Chapter 6: The Self in a Social World

Dr. M. Davis-Brantley

Schemas

• Schema is a set of beliefs and feelings – Ex: stereotypes, prejudices, and generalization

• Adolf Hitler

• Role Schema is a schema about how people in certain roles are expected to behave– Ex: Wife, teacher, man, etc…

• Person Schema is a schema about how a particular individual is expected to behave– First impressions often form our schemas

(cognitive anchors

Schemas Continued

• Self-Schema is the set of beliefs, feelings, and generalizations we have about ourselves– Core of our psychological world– Built around our physical self, social self, personal

self

• Self is the totality of our impressions, thoughts, and feelings, such that we have a conscious, continuous sense of being in the world– Rogers-the self is “in born”

Parts of the Self• Physical Self

– Plays a significant role in your self-concept

– Can be formed by how others view you or respond to your presence

• Dove Campaign• Dove Campaign 2

– Ex: Height, gender, physical attractiveness

• Height and Forbes statistics• Ex: Gender and sex features influence

identity• Importance of weight, athletic condition, &

hair style

Parts of the Self: Social Self

– How you present yourself to the world– Changes from situation to situation– Refers to the social roles we play

• Suitor, student, worker, husband, wife, mother, citizen, leader, follower

– What are some social roles we play in life?• Ex: Attorney

– Strengths & Weaknesses?

• Social vs. Professional (Japanese Professional Language

Parts of the Self

• Personal Self– Refers to one’s private, continuous sense of

being oneself in the world– Refers to who you feel you are, not what you are

perceived to be– One’s inner identity

• Names: Labels of the Self– A rose by any other name would smell just as

sweet!– Unusual or Unattractive names may be linked to

success later in adulthood– New Names: Apple, Flite, Jermajesty, Brooklyn

Self-Concept and Self-Esteem

• Self-Concept is one’s perception of oneself including one’s traits and evaluation of these traits– Includes self-esteem and ideal self

• Can evaluate one’s self-concept according to a continuum

• Examples include fairness, attractive, intelligent, religious, sociable, etc…

1=Extremely _______ to 7=Extremely Un_______

Self-Concept and Self-Esteem

• Self-Esteem is belief in ability and favorable opinion of oneself

• Begins during childhood and stems from parenting style of the parents

• Researchers found that high esteem is evoked when parents hold expectations of their children but are also involved their children’s life

The Ideal Self

• One’s perception of what one ought to be or do

• Can be your perception of your self-actualization

• Where do you see yourself on the continuum now vs. where you’d want to be concerning education

1=Extremely ____ to 7=Extremely Un____

Identity Status

• Refers to your sense of who you are and what you stand for

• Erik Erikson (Psychologist)

• Believed in growth throughout specific stages and resolution of certain crises

• James Marcia conceptualized these stages and identified four identity statuses

Identity Achievement

• The identity status that describes individuals who have resolved an identity crisis and committed to a relatively stable set of beliefs or a course of action

• Ex: Making a career choice or religious decision after going through a crisis

Identity Foreclosure

• Refers to individuals who have adopted a commitment to a set of beliefs or a course of action without undergoing a personal identity crisis

• Ex: Adopting something, just because, without questioning and without going through crisis

• Adopting something because “Everybody’s doing it”

Identity Moratorium

• The identity status that describes individuals who are in an identity crisis

• There is an intense examination of the alternatives

Identity Diffusion

• The identity status that describes individuals who have neither arrived at a commitment as to who they are and what they stand for nor experienced crisis

• These individuals are acting on a whim and are not attempting to resolve life decisions

• Ex: Sexual Identity or Professional Decision

Identity Statuses

Presence of Crisis

Absence of Crisis

Presence of Commitme

nt

Identity Achievement

Identity Foreclosure

Absence of Commitme

ntIdentity Moratorium Identity Diffusion

Perception of Others

• Primacy Effect– The tendency to evaluate others in terms

of first impressions– Why are first impressions so important?

• Recency Effect– The tendency to evaluate others in terms

of the most recent impressions– The is often taught so that we don’t make

snap judgments supported with no evidence

Before we start!

Write down something about yourself or something you enjoy that your social or cultural group would not approve of

Group Presentation

Prejudice and Attribution Theory

Attribution Theory

• Attribution is a belief concerning why people behave a certain way

• Attribution Process is the process by which people draw inferences about the motives and traits of others

• Dispositional Attribution an assumption that a person’s behavior is determined by internal causes such as personal attitudes or goals

• Situational Attribution an assumption that a person’s behavior is determined by external circumstances, such as the pressure found in a situation

• Fundamental Attribution Error is the tendency to assume that others act on the basis of choice or will even when there is evidence suggestive of the importance of their situations

• Actor-Observer Effect—tendency to attribute our own behavior to external, situational factors but to attribute the behavior of others to internal, dispositional factors such as choice and free will

Attribution

• The mental process of inferring the causes of people’s behavior, including one’s own

• The explanation given for a particular behavior• When someone cuts us off in traffic they did it

because “They’re stupid or don’t know how to drive”

• Right? We attribute the behavior to their stupidity not the fact that we could be in their blind-spot and WE couldn’t see them

• We tend to spontaneously attribute the behavior of others to internal, personal characteristics, while ignoring or underestimating the effects of external, situational factors

Prejudice and Discrimination

• Prejudice—is the belief that a person or group, on the basis of assumed racial, ethnic, sexual, or other features, will possess negative characteristics or perform inadequately. Linked to your schema– Ex: Racism, Sexism, Ageism, Homophobia

• Discrimination—the denial of privileges to a person or group based on your prejudice– Ex: Denial of job, housing, voting privileges, education, etc…

• Stereotype—Fixed, conventional ideas about a group that can lead us to process information about member of the group in a biased way– Ex: Women are overly emotional, Blacks are superstitious or

overly religious, Hispanics are dirty or loud. What are other?

Social Categories• In-group—the social group to which we belong

– In-group bias—tendency to make favorable attributions for members of our in-group

– Ethnocentrism is one type of in-group bias– WE are Tactful—THEY are Sneaky

• Out-group—the social group to which you do not belong– Out group homogeneity effect—tendency to

see members of the out-group as more similar to each other

• How do we get pass prejudice and racism?– We used to think, simply by exposing different

groups to one another…WRONG ANSWER– This contact theory could lead to confirming

stereotypes, especially since reality is all in your head

Prejudice and Discrimination

• Sources of Prejudice– Dissimilarity—People prefer to affiliate with people who have similar

attitudes. This can breed superiority or inferiority• What would happen to the world if we only associated with those similar to us?

– Social Conflict—Social and economic conflict give rise to feelings of prejudice. People of different races and religions often compete for jobs giving rise to prejudice

– Social Learning—Where do children learn prejudice and discrimination? Parents often reinforce their children for behaving in ways that may be prejudicial.

– Social categorization—People tend to divide their social world into “us” and “them” which also breeds prejudice and discrimination

• Combating Prejudice and Discrimination– Brown eyes and green eyes research– Revisit: Fundamental Attribution Error: They are late because their Black

not because there was bad traffic