generally feel freer to praise than to criticize – They voice their compliments and restrain their criticisms – Overestimate others’ appraisal – People tend to see themselves as more physically attractive than they actually are (Epley & Whitchurch, 2008) 20 Predicting our behavior and emotion 21 Predicting Our Behavior Are we good at predicting our behaviour? Predicting romantic relationship – Roommates were better predictors of whether their romances would survive than they were (MacDonald & Ross, 1997) Predicting exam grades – Observers predicted psychology students’ exam grades better than the students themselves – Reason: when predicting others, give more weight to past performance; when predicting self, give more weight to aspiration level (Helzer & Dunning, 2012) 22 Predicting Our Behavior Predicting money spending – Canadian undergraduates – Predicted: $94 – Actual: $122 – Last week: $126 (Peetz & Buehler, 2009) 23 Predicting Our Feelings Affective forecasting – Predicting our affect in the future People have great difficulty predicting the intensity and the duration of their future emotions (Wilson & Gilbert, 2003) Predicting sadness when someone is killed – After Hurricane Katrina in 2005 – Students’ sadness was similar when it was believed that 50 people had been killed or 1,000 had been killed (Dunn & Ashton-James, 2008) – Seeing pictures of victims did make them feel sad 24 Predicting Our Feelings Predicting well-being – People overestimate how much their well-being would be affected both by bad events and good events (Eastwick et al., 2007) – winning a state lottery – suffering an accident Impact bias – Overestimating the intensity and durability of affect due to emotion-causing events 25 Self-esteem 26 Self-esteem A person’s overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth Source: https://unwire.hk/2015/11/26/cyberport-girl-i-am-zero/column/ 27  Rosenberg’s Global Self-esteem Scale 1=strongly disagree; 2=disagree; 3=agree; 4=strongly agree Œ I feel that I am a person of worth, at least on an equal basis with others.  I feel that I have a number of good qualities. Ž All in all, I am inclined to feel that I am a failure.  I am able to do things as well as most other people.  I feel I do not have much to be proud of. ‘ I take a positive attitude toward myself. ’ On the whole, I am satisfied with myself. “ I wish I could have more respect for myself. ” I certainly feel useless at times. • At times I think I am no good at all. Reverse scores for #3, 5, 8, 9, & 10 28 Self-efficacy A sense that one is competent and effective, distinguished from self-esteem (one’s sense of self-worth) (Bandura, 1997) I believe I can do something – Self-efficacy I like my self overall – Self-esteem 29  Actual and Ideal Self Self-discrepancy theory – The difference 30 between actual self Self- Ideal (who I think I really 25 esteem? am) and ideal self (who Actual I would really like to 20 be) affects emotional well-being (Higgins, 1989) 15 – Large discrepancy Self- between actual-ideal esteem? self produces 10 dejection-related emotions (e.g., 5 disappointment, dissatisfaction, 0 sadness) Person A Person B 30 Carl Rogers’ Self Theory 31 Self-awareness theory Self-focused attention leads people to notice self-discrepancies, thereby motivating either an escape from self- awareness or a change in behavior (Duval & Wicklund, 1972) 32 Self-awareness theory Kassin et al. (2016) 33 Self-awareness theory Withdraw from self-awareness – E.g. Drug abuse, drinking – E.g. Students who were told they had done poorly on an IQ test spent more time watching TV while waiting in the lab than those who were told they had succeeded (Moskalenko & Heine, 2003) 34 Class discussion Van Dijk, W. W. (2009). How do you feel? Affective forecasting and the impact bias in track athletics. The Journal of Social Psychology, 149(3), 343-348. 35 Class discussion 5 – 6 students per group Each group only needs to submit 1 form Remember to write the names of ALL group members who attended the class and joined the class discussion Recommended to bring a laptop or iPad for easier reading Some groups will be invited to have a mini- presentation The article and link for Google form are on Moodle 36 Discussion questions 1. How did this study measure impact bias? 2. Use two sentences to summarize the findings of this article. 3. Evaluate on the methodology of this article. 4. Provide some suggestions to improve the study. 37 It’s not as bad as you think J 38