Week 2 - Social self

Question 1

Primary components of self

Answer 1

1) Individual Self
- Unique personal traits, abilities, preferences, tastes, talents, etc
2) Collective self
- Identities as members of social groups to which we belong
3) Relational self
- Identities in specific relationships

Question 2

Self-schema

Answer 2

A representation of knowledge about the self in general and specific situations derived from past experiences

Question 3

Sources of self-knowledge

Answer 3

• Introspection (the examination or observation of one’s own mental and emotional processes)
• SOCIAL SOURCES

Question 4

How Do We Obtain Our Social Self?

Answer 4

• Family and other socialization agents
• Situationism
• Culture
• Social Comparison

Question 5

Why do siblings diversify

Answer 5

Siblings may take on different roles in the family to minimize conflicts (minimize comparison)

Question 6

Other Socialization Agents

Answer 6

Reflected self-appraisals: Beliefs about what others think of our social selves

Question 7

Situationism

Answer 7

You have certain characteristics that are “staples”, but a large part of your “self” varies based on the situation

Question 8

“State” self vs. “Trait” self

Answer 8

Trait: The “average” version of you that is relatively stable across time and situations

State: How you are in different situations which changes based on the context

Question 9

Situationism - Working self-concept

Answer 9

The subset of self knowledge that is brought to mind in a particular context
- Different concepts that come about under different situations

Question 10

Situationism - Distinctiveness Hypothesis

Answer 10

We identify what makes us unique in each particular context, and we highlight that in our self-definition.

Question 11

Culture

Answer 11

Independent Cultures
- Self seen as a distinct, autonomous entity, separate from others and defined by individual traits and preferences

Interdependent Cultures
- Self seen as connected to others, defined by social duties and shared traits and preferences

Question 12

Independence vs. Interdependence (within Cultures) - Gender

Answer 12

Women have more interdependent self concepts than men

• Women refer to relationships more when describing self
• Women pay more attention to external social cues, whereas men pay more attention to their internal responses

Question 13

Independence vs. Interdependence (within Cultures) - Education (Westernization)

Answer 13

Educated people have more independent self-concepts than uneducated people

Question 14

Independence vs. Interdependence (within Cultures) - Power

Answer 14

Powerful people have more independent self concepts than low-power people

Power allows for autonomy—a central feature of an independent self

Question 15

Independence vs. Interdependence (within Cultures) - Social class

Answer 15

Lower-class individuals are more interdependent while upper-class individuals are more independent.

Question 16

Social comparision

Answer 16

Social Comparison Theory: People compare themselves to others to evaluate their own opinions, abilities, and internal states

• Likely to occur when…
  1) there is no clear objective standard
  2) you experience uncertainty about yourself in a particular domain

Question 17

Upward comparision

Answer 17

When you want to improve something about yourself, you compare with people who are better
- Useful when you want to know how good you may become

Question 18

Downward comparision

Answer 18

When you want to feel good about yourself, you compare with people who are worse

• Useful to boost self-esteem, alleviate negative moods
• People often engage in downward comparisons when they feel threatened in some domain

Question 19

Self-esteem

Answer 19

The positive or negative evaluation or attitude an individual has toward the self

Question 20

Trait Self-Esteem VS State Self-Esteem

Answer 20

Trait Self-Esteem:

• An enduring level of regard for yourself
• Relatively stable across time

State Self-Esteem:

• Your current level of regard for yourself
• Relatively less stable (changes throughout a period of time, e.g., hours, days, weeks)

Question 21

What is the use of self-esteem

Answer 21

Sociometer Hypothesis: Self-esteem is an internal measure of how likely other people will like us and include us

If we think of ourselves positively, we are likely to think that others would like us too

Question 22

Contingencies of self-worth

Answer 22

Self-esteem is contingent on success and failure in domains that are important to their self

Question 23

How to protect your self-esteem

Answer 23

Self-complexity theory: The tendency to define the self in terms of multiple domains that are relatively distinct from one another

Question 24

Self-enhancement

Answer 24

People’s desire to maintain, increase, or protect their self-esteem or self-views

Question 25

How do we self-enhance?

Answer 25

1) Make self-serving construals
2) Self-affirmation
3) “Bask in the reflected glory” of other’s accomplishments
4) Social comparison

Question 26

Self-serving construals

Answer 26

• “Better-than-average” effect: Most Westerners tend to report they are better than average on most traits (e.g., kindness, fairness, popularity) and mundane skills (e.g., driving)
• The better-than-average effect is more likely to occur for ambiguous traits than unambiguous traits
• People often have self-serving construals: “Everybody ranks himself high in qualities he values”

Question 27

Self-affirmation

Answer 27

• After receiving information that threatens the self, people can maintain their self-worth by affirming a valued aspect of themselves unrelated to the threat.

Question 28

“Bask in the reflected glory” of other’s accomplishments

Answer 28

Associating yourself with someone’s accomplishment

Question 29

Social comparison

Answer 29

We make downward social comparisons to feel better

Question 30

Self-verification

Answer 30

• To Achieve an Accurate Self
• Self-verification theory: People strive for stable, accurate beliefs about the self
  Provide a sense of coherence and allow us to more accurately predict outcomes for ourselves

Question 31

Self-regulation

Answer 31

Processes that people use to initiate, alter, and control their behavior in the pursuit of goals, including the ability to resist short-term rewards that thwart the attainment of long-term goals

Question 32

Self-discrepancy theory

Answer 32

People want to reduce discrepancies between their actual self and possible selves (ought self, ideal self)

Actual self - The person you belief you currently are
Ought self - The person you feel you should be or others want you to be
Ideal self - The person you aspire or want to be

Question 33

How do you self-regulate to reduce self-discrepancies?

Answer 33

1) Regulatory Focus Strategy

2) Implementation Intentions

Question 34

Regulatory focus strategy (promotion focus)

Answer 34

To attain the ideal self:

• Focus on attaining rewards/positive outcomes
• Success elicits happiness, cheerfulness
• Failure elicits dejection-related emotions (e.g., disappointment)

Question 35

Regulatory focus strategy (prevention focus)

Answer 35

To attain the ought self:

• Focus on avoiding punishment/negative outcomes
• Success elicits calmness, relief
• Failure elicits agitation-related emotions (e.g., anxiety)

Question 36

Implementation intentions

Answer 36

Implementation intentions are specifications of how one will behave to achieve a goal under particular circumstances.
- Follows the “if-then” format, which corresponds to “cue-behaviour”
E.g., “If I feel the urge to smoke, then I will go for a run.”

Question 37

Self-presentation

Answer 37

How we show ourselves to others
- Impression management
> Attempting to get others to see us how we want to be seen

Question 38

Self-monitoring

Answer 38

Paying attention to your behavior to fit into the situation
- There is a lot of variability across people - some really try to behave appropriately for the situation, others don’t care or aren’t capable of attending to that information

Question 39

High self-monitors

Answer 39

• Try to fit into the situation; chameleons

- They’re not being fake, they’re just flexible

Question 40

Low self-monitors

Answer 40

Behave according to their values and beliefs

Question 41

Self-handicapping

Answer 41

The tendency to engage in self-defeating behaviors in order to prevent others from drawing unwanted attributions about you