Week 1 - Self and Identity

Question 1

What is social psychology?

Answer 1

The scientific attempt to explain how the thoughts, feeling and behaviours of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of other humans.

Question 2

Describe the task carried out in Triplett’s (1898) key study of the self

Answer 2

Fishing reels turned a silk band around a drum which was connected to a pulley by a chord - flag had to travel around the pulley 4 times.

Question 3

Describe the conditions carried out in Triplett’s (1898) key study of the self

Answer 3

Children were alone or in pairs.

Question 4

Describe the results of Triplett’s (1898) key study of the self

Answer 4

Children were faster, slower or not impacted by being in a pair.

Question 5

What did Triplett say the reasons behind his findings were?

Answer 5

The faster children - the arousal of their competitive instincts and the ides of a faster movement.

Slower children were going to pieces.

Question 6

Who carried out a study on the self using a flag and a fishing reel?

Answer 6

Triplett (1898)

Question 7

What was the self like in the 19th century? (5)

Answer 7

Wundt (1897) - first lab for experimental psychology.

Freud - psychoanalytic school of psychology.

Early 1900s - rapid growth of lab research in USA.

Allport (1924) - social psychology would only flourish if it became an experimental science.

Murphy and Murphy (1931-1937) published book called Experimental Social Psychology.

Question 8

Behaviour

Answer 8

What people actually do that can be measured.

Question 9

Science

Answer 9

Method for studying nature that involves the collecting of data to test hypotheses.

Question 10

Hypotheses

Answer 10

Empirically testable predictions about what co-occurs with what or what causes what.

Question 11

Theory

Answer 11

Set of inter-related concepts and principles that explain a phenomenon.

Question 12

Data

Answer 12

Publicly verifiable

Question 13

Independent variable

Answer 13

Change of their own accord or can be manipulated by an experimenter to have effects on a DV.

Question 14

Dependent variable

Answer 14

change as a consequence of changes in the IV.

Question 15

Positivism

Answer 15

The non-critical acceptance of scientific method as the only way to arrive at true knowledge.

Question 16

Reductionism

Answer 16

Explanation of a phenomenon in terms of the language and concepts of a lower level of analysis, usually with the loss of explanatory power.

Question 17

Level of explanation

Answer 17

The types of concepts, mechanisms and language used to explain a phenomenon.

Question 18

How did Doise (1986) say we need to construct theories?

Answer 18

That formally integrate, or ‘articulate’, concepts from different levels.

Question 19

When can non-experimental methods be used?

Answer 19

When experiments are not practical or ethical.

Question 20

Archival research

Answer 20

researcher assembles data from a range of sources related to a specific phenomenon.

Question 21

Give an example of archival research?

Answer 21

Janis (1972) - archival research regarding the Bay of Pigs fiasco.

Question 22

How does a field study relate to a field experiment?

Answer 22

It’s like a field experiments but without any interventions or manipulations.

Question 23

Self in the medieval times

Answer 23

Identity shaped by family membership, social ranks and place of birth.

Question 24

Self in the 16th century

Answer 24

started to change due to issues including secularisation, industrialisation and enlightenment.

Question 25

Self in the early 20th century

Answer 25

Psychodynamic self

Question 26

Self in the 1990s

Answer 26

Over 31000 articles about self in previous 20 years.

Question 27

What are the 3 methods in searching for the self?

Answer 27

Self assessment Self verification Self-enhancement

Question 28

Self assessment

Answer 28

Seeking out new information about ourselves in order to find out what sort of person we really are.

Question 29

Self verification

Answer 29

Seeking out information that confirms what we think we already know about ourselves.

Question 30

Self-enhancement

Answer 30

The motivation to promote a favourable image of self.

Question 31

What did Sedikides (1993) find out about self assessment, self verification and self-enhancement?

Answer 31

Enhancement was found to be stronger than verification which was stronger than assessment.

Question 32

Explain Van Gyn et al. (1990) method of their study of the self

Answer 32

Participants assigned to one of 4 conditions: - Power training on a bike + imagery - Power training on a bike without imagery - No power training + imagery - No power training without imagery

Question 33

Explain Van Gyn et al. (1990) findings of their study of the self

Answer 33

- Power training improved performance | - Using imagery also improved performance

Question 34

Explain Van Gyn et al. (1990) conclusion of their study of the self

Answer 34

Imagery improves self-conception which improved performance.

Question 35

Who did a study on the self using power training?

Answer 35

Van Gyn et al. (1990)

Question 36

What did Harre et al. (2005) driving study find/show?

Answer 36

Showed self-enhancement bias - most drivers said they were better (more skilled/safer) than they actually were.

Question 37

What did Shrauger and Schoeneman (1979) do and find when testing the idea of the looking glass self?

Answer 37

Meta perspective Reviewed 63 studies. found that people didn't tend to see themselves as others saw them but instead people saw themselves as how they thought others saw them.

Question 38

What is awareness?

Answer 38

A state in which you are aware of yourself as an object, much as you might be aware of a tree or another person (Duval & Wicklund, 1972).

Question 39

What were Carver and Scheier (1981) 2 forms of self?

Answer 39

Private self and public elf.

Question 40

What did Carver and Scheier mean by private self?

Answer 40

Try to match behaviour with internal standards.

Question 41

What did Carver and Scheier mean by public self?

Answer 41

Presenting yourself in a positive light.

Question 42

What was the method of Steele (1975) study of the self?

Answer 42

Mormon women received 2 phone calls: - Called to ask if they would list everything in their kitchen to help with a new community food cooperative project (Baseline 50% agree) - A few days earlier they had been called by a ‘pollster’ and told one of 3 things: A. uncooperative with community projects (95%) B. Not concerned about driver safety (95%) C. cooperative with community projects (65%)

Question 43

What 3 things made up Higgins' (1987) Self-Discrepancy Theory?

Answer 43

Actual self, ideal self and ought self.

Question 44

Who came up with the Self-Discrepancy Theory?

Answer 44

Higgins (1987)

Question 45

What can priming the ideal self lead to?

Answer 45

Dejection

Question 46

What can priming the ought self lead to?

Answer 46

Agitation

Question 47

In Higgins' (1986) discrepancies study, what did people with a high actual-ideal and actual-ought self-discrepancy experience?

Answer 47

- Increase in dejection but not agitation after being primed to focus on ideal self. - Increase in agitation but not dejection after being primed to focus on ought self.

Question 48

What did Medvec et al. (1995) find about Olympic medalists and their view on winning Olympic medals and how this represents the view of the self?

Answer 48

Happiest is gold then bronze then silver (due to upwards and downwards comparison - upwards is bad and downwards is good for identity).

Question 49

What type of thought is the ability to think about ourselves?

Answer 49

A reflexive thought.

Question 50

What were the forces for change of the view of the self in the 16th century?

Answer 50

Secularisation, industrialisation, enlightenment (and psychoanalysis).

Question 51

What do we mean by reflexive thought?

Answer 51

wWe can think about ourselves, about who we are, how we would like to be and how we would like others to see us.

Question 52

What are constructs?

Answer 52

Abstract or theoretical concepts or variables that are not observable and are used to explain or clarify a phenomenon.

Question 53

Secularisation

Answer 53

The idea that fulfilment occurs in the afterlife was replaced by the idea that you should actively pursue personal fulfilment in this life.

Question 54

Industrialisation

Answer 54

People were increasingly seen as units of production that moved from place to place to work and thus had a portable personal identity that was not locked into static social structures such as the extended family.

Question 55

Enlightenment

Answer 55

People felt that they could organise and construct different, better, iden- tities and lives for themselves by overthrowing orthodox value systems and oppressive regimes (e.g. the French and American revolutions of the late eighteenth century).

Question 56

Psychoanalysis

Answer 56

Freud’s theory of the human mind crystallised the notion that the self was unfathomable because it lurked in the gloomy depths of the unconscious.

Question 57

Difference between Individual and collective self

Answer 57

I vs we/us.

Question 58

Symbolic interactionism

Answer 58

Theory of how the self emerges from human interaction, which involves people trading symbols (through language and gesture) that are usually consensual and represent abstract properties rather than concrete objects.

Question 59

Looking-glass self

Answer 59

The self derived from seeing ourselves as others see us.

Question 60

Who came up with the looking glass self?

Answer 60

G.H. Mead

Question 61

What does private self-awareness lead you to do?

Answer 61

Try to match your behaviour to your internalised standards.

Question 62

What does public self-awareness lead you to do?

Answer 62

Present yourself to others in a positive light.

Question 63

Deindividuation

Answer 63

Process whereby people lose their sense of socialised individual identity and engage in unsocialised, often antisocial, behaviours.

Question 64

Schema

Answer 64

Cognitive structure that represents knowledge about a concept or type of stimulus, including its attributes and the relations among those attributes.

Question 65

Self-discrepancy theory

Answer 65

Higgins’s theory about the consequences of making actual – ideal and actual – ‘ought’ self-comparisons that reveal self-discrepancies.

Question 66

Actual self

Answer 66

How we currently are.

Question 67

Ideal self

Answer 67

How we would like to be.

Question 68

Ought self

Answer 68

How we think we should be.

Question 69

Self-regulation

Answer 69

Strategies that we use to match our behaviour to an ideal or ‘ought’ standard.

Question 70

Why do we engage in self-regulation?

Answer 70

To try to match our behaviour to an ideal or ought standard.

Question 71

Regulatory focus theory

Answer 71

A promotion focus causes people to be approach- oriented in constructing a sense of self; a prevention focus causes people to be more cautious and avoidant in constructing a sense of self.

Question 72

What is the promotion system concerned with in regulatory focus theory?

Answer 72

The attainment of one’s hopes and aspirations – one’s ideals.

Question 73

What is the prevention system concerned with in regulatory focus theory?

Answer 73

The fulfilment of one’s duties and obligations – one’s ought.

Question 74

Explain Higgins' method in his self-discrepancy theory study

Answer 74

They administered questionnaires to identify students who were either high in both kinds of discrepancies or else low in both. Several weeks later, the same students partici- pated in an experiment in which emotions that reflected dejection or agitation were measured, both before and after a priming procedure. for their ‘ideal’ prime they were asked to discuss their own and their parents’ hopes for them; for their ‘ought’ prime they discussed their own and their parents’ beliefs about their duties and obligations.

Question 75

Explain Higgins' hypotheses in his self-discrepancy theory study

Answer 75

It was hypothesised that an actual–ideal discrepancy would lead to feeling dejected (but not agitated), whereas an actual–’ought’ discrepancy would lead to feeling agi- tated (but not dejected).

Question 76

Self-perception theory

Answer 76

Bem’s idea that we gain knowledge of ourselves only by making self-attributions: for example, we infer our own attitudes from our own behaviour.

Question 77

Overjustification effect

Answer 77

In the absence of obvious external determinants of our behaviour, we assume that we freely choose the behaviour because we enjoy it.

Question 78

Social comparison theory

Answer 78

Comparing our behaviours and opinions with those of others in order to establish the correct or socially approved way of thinking and behaving.

Question 79

Self-evaluation maintenance model

Answer 79

People who are constrained to make esteem-damaging upward comparisons can underplay or deny similarity to the target, or they can withdraw from their relationship with the target.

Question 80

Who came up with the self-perception theory?

Answer 80

Bem (1967, 1972)

Question 81

Who came up with the social comparison theory?

Answer 81

Festinger (1954)

Question 82

Who came up with the self-evaluation maintenance model?

Answer 82

Tesser (1988)

Question 83

Social identity

Answer 83

That part of the self-concept that derives from our membership in social groups.

Question 84

Personal identity

Answer 84

The self defined in terms of unique personal attributes or unique interpersonal relationships.

Question 85

What are the broad types of identity that social identity theorists have argued there are?

Answer 85

Social identity and personal identity.

Question 86

What were Brewer and Gardner (1996) 3 forms of self?

Answer 86

Individual self, relational self, collective self.

Question 87

Individual self

Answer 87

Based on personal traits that differentiate the self from all others.

Question 88

Relational self

Answer 88

Based on connections and role relationships with significant others.

Question 89

Collective self

Answer 89

Based on group membership that differentiates ‘us’ from ‘them’.

Question 90

What were the 4 types of identity proposed by brewer et al. (2001/2006)?

Answer 90

Person-based identities Relational based identities Group-based identities Collective identities

Question 91

Person-based identities

Answer 91

Emphasising the internalisation of group properties by individual group members as part of their self-concept.

Question 92

Relational based identities

Answer 92

Defining the self in relation to specific other people with whom one interacts in a group context – corresponding to Brewer and Gardner’s (1996) relational identity and to Markus and Kitayama’s (1991) ‘interdependent self’.

Question 93

Group-based identities

Answer 93

Equivalent to social identity as defined above.

Question 94

Collective identities

Answer 94

Referring to a process whereby group members not only share self- defining attributes but also engage in social action to forge an image of what the group stands for and how it is represented and viewed by others.