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SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

THE SELF : LEARNING ABOUT THE SELF

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The Nature of the Self

Who are you? How did you come to be this person you call

“myself”?

The self is composed of our thoughts and beliefs about ourselves, or, more simply, the “me.”

The self-concept is the sum total of a person’s beliefs about their own personal attributes.

The act of thinking ourselves is self-awareness.

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The Nature of Self

We are not only species with a sense of self. Some animals also have self-concept.

Ex : The Mirror and the Dolphins & ChimpanzeesThey realize that the image in

the mirror is themselves and not another animal.

When someone alters their appearance, they recognize that they look different from how they looked before.

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Self-Concept

As we grow older self-concept becomes more complex.

Typically, a child’s self-concept is concrete, easily observable characteristics like age ,gender, neighborhood, and hobbies.

As we mature, we place less emphasis on physical characteristics and more on psychological states

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The Working Self-Concept

Prominent and notable aspects of the self-concept in a particular situation.

In a classroom Academic self In a party Social self In school life Not requires so much

authoritative manner

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Self Image-what you see in yourself

This does not necessarily have to reflect reality. Indeed a person with anorexia who is thin may have a self image in which the person believes they are fat.

A person's self image is affected by many factors, such as parental influences, friends, the media etc

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Self Image-what you see in yourself

1) Physical Description: I’m tall, have blue eyes...etc.

2) Social Roles: Such roles as student, housewife, or member of the football team

3) Personal Traits: These are a third dimension of our self-descriptions. “I’m impulsive...I’m generous...I tend to worry a lot”...etc.

4) Existential Statements (abstract ones): These can range from "I’m a child of the universe" to "I’m a human being" to "I’m a spiritual being"...etc.

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Self-Complexity

One college school girl may think herself as a student.

Other college girl may think as a student,a daughter,a girlfriend

Other one may think as a both student and a part time employee,and a member of X team/club.

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Functions of the Self

Researchers have found that the self serves both:

An organizational function :We use self-schemas to orgizanize our knowledge about ourselves.

An executive function: We regulate our behaviour,choices in optimal way.

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Self-Schema

Many beliefs people have about themselves

Self

Occupation

Stubborn

Uncle

Family

Friend

Significant OtherShort

Cautious

Religion/Values

Self-ConceptThe sum total of a person’s thoughts and feelings defining the self as an object

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Self-Schemas – aspects of self-knowledge

You might refuse to take money from others

You might do your own laundry and do not want help from your roommate

The schema help you to identify the situations in a relevant condition.

If you are independent person,you do not depent on or behave according to other people’s thoughts.

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Possible Selves

Possible selves are goal or roles which we aspire that is not self-descriptive now but may become so.

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Actual Self & Ideal Self

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Self-Discrepancy

When we perceive a discrepancy between what we ideally like to be (ideal self) and what we are (actual self),we become dissappointed and sad. It also reduce our self-esteem.

Ex : Wanting to be editor in school magazine but fail to attain to that position

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Where Does Self-knowledge Come From?

Socialization : During the childhood we are treated in particiular ways by parents,teachers and friends.We partcipate in religious or cultural activities

Reflected Appraisal: Our percetion of how other people react to us. It is our self-evaluation based on others perceptions of us.

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Where Does Self-knowledge Come From?

Feedback from Others : Sometimes people give us explicit feedback about our qualties.This process often begins in socialization,when our parents tell us not to be shy,that math is not our good point or that we are good readers.

Later feedback from our peers become more important.

Froom peerspopularity….From Teachers good academic ability

People prefer objective feedback

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Where Does Self-knowledge Come From?

Self-Perception: People also infer their personal qualities from observing their own behaviour.

Environmental Distinctiveness : In a reserach,when students were askes “Tell about yourselves”,they tend to talk about their distinctive aspects. Also a woman in men group,an African American women in relatively few African American people.

Social Identity : Part of an individual’s self concept that derives from his or her membership in a social group (For ex: TEGV).

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Comparative Self-Assessments : We evaluate ourselves through comparing our abilitites,opinions,emotions with others.

This is social comparison.

Where Does Self-knowledge Come From?

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Social Comparison-Knowing Ourselves by Comparing Ourselves to Others

If you donate $50 to charity and find out your friend Sue donates $10, you can feel generous.

If you find out Sue donated $100, you might not feel like you’ve been generous.

Social Comparison Theory

The idea that we learn about our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves to other people.

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Self-Efficacy

Sense of capability to master challenges and achieve goals

An individual’s estimate of his ability to cope with a situation

Ex : A smoker will not stop smoking unless she believes she can do it

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Self-Awareness

How often do we think about ourselves?

We become objective,judgemental observers of ourselves.

Self-Awareness TheoryThe idea that when people focus their attention on themselves, they evaluate and compare their behavior to their internal standards and values.

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For example,

You believe it is important to be honest. One day,while chatting with a friend,you tell a

lie. You catch sight of your freind staring at you…

In this situation,you might stop being self-aware by avoiding your friend’s stare.

Self-awareness will be pleasant when we meet or exceed our standards

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Charles Cooley (1902) described the “looking glass self,” by which he meant that we see ourselves and the social world through the eyes of other people and often adopt those views.

Looking-glass self: a self concept based on what you

believe others think of you

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The looking-glass self is a 3 step process that constantly takes place :

1. We imagine how we appear to others (our perception of how others see us)2. We imagine the reaction of others to our (imagined) appearance3. We evaluate ourselves according to how

we imagine others have judged us This process is not a conscious process and

the stages can occur quickly. The results can be positive or negative self-evaluation

Looking-glass Self

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A Distorted Glass?

Because the looking glass comes from our imagination, it can be distorted

The mirror may not accurately reflect other’s opinion of us

Unfortunately, regardless of whether or not we are correct or incorrect about their perception the consequences are just as real as if it were

“I don’t think they liked me; therefore they don’t like me”

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Significant Others

Significant Others: People whose judgments are most important to our self-concept Depending on your age your significant

others can change Children: parents, grandparents, siblings Teenagers: peers Adults: spouses, parents, friends, and

employers

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Do YOU dress/ get ready for yourself or for how others see

you?

Who are YOUR most important significant others?

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent” Eleanor

Roosevelt

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Cultural Differences in Defining the Self

In many Western cultures, people have an independent view of the self.

Independent View of the SelfA way of defining oneself in terms of one’s own internal thoughts, feelings, and actions and not in terms of the thoughts, feelings, and actions of other people.

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Interdependent View Of The Self

In contrast, many Asian and other non-Western cultures have an interdependent view of the self.

Interdependent View of the SelfA way of defining oneself in terms of one’s

relationships to other people; recognizing that one’s behavior is often determined by the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others.

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Self -Esteem

Self-Esteem is the evolution we make ourselves.That is we are concerned not only what we are but how we value ourselves.

Self esteem always involves a degree of evaluation and we may have either a positive or a negative view of ourselves.

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High & Low Self-Esteem

HIGH SELF ESTEEM i.e. we have a positive view of ourselves. This tends to lead to

Confidence in our own abilities Self acceptance Not worrying about what others think Optimism

LOW SELF ESTEEM i.e. we have a negative view of ourselves. This tends to lead to

Lack of confidence Want to be/look like someone else Always worrying what others might think Pessimism

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Self-Esteem

People with high self-esteem have a clear sense of what their personal qualities are.

They think well of themselves, set appropriate goals, savor their positive experiences and cope succesfully with difficult situations.

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People with low esteem

have less clear self-conceptions, think poorly of themselves, often select unrealistic goals, tend to be pessimistic about the

future, remember the past more negatively, have more adverse reactions to

criticism, more vulnerable to depression and

stress.

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Argyle (2008) believe there are 4 major factors that influence Self-Esteems

1) THE REACTION OF OTHERS. If people admire us, flatter us, seek out our company, listen attentively and agree with us we tend to develop a positive self-image. If they avoid us, neglect us, tell us things about ourselves that we don’t want to hear we develop a negative self-image.

2) COMPARISON WITH OTHERS. If the people we compare ourselves with (our reference group) appear to be more successful, happier, richer, better looking than ourselves we tend to develop a negative self image BUT if they are less successful than us our image will be positive.

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3) SOCIAL ROLES. Some social roles carry prestige e.g. doctor, airline pilot, TV. presenter, premiership footballer and this promotes self-esteem. Other roles carry stigma. E.g. prisoner, mental hospital patient, refuse collector or unemployed person.

4) IDENTIFICATION. Roles aren’t just “out there.” They also become part of our personality i.e. we identity with the positions we occupy, the roles we play and the groups we belong to.

Argyle (2008) believe there are 4 major factors that influence Self-Esteems

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Social Comparison & Self Esteem Real Example :

Morse and Gergen (1970) showed that our self esteem may change rapidly.

Subjects were waiting for a job interview in a waiting room. They were sat with another in one of two conditions:

A) Mr Clean - dressed in smart suit, carrying a briefcase opened to reveal a slide rule and books.

B) Mr Dirty - dressed in an old T-shirt and jeans, slouched over a cheap novel.

Self-esteem of subjects with Mr Dirty increased whilst those with Mr Clean

decreased!

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Self-Esteem Scale

1. I feel that I have number of good qualities.

2. I feel I do not have much to be proud of.3. At times I think Iam no good at all.4. I feel I am a person of worth, at least on

an equal basis with others.5. All in all,I feel that I am a falilure.6. On the whole,I’m satisfied with my self.

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Self-Enhancement

The tendency to focus on and present positive information about oneself and to minimize negative information .

Positive Illisons : People see themselves more positively than it is. If one wins a match,it is our own ability,but if one

loses,it is “ a bad day” or there is a “poor team condition” (!).

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What is the difference between Self-Esteem and Self-Enhancement ?

Self-enhancement is a type of motivation that works to make people feel good about themselves and to maintain self-esteem.

This motive becomes especially prominent in situations of threat, failure or blows to one's self-esteem.

There are a variety of strategies that people can use to enhance their sense of personal worth. For example, they can downplay skills that they lack or they can criticise others to seem better by comparison. These strategies are successful, in that people tend to think of themselves as having more positive qualities and fewer negative qualities than others

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Downward Social Comparison is a Self-Enhancing Strategy

If we want to know the top level to which we can aspire, we engage in upward social comparison: comparing ourselves to people who are better than we are on a particular ability.

You’ll feel better about yourself if you engage in downward social comparison:comparing yourself to people who are worse than you on a particular trait or ability.

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Self-Presentation

Delibearte (planned) efforts to act in ways that creates a particiular impression of that self.

To obtain a desired outcome Self-presentational activites can become

automotic. For ex.one may represnt himself as fun loving boy that doesn’t take work seriously.

Especially in job interviews

Ineffective Self Presentation Embrassement !

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Self-Handicapping

Self-handicapping is engaging in actions that provide obstacles to success, so that failure can later be attributed to those obstacles.

It is the process by which people avoid effort in the hopes of keeping potential failure from hurting self-esteem.

Self-handicapping can be seen as a method of preserving self-esteem but it can also be used for self-enhancement and to manage the impressions of others.

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Self-Handicapping

A student who stays up all night can attribute his/her low grade to the fatigue but not lack of ability.

An alcholic can attribute the loss of his job to his drinking,not to poor performance.

A golfer who practice rarely can attribute her low performance to the lack of practice,but not the lack of skill.

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CONCEPTS

SELF-CONCEPT SELF-AWARENESS SELF-ESTEEM SELF-

PRESENTATION SELF-

HANDICAPPING THE WORKING

SELF-CONCEPT SELF-SCHEMA SELF-IMAGE SELF-COMPLEXITY POSSIBLE SELF ACTUAL & IDEAL

SELF SELF-

DISCREPANCY SELF-KNOWLEDGE SOCIALIZATION REFLECTED

APPRAISAL SELF-

ENHANCEMENT SELF-PERCEPTION ENVIRONMENTAL

DISTINCTIVENESS SOCIAL IDENTITY SOCIAL

COMPARISON SELF-EFFICACY SELF-AWARENESS LOOKING GLASS

SELF INTERDEPENDENT

VIEW OF THE SELF INDEPENDENT

VIEW OF THE SELF HIGH-SELF

ESTEEM LOW SELF ESTEEM

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Thank you for listening !