6 - the self

Question 1

The self-concept (james 1890)

Answer 1

me - self as an object, the known self, self-concept, like a library

I - self as an agent, the knower self, consciousness, like a reader

All of our knowledge about ourselves….

overlaps with other cognitive representations, such as relational IDs, social roles, social IDs

Question 2

Functions of the self

Answer 2

organizational function - help us organize our memories….. either autbiographical, semantic, or systematic way to make it easier to retreive info

managerial function - helps us plan for the future, understand the best way to move the self through the social world towards our goals

emotional function - better able to relate events to self-concept

Question 3

sources of information about the self

Answer 3

**external info: **inferences about our own behaviour…. how others see us…. social comparison…. immediate social context…. social group membership

**internal info: **thoughts and feelings

1. examine behaviour and the cirucmstances
2. if situation satisfactorily explains behaviour, assume that behaviour is due to external factor
3. if situation doesn’t explain, then assume it’s due to internal reasons

Question 4

self-perception theory (bem, 1972)

Answer 4

we draw conclusions about outselves the same way we draw conclusions about others, based on observable behaviours

Question 5

Salancik and Conway (1975)

religiousness

Answer 5

people will draw conclusions about their own religiosity by saying, “do i act in religious ways or not?”

Fill out a questionnaire asking about religious behaviours; place a check next to sentences which apply to them:

To increase the salience of their own pro-religious behaviors…
• I attend a church or synagogue on occasion
• I deliberately step on ants frequently
To increase the salience of their own anti-religious behaviors…
• I attend a church or synagogue frequently
• I deliberately step on ants occasionally

Results: manipulation worked, confirmed self-perception theory

Question 6

Kruger and Dunning(1999)

perceived skills of self

Answer 6

test assessing abilities in e.g. grammar, logical reasoning, ability to detect humour

asked to estimate their skills in that domain

• Participants with poorest performance were also the most egregious over-estimators of their own performance
• Why? Not having the skill means not being able to correctly assess your lack of skill

Question 7

the looking glass self (cooley, 1902)

Answer 7

• self not inherent property of humans
• product of our interactions with others
• we see ourselves through others’ reactions (a mirror that reflects who we are)

Question 8

Baldwin, Carrell, & Lopez (1990)

Answer 8

feedback from others affects self-views

practicing or non practicing Catholic women read sexually permessive material

IV: subliminal presentation of disapproving man, either the pope or a stranger

DV: ratings of self-worth

picture of pope decreased their evaluation of their qualities and self-worth

Question 9

immediate social context

and working self-concept

Answer 9

• tend to focus on self-aspects that are relevant to context
• that make us distinctive

working self-concept - the subset of self-knowledge that’s accessible and activated at any given moment in time

implies that we have multiple selves (depending on context)

Question 10

differentiation of self in context

Answer 10

People tend to describe themselves in ways that set themselves apart from others in their immediate
environment

McGuire et al., 1978, 1979:
• Racial minorities in classrooms more likely to
mention race
• Boys from predominantly female families are
more likely to cite their gender

Question 11

social comparison

social comparison theory

Answer 11

learn about selves through comparison with others

social comparison theory (Festinger, 1954)

• most likely to compare when there are no objective standards
• most likely compare selves to similar others

Question 12

upward social comparison

downward social comparison

Answer 12

morivations for social comparison

upward - look up to someone, to gain self-knowledge

downward - ego-boosting compared to someone worse off

Taylor and Lobel (1983)

Cancer patients, some compared selves to ppl adjusting well (upward), some to those who ar eadjusting worse than them (downward)

Question 13

Medvec, Madey, and Gilovich, 1995

Olympic medalists

social comparison

Answer 13

• The silver medalist is always the least happy and is engaging in upward social comparison (what could I have done to get the gold)
• The bronze medalist is happy and is engaging in downward social comparison (comparing self to the 4th place contestant)

Question 14

Social Identity

Answer 14

Social Identity – the different groups of which we are a member, any meaningful group you can say you are a member of gives you info about yourself

Question 15

• Social Identity Theory and Self-Categorization Theory (Tajfel and Turner)

in group

out group

biases

Answer 15

Social groups facilitate social comparison, help us to make the world simpler, more coherent, and predictable

In-group
• “Us”: A group of people who share a sense of belonging, a common identity

** Out-group:**
• “Them”: A group that people perceive as different from or apart from their in-group

Biases:
• Ingroup bias: favoring those in our groups
• Outgroup bias: discrimination and prejudice

Question 16

self-esteem

Answer 16

An individual’s positive or negative evaluation of him or herself

A function of the perceived difference between the actual self and some desired self (James, 1890)

self-esteem = success/pretensions

Question 17

Self-discrepancy theory (Higgins, 1987)

self guides

standpoint to self

Answer 17

The difference between our self-concept (the actual
self) and our different self-guides affects how we feel about ourselves

Self-guides:
• ideal self: determined by our hopes, wishes, and
dreams, as well as those that others have for us
(i.e., who we would like to be)

• ought self: determined by our sense of duty,
responsibility, or obligation(i.e.,who we should
be)

standpoints to the self - your own as well as others’ sense of the difference between your ideal and ought selves……….

failiure to live up to ideal leads to depression

failiure to live up to ought leads to anxiety

Question 18

self guides

Answer 18

Self-guides:
• ideal self: determined by our hopes, wishes, and
dreams, as well as those that others have for us
(i.e., who we would like to be)

• ought self: determined by our sense of duty,
responsibility, or obligation (i.e., who we should
be)

higgins self-discrepancy theory

Question 19

standpoints of the self

Answer 19

standpoints of the self - your own as well as others’ sense of the difference between your ideal and ought selves……….

failiure to live up to ideal = depression

failiure to live up to ought = anxiety

Question 20

implicit thories (Dweck 1999)

Answer 20

entity theory

• can’t change our basic traits/abilities
• we are who we are, can’t teach an old dog new tricks
• ability with the goal of mastery…

incremental theory

• we can change even our most fundamental abilities
• we are who we are
• effort with learning as the goal…

Entity Theory:
• Leads to stable, global internal attributions
• When faced with difficulties or failure
• Leads to helpless response
• Increases likelihood of disengagement

• Incremental Theory:
• Encourages learning goals
• Promotes positive beliefs about the role of effort
• Increases use of mastery-oriented strategies

Question 21

blackwell (2003)

math and kids

Answer 21

followed 400 kids across 7th grade transition to junior high

The researchers found that the theories predicted changes in grades better than the entering math achievement
o Being an entity theorist: their math grades steadily declined
o Being an incremental theorist: their math grades steadily increased

Question 22

Mueller and Dweck

entity vs. incremental and praise

Answer 22

If you were praised for your effort and the process of the learning that skill is valued, you will develop incremental theory

Entity Theory:
• Leads to stable, global internal attributions
• When faced with difficulties or failure
• Leads to helpless response
• Increases likelihood of disengagement

• Incremental Theory:
• Encourages learning goals
• Promotes positive beliefs about the role of effort
• Increases use of mastery-oriented strategies

Question 23

structure and organization of self

Answer 23

self-schemas

self-complexity theory

evaluative organization

Question 24

self-schemas (Marcus 1977)

Answer 24

Cognitive generalizations about the self
• Help us organize and process info about ourselves
• Help us to define ourselves or decide how we feel about ourselves
• Represent traits that are central to the self-concept – i.e. I’m friendly, I’m creative, etc.

For any given trait dimension we can be:
• Schematic (the trait is central to the self-concept and can be high or low)
• Aschematic (the trait is not central to the self-concept)

self-schemas - help us process info about self with ease……. retreive autobiographical evidence….. predict own future behaviour……

lead to bias - resist counter-schematic info about self

Question 25

self-complexity theory (linville)

Answer 25

• high in self-complexity have many distinct self aspects
• low in self-complexity have relatively few self aspects, more that are overlapping

Degree of self-complexity is related to how people
respond to positive and negative self-relevant events

IV - complexity, performance feedback

DV - Mood

• “Don’t put all of your eggs in one cognitive basket”

o If you are lower in self-complexity, a failure will permeate the overlapping self-aspects
o If you are higher in self-complexity, a failure will not permeate into other self-aspects, since the self-aspects are distinct

Question 26

evaluative organization (showers, 1992)

definitions

implications

Answer 26

evaluative compartmentalization - positive and negative beliefs segregated into separate self-aspects

evaluative integration - self-aspects contain a mixture of positive an negative beliefs

implications

People who are high in evaluative compartmentalization:

• can defensively segregate negative information about the self
• have high self-esteem that is unstable
• have a greater sensitivity to the experience of positive and negative events