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Social PsychologyDr. Leslie Case, BCBA

Nova Southeastern University

Ch. 2: The Self in a Social World

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Self in relation to others

• Spotlight effect: The belief that others are paying more attention to one’s appearance and behavior than they really are

• Experiment: University students were asked to wear a Barry Manilow t-shirt in a room with other people, and estimated how many people noticed. Students estimated 50%---actually it was only 25%

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Self in relation to others

• Illusion of transparency: The illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and can be easily read by others

• If we are angry, happy, sad, we presume that others realize we are feeling these things

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Interplay between sense of self and our social worlds

• Social surroundings affect our self awareness– We tend to focus on how we differ from others in a

group and how others react to that difference

• Self-interest colors social judgment– We tend to blame ourselves when things go well, and

blame others when they go wrong

• Self-concern motivates social behavior– Our actions are often strategic moves to make a good

impression

• Social relationships help define our self– We have different selves with different individuals

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Self-Concept: Who Am I?

1. Self-schemas

– Schemas are mental templates by which we organize our world

– Self-schemas are how we perceive ourselves Example: Overweight, smart, athletic

– Schemas affect how we process social information, how we perceive, remember, and evaluate other people and ourselves

2. Self-reference effect

– When information is relevant to our self-concept, we process it quickly and remember it well

– Example: After a conversation with someone, we best remember the things they said about us

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How the self develops

• There are a number of influences:– The roles we play- student, parent, salesperson

– The social identities we form- includes our race, gender, cliques we join, and who we are not

– The comparisons we make with others- Example: we define if we are rich by how wealthy others around us are

– Our successes and failures

– How other people judge us

– The surrounding culture- Example: Western culture tends to be more individualistic, while Asian, African, and Hispanic cultures tend to be more collectivist

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What Affects Self-Concept?

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Self-Concept

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Self-Concept: Who Am I?

• Self-knowledge

• We tend to be wrong when there are subtle influences on our own behavior, when we are:

1. Explaining our behavior

2. Predicting our behavior

3. Predicting our feelings

• We are fairly unaware of much that goes on in our minds. We are more aware of results than of the process of thinking

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Self-Analysis

• Sometimes when we analyze our feelings, we become less in tune with reality than if we simply reported our emotions and made predictions based on that

• Example: An experiment asked participants about their feelings towards their relationship. They found that happiness with the relationship predicted whether couples would still be together a few months later. However, if participants were first asked to analyze their feelings, their attitudes were not predictive of future relationship longevity.

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Self-Concept: Who Am I?

• The mental processes that control our social behavior are distinct from the mental processes we use to explain our behavior.

• Dual attitude system: Our automatic implicit attitudes regarding something or someone often differ from our consciously controlled, explicit attitudes

• Explicit attitudes may change easily, but implicit attitudes change more slowly

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Implications of Faulty Self-Knowledge

• Self-reports are untrustworthy– The usefulness of self-understanding in the

scientific process is limited

• The sincerity with which people report and interpret their experiences is no guarantee of the validity of these reports– Personal testimony, eye witness reports,

courtroom testimony all are suspect

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Perceived Self-Control

• Self-efficacy• Locus of control• Learned helplessness

versus self-determination

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Perceived Self Control

• Self-control or “willpower” has limits• Effortful self control depletes our limited

willpower reserves• Example: Those who force themselves to eat

radishes rather than chocolate give up more quickly on other difficult tasks

• Self control operates similar to muscular strength—both are weaker after exertion, replenished with rest, and strengthened by exercise

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Self-Efficacy

• Self-efficacy: A sense that one is competent and effective, distinguished from self-esteem, one’s sense of self-worth

• Leads us to set challenging goals and to persist in the face of difficulties

• Grows with hard won achievements• Children and adults with strong feelings of self-

efficacy are more persistent, less anxious, and less depressed, live healthier lives, and are more academically successful

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Locus of control

• Locus of control: the extent to which people perceive outcomes as internally controllable by their own efforts and actions or as externally controlled by chance or force

• Those with an internal locus of control believe they control their own destiny

• Those with an external locus of control believe that chance or outside forces determine their fate

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Locus of ControlInternal External

• In the long run, people get the respect they deserve in this world

• What happens to me is my own doing

• The average person can have an influence in government decisions

• Unfortunately, people’s worth passes unrecognized no matter how hard they try

• Sometimes I feel that I don’t have enough control over the direction my life is taking

• This world is run by the few people in power, and there is not much the little guy can do about it

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Locus of Control

• Those who have internal locus of control are more likely to do well in school, successfully stop smoking, wear seat belts, deal with marital problems directly, make lots of money, delay instant gratification to achieve long term goals, and exhibit better mental health

• Those with internal locus of control see setbacks as a fluke, or something that can be overcome with hard work.

• As a result, they keep working towards their goals and are more likely to achieve them

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Learned Helplessness verse Self-Determination

• Learned Helplessness: When animals and people experience uncontrollable bad events, they learn to feel helpless and resigned

• Example: Dogs that cannot escape shocks while confined will learn a sense of helplessness. Later, they cower passively in other situations when they could escape

• Example: Fish experiment

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Learned Helplessness

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Learned Helplessness

• How might the concept of learned helplessness explain the behavior of domestic violence victims? Lower rates of achievement in minority groups? Less women striving for promotions?

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Freedom and self-determination

• People who are able to make their own choices tend to have better mental health, be more productive, be healthier, and have more pro-social behavior

• Those unable to make choices (institutionalized, hospitalized, in jail) tend to have worse outcomes than those who have some level of control over their choices

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Freedom and self-determination

• However, there can be too much of a good thing. When choosing from too many choices, there can be information overload, and people tend to be less happy with their final choice.

• Example: After choosing between 30 kinds of jams or chocolates, people were less satisfied with their choice than those who only chose from 6.

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Freedom and self-determination

• People express greater satisfaction with irrevocable choices than with reversible choices– “All purchases final” sale– Marriage before divorce became commonplace

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Self-Esteem

• Self-esteem: A person’s overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth

• High self-esteem fosters initiative, resilience, and pleasant feelings

• Low self-esteem predicts increased risk of depression, drug abuse, and some forms of delinquency. More vulnerable to anxiety, loneliness, and eating disorders.

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Self-Esteem

• Many programs have been put into place in elementary schools, counselors offices, and on children’s television to increase self-esteem

• They attempt to artificially pump self-esteem, such as by having children chant things like “I’m great because I’m me”

• For the most part, these programs are ineffective…many psychologists go so far as to call them hogwash…and don’t lead to happier, healthier children

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The Dark Side of Self-Esteem

• Individuals who conduct anti-social acts (drug dealers, gang leaders, terrorist, leaders of hate-based organizations, dictators) often have very high self-esteem

• Those with high self-esteem often react by putting others down or becoming violent when that self-esteem is threatened

• People with high self esteem are sometimes obnoxious, tend to interrupt, to talk at people rather than with them

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Self-Esteem

• Some researchers believe the key to positive benefits from self esteem lie in having a “secure self-esteem”, rooted in feeling good about who one is, one’s talents and values, rather than based on grades, looks, friends, money, etc.

• Other researches believe the key is in “genuine self-esteem”, those who feel secure self-worth without seeking to be the center of attention or being angered by criticism

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Self-Serving Bias

• Self-serving bias: the tendency to perceive oneself favorably

• People generally attribute success to their ability and effort, but attribute failure to external factors such as bad luck or the problem being “impossible” to solve

• Situations that involve both skill and chance (job interviews) are especially susceptible to the self-serving bias

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Self-Serving Bias in Action

• Students who do well on a test tend to credit their hard work and studying, while those who do poorly are more likely to criticize the exam

• This comes across even in the language we use: “I earned an A” verses “The professor gave me a C.”

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Self-Serving Bias in Action

• Couples in marriages overestimate the amount of work they do towards household chores, leading both people to feel they are doing more than their fair share

• Managers often blame poor performance on worker’s lack of ability or effort, while workers generally blame something external- inadequate supplies, excessive workload, ambiguous assignments, etc.

• Adults see themselves as supporting their aging parents more so than their siblings

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Self-Serving Bias in Social Comparisons

• For most subjective and socially desirable dimensions, most people see themselves as better than the average person

• Most see themselves as more ethical, friendlier, intelligent, less prejudiced, more competent at their job, more disciplined, and more insightful than others

• Communities see themselves as more caring, a better community than others

• 66% see themselves as young for their age

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Self-Serving Bias in Social Comparisons

• In a survey of high school students, 60% rated themselves as being in the top 10% in “ability to get along with others”, and 25% saw themselves in the top 1%

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Self-Serving Bias

• By using subjective qualities in defining success, we have leeway to construct our own definition

• Example: If you are assessing your athletic abilities, you might call to mind how good you are at basketball, even though you stink at tennis, football, hockey, and baseball.

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Self-Serving Bias

• People support their self-images by assigning importance to things they are good at

• Example: If you are good at computers, you place a high value on being a computer-literate person. If you are bad at computers, you dismiss it as a field for geeks.

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Self-Serving Bias

• Often results in unrealistic optimism• Students perceive themselves as more likely than

their classmates to get a good job, a good salary, and own a home, and less likely to develop drinking problems, have a heart attack, or be fired

• Sexually active young women who inconsistently use contraceptives perceive themselves as less likely than others to become pregnant

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Self-Serving Bias

• Unrealistic optimism increases our vulnerability. • We don’t believe bad things will happen to us, so

we don’t take precautions or prepare ourselves.• Example: Overconfident students tend not to

prepare enough for exams, and as a result, perform poorly

• Some level of self-doubt is beneficial, as it prompts us to prepare adequately

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Self-Serving Bias

• False Consensus Effect: The tendency to overestimate the commonality of one’s opinions and one’s undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors

• When we behave badly or fail in a task, we reassure ourselves by thinking such lapses are common

• Example: Thinking that EVERYONE speeds, lies, cheats on taxes, doesn’t get along with their mother-in-law

• Leads people to overestimate the actual percentage of people who do those behaviors

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Self-Serving Bias

• False Uniqueness Effect: The tendency to underestimate the commonality of one’s abilities and one’s desirable or successful behaviors

• We serve our self-image by seeing our talents and moral behavior as relatively unusual

• Leads us to underestimate how many other people exhibit these talents or moral behaviors

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Why are we so self-serving?

• Perhaps it is easier to remember the positive things we’ve done, and we tend to forget the times we have been absentminded or not done our fair share

• Perhaps we are motivated to increase our self-esteem

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Self-Serving Bias

• Reflections on self-efficacy and self-serving bias– The self-serving bias

as adaptive

– The self-serving bias as maladaptive

© Larry Dale Gordon/ Image Bank

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Self-Presentation

• False modesty• Self-handicapping• Impression

management

© David H. Wells/ The Image Works

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False Modesty

• People sometimes present themselves more self-disparagingly than they feel; or present their opponents as highly worthy

• Tends to elicit “strokes” from others• Makes wins look bigger, and losses more

understandable• Tends only to occur when statements are

made publicly, doesn’t occur when statements are anonymous or private

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Self-Handicapping

• Self-handicapping: protecting one’s self image with behaviors that create a handy excuse for later failure

• Example: I didn’t get rejected for the job because I’m unqualified, it was because I stayed up too late partying the night before the interview

• It is more self-deflating to try hard and fail than to procrastinate and have a handy excuse

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Impression Management

• Self presentation: the act of expressing oneself and behaving in ways designed to create a favorable impression or an impression that corresponds to one’s ideals

• Trying to look good for our internal audience (ourselves) as well as our external audience (others)

• Often occurs without us being aware of it or making any conscious effort

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More on Self-PresentationCultural Influences

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Impression Management

• Self monitoring: Being attuned to the way one presents oneself in social situations and adjusting one’s performance to create the desired impression

• Conscious self-presentation, becomes a way of life for some

• Those high in self monitoring may be described as social chameleons; also adapt to new jobs, roles, and relationships

• Those low in self monitoring tend to care little about what others think, and present their opinions irregardless of the attitudes of their anticipated audience