PSY415 Psychology of the Self

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PSY415Psychology of the Self

• Week 3
• The Search for Self-Knowledge I

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What is Self-Knowledge?

• Mental representations of the qualities that
  individuals believe that they possess
• Search for self-knowledge is a process of seeking
  answer to the questions such as
• Who am I?
• What kind of a person am I?
• How do individuals answer these questions?
• Why do they come up with particular answers?

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Beginning the Search for Self-Knowledge

• The knowledge about ourselves first comes from
  our cultural environment
• The defining features of a culture shape the way
  we come to perceive ourselves
• The socializing agents such as parents or
  teachers also provide sources of self-knowledge

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Situations that Initiate a Search for
Self-Knowledge

• Cultural environment is conducive of acquiring
  particular self-knowledge, however the individual
  is rather passive in this acquisition process
• An active search for self-knowledge can be
  observed in life-transitions such as becoming a
  parent, getting married, commencement, getting
  started to work first time, etc.

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Motives that Guide the Search for Self-Knowledge

• Individuals are selective while seeking
  self-related information
• This selectivity is directed by three basic
  motives, which are
• the self-enhancement motive,
• the accuracy motive, and
• the consistency motive

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The Self-Enhancement Motive

• Individuals have a natural tendency to approach
  pleasurable and avoid aversive stimuli
• Self-enhancement motive refers to the tendency
  that individuals wish to
• increase their feelings of self-worth, and
• think of themselves in positive terms

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The Accuracy Motive

• The accuracy motive refers to the tendency that
• individuals wish to hold a realistic view of
  themselves
• no matter how favorable or unfavorable the
  information could be
• What functions does accuracy motive serve?
• Uncertainty reduction
• Moral obligation fulfillment
• Goal pursuit and adaptation
• Self-worth maximization

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The Consistency Motive

• The consistency motive refers to the tendency
  that
• individuals wish to hold a stable view of
  themselves
• by thinking and behaving in such ways to preserve
  this stability
• Thus, they can seek/accept information consistent
  with their self-concept and avoid/reject
  information inconsistent with their self-concept

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Self-Verification Theory

• Swann (1987)
• Why do individuals seek stability in their
  self-conceptions?
• In order to get to know themselves
• In order to maintain existential security
• In order to choose siuations in which they will
  not fail
• Stability of self-views is sought without respect
  to the valence of these views

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Self-Verification Theory

• What strategies do individuals use to verify
  their self-conceptions?
• Behavioral Strategies
• i.e., individuals develop a self-confirmatory
  opportunity structure by
• Selective Interaction
• Displaying Identity Cues
• Bringing Perceivers to in line w/ Self-Conceptions

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Self-Verification Theory

• What strategies do individuals use to verify
  their self-conceptions?
• Cognitive Strategies
• i.e., seeing more self-confirmatory evidence tahn
  actually exist
• Preferential Attention
• Selective Encoding and Retrieval
• Selective Interpretation
• Thus, self-conceptions are resistent to change.

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The Cognitive-Affective Crossfire

• Source Swann, W. B., Jr., Griffin, J. J., Jr.,
  Predmore, S. C., Gaines, B. (1987). The
  cognitive- affective crossfire When
  self-consistency confronts self-enhancement.
  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52,
  881-889.

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Reconciling Self-Enhancement and Self-Verification

• Source Swann, W. B., Jr., Pelham, B. W.,
  Krull, D. S. (1989). Agreeable fancy or
  disagreeable truth Reconciling self-enhancement
  and self-verification. Journal of Personality and
  Social Psychology, 57, 782-791.

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Sources of Self-Knowledge Physical World

• Physical world is a source of information
  regarding the material self
• Limited in two aspects
• Only material qualities can be sought
• Mostly, we are interested not in the physical
  qualities themselves, but their social
  implications for ourselves
• Thus, we define even our physical qualities with
  respect to others

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Sources of Self-KnowledgeSocial World - Social
Comparisons

• Social Comparison Theory (Festinger, 1954)
• Humans are motivated to evaluate themselves,
  especially by means of comparing themselves to
  other individuals
• Comparison others should be similar enough to
  yield accurate information about oneself
• Upward vs. Downward Comparisons (Wood, 1989)

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Sources of Self-KnowledgeSocial World -
Reflected Appraisals

• Cooley (1902) How peoples feelings about
  themselves develop in three steps
• We imagine how others perceive us
• We imagine how this person evaluates us
• Accordingly, we feel good or bad about it
• Thus, the self is a looking-glass self
• Phenomenological approach It is our perception
  of others, but not their actual evaluation, which
  affect self-feelings

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Sources of Self-KnowledgeSocial World -
Reflected Appraisals

• Kinch (1963)
• People cannot know what others think about
  themselves due to social barriers
• There may be objective outer criteria which may
  be the underlying cause for the relationship
  between actual and perceived appraisals
• The causal relationship between actual and
  perceived appraisals can be reversed
• Individuals are not passive in knowing themselves

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Sources of Self-Knowledge Inner (Psychological)
World - Introspection

• Looking inwards and think about our attitudes,
  opinions, motivations, and behaviors
• Research indicated that
• individuals believe that others can understand
  their true self better if they knew their
  thoughts and feelings (Andersen Ross, 1984)
• When individuals described themselves in terms of
  their feelings and thoughts (vs. their behaviors
  or mixture), observers ratings matched more
  closely (Andersen, 1984)
• However, too much introspection can diminish the
  accuracy in self-knowledge (Wilson Hodges, 1992)

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Sources of Self-Knowledge Inner (Psychological)
World Self-Perception

• Self-Perception Theory (Bem, 1972)
• In the absence of reliable internal cues, people
  refer to external sources of observation to infer
  their inner states
• Individuals observe themselves as outside
  observer would observe
• Self-perception is different than introspection
  such that it is an indirect rather than direct
  assessment of cognitions

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Sources of Self-Knowledge Inner (Psychological)
World Attributions

• Causal attributions refer to lay explanations of
  why the individuals themselves and others have
  behaved in certain ways
• How you explain positive and negative events is
  especially important in gaining self-knowledge
• Self-Serving Bias Why?
• Explaining success by dispositional and failure
  by situational factors
• Self-Centered Bias Why?
• Taking credit for group success and denying
  contribution in group failure