Transcript The Self - University of Massachusetts Amherst

The Self
• I. What is the self-concept?
•
James, Cooley, Mead
•
Self-schemas
•
• II. Social Context
•
Immediate Context
•
Socio-cultural Context (broader
context)
•
Sensitivity to Context (Selfmonitoring)
•
Why study the self in social
psychology?
• The self is a social creation
– Our social experiences from childhood
through adulthood influence how we see
ourselves.
Theories of the Social Self
• Theories focusing on the SOCIAL self:
• William James (1890): A person has "as
many social selves as there are individuals
who recognize him and carry an image of
him in their minds."
The social self
• Charles Cooley (1902): Views of
self reflect the standpoints of
significant others in our lives
("looking glass self")
The Social Self
• George Herbert Mead (1934):
We imagine the perspectives of
others and incorporate these
into our self views -- and that
this occurs continuously as we
interact with others on an
ongoing, moment to moment
basis.
The Social Self
• Theorists agree that the self develops out
of social interaction.
• How do you see yourself?
Twenty Statements Test
Self-schemas
• Self-schema (Markus): A set of wellelaborated knowledge about the self
that guides the processing of selfrelevant information and is based on
past social experiences.
Self-schemas
• Like other social schemas, self-schemas
influence attention, interpretation, and
memory for self-relevant information.
Self-schemas
• Schema in domain of independence
– Schematic: Very self-descriptive and
important/central to your view of self
– Aschematic: Not high descriptive and not
highly important
Self-schemas
• Reaction time task – Me/Not me
• --Schematics faster than aschematics
to endorse as self-descriptive words in
schematic domain (e.g., to
independence)
• --Schematics resist evidence
contradicting their view of themselves
in the schematic domain.
Spontaneous self-concept
• View of self also may change
depending on the situation.
• Spontaneous self-concept (McGuire):
Specific aspects of self that are
triggered by the features of the current
situation. (Ex: Saying “I’m a brunette”
in a room where everyone else is
blond.)
Self-awareness Theory
• Self-focus can vary with the situation.
(People generally spend only a small proportion of the
time thinking about themselves. p. 139)
• Self-awareness theory (Duval &
Wicklund): The theory that self-focused
attention leads people to notice selfdiscrepancies (i.e. to compare their
behavior to their internal standards and
values), thereby motivating either an
escape from self-awareness or a
change in behavior.
Trick or treat study: Self focus  Behave in Line
with Social Standards
• Kids wearing masks, costumes, etc. were
greeted at a researcher’s door and left
alone to help themselves to a bowl of
candy. Asked to take only one piece (sets
social standard)
• IV: Mirror present or not (mirror creates
self-focus)
• DV: how much candy taken
• Results: No mirror: 34% took more than 1
•
Mirror: Only 12% took more than 1
Implications
• Halloween: If you (your family) can’t be at
home, but you want to leave out candy,
put up
– a note asking trick-or-treaters to take “only
one candy” (set standard) AND a mirror
(create self-focus) behind the candy bowl!
• Self-focus is associated with:
• --behaving in line with socially
desirable standards (Halloween study)
• --a drop in self-esteem (probably
because comparing self with a social
standard)
The self is social
• The self is social in at least two ways:
• The way we develop our selfconceptions depends in part on our
interactions with others.
• The situational context (which often
includes other people) can affect how
we see ourselves at any given point in
time.
Broad Social Context:
Culture and the Self
• “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.”
(U.S.)
• “The nail that stands out gets pounded
down.”
(Japan)
Culture and the Self
• Markus and Kitayama
• Independent self-view: Define self in terms
of own thoughts, feelings, and actions;
emphasize uniqueness from others
(Individualistic, Western; U.S.)
• Interdependent self-view: Define self in
terms of one’s relationships to others;
emphasize connectedness to others
(Collectivistic, East Asian & 3rd World
countries)
• High self-monitors: Especially likely to
change their behavior and stated
beliefs depending on who they are
interacting with and what the situation
demands.
• Low self-monitors: Respond more
consistently from situation to situation
on the basis of their existing values.
• Neither strategy is inherently good or
bad.
What is the self?
• The self-concept is complex and
multifaceted.
• Universe of self-conceptions: All of the ways
in which you might see yourself (actual self,
hoped for self, ideal self, etc.)
• Working self-concept: Includes core selfconceptions along with less central selfconceptions that may vary depending on the
situational context.
marathon runner
quiet
tennis player
happy
woman
friend
musical
Intelligent
Warm
Creative
outgoing
student
writer
Brown-eyed
daughter
Dorm resident
Self-esteem
• Self-esteem: Global positive or negative
feelings about the self. (most positive)
• How do we hold on to positive view in the
face of failure?
• Attributions about exam grades when
succeed or fail:
•
Degree to which score reflects:
•
Your ability
•
Situation (test was too hard)
Mechanisms of selfenhancement
• Downward social comparisons:
Comparing ourselves to people who
are worse off than we are on a
particular trait or ability.
• Why? Can help us feel better about
ourselves; serves a protective function.
• Shelley Taylor’s research w/breast
cancer patients: Found that many
women coped by comparing
themselves with others who were doing
worse.
Examples of Downward
Comparisons
• Woman w/lump removed: “how awful it must
be for women who have had a full
mastectomy.”
• Older women w/mastectomy: “The people I
really feel sorry for are these young gals. To
lose a breast when you’re so young must be
awful.”
• Young mastectomy patient: If I hadn’t been
married, this thing would have really gotten
to me.”
Self-evaluation maintenance theory
(SEM)
• Cannot always use downward comparison
• SEM: Sometimes one’s view of self is
threatened by another person’s behavior,
and the degree of threat depends on the
closeness of the relationship to the other
person and relevance of the behavior.
• Abraham Tesser’s research: What
happens when we compare ourselves with
someone close to us? [Video clip]
BIRGing
• Basking in reflected glory: Increasing
self-esteem by associating with others
who are successful (BIRGing)
BIRGing
• Cialdini et al. (1976)
• Monday morning after football
games, college students (from
Arizona State, Louisiana State,
Notre Dame, Michigan, Ohio State,
etc.) more likely to wear school
sweatshirts when team won on the
previous Sat. & larger the victory,
the more shirts worn.
BIRGing
• IV: General knowledge test. ½ success,
½ failure feedback
• DV: Describe outcome of recent
football game.
• Results: Those who failed were more likely
to share team’s victory by saying things like
“we won” and to distance themselves from
defeat by saying “they lost” than those who
had succeeded. (This is a way to restore selfesteem.)
• Berglas & Jones (1978)
• Cover: “Drugs and intellectual
performance”
• Independent variable: Solvable or
unsolvable problems
• Dependent variable: Choice of Drug
• Drug A: Helps intellectual performance
• Drug B: Inhibits intellectual
performance
•
Helps
• Unsolvable problem: 30%
• Solvable problem:
87%
Inhibits
70%
13%
Self-handicapping
• Self-handicapping: When a person
protects his/her self-image by setting
up a situation that makes it difficult to
succeed, but creates a handy excuse
for failure.
Defensive pessimism
• Defensive pessimism (Norem &
Cantor): A strategy in which a person
expects the worst, and works harder
because of this expectation.
•
Defensive pessimism
• Defensive pessimists performed better
when had negative expectations. If
blocked negative expectations (by
telling them would do well), they did
not perform as well as their
counterparts who were not given these
encouraging instructions.
• Explanations for self-serving bias:
• 1. Self-presentation--want to make a
good impression on others
• 2. Motivation--we are motivated to
protect and enhance our self-esteem.