Lecture 19: Self IV

Question 1

better than average effect

Answer 1

Kruger
- majority rated themselves as: above average on ability to get along with others
- you consider skills= according to difficulty
- ability to get along with others= not that difficult= so you think ah im better than average
- mechanics (ex. fixing computer)= difficult= so you don’t think you’re above average
- compare yourself to other students in class on 8 skills (4 easy and 4 difficult)
- for each skill= make ratings of: own ability and peers’ ability
- 1= very unskilled; 10= very skilled
- absolute ratings of own ability= predicted comparative judgements
- but, absolute ratings of peers’ ability did not
= egocentric judgement accounts for better-than-avg- effect
- we only think of our ability when predicting if we are better than average or not

Question 2

can cognitive factors account for better than avg effect?

Answer 2

• our ability to compare judgement= EGOCENTRIC
• egocentric, as in we just focus on our own abilities–> not thinking about others= so you forget to compare yourself to others
• we tend to evaluate assessments on own level of ability– how skilled am I?
• if task easy= think we’re good at it
• if task hard= think we’re not good at it
• we don’ t think about skills of comparison group= we don’t ask: how skilled are my peers?

Question 3

cultural differences in self-E

Answer 3

Heine

• meta-analysis
• saying that self-E= not universal
• westerners= more likely to self-E than east asians
• within westerners= sig enhancement bias
• within easterners= sig self-criticism bias= v critical about themselves
• strong difference between the 2 cultures
• BUT
• westerners + easterners= both self-E– but they self-enhance on DIFF TRAITS
• westerners= enhance on individualistic attributes (independent, self-reliant, unique)
• easterners= enhance on collectivistic attributes (cooperative, self-sacrificing)
• easterners= engage in relationship enhancement (fam, friends, boyfriend= think they are better than yourself)

Question 4

cultural differences to failure

Answer 4

Heine

• canadian students and japanese students
• did association test– guess what these words all have in common
• manipulated success vs failure
• easy version of test + scored above average or difficult version of test + scored less than average
• given opportunity to work on task again if they wanted
• so, how long did they persist?
• in success condition:
• canadians kept going= felt good about themselves, of the fact that they did well
• japanese= less than canadians= did well, so move on
• in failure condition:
• canadians= didn’t persist
• japanese= persisted way more= feel like they need to improved a lot– failing is red flag

Question 5

self-E adaptive or nah?

Answer 5

Dufner et al

• meta-analysis
• self-E: defined it as the tendency to maintain unrealistically positive views of self (positive illusions)
• tested whether self-E predicted personal adjustment or interpersonal adjustment, or both

Question 6

what is personal adjustment

Answer 6

• subjective well-being + mental health
• high life satisfaction, positive emotions
• self-report

Question 7

what is interpersonal adjustment

Answer 7

• social valuation
• how much a person is valued by others
• informant reports– how others rate you

Question 8

self-E + personal adjustment: theories

Answer 8

self E= costly– makes people:
- set unrealistically high goals= greater risk of failure
- see no reason to improve self= greater likelihood of stagnation
self-E= beneficial– positive illusions promote:
- positive mindset, not much stress
- sense of mastery
- ability to be creative, be productive

Question 9

self-E + personal adjustment: results

Answer 9

• self-E= positively related to personal adjustment
• positive well being, positive emotions
• for:
• males + females
• older + younger samples
• easterners + westerners
• so self-E is beneficial for personal adjustment= good for MH

Question 10

self-E + interpersonal adjustment: theories

Answer 10

• leads people to be egoistic= alienate others
• self-E is beneficial:
• positive mindset–> appeals to others– wanna hang around with confident people
• form of self-deception that allows people to deceive others–> impress others, get more resources (ex. white lie)

Question 11

evolutionary theory of self-deception

Answer 11

• deceive others a lot to get resources
• we will be more successful at deceiving others if we deceive ourselves
• self-E biases boost self-confidence–> makes other people perceive us more positively
• SO= self-E= makes us advance socially + materially (acquire resources)

Question 12

experiment to prove self-deception

Answer 12

Epley + whitchurch

• actual, 10%, 20%…
• pics of less attractive self
• pics of more attractive self
• likely to pick 10% more attractive self
• we self deceive ourselves= we truly believe that we’re better to feel better about ourselves

Question 13

self-E + interpersonal adjustment: results

Answer 13

• results not as clear cut as for personal adjustment
• overal= no sig relationship between a person’s extent of self-E + how they were evlauated by others
• BUT
• results depende on whether informant previously knowen person they were evaluating
• not previosualy known= + relationship= create more positive impression, so s-E works here
• longer acquaintance= no sig relationship= cause you get to know them

Question 14

self-E adaptive?

Answer 14

personal adjustment= yes

interpersonal= depends

Question 15

so should we encourage people to self-E?

Answer 15

depends– need more work
studies are only correlational= doesn’t tell us the cause
also meta-analysis depends on quality