L - 20 The Self IV Flashcards
What is ego-centric judgement, developed by Kruger (1999)?
Egocentric judgements are comparative ability judgements (yourself against others) whereby we base are assessments on our own ability.
If the task is easy, we think we are good at it (above average), and if the task is hard, we think we’re below average at it, without taking into account the ability of others.
What we the cultural differences in self-enhancement found by Heine and Hamamura’s (2007) meta-analysis between Westerners and East Asians?
They found the Westerners were significantly more likely to self enhance that East-Asians, with most studies yielding large effect sizes.
Within Western samples, there was a significant self-enhancing bias in the vast majority of studies (44/48).
Within Eastern samples, there was a significant self-enhancing bias in less than half of studies (19/46), as well as showing a self-criticism bias in (20/46).
What are the cultural differences in responses to failure as found by Heine et al. (2001) between Canadian and Japanese students?
Canadian participants showed significantly longer persistence on a remote associates task if they had been told they had succeeded the first time, compared to those told they had failed - showing a self-enhancing motive.
Japanese participants showed the exact opposite effect. Participants told they had failed work for longer on the task than those told they has succeeded - showing self-improvement rather than enhancement.
How does Sedikides (2003) explain the cultural differences in self-enhancement?
He said that both Easterners and Westerners self-enhance, but do so on different traits.
Eastern: more likely to S.E on interpersonal/collectivistic traits (helpful, cooperative).
Western: more likely to S.E on individualistic traits (independent, uniqueness).
How may self-enhancement be adaptive?
“Positive illusions” such as self-enhancement may promote mental health wellbeing.
- they are associated with happiness.
- provide greater motivation and persistence.
Self-enhancement biases are a form of self-deception.
- we are more effective at deceiving others for gains is
we first deceive ourselves.
- boost self-confidence.
What did Epley and Whitchurch (2008) demonstrate by gradually merging participant’s faces with a more and less attractive face?
They found that participants did not pick out their actual face, instead they chose the face that was 10% more attractive.
