The Self Flashcards
(47 cards)
What are the 3 main parts of the self
Self knowledge/self concept
The public self/interpersonal self
The agent/executive function
Purpose of self
Gain social acceptance
Playing social roles
Keeping things on track
Self-awareness
Attraction towards the self
Public self awareness
Private self awareness
Involves evaluative comparison with the standard and leads to the change in behaviour
Duval & Wicklund (1972): self awareness theory
Suggest some situations, such as looking in the mirror, leads to self awareness
Self aware people feel bad because they notice any discrepancies between who they are and standards
They can either change by matching the behaviour to the standard, or escape by trying to escape the self awareness state
Self-awareness and behaviour
Self-awareness improves behaviour, enable people to do more socially desirable behaviour
When self-awareness is bad…
They seek escape and usually drink alcohol, some extreme escape can be suicide
The purpose of self awareness
Self regulation to control the self
Adopt the perspective of other people
Manage behaviour in pursuing of goals
Food for thought: eating binge and escape the self (self awareness)
Eating a lot to escape from negative thoughts about the self, to reduce and unpleasant self
Eating can serve as a distraction from negative thoughts about the self
Dieters have high in public self-awareness as they care about what others think about them
Low in self awareness, as they tend to ignore hunger
Dieters are more likely to binge eating and lose awareness of fullness
Where self knowledge comes from: how we know?
Looking outside Looking inside Looking at others Self handicapping Self perception theory Overjustification effects
Looking outside: Looking glass self (Cooley, 1902)
Imagine feedback
The idea that people learn about themselves by imagining how they appear to others
Generalised other (Mead, 1934)
A combination of other peoples views that tells you who and what you are
Hard to give and receive negative comments
Looking inside: introspection
The process by which a person examines the contents of his or her mind and mental states
Limitations of introspection
We may know what we think and feel, but not why because we have duplex mind
Children under 11, parents know them
Nisbett & Wilson (1977) attack on privileged access
People often do not realise how their minds work
Looking at others: social comparison (Festinger, 1954)
Examine the difference between oneself and other person
Upward social comparison
Downward social companison
Upward social comparison
Involving people better than you
Can be inspiring or discouraging you to do better and reach the goal
Downward social comparison
Comparing yourself to people worse off than you
Can make you feel good, as you are better than others
Self perception theory (Bem, 1965)
The theory that people observe their own behaviour to infer推斷 what they are thinking and how they are feeling
Overjustification effect
The tendency for instinct motivation to diminish for activities that have become associated with rewards
Extrinsic motivation would gradually win over intrinsic
Intrinsic motivation
Wanting to perform an activity for its own sake
Extrinsic motivation
Performing an activity that have become associated with rewards
Deci (1971): participants randomly assigned to paid or unpaid group to work on a puzzle
When reward is introduced to the paid group: they spent longer working in the puzzle
When reward is removed, the spending time decreased
This is evidence of overjustification effect, as the extrinsic motivation has replaced intrinsic (play had become work)
Why people seek self knowledge?
Appraisal motive
Self enhancement motive
Consistency motive
Appraisal motive
The simple desire to learn the truth about oneself, whatever it is
Self enhancement motive
The desire to learn favourable or flattering things about the self
