Self and identity

Question 1

What were social relations like in medieval times?

Answer 1

Fixed and stable, rules laid down by religion
People mostly stayed in one place, within set social rankings etc
No real need for portable identities, simply tied themselves to their circumstances

Question 2

What were 3 forces for change in views of the self from the 16th century onwards?

Answer 2

Secularisation - idea that fulfilment only in afterlife started to be challenged and people started actively seeking fulfilment while living
Industrialisation - people moving more for work, requiring portable identities not locked to social structures and family ties
Enlightenment - ability to organise and construct better identities and lives, overthrowing old orthodox values and oppression of high social ranks

Question 3

What did Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis suggest?

Answer 3

We can’t fully know all details of our inner selves because much is unconscious - we have an unsocial, libidinal ID kept in check by internalised societal norms (superego) but repressed impulses could surface e.g. during psychotherapy
Strongly challenged prevailing views about identity and the self

Question 4

What is meant by theory of social representation?

Answer 4

theory that novel ideas can entirely change the way people think about their world

Question 5

How does the concept of the self develop, and what are two examples of evidence?

Answer 5

During childhood
Red smudge study - only 25% of one-yr olds touched own nose when looking in mirror, but 75% of 2-yr olds
When asked “who are you?”, a younger child usually answers using physical and observable characteristics e.g. I am tall, while an older child defines themselves with deeper and more meaningful psychological traits e.g. I am generous (more highly developed sense of self)

Question 6

What is meant by the individual self?

Answer 6

Freud and others viewed the self as an individual construct, features and traits distinguishing one unique person from another
View that generally prevails - groups simply seen as groups of interacting individuals rather than individuals with one kind of shared identity

Question 7

What is meant by the collective self?

Answer 7

The self draws its properties from a group, and the idea of a GROUP MIND - out of interactions with others there arises a group mind which is qualitatively different from the individuals making up the group e.g. Sherif’s norms which arise from social interactions and are internalised to influence behaviour

Collective self consists of those aspects of self that are based on membership to a social group - perception of self as interchangeable exemplar for a group rather than as a unique person, and based on IMPERSONAL bonds to other derived from shared identification within a group (don’t necessarily require close personal relationships between group members)
Collective self is composed of shared attributes of an ingroup, aspects of self-concept that differentiate ingroups from outgroups

Question 8

What is an example of a collective self?

Answer 8

A person may self-identify as being an environmentalist]When this collective self-aspect becomes relevant, similarities with other environmentalists are emphasised whereas a person’s unique characteristics e.g. being honest move to the background
Close personal relationships not essential for self-definition - collective identity is based on common identification with a group

Question 9

What are the 3 aspects of Gardner and Brewer’s framework of self definition?

Answer 9

PERSONAL SELF - Individual level, traits and behaviours unique to person
RELATIONAL SELF - interpersonal level e.g. being a daughter, derived from relationships with significant others
COLLECTIVE SELF - representation at group level, may include people who you’ve never met but with whom you share common attributes

Question 10

What can be predicted from elements of collective identity?

Answer 10

Variety of behaviours and reactions towards others, especially members of other groups
Important role in group perception and behaviour, prejudice, inter-group stereotyping and discrimination

Question 11

What is meant by social interactionism?

Answer 11

Theory of how the self emerges from social interaction, involving the trading of symbols that are usually consensual and represent abstract properties

Question 12

What was William James’s distinction between “I” and “me”?

Answer 12

The “I” as a stream of consciousness, our individual response to society’s view of us
The “me” as an object of perception, the social self, society’s view of us
The self emerges from social interactions, determined by our society, and we can vary our “me” depending on the need; reflexive knowledge is possible i.e. “I” can be aware of “me” (although it isnt always accurate - we can reconstruct our social self concept without being aware we’ve done it)

Question 13

What was Mead’s belief about social interactions?

Answer 13

Largely symbolic, mainly interacting in terms of words/non-verbal cues rich in meaning
Society influences individuals through the way they think about themselves, and self-conception arises from and is modified by social interactions involving symbols that must have shared meanings that all involved in the interaction can understand and respond to e.g. “lets eat out tonight” opens up a variety of commonly appreciated choices

Question 14

What is an example of how meanings can determine our actions?

Answer 14

Someone coming from a culture where being outspoken is a good thing - that person will learn to be outspoken to boost self-esteem by engaging in socially accepted behaviour
If they move to a culture where being outspoken is frowned upon, however, the same behaviour now has a different meaning and through symbolic interactionism they may adopt this new meaning and allow it to alter their self-concept and behaviour

Question 15

What does interacting effectively involve?

Answer 15

Taking on the role of the other person i.e. seeing yourself as a social object i.e. your “me”
Outsiders will often see us through the lens of a particular schema as a member of a category so the “me” is probably more often seen as a collective concept

Question 16

What is meant by the looking glass self?

Answer 16

Through symbolic interactions with others we are essentially trading representations we and our society have of the world - we are only effective when seeing ourselves from society’s perspective, and in this way we construct a self-concept that reflects that society i.e. we are SOCIALLY CONSTITUTED
This process is known as reflective appraisals and is the main process in development of the self
Looking glass self predicts that our view of ourselves and society’s views of us should map closely together

Question 17

What did Schrauger and Schoeneman find?

Answer 17

We actually see ourselves as we THINK others see us, so there is usually a considerable difference between our actual and constructed self which is based on what we think others see of us, and it is this that commonly changes in different circumstances
May be because we don’t actually take the role of the other when constructing our sense of self i.e. we make assumptions, or it might be because communication during social interactions are so noisy and inaccurate and influenced by a range of self-construal motivations

Question 18

What is the self-enhancing triad?

Answer 18

Our concept of self is strongly linked to how we go about enhancing our self-image - we have a tendency to overestimate our good points, overestimate control we have over events, and are unrealistically optimistic

Question 19

What is meant by self-awareness?

Answer 19

State in which you are able to reflexively appraise your “me” as an object - objective self-awareness
Involves making comparisons between how actually are and how want to be, and this analysis often highlights shortcomings and associated negative emotions –> motivated to do something to bring actual self more in line with ideal self

Question 20

What is the difference between private and public self-awareness?

Answer 20

Private=thoughts and feelings which lead us to try to match our behaviour to our internalised standards
Public=how others see us, orientated towards presenting self to others in a positive light

Question 21

What is meant by reduced objective self-awareness?

Answer 21

Result of finding awareness to be too stressful
Key component of DEINDIVIDUATION i.e. when someone doesn’t think of themselves as a distinct individual so fails to monitor their own actions, often behaving impulsively

Question 22

What is self-knowledge?

Answer 22

Addresses what it is we are actually aware of when we are self-aware, constructed in much the same way as we construct representations of others - we have many self-schemas which are more complex than those for others, utilising many aspects of ourselves so if one schema fails in a given context we can use another to bolster our self-esteem
People are generally more self-schematic on dimensions that are important to them, on which they think they are extreme and on which they are certain the opposite doesn’t hold and these become part of the self-concept

Question 23

What is a problem with rigidly compartmentalised self-schemas?

Answer 23

If some are negative and some positive, events may cause extreme mood swings according to whether a positive or negative self-schema is primed
It is better to have more integrated self-schemas where boundaries are less clear and effects on mood less

Question 24

What is Higgin’s self-discrepancy theory?

Answer 24

Self-schemas don’t just describe how we ARE but we have an array of possible selves, future-oriented schemas
ACTUAL SELF - how we currently are
IDEAL SELF - how we would like to be
OUGHT SELF - how we think we SHOULD be

Question 25

What does self-discrepancy theory suggest?

Answer 25

Consequences associated with making actual-ideal and actual-ought comparisons revealing self-discrepancies
Ideal and ought self both motivate different types of self-related behaviour - we can have the same goal constructed as an ideal e.g. striving to be prosperous, or as an ought e.g. striving to avoid not being prosperous
Identifying discrepancies motivates us to engage in self-regulation and make changes to reduce them, but discrepancies also make us emotionally vulnerable - when we fail to resolve actual-ideal we feel dejected and disappointed, and actual-ought we feel agitated and anxious

Question 26

What does Festinger’s social comparison theory suggest?

Answer 26

We can learn about ourselves via comparisons with others - people will compare opinions and behaviours in order to determine the correct/socially acceptable way of thinking/behaving
People will often seek out similar others to validate their perceptions and attitudes - people anchor their attitudes and self-concept in the groups to which they feel they belong

Question 27

How are social comparisons different in the context of performance?

Answer 27

We generally compare ourselves to people slightly worse than us i.e. we make downward social comparisons as upward comparison may sometimes have harmful effects on self-esteem

Question 28

What mechanisms can we evolve to avoid harmful effects of upward comparisons?

Answer 28

Self-evaluation maintenance model suggests we could downplay our similarity to the person above us, or withdraw from our relationship with that person

Question 29

What does self-categorisation theory suggest regarding downward comparisons between groups?

Answer 29

Groups tend to compare themselves to inferior outgroups to improve own self-esteem and self-esteem of individual group members - people who feel they belong to a group automatically internalise as a self-evaluation the attributes that describe that group
If the group is positive, attributes will be positive and the self will be positive
People will change their group membership in different contexts to suit their need at that time to maintain self-esteem

Question 30

What is meant by basking in reflected glory?

Answer 30

Participants who had lowered self-esteem tended to more strongly associate with a winning football team, referring to teams as “we” rather than “they”

Question 31

What are 2 general classes of motives for self-presentation?

Answer 31

Strategic - adopted by HIGH SELF-MONITORS who typically shape their behaviour to project the impression they feel their audience requires
Expressive - adopted by LOW SELF-MONITORS whose behaviour is less responsive to changing contextual demands

Question 32

What are 5 strategic self-presentation motives?

Answer 32

Self-promotion - trying to persuade others of your competence
Ingratiation - trying to get others to like you (targeted at individual interacting with, doesn’t really affect observers)
(the above service two of the most common goals of social interaction - remember that warmth and competence are the two most pervasive dimensions for impression formation)
Intimidation - get others to think of you as dangerous
Exemplification - get others to see you as a morally respectable individual
Supplication - trying to get others to take pity on you as helpless and needy

Question 33

What are Jones’s 4 tactics for “winning friends” through strategic self-presentation?

Answer 33

1) Be similar but credible - agree on important issues but disagree on trivial, and make agreements forceful
2) Be selectively modest but not too much - make fun of unimportant issues and put yourself down on areas that don’t matter
3) Use the strategy sparingly - avoid looking too desperate for approval
4) Discuss winning connections

Question 34

What does expressive self-presentation involve?

Answer 34

Demonstrating and validating our self-concept through our actions rather than manipulating others’ perceptions of you; focus is more on ourselves than on others
Do still seek out others who we believe are more likely to validate us - self-concepts are essentially worthless unless recognised and validated by others
Social validation both aids in identity validation and also implicates in changing of the self-concept - public aggressive behaviour is more likely to be internalised as a description of the self than private behaviour

Question 35

What was Snyder’s research into the self-conceptual consequences of public behaviour?

Answer 35

Observers led to believe that a target stranger was going to be an extrovert
This expectation constrained the target to behave as an extrovert would
This in turn confirmed the observers’ expectations and strengthened the constraint, leading the target to believe that they really were an extrovert

RECIPROCAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SELF AND SURROUNDINGS