Chapter 3The Social Self

©2011 W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Gilovich • Keltner • Nisbett

Social Psychology

Social Psychology

SECOND EDITION

Personality Development• Biological dispositions

– Five-factor Model of Personality

• Five traits that are basic building blocks of personality• Openness to experience,

conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism• Traits are highly heritable and are

linked to specific biological processes

Personality Development

• Family influence and Sibling dynamics– Diversification• Siblings may take on different roles in

the family to minimize conflicts – Birth order may influence personality

traits• Older siblings often more responsible

and supportive of the status quo, younger siblings often more rebellious and open to new experiences

Culture and the Self

• Independent view of self– Self seen as a distinct, autonomous

entity, separate from others and defined by individual traits and preferences

• Interdependent view of self– Self seen as connected to others,

defined by social duties and shared traits and preferences

Culture and the Self

• Independent views of self more prominent in North American and Western European cultures

• Interdependent views of self more prominent in many East Asian, South Asia, Mediterranean, Latin American, and African cultures

Gender and the Self

• Across cultures, men have more independent views of self and women have more interdependent views of self

–Women more likely to refer to relationship when describing self

–Women are more attuned to external social cues whereas as men are more attuned to their internal responses

Gender and the Self

• Differences may be due to socialization– Cultural stereotypes, parental feedback,

educational treatment

• Evolution may contribute to gender differences– Independent views of self may

advantage males in acts like physical competition and hunting

– Interdependent views of self may advantage females in acts related to maintaining social bonds and caregiving

Situationism and the Self

• Aspects of self may change depending on the situation

• Social context– Sense of self may shift dramatically

depending on who we are interacting with• For instance, may feel different about

self when interacting with authority figures than when interacting with subordinates

Situationism and the Self

• Distinctiveness

–May highlight aspects of self that make us feel most unique in a given context

• For instance, age may seem more important to self definition if you are surrounded by much older people

Self Construals

• Social Comparison Theory

– The hypothesis that we evaluate ourselves through comparisons to others

– Downward social comparisons may boosts self-esteem by making us feel better about self

– Upward social comparisons may motivate self-improvement

Self Construals

• Self as a narrative

– Construct a story about self to make sense of who we are and how we’ve changed over time

– Individualists may recall life events from own perspective

– Collectivists may recall life events from others perspective

Self Construals

• Better-than-Average effect

–Most Westerners tend to have positive view of self.

– Tend to rate self as better than average on most traits

–Weight abilities we excel at as more valuable

Self Knowledge

• Knowledge about self helps organize how we behave in different situations and with different people

• Social self-beliefs–Beliefs about the roles and duties we

assume in different groups

Self Knowledge• Relational self-beliefs– Beliefs about our identities in specific

relationship• For instance, who you are as a

son/daughter feels different than who you are as a boyfirend/girlfriend

• Collective self-beliefs– Beliefs about our identity as members of

important social categories• Examples could be identity based on

citizenship, ethnicity, gender, profession, etc.

Self-Knowledge Organizes Information

• Self-reference effect– Better remember information related to

self• For instance, better remember list of

adjectives if considering whether the adjectives apply to self

• Self-Schema– Knowledge about self – Conclusions about our behaviors and

preferences and about how we are viewed by others

Self-Knowledge Organizes Information

• Self-Image bias

– Tendency to weight our evaluations of other people by how we view our self

– Traits that are valued in oneself are valued in others• For instance, If you view yourself as

intelligent you may judge others heavily by how intelligent you perceive them to be

Self-Knowledge Motivates Behavior

• Self-Discrepancy Theory– Behavior is motivated by cultural and

personal moral standards– Individuals want to resolve

discrepancies of who they are with who they want to be or ought to be

– Types of Self• Actual self -- The person we believe

ourselves to be• Ideal self --The person we wish we

could be• Ought self -- The person we feel

should be

Self-Knowledge Motivates Behavior

– Promotion Focus• Focus on positive outcomes and

moving towards becoming ideal self

– Prevention focus• Focus on negative outcomes and

attempt to avoid not living up to our ought self

Ego Depletion

• Regulating behavior requires mental energy, but mental resources are limited

• Ego Depletion– State where previous acts of self-control

drains ability to control future behavior• For instance, participants who

controlled behavior by eating healthy radishes instead of delicious cookies, gave up faster when they had to solve a puzzle later

Illusions about Self• Positive Illusions and Mental Health–Most assume that proper mental health

is marked by realistic views of the world– Research suggests that most well-

adjusted people may have slightly unrealistic views about themselves

• Benefits of positive illusions– Elevate positive mood and reduce

negative mood– Foster social bonds by making people

more outgoing– Promote pursuit and persistence at

goals

Illusions about Self

• Costs of positive illusions

– Positive illusions may be detrimental if overestimation of abilities leads to poor performance

Common Positive Illusions• Unrealistically positive views of self– Believe positive traits are more true of

self than negative traits– Believe positive traits are unique but

negative traits are common

• Exaggerated perceptions of control– Believe have more control over events

than we do• Personally would rather throw dice to

win a game. Feel as if we can somehow throw it just right

Common Positive Illusions

• Unrealistic optimism

– Believe positive events more likely to happen to self than to other people

Cultural and Positive Illusions

• Positive Illusions about self more common in individualistic cultures–Members of collectivistic cultures less

likely to report enhanced feelings of control, less likely to rate themselves as better than average, or be unrealistically optimistic

Cultural and Positive Illusions

• Individualistic cultures place greater value on positive views of self than collectivistic cultures– Positive illusions promote a feelings that

the self is unique, independent, and good

Self Evaluation

• Self-esteem– Overall positive or negative evaluation

we have of ourselves– Trait self-esteem• Enduring level of regard we have for

ourselves• Fairly stable across time

– State self-esteem• Dynamic and changeable feelings

about self felt at different moments in time

Self Evaluation• Contingencies of Self-Worth– Domains that are important to an

individual evaluation of self• For instance, someone who values

academic competence would show a boost in state self-esteem after getting a good grade

• Self-Complexity may protect self-esteem– People who have man contingencies of

self-worth may have smaller decreases in self-esteem after failures in any one domain

Motives for Self-Evaluation

• Self-evaluation maintenance model–Motivated to maintain positive self-

esteem– Positive self-evaluations maintained

through reflection and strategic social comparisons• Reflection – associating ourselves

with the accomplishments of others• Social comparisons – choose to

compare self to others in ways that favor ourselves

Motives for Self-Evaluation

• Motivations for friendships– Prefer friends who don’t outshine us in

domains contingent to our self-worth– Having friends who excel in other

domains can boost self-esteem by allowing us to bask in their reflected glory

Motives for Self-Evaluation

• Self-verification theory–Motivated to have views of self that are

accurate, consistent, and coherent– Desire accurate views of abilities to

ensure more success and less failure in social interactions

Motives for Self-Evaluation

• Verifying information–May maintain consistent view of self by

selectively paying attention to information consistent with self-view

–May associate with people who provide preferred feedback about self

– Use identity cues to display our self-view to others

Culture and Self-Esteem

• Members of individualistic cultures tend to report higher levels of self-esteem than collectivistic cultures– Feeling good about the self as an

individual is more valued in Western cultures

– For instance, many Asian language have no equivalent word for the idea of self-esteem

Culture and Self-Esteem

• Members of collectivistic cultures place more value on self-improvement– Less emphasis on feeling good about

the self and more emphasis on feeling good about one’s contribution to collective goals

• Contact with other cultures can influence views of self– For instance, Asians in more contact

with Western cultures report higher levels of self-esteem than those without Western contact

Dangers of High Self-Esteem

• People with high self-esteem may be more sensitive to threats, insults, and challenges– If high self-esteem is unwarranted it

may feel insecure. May react more aggressively when self-esteem is threatened

Dangers of High Self-Esteem

• Inflated self-esteem can be counterproductive–Many psychopaths, murderers, rapists,

and violent gang member have very high self-esteems

– High self-esteem may allow individuals to be satisfied with self despite poor life outcomes

Self-Presentation• Impression management– Attempts to control how other people will

view us• For instance, by managing how you

dress, behave in public, who you associate with, what you reveal about yourself to others

–When interacting with others present a public face that we want others to believe

• Public self-consciousness– Awareness of what others think of us

Self-Presentation

• Private self-consciousness– Awareness of our own internal feelings,

thoughts, and preferences

• Self-monitoring– The tendency to monitor and scrutinize

one’s behaviors when in a public situation

– High self-monitors try to fit their behavior to the situation whereas a low self-monitor is more likely to behave follow internal preferences

Self-Handicapping

• Self-handicapping– Tendency to engage in self-defeating

behavior to prevent others from assuming a poor performance was due to a lack of ability

• Self-handicapping may be a strategy for protecting the public self

Self-Handicapping

– Self-handicapping provides an excuse for poor performance and emphasizes good performance

• For instance, partying all night before an important exam.• If you do poorly, you can blame it on

the party the night before and not on a lack of ability. • If you do well, then you and others

may conclude that you have tremendous ability

Self-Presentation and Language

• May strategically communicate in ways to preserve the public face or ourselves and others

• On-record communication– Direct honest language meant to be

taken literally• “Did you like the movie” “Actually, I

didn’t think it was very good”

Self-Presentation and Language

• Off-record communication– Indirect and ambiguous language that

hints at ideas and meaning but not explicitly stated• “Did you like the movie” “Umm.. It

was very interesting”• Behaviors like flirting and teasing are

examples of off-record communications–Want the other person to infer

meanings from what we say without us saying it directly