L07 - Illusions About the Self

Question 1

what are the two self-evaluative motives covered in class?

Answer 1

our search for self-knowledge is guided by a few self-evaluation motives:
- self-assessment
- self-enhancement

Question 2

What is the self-assessment motive?

Answer 2

fundamental motive to see ourselves accurately

leads to people seeking objective feedback about their abilities and characteristics in order to reduce uncertainty about the self-concept

pragmatic function because allows us to develop accurate and realistic goals for ourselves

Question 3

What is the self-enhancement motive?

Answer 3

fundamental motive to maximize how positively we see ourselves

functions to attain or maintain self-esteem
- guides people toward situations in which they believe they will excel or can promote their positive qualities which will help them increase their self-esteem

leads us to seek self-knowledge that is enhancing and therefore often biased and unrealistic

Question 4

What are some illusions about the self?

Answer 4

most people have illusions about the self:
- 1. overly positive self-evaluations
- 2. illusions of control
- 3. unrealistic optimism bias

Question 5

What does it mean to have an overly positive self-evaluation?

Answer 5

people use more positive traits to describe themselves than negative traits

we’re more likely to forget negative feedback about ourselves than positive feedback

remember successes more easily

tendency to engage in downward (vs. upward) social comparisons

self-serving attributional bias
- we claim credit for success but blame failures on the situation

see our talents as unique, weaknesses as common

Question 6

What are some direct evidence for illusory self-evaluations?

how do we know that such favourable self-evaluations are illusions?

Answer 6

1. better-than-average effect
2. we rate ourselves better than objectively warranted

Question 7

What is the better-than-average effect?

Answer 7

most people rate their abilities as better than the average person even though it is statisically impossible for most people to be above average

peoplet end to rate themselves as better-than-average in:
- intelligence
- attractiveness
- reliability
- loyalty
- kindness
- wisdom
- interesting
– better-than-average on more desirable traits

the more desirable a trait, the more people see themselves as better than average on this trait (r = 0.77)

the more desirable a trait, the more likely people see this trait as descriptive of themselves (r = 0.92)

Question 8

Describe Kruger & Dunning’s study on how we rate ourselves better than objectively warranted (1999).

unskilled and unaware of it

Answer 8

people consistently overestimate their ability in various domains, especially those that are below average in a domain

humor, logical reasoning, grammar

Question 9

What are illusions of personal control?

Answer 9

the idea that we have control over our lives is central to most theories of self-esteem and well-being

BUT, personal control beliefs tend to be greater than what’s justified (i.e., illusory):
- people believe they have more control over outcome of dice if they’re allowed to throw them than if someone else throws them
- people beleive that choosing own lottery tickets will lead to better outcome

some argue that free will is an illusion

Question 10

How does neuroscience relate to illusions of personal control?

Answer 10

some argue that free will is an illusion

mostly rely on evidence from neuroscience:
- neurons in motor area begin firing ~1500ms before decision to move
- based on neural firing in motor area, able to predict a person’s decision to move with 80% accuracy 700ms before they were consciously aware of deciding to move

suggests that decisions to move are not made consicously even though it feels that way

Question 11

What is the unrealistic optimism bias?

Answer 11

people tend to think that they are less likely than others to experience negative events and more likely to experience positive events

Question 12

Describe Weinstein’s study on the unrealistic optimism bias (1980).

Answer 12

Test:
- difficult to establish whether an individual is being overly optmistic
- easier to test by asking people to compare self to others
– How likely is it that ____ will happen to you?
– How likely is it that ____ will happen to a peer (same age, gender, education level, etc.)?
– on a group level, not everyone can have a bright future

compared to others, people believe that they are less likely to:
- get into a car accident
- be a victim of a crime
- experience severe illness
- experience depression
- get divorced

compared to others people believe that they are more likely to:
- like their first job
- have a good starting salary
- have a gifted child
- live past 80

Question 13

How are smokers more optimistic than objectively warranted?

(Weinstein et al., 2005)

Answer 13

Smokers underestimate their risk of lung cancer compared to non-smokers, but also compared to the average smoker

Question 14

Describe Weinstein et al.’s study on reducing unrealistic optimism?

Can this bias be eliminated when confronted with own risk factors for a health problem?

Answer 14

Method: 374 undergraduates reflected on their risk of developing a drinking problem

experimental manipulation:
- Risk-increasing: “List all of the factors that tend to increase your own chances of developing a drinking problem”
- Control: did not list own risk factors

then rated:
- own risk of develpping a drinking problem
- average college student’s risk of developing drinking problem

Finding: thinking about own risk factors for developing a drinking problem did not decrease optimism bias

Question 15

Describe Aspinwall & Taylor’s study on adjustment to university and illusions about the self (1992).

(Are these illusions adaptive?)

Do individual differences in self-esteem, beliefs about control, and optimism about the future predict adjustment to college?

Answer 15

Method: 2-year study of 672 first year students; assessed every quarter
- assessed positive illusions (self-esteem, personal control, optimism)
- outcomes:
– psychological adjustment: mood and perceived stress
– Productive work: GPA
- also wanted to examine mechanisms
– coping strategies, social support, motivation

Results:
- adjustment
– higher self-esteem and more optimism lef to better adjustment
- GPA
– higher self-esteem led to higher cumulative GPA (5 academic quarters)
- suggests that illusions lead to better outcomes

Question 16

Describe Taylor et al.’s study on illusions and men at risk for AIDS (1992).

are illusions still adaptive and helpful in more challenging circumstances?

Answer 16

Method: investigated adaptive (vs. maladaptive) consequences of unrealistic optimism
- 550 homosexual and bisexual men
- about half were HIV+ and about half were HIV- (men knew status)
- measured AIDS-specific optimism
– “I feel safe from AIDS because I’ve developed an immunity”
– “I think my immune system is more capable of fighting the AIDS virus than that of other gay men”

Results: HIV+ men showed more AIDS-specific optimism than HIV- men

more AIDS-specific optimism associated with:
- higher perceived control
- more active coping
- more healthy behaviour: more likely to practice safe sex and exercise regularly

follow-up study in men who didn’t know HIV status showed no differences in AIDS-specific optimism between HIV+ and HIV- groups

suggests that optimism is an adaptive response and does not compromise health behaviour

Question 17

Describe Reed et al.’s study on expectations & AIDS course (1994).

Do positive illusions also affect the course of illness?

Answer 17

Method: homosexual men diagnosed with AIDS for 1 year
- assessed realistic acceptance (i.e., not unrealsitic optimism) of diagnosis
– “I tried to accept what might happen”
– “I prepare myself for the worst”
- how does acceptance (vs. optimism) affect survival?

Finding: estimated survival time 9 months shorter for individuals showing a high degree of acceptance

Question 18

How do illusions affect mental health?

Answer 18

Illusions can impact our adjustment to the ups and downs of life as well as challenging major life events

illusions are adaptive and appear to be fairly pervasive

Question 19

Describe Pronin et al.’s study findings on how knowledge isn’t power (2002).

Answer 19

when informed of illusions and biases, people think they are less prone to them… which is itself self-enhancing!

Question 20

What was Heine et al.’s hypothesis on whether self-enhancement is individualistic? (1999)

Answer 20

Hypothesis: self-enhancement is unique/more evident in individualistic sociteies
- consistent with cultural ideal of uniqueness and self-assertion
- inconsistent with collectivistic/Eastern values of belonging and fitting in with a group

Question 21

Describe self-esteem in the West vs. the East.

Answer 21

Western samples report higher self-esteem than Japanese samples

acculturation in self-esteem
- the more someone is exposed to dominant culture (mainstream culture), the more they’ll adopt their self-esteem views

Question 22

Describe Sedikides et al.’s study on pancultural self-enhancement (2003).

people will self-enhance on traits that are important and consistent with cultural values

Answer 22

fundamental need for positive self-views so self-enhancement is universal, just looks different in different cultures

Method: recruited American and Japanese students

rated how well individualistic and collectivistic traits described them compared to a typical cultural group member
- scale from -5 to 5
- -5: much less likely than typical group member
- 0: about the same as the typical group member
- 5: much more than the typical group member

Findings:
- Americans self-enhanced more on individualistic traits, and Japanese self-enhanced more on collectivistic traits
- evidence for self-enhancement across cultures

Question 23

How does self-esteem work as a moderator?

Answer 23

self-enhancement is universal, just looks differnet depending on a person’s self-esteem
- high self-esteem: more likely to use self-advancement
- low self-esteem: more likely to use self-protection

Question 24

What are the two self-enhancement strategies?

Answer 24

1. advancement: increasing how positively you see yourself
- e.g., overly positive self-evaluations

2. protection: decreasing how negatviely you see yourself
- e.g., self-handicapping: actions or statements a person makes (i.e., obstacles you create) that allow them to avoid the responsibility for potential failure that could damage self-esteem