SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
CHAPTER 2: THE SELF IN A SOCIAL WORLD
- Sense of self continually engages the world
o The way we present ourselves in person can be carefully curated
SPOTLIGHTS & ILLUSIONS: WHAT DO THEY TEACH US ABOUT OURSELVES?
- Describe the spotlight effect and its relation to the illusion
transparency
o Spotlight effect: the belief that others are paying more attention
to our appearance and behavior than they really are; seeing
ourselves at center stage
o Illusion of transparency: the illusion that our concealed emotions
leak out and can be easily read by others; keenly aware of our
emotions
If you’re happy and you know it then your face will surely
show it
o People notice less than you might suppose
o We overestimate the visibility of our social blunders and mental
slips
Others hardly notice and soon forget what we agonize over
o Social surroundings affect our self-awareness
o Self-interest colors our social judgement
When problems arise in a close relationship, we often blame
our partners instead of ourselves, and when things go well,
we see ourselves as more responsible
o Self-concern motivates our social behavior
Agonizing over our appearance to make a positive impression
Monitor others’ behavior/expectations and adjust our
behavior accordingly
o Social relationships help define our sense of self
How we think of ourselves is linked to the person we’re with
at the moment
When relationships change, so can our self-concepts
SELF-CONCEPT: WHO AM I?
Explain how, and how accurately, we know ourselves and what determines our
self-concept
- At the center of our worlds: our sense of self
o The medial prefrontal cortex helps stitch together your sense of
self, becoming more active when you think about yourself
o Self-schemas: beliefs about self that organize and guide the
processing of self-relevant information
Specific beliefs by which you define yourself—perceiving
ourselves as athletic, overweight, smart, etc.
Schemas are mental templates by which we organize our worlds
Self-schemas powerfully affect how we perceive, remember,
and evaluate others and ourselves
o Social comparisons: evaluating one’s opinions and abilities by
comparing oneself with others
Others help define the standards by which we define
ourselves—comparing ourselves with them and consider how we
differ
Social comparison can be based on incomplete information
(see social media platforms)—highlighting the exciting parts
of one’s life
Can diminish satisfaction—doing well can cause us to raise
the standards; climbing the ladder of success, we tend to
look up, not down
o Other people’s judgements
When people think well of us, we think well of ourselves
Children tend to incorporate labels into their self-
concepts and behavior—if praised for being a good
helper, they will most likely help more because it has
become a part of their identity
The looking-glass self: our use of how we think others
perceive us as a mirror for perceiving ourselves
Not how others actually see us but how we imagine they
do
- Self and culture
o Western culture
individualism: the concept of giving priority to one’s own
goals over group goals and defining one’s identity in terms
of personal attributes rather than group identifications
identity is self-contained
independent self: construing one’s identity as an autonomous
self
one’s identity remains fairly constant
o most cultures native to Asia, Africa, and Central/South America
collectivism: giving priority to the goals of one’s group
(often extended family or work group) and defining one’s
identity accordingly
people are more self-critical and focus less on
positive self-views
o individualism varies person to person; individualism-collectivism
varies across a country’s political views and regions
o culture and cognition
collectivism results in different ways of thinking
collectivistic cultures promote greater sense of belonging
and more integration between self and others
interdependent selves have multiple selves (self-with-
parents, self-at-work, self-with-friends)
imbedded in social memberships
o culture and self-esteem
collectivist cultures—self-esteem is context-specific rather
than enduring across situations
individualistic cultures--self-esteem is more personal, less
relational
- self-knowledge
o predicting our behavior
one of the most common errors: underestimating how long it
takes to complete a task (planning fallacy)
o predicting our feelings
we know what exhilarates us and what makes us anxious or
bored—sometimes we mis predict our responses
we often miswant
impact bias: overestimating the enduring impact of emotion-
causing events
o the wisdom and illusions of self-analysis
we are more aware of the results of our thinking than its
process
attitudes people consciously express toward things/people
usually predict their subsequent behavior
dual attitude system: differing implicit (automatic) and
explicit (consciously controlled) attitudes toward the same
object. Verbalized explicit attitudes may change with
education and persuasion; implicit attitudes change slowly,
with practice that forms new habits.
“trust your gut”—implicit attitude
WHAT IS THE NATURE AND MOTIVATING POWER OF SELF-ESTEEM?
Describe self-esteem and its implications for behavior and cognition.
- self-esteem: a person’s overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth.
o Better for praise to be specific than general—better to say
“you’re good at math” than “you’re great”—better for kind words to
reflect true ability and performance (“you really improved on your
last test”) than unrealistic optimism (“you can do anything”)
Feedback is best when it is true and specific
- Self-esteem motivation
o Misery loves to laugh at others’ misery
o People with high self-esteem usually react to a self-esteem threat
by compensating for it (blaming someone else/trying harder next
time)—help preserve positive feelings about themselves
People with low self-esteem blame themselves or give up
o Terror management theory: proposes that people exhibit self-
protective emotional and cognitive responses (including adhering
more strongly to their cultural worldviews and prejudices) when
confronted with reminders of their mortality
Humans must find ways to manage their overwhelming fear of
death
To feel our lives are not in vain, we must continually
pursue self-esteem by meeting the standards of our societies
o Actively pursuing self-esteem can backfire
Self-worth contingent on external rather than internal
sources (people pleasing)
Those who pursue self-esteem, seeking to become rich,
beautiful, etc., may lose sight of what really makes
them feel good
o Focused on boosting self-esteem causes us to be less open to
criticism, less likely to empathize with others, and more
pressured to succeed at activities rather than enjoy them
o Self-compassion—leaving behind comparisons with others and instead
treating ourselves with kindness
- The trade-off of low vs. high self-esteem
o Low self-esteem: more vulnerable to anxiety, loneliness,
depression, eating disorders, and intentional self-harm; make less
money and more likely to abuse drugs; often take a negative view
in everything; notice & remember others’ worst behaviors; think
their partner doesn’t love them; sulk & complain to get support
from relationship partners; quick to believe partners are
criticizing/rejecting them; less satisfied with relationships and
more likely to leave them
Those with low self-esteem in teen years are more likely to
be depressed later
Low self-esteem causes depression rather than the
other way around?
Attempting to boost low self-esteem with positive phrases
backfires, making people feel worse about themselves
Would rather hear negative, empathetic and understanding
responses rather than positive “look at the bright side”
o High self-esteem: more likely to savor/sustain good feelings;
fosters initiative, resilience, and pleasant feelings
Might be strategic to believe we are smarter, stronger, and
more socially successful than we are
Belief in superiority can motivate achievement—self-
fulfilling prophecy
More likely to be obnoxious, to interrupt, and talk to
people rather than with them
o Self-esteem does not cause better academic achievement or superior
work performance; self-esteem is not all that good
o High self-esteem becomes especially problematic when crossing over
into narcissism
- Narcissism: self-esteem’s conceited sister
o Narcissism: an inflated sense of self
More than just high self-esteem, having fundamental
differences
High self-esteem: worthy and good
Narcissists: better and smarter than others
o Have high self-esteem but miss the piece about caring for others
o Can be outgoing and charming early on, but self-centeredness leads
to relationship problems
o Narcissists more likely to lash out when insult is delivered
publicly, puncturing their carefully constructed bubble of
superiority
o Narcissists do not hate themselves deep down inside
Most people who score high on measures of narcissistic
personality traits also score high on measures of self-
esteem
o Deep-seated feeling of superiority may originate in childhood
When parents believed their children deserved special
treatment, the children scored higher on narcissism 6 months
later
Parents’ feelings of love and kindness to their children
were not linked to narcissism
Instead of telling your children they’re special, tell
them you love them
o Narcissists initially popular within a group, more likely to
emerge as the leader of a group of students they’d never met
before
o Narcissists’ antagonism and aggression toward others make them
less and less popular with their peers
o Narcissists seem to be aware of their own narcissism
- Self-efficacy: a sense that one is competent and effective,
distinguished from self-esteem, which is one’s sense of self-worth
o How competent we feel on a task
o Strong feelings of self-efficacy: more persistent, less anxious,
and less depressed; live healthier lives, more academically
successful
o Leads us to set challenging goals and persist
100 studies show self-efficacy predicting worker
productivity
241 studies show performance of self-efficacy is one of the
strongest predictors of students’ GPA in college
o Leads people to stay calm and seek solutions when problems arise
o Competence + persistence = accomplishment
With accomplishment, self-confidence grows
- Self-efficacy—if you believe you can do something
- Self-esteem—you like yourself overall
- Boost self-efficacy over self-esteem
WHAT IS SELF-SERVING BIAS?
Explain self-serving bias and its adaptive and maladaptive aspects.
- Self-serving bias: the tendency to perceive oneself favorably
- Explaining positive and negative events
o Attribute success to their ability and effort, but loss/failure to
external factors (not their doing/fault)
Self-serving attributions: a form of self-serving bias; the
tendency to attribute positive outcomes to oneself and
negative to other factors
o Maintain positive self-images by associating ourselves with
success and distancing ourselves from failure
o We are biased against seeing our own bias
We view ourselves as objective and everyone else as biased
- Can we all be better than average?
o On subjective, socially desirable, and common dimensions, most
people see themselves as better than the average person
- Unrealistic optimism
o Illusory optimism increases our vulnerability
Believing ourselves immune to misfortune, we do not take
sensible precautions
o Optimism beats pessimism in promoting self-efficacy, health, and
well-being
o Those who are unrealistically positive about themselves are
usually happier, more satisfied with their lives, and less likely
to be depressed
o Defensive pessimism: the adaptive value of anticipating problems
and harnessing one’s anxiety to motivate effective action
Can save us from perils of unrealistic optimism
Anticipates problems and motivates effective coping
- False consensus and uniqueness
o False consensus effect: the tendency to overestimate the
commonality of one’s opinions and one’s undesirable or
unsuccessful behaviors
Overestimating how much others agree
We don’t see things as they are, but as we are
o False uniqueness effect: the tendency to underestimate the
commonality of one’s abilities and one’s desirable or successful
behaviors
Serve our self-image by seeing our talents and moral
behaviors as relatively unusual
See our failings as relatively normal and our virtues as
relatively exceptional
- Explaining self-serving bias
o Occurs because of errors in how we process and remember
information about ourselves
HOW DO PEOPLE MANAGE THEIR SELF-PRESENTATION?
Define self-presentation and describe how impression management influences our
behavior.
- Self-handicapping
o Sometimes people sabotage their chances for success by creating
impediments that make success less likely
o Self-handicapping: protecting one’s self-image with behaviors that
create a handy excuse for later failure
Not deliberately self-destructive, but typically have a
self-protective aim
Students who self-handicap end up with lower GPAs
o Self-image is tied up with performance, it can be more self-
deflating to try hard and fail than to procrastinate and have a
ready excuse
o Handicaps protect self-esteem and public image
- Impression management
o Self-presentation: the act of expressing oneself and behaving in
ways designed to create favorable impression or an impression that
corresponds to one’s ideals
Our wanting to present desired image both to an external and
internal audience
Self-presentation, a way of life: Monitor their own behavior
and note how others react, then adjust their social
performance to gain a desired effect
o Self-monitoring: being attuned to the way one presents oneself in
social situations and adjusting one’s performance to create the
desired impression
More likely to express attitudes they don’t really hold and
less likely to express or act on their own attitudes
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