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 (Self-monitoring)•• III. Self-enhancement Mechanisms

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 well-elaborated knowledge about the self that guides the processing of self-relevant 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 self-discrepancies (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 self-conceptions 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 self-conceptions along with less central self-conceptions that may vary depending on the situational context.

IntelligentWarm

Creative

student

marathon runner

woman

Brown-eyed

Dorm resident

outgoing

happy

quiet

daughter

friend

musical

tennis player

writer

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 self-enhancement

• 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 self-esteem.)

• 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

• HelpsInhibits

• Unsolvable problem: 30% 70%

• Solvable problem: 87% 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.