The Self

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The Self
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Self-concept

• Self-concept knowledge and thoughts related to
  who you think you are.
• Personal attributes
• Social roles
• Group memberships
• Self-esteem how you feel about yourself in
  general.

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Cognitive Views of Self

• Self-schemas generalizations about your most
  important characteristics.
• Information processing
• Evaluation of others
• Self-reference effect information related to
  oneself is easier to remember.

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The self-reference effect.

• Step 1 Participants make yes/no judgments about
  target words.
• Conditions
• Structural properties is kind in lowercase
  letters?
• Phonemic properties does kind rhyme with mind?
  
• Semantic properties does kind mean the same as
  nice?
• Self-relevance does kind describe you?
• Step 2 Surprise recall write down as many of
  the adjectives you just rated as you can

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Cognitive views of self

• Working self-concept the portion of the self
  that is accessible at the moment.
• Distinctiveness principle people are likely to
  describe themselves in ways that distinguish them
  from others in the social situation

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Major Influences on Self-Concept

• Culture
• Individualist vs. collectivist
• Research findings
• Self-perception
• Bems SP theory when internal cues are difficult
  to interpret, people gain self-insight by
  observing their own behavior.
• Emotions
• Motivation

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• Self-Perception Theory

Self-perception I do this because I like it.
Intrinsic Motivation
No external reward
Enjoyable activities
Self-perception I do this because Im paid
to.
Extrinsic Motivation
External reward (e.g., )
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Major influences on Self-Concept

• 3. Social comparison
• Festingers SC theory
• In the absence of objective information, people
  compare to others.
• People prefer to compare with similar others, but
  also have an upward drive.

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Testing the Similarity Hypothesis Rank Order
Paradigm

1. 19
2. ??
3. ??
4. 12 ? You
5. ??
6. ??
7. 7

• Which score would you like to see?

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Social Comparison

• Upward social comparison compare to someone who
  is better than you.
• Downward social comparison compare to someone
  who is worse than you.
• Contrast effect self is contrasted to the
  target of comparison and thus self-evaluations
  move away from the target.

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Social Comparison

• Assimilation effect- Self-evaluations move
  towards the target of comparison.
• Assimilation is likely to occur when
• You can see yourself reaching the same level as
  the comparison target.
• You are similar to the target

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Lockwood Kunda (1997)
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Self and Motivation

• Self-Evaluation Motives
• Self-enhancement people want to feel good about
  themselves.
• Accuracy people want valid info about
  themselves
• Self-verification people want info that is
  consistent with how they view themselves
• Self-improvement people want to get better

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Swann et al. (1987) Method

• Participants were high or low in social SE
• Task read a passage from a book while evaluator
  watches
• Evaluator gives favorable or unfavorable
  feedback.
• Participants rate the evaluator and their current
  mood.

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Swann et al.

• Favorable feedback condition This person seems
  socially self-confident. He probably feels
  comfortable around others he doesnt know very
  well. He seems to have little doubt about his
  social competence.
• Unfavorable feedback condition This person
  doesnt seem socially self-confident. He probably
  feels somewhat anxious and uncomfortable around
  others he doesnt know very well. He seems to
  have doubts about his social competence.

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Swann et al. (1987) Results
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Swann et al. (1987) Results
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Self-Regulation

• A control mechanism used by individuals to match
  behavior to standards or goals.

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• Feedback loops
• Example Goal is 7 min. mile

Comparator
Current State
Output Function
Effect on env.
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• Effect of self-efficacy and self-focus
• High self-efficacy self-awareness leads to more
  persistence.
• Low self-efficacy self awareness leads to less
  persistence.

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Psychic demonstration
B D U O J M P L C T
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Psychic demonstration
B D B U O O J M J P L L C T C
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Self Esteem

• Disclaimer This is not a lecture about how to
  help people with low self-esteem

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Rosenberg SelfEsteem scale (1965)

• 1. I feel that Im a person of worth, at least on
  an equal plane with others.
• 2. I feel that I have a number of good qualities
• 3. All in all I am inclined to feel that I am a
  failure.
• Choices 1 strongly agree
• 2 agree
• 3 disagree
• 4 strongly disagree

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• Compared to other college students of the same
  class level and sex as yourself, how would you
  rate yourself on the following characteristics?
• 1 considerably well below average
• 5 average
• 9 considerably well above average
• _1.leadership ability _2.athletic ability
• _3.tolerance _4.energy level

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• Compared to other students of your sex at your
  college, what do you think are the chances that
  the following health problems will trouble you at
  some point in the future?
• -3 much below average
• 0 average
• 3 much above average
• _1. arthritis _2. suicide
• _3. alcoholism _4. lung cancer

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Unrealistic Optimism Class Data
Variable Mean
Arthritis .21
Suicide -2.07
Pneumonia -.54
Overweight (gt40 lbs) -.75
Laryngitis 0
Alcoholism -.79
Killed in an auto accident .11
Lung Cancer -.64
p lt .10, p lt .05
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Explaining the Better than Average Effect

• Self-Enhancement people want to feel good about
  themselves
• Egocentrism people focus on their own skill
  level rather than other peoples skills
• Metacognitive deficit people who are unskilled
  are unable to accurately evaluate their ability

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Above-Average Effects in the College Board Survey
by Domain Difficulty
Ability Domain Difficulty rating themselves above average
Leadership 4.1 70
Mathematics 4.1 57
Creative writing 4.2 56
Science 4.5 52
Organizing For Work 4.6 69
Music 4.8 44
Athletics 5.1 60
Art 5.1 39
Sales 5.3 50
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Unskilled and unaware of it Kruger Dunning
(1999)
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Evidence for Positive Illusions

• Self-esteem scales
• Better-than-average effect
• Unrealistic optimism for future life events
• Illusion of control over events that are
  uncontrollable

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How do people maintain such favorable self- views?

• Self-serving attributions
• The Genius Effect

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Perceptual Intelligence
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Self-Handicapping

• Self-handicapping Undermining performance so
  that one has a handy excuse for failure or a
  boost to self esteem in the event of success

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Berglas Jones Study

• Cover story study of drugs and intellectual
  performance.
• Contingent Success Condition intellectual test
  was tailored so that all subjects performed well.
• Non-contingent Success Condition intellectual
  test contained mostly unsolvable items.
• All subjects were given favorable feedback.

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Choice of Drug

• Actavil facilitates intellectual performance.
• Pandocrin inhibits intellectual performance.
• 10mg 7.5mg 5mg 2.5mg 0 2.5mg 5mg 7.5mg 10mg

Actavil
Pandocrin
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Berglas Jones Results
choosing Pandocrin Contingent Success Non-Contingent Success
Male 13 70
Female 26 40