PSY2234 Social & Personality Psychology: The Social Self PDF

PSY2234 Social & Personality Psychology: The Social Self Associate Professor Trevor Case Essential Reading Gilovich et al. (2024) Ch.3 ― NOTE: The exam questions are taken from the lecture material, tutorials, and the rea...

PSY2234 Social & Personality Psychology: The Social Self Associate Professor Trevor Case Essential Reading Gilovich et al. (2024) Ch.3 ― NOTE: The exam questions are taken from the lecture material, tutorials, and the readings 2 Lecture outline The social self vs personality The spotlight effect Self-schema Origins of the sense of self How accurate is self-knowledge? Self-esteem 3 The social self vs personality Personality: Relatively stable intrinsic characteristics, which influence behaviour across different situations Social self: How individuals perceive themselves based on their social interactions and the roles they play—the answer to Who am I? It changes depending on the context, (e.g., people around us, social norms) Comprises: ― Self concept, what we know about ourselves ― Self-esteem, how we feel about ourselves Steele, Frederic Dorr: Woman looking at her reflection in mirror, 1918 4 The social self The social self, is shaped in part by what we imagine others think of us— reflected self-appraisal ― When we make an insightful comment in a group discussion, we believe that others notice and remember it (improves self-esteem) ― When we stumble in public, we feel embarrassed and believe others are judging us (lowers self-esteem) We are so concerned about what others think of us that our perceptions are often exaggerated… 5 How much do people notice us? THE SPOTLIGHT EFFECT Spotlight effect: We tend to be self-conscious and think others overly pay attention to our appearance and behaviour (e.g., bad haircuts) Illusion of Transparency: We also think others can easily read our concealed emotions (e.g., when lying) 6 The spotlight effect (GILOVICH ET AL., 2000) Procedure: ― 2-6 Observers seated at table facing the door & filling-out questionnaires ― target arrives 5 mins late & asked to “put on this T-shirt” before joining the rest ― joins group and is seated facing them ― E says the others are too far ahead in the task & directs target to wait outside ― Then target was told that this is an incidental memory study and asked: How many of the people in the room you were just in would be able to tell me who is on your T-shirt? in would be able to tell me who is on your T-shirt? 7 The spotlight effect (GILOVICH ET AL., 2000) How many of the people in the room you were just in would be able to tell me who is on your T-shirt? Participants overestimated how much others paid attention to their undesirable/ embarrassing T-shirt 8 The spotlight effect (GILOVICH ET AL., 2000) http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofilefriendid=27567006 Our sense that “all eyes are upon us” might only occur when we are embarrassed. Jerry Seinfeld s004 Does this happen when we want http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat/archive/2005_01.php others to notice us? ― The study was run again using desirable T-shirts? 9 The spotlight effect (GILOVICH ET AL., 2000) http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofilefriendid=27567006 Jerry Seinfeld http://www.villagevoice.com/blogs/bushbeat/archive/2005_01.php s004 How many of the people in the room you were just in would be able to tell 50 me who is on your T-shirt? 40 Percent Again, participants overestimated how 30 much others paid attention to their 20 appearance 10 Predicted estimates were actually an 0 underestimate—participants adjusted Predicted Actual these down from their first impression. 10 What we agonise over, others soon forget Prosocial implications We are supersensitive to what others think of us We experience painful social emotions when we deviate (e.g., shame, embarrassment, guilt) We experience positive emotions when we feel admired and accepted Adaptive (group cohesion, cooperation, reputation management) The good news: Just knowing about the illusion of transparency (others reading our concealed emotions) reduces it E.g., increases perceived and actual confidence in public speaking (Savitsky & Gilovich, 2003) Self-schema The vast amount of knowledge that we have about ourselves from past experience is organised into self-schemas Represents a person’s beliefs and feelings about themselves (e.g., I’m a kind and helpful person) In both general, and in specific situations (e.g., I feel compassion towards those in need; I can recall specific instances where I gave to charity or helped someone) We also use this knowledge store about the self to make sense of the world (e.g., I see an elderly person having difficulty crossing the street—I’ll help them). In this way, our sense of self impacts how we perceive, remember, and evaluate our social world (cognitions & motivations) Self-reference effect: We are quicker at processing information that is relevant to the self, and we remember it better (Symons, & Johnson, 1997). 12 Origins of the sense of self THROUGH THE EYES OF OTHERS Family and other influential people in our lives are powerful socialising agents E.g., a child encouraged by its parents to play soccer or attend church each week comes to internalise, after time, that they are a soccer player or religious. Seeing ourselves as (we imagine) other see us (reflected self-appraisal) The looking-glass self (Cooley, 1902): others act as mirrors, reflecting back to us how we are perceived, and these reflections shape our sense of who we are The spotlight effect and illusion of transparency suggest that this is sometimes distorted. 13 Origins of the sense of self THE CONTEXT The social self changes across different contexts—the working self-concept (Markus & Wurf (1987) family gathering vs with friends vs at work vs sport? in any given situation, we only draw on a relevant subset from our vast store of self-knowledge this means that different contexts can call upon different selves e.g., - Family gathering: responsible daughter - Friends: easy going, talkative - Work: diligent employee - Sport: aggressive, competitive Stability? The vast store of knowledge is stable The working self-concept varies, but there are still core beliefs that may define the self across situations (e.g., valuing fairness) The shifts in the working self-concept are consistent (e.g., when at work: diligent, but never aggressive & competitive). 14 Origins of the sense of self MARKUS AND KITAYAMA (1991): SEE CULTURE TUTE Independent (individualistic) self: ― tend to see their attitudes, abilities & traits existing across all situations Interdependent (collectivist) self: ― tend to see their attributes as existing only in relationships with others Note, bold Xs on the diagrams represent important attributes. Origins of the sense of self SOCIAL COMPARISON; GROUP MEMBERSHIP Social comparisons (Suls & Wheeler, 2000): we evaluate ourselves against others to learn about ourselves (e.g., wealth, intelligence) We tend to compare ourself to people who are near our level (not the best in the field) Downward (feel better; boosts self-esteem; Schadenfreude) Upward (feel worse; lowers self-esteem) But if we are motivated to improve, we engage in (a slight) upward comparison Social identity (Tajfel & Turner, 1979): The groups you belong to (e.g., religion, race etc) Out-group members are seen as similar to one another Favor one’s in-group Random allocation to groups is sufficient to produce this Identifying with a group can lead to Self-stereotyping where the person embraces other aspects that are perceived to be associated with the group that they identify with (e.g., footy player: not academic, excessive drinking, etc). 16 How accurate is self-knowledge? Our self knowledge is built up through experience, which forms our overall self- concept. Since we are the store of this information about the self and it is derived from our experiences, is it reasonable to assume that it is accurate? How accurate are our attempts to explain our behavior and predict how we will feel in the future based on our self-knowledge? We are often poor at explaining our behavior Life satisfaction when raining or sunshine (Schwarz & Clore, 1983) Misattribution of fear arousal to attractive girl; 50% called for feedback vs. 12% for same girl on low stable bridge (Dutton & Aron, 1974) 17 How accurate is self-knowledge? We are also often poor at predicting our behavior Milgram’s obedience studies; Darley & Latane’s experiments on helping behaviour and the influence of bystanders Asch’s Conformity experiments Relationship longevity--couples overestimate this; friends and parents were more accurate (MacDonald & Ross, 1999) Others might be more accurate about us (Nisbett & Wilson, 1977) 18 How accurate is self-knowledge? KRUGER & DUNNING (1999) “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge” (Darwin , 1871) Clever study illustrating our lack of self knowledge… N=45 students Rated funniness of jokes Also rated their ability to recognise what’s funny compared to average student 30 jokes rated by professional comedians 19 How accurate is self-knowledge? KRUGER & DUNNING (1999) Participants rated how they compared to the average student on a percentile scale (0= bottom; 50 = average; 99 top) Those who were very bad at judging what’s funny wildly overestimated their ability Those who were very good at judging what’s funny mildly underestimated their ability. Same pattern occurred for other abilities (e.g., grammar and logic problems) So, incompetence robs us of the ability to appreciate our lack of ability. 20 How accurate is self-knowledge? Predicting our feelings (affective forecasting) Impact bias: We overestimate the enduring impact of emotion-causing events (e.g., losing weight, winning lottery) Lecturers were asked to predict their future happiness after achieving tenure or not (Wilson et al., 2005) ― Most saw tenure as crucial to future happiness ― But a few years after the decision there was little difference in happiness between those who got tenure & those who didn’t. Future happiness (Brickman et al., 1978) ― Lottery winners: 4.20/6 ― Para/quadriplegic: 4.32/6 Important because we make lots of life decisions based on future happiness 21 How accurate is self-knowledge? WHY ARE WE POOR AT PREDICTING OUR FUTURE FEELINGS? We underestimate the power of the psychological immune system to facilitate recovery from trauma (Wilson & Gilbert, 2003) We discount, forgive, make attributions etc. which helps us deal with trauma So, both the event and many other things contribute to our happiness: ― we underestimate “everything else” (e.g., having a laugh with a friend, reading a good book, a sunny day etc.) 22 Self-esteem HOW WE FEEL ABOUT OURSELVES The social self: The self-concept concerns knowledge about ourselves Self-esteem concerns how we feel about ourselves Self-esteem: Overall positive or negative evaluation people have of themselves We are motivated to make self-enhancing attributions for failure, which increases self- esteem. So, self-esteem is generally high In a study of 53 nations, average self-esteem was above the midpoint in every country (Schmitt & Allik, 2005) 23 Self-esteem SOCIOMETER (LEARY ET AL. 1995) Different concept of self-esteem is Leary’s sociometer hypothesis Different to the conventional view that self esteem is a gauge of self-worth Self esteem as a readout of how accepted or rejected we are Low self-esteem is a powerful signal to ourselves that we need to repair relationships This self-esteem sociometer is adaptive because acceptance by the group is critical for survival So, our self-esteem is high when we feel attractive, competent, successful etc. because this make us more likely to be accepted. 24 Self-esteem SUCCESS AND FAILURE Success and failure In contrast to the notion of ‘unconditional affirmation’ Actual successful performance improves confidence and self-esteem ― e.g., academic success improves confidence in academic ability William James: ― Self-esteem = successes/pretensions Wood et al. (2009) “I’m a loveable person” ― Measured initial self-esteem ― “I’m a loveable person” repeated 16 times during a 4 min writing task vs control ― DV: Rated mood 25 Self-esteem WOOD ET AL. (2009) Those with low self-esteem felt worse These are the very people who need the affirmation to work Implications for self-help 26 Self-esteem SELF-SERVING BIAS AND SELF-ENHANCEMENT Attributional distortions that Taylor and Brown (1988): protect or enhance self-esteem Influential review showing that self-knowledge that includes positive illusions about the self is We take credit for success and blame others for associated with better overall adjustment failure ― Controversial area with others showing that ― One of the most potent biases (Mezulis et realistic/accurate beliefs are associated al., 2004) with positive outcomes ― E.g., exam success vs failure Is high self-esteem always beneficial? We see ourselves as better than the average person (Zell et al., 2020) ― Safer drivers, more ethical, live longer, more intelligent, better job performance, greater future wealth etc. Also, many others… 27 Self-esteem “DARK SIDE” OF SELF-ESTEEM Heatherton & Vohs (2000) 1. Measured S/E 2. ½ participants threatened by E giving failure feedback about their aptitude 3. Placed in conversational dyads 4. Then the S’s antagonistic behavior was rated by their conversational partner (DV) Found: increased rudeness, arrogance, & unfriendliness in those high in SE 28 Conclusions The social self encompasses our knowledge and feelings about ourselves. Self-knowledge is often flawed and our self- esteem bolstered by self-enhancement However, the social self plays a crucial role in fostering group cohesion, cooperation, and reputation management, all of which are vital for survival. 29