Week 4 Exam Notes: Introspection, Self-Awareness, and Social Comparison PDF

**Week 4 Exam Notes: Introspection, Self-Awareness, and Social Comparison** **1. Introspection** - **Definition:** Introspection involves looking inward to examine one\'s thoughts, feelings, and motives. - **Thinking about ourselves is rare**; people often don't engage in deep self-re...

**Week 4 Exam Notes: Introspection, Self-Awareness, and Social Comparison** **1. Introspection** - **Definition:** Introspection involves looking inward to examine one\'s thoughts, feelings, and motives. - **Thinking about ourselves is rare**; people often don't engage in deep self-reflection. **Study: CSIKSZENTMIHALYI & FIGURSKI (1982) - Pager Study** - **Findings:** People report lower levels of positive emotions (affect) when thinking about themselves. - **Voluntary Activity (e.g., watching TV):** Associated with negative self-affect. - **Strengths:** Provides real-time insight into how people feel and what they are doing. - **Limitations:** The methodology might attract specific types of participants and may not be generalizable to everyone. Also, participants may be unwilling to participate in such an intrusive study. **2. Self-Awareness Theory of Introspection** - **Key Concept:** When we become aware of ourselves, we tend to evaluate and compare our current behavior with our internal standards and values. This leads to **negative affect** (guilt) if we don\'t meet our standards. - **Positive Self-Awareness:** Occurs when we exceed our internal standards, but the effect is usually temporary as the bar is raised for future performance. - **Negative Self-Awareness:** Results from failing to meet internal standards, leading to feelings of inadequacy or guilt. - **Studies Supporting Self-Awareness Theory:** - **DIENER & WALLBOM (1976):** Participants seated in front of a mirror were less likely to cheat on a test because the mirror heightened self-awareness. - **SOHN ET AL. (2019):** When people saw their face on video (e.g., Facebook), they were less likely to engage in abusive behavior, demonstrating how introspection reduces harmful actions. **3. Observing Our Own Behavior (Self-Perception Theory)** - **Definition:** According to self-perception theory, people infer their attitudes and feelings by observing their own behavior and the situation it occurs in, rather than relying on introspection. - **Anxiety vs. Excitement:** The physical response (e.g., increased heart rate) might be interpreted as anxiety or excitement depending on the context. - **Studies Supporting Self-Perception Theory:** - **NISBETT & WILSON (1977):** Participants were unaware of why they made certain decisions, such as pantyhose selection or rating a teacher\'s warmth, showing that people are often unaware of the true reasons for their thoughts and behaviors. - **DUTTON & ARON (1974):** Participants who crossed a high, shaky bridge misattributed their feelings of arousal (fear) as sexual attraction, demonstrating how physiological arousal can be misinterpreted based on context. **4. Using Other People for Self-Reflection: Social Comparison** **Social Comparison** - **Definition:** The process of evaluating oneself in relation to others. - **We compare across:** - Behavior - Ability - Opinions - Life circumstances (e.g., job, possessions) **Social Comparison Theory:** - **Key Concept:** We learn about our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves to others. - **4 Key Questions in Social Comparison Theory:** 1. **When do we compare?** - We compare ourselves when there is no objective standard to measure against, or when we care about our performance in a particular domain. 2. **Who do we compare ourselves to?** - **Upward Comparison:** Comparing to people doing better than us. - **Downward Comparison:** Comparing to people doing worse than us. - **Lateral Comparison:** Comparing to people at a similar level of ability. 3. **Why do we compare?** - **Self-enhancement:** To feel better about ourselves. - **Self-evaluation:** To assess how we are doing in relation to others. - **Self-improvement:** To identify areas where we can improve. - **Altruism:** To help others. 4. **What is the impact of social comparison?** - **Positive Effects:** Can inspire and motivate us (e.g., upward comparison offers hope, downward comparison offers gratitude). - **Negative Effects:** Can lead to envy, regret, or feelings of inferiority (e.g., upward comparisons may cause negative feelings of inadequacy). **Types of Social Comparison:** - **Downward Social Comparison Theory:** - **Definition:** Comparing ourselves to people who are doing worse than us. - **Benefits:** Restores self-esteem, boosts self-evaluation, and reduces feelings of threat. - **Prone to:** People with low self-esteem tend to engage in downward comparisons to feel better. - **Upward Social Comparison Construal Theory:** - **Definition:** Comparing ourselves to people doing better than us. - **Benefits:** Offers inspiration and a model for self-improvement. - **Drawbacks:** Can lead to feelings of envy, regret, or inadequacy. **5. Motivations for Social Comparison** - **Helgeson & Mickelson (1995) - Motivation:** - **Self-enhancement:** Motivated to feel better about ourselves. - **Self-destruction:** Motivated to confirm our fear of declining. - **Self-evaluation:** Motivated to assess how we're doing. - **Self-improvement:** Motivated to grow and improve. - **Altruism:** Motivated to help others and feel empathetic. - **Common Bond:** Motivated to connect with others for empathy and support. - **SONG ET AL. (2019):** Culture can influence the motivation for social comparisons (e.g., in Facebook interactions), with people in different cultures motivated by different comparison goals (e.g., self-enhancement or self-improvement). **6. Self-Evaluation Maintenance Theory (SEM)** - **Key Concept:** People feel threatened when others outperform them, especially in areas that are important to them. - **Strategies to reduce threat:** 1. **Reduce closeness to the friend.** 2. **Stop caring about the area in which the friend is excelling.** 3. **Sabotage the other person's performance.** - **Tesser & Smith (1980):** Participants gave their friends more difficult clues when they thought the task was important, showing that people might sabotage their friends to protect their self-esteem when feeling threatened by their success. - **NICHOLLS & STUKAS (2011):** **Narcissism and Competitiveness**: Highly narcissistic individuals tend to reduce closeness to a friend if they perform better, highlighting the competitive nature of such individuals. **7. Cultural Influences on Social Comparison and Self-Evaluation** - **Johnson (2012):** Upward social comparison can either motivate people to improve or lead to negative behaviors like sabotage, depending on whether the individual believes they can improve. - **Gerber et al. (2018):** Upward comparisons provide hope and inspiration, while downward comparisons lead to gratitude. However, comparing ourselves to others can also cause negative emotions such as envy, regret, or worry. **Summary:** - **Introspection** helps us evaluate ourselves but often leads to negative emotions when we don't meet our internal standards. - **Self-perception theory** suggests that we infer our attitudes and feelings by observing our behaviors, not just through introspection. - **Social comparison** is a crucial process for understanding our abilities and emotions, though it can have both positive and negative effects depending on the comparison direction (upward, downward, or lateral). - **Cultural context** influences both the motivations behind social comparison and the strategies we use to cope with comparison threats to our self-esteem.