Mindmap
The Self
Inhalt der Mindmap
The Self
SELF-CONCEPT
- context effects
- developmental diffs
- cultural attributes
- internal attributes
- values, worldviews
- important group memberships
- impacts self-esteem
- changes from childhood to adulthood
- Campbell et al (1996): ppl w/ low self-concept clarity tend to be neurotic, have low self-esteem
SELF-AWARENESS
- Sense of self-identity
- INDIVIDUALISTIC
- eat your carrots, they're good for you
- COLLECTIVISTIC
- eat your carrots, think of the farmer who grew them for us
- Independent vs Interdependent
- Independent - focus on yourself, autonomous
- Interdependent - focus on others, rely on others more
- the more self-aware you are, the more you behave in line with your INTERAL SELF
- Diener & Wallbom study
- see if p/s would CHEAT
- one group had mirror while doing test
- other group did not
- 70% continued to answer questions after timer told them to stop doing test!
- this group cheated more!!
- Diener & Wallbom study
- "knower" and "I" - aware of yourself as an object of your thoughts
- STATE OF AWARENESS
- cues from environment
- personality disposition
- look for SELF-DISCREPANCIES
- no need to change behaviour/attitude
- change behaviour to match set standards
- reduce self-awareness so no need to change
Maintain sense of self
- limited accessibility
- only parts of you shown at certain times/places
- selective memory
- reconstruct our memory to fit our view of self
- attribution
- inconsistencies to situational factors
- limited accessibility
SELF-PERCEPTION THEORY (BERN)
- use our own behaviour to infer smth about ourselves
- evaluation of past behaviour
EXTRINSIC vs INTRINSIC MOTIVATION
- EXTRINSIC: do it becuz there's smth in it for us
- INTRINSIC: do it becuz we want to!
- CULTURAL influences
- collectivistic child does the best for puzzles his mother picked for him
- individualistic child does the best for puzzles he picked for himself
- CULTURAL influences
- OVERJUSTIFICATION
- giving rewards to things that would normally have intrinsic motivation
- this may lead person to change from intrinsic to extrinsic!
- Mark Leppers study with MARKERS
- Children play with markers on their own
- those given reward for playing markers no longer played markers unless they got reward
- Green-for-grade programs
- for low SES youth - seems to be quite a good motivator!
- POSITIVE EFFECTS
- study showed that ppl who imposed earlier deadlines than the actual one on themselves felt more task enjoyment
SOCIAL COMPARISON THEORY (Festinger)
- people evaluate personal qualities by comparing themselves to others
- people most close/similar to you are prob useful sources of info about yourself!
- SELF-EVALUATION MAINTENANCE MODEL (TESSER)
- Impact of comparison depends on:
- 1. closeness of person being compared to
- 2. Importance of attribute
- CLOSE PERSON + IMPORTANT ATTRIBUTE = FEEL BAD
- CLOSE PERSON + UNIMPORTANT = BIRG
- BIRG = basking in reflected glory
- UNI FOOTBALL TEAM WON: 32% said "we won"
- UNI FOOTBALL TEAM LOST: 18% said "we lost"
- DISTANT PERSON + IMPORTANT = NOT PLEASANT
- DISTANT PERSON + UNIMPORTANT = DON'T CARE
- Impact of comparison depends on:
- UPWARD COMPARISON
- DOWNWARD COMPARISON
- SILVER medalist feels worse than BRONZE medalist
- GOOD comparisons??
- study on college students
- SUPERSTAR student was INSPIRATION for freshmen
- upward comparisons can be good if they are RELEVANT + ATTAINABLE
- study on college students
SELF-DISCREPANCY THEORY
- IDEAL SELVES
- focus = positive outcomes
- hopes, aspirations, dreams
- OUGHT SELVES
- focus = negative outcomes
- duties, obligations, responsibilities
- EXAMPLE: STAYING MARRIED
- ideal:be happy in marriage
- ought: avoid divorce!
- REGULATORY FOCUS
- How prevention/promotion-focused are you?
- Regulatory Focus Questionnaire - Higgins et al 2001
- we don't think about it if we don't pay attention to it!
- IDEAL SELVES
EMOTIONS HELP REGULATE BEHAVIOUR
- direct behaviour to proper goals
- depends on APPRAISAL OF EVENT
- this depends on CONTEXT
DEFENDING THE SELF
- Key attributions (Weiner)
- Stability
- Is event STABLE OR NOT?
- Control
- Was there smth you could have done?
- Internal / External
- Smth that YOU caused or smth that wasn't in your control?
- Stability
- Easier to deal with events you have CONTROL over
- ILLUSION OF CONTROL
- LEARNED HELPLESSNESS
- uncontrollable, external cause
- DEPRESSION
- uncontrollable, internal cause
- transformed into a CHALLENGE!!
- we have confidence to control outcome!!!
- Key attributions (Weiner)
SELF-SERVING STRATEGIES
- mismembering - very biased memories
- false-consensus - idea that people are more or less THE SAME as us for bad behaviour
- false-uniqueness - see ourselves as MORE UNQUE than we really are for good behaviours
- unrealistic optimism - better than average effect, overconfident judgments
- self-serving comparison - make favourable/downward comparisons
- self-handicapping - doing smth to make you perform bad so you have excuse if you do perform bad!
SELF-ENHANCEMENT
- Narcissism
- no evidence to show we are any more narcissistic than we were a century ago!
- act as buffer against negative situations
- balance ACCURACY and OPTIMISM!
- cultural diffs
- INDEPENDENT: self-enhancement is natural
- INTERDEPENDENT: self is connected with others hence self-criticism is natural!
- Narcissism
PRESENTING OURSELVES TO OTHERS
- SELF-EXPRESSION: behave in special way to express who you really are
- SELF-PROMOTION: influence others' perceptions about you
- INGRATIATION: attempt to be more attractive/likeable to target
- SELF-VERIFICATION THEORY
- people seek confirmation of self-concept even if it is negative!
SELF-MONITORING
- HIGH = adjust behaviour to protect image
- LOW = behave in ways that express true attitudes regardless of who's around
- MANAGING ONLINE IDENTITIES:
- we are much more involved in impression/image management
- HIGH self-monitoring males go for attractive + unlikeable females
- LOW self-monitoring males go for unattractive + likeable females
our view of ourselves is DISTORTED
FUNCTIONS OF THE SELF
- interpersonal tool
- stable identity to interact w/ others
- decision-maker
- reflects goals, values
- regulatory system
- maintain self
- interpersonal tool
Affective forecasting - process of predicting impact of both +ve and -ve events on mood
SELF-CONTROL
- radishes and chocolate study
- 1. 2 dishes = radishes or choc
- 2. 2 groups - 1 given taster of radishes, 1 given taster of choc
- group who had taster of choc managed to solve puzzle for 8.5 mins only!
- 3. then had to solve puzzle
- group given taster of radishes lasted 19 mins!
- radishes and chocolate study
FACIAL FEEDBACK HYPOTHESIS
- smile - feel happier
- sitting straight - more pride
- clenched fists - more anger
- body movements create physio changes in brain
HOW TO KEEP UPBEAT?
- self-serving strategies
- be careful not to be too self-confident tho!
- CIALDINI: "we avoid shadow of defeat and bask in glory of victory even if its reflected glory we still get a tan"
- benefits of DOWNWARD comparisons - choosing partners for comparing to make us feel better about oursevles
- Friendships: upward comparisons can be damaging to friendship - competitiveness!
- Relationship: upward comparisons can be good - see your partner like your ideal self!
- SELF-HANDICAPPING: BERGLAS & JONES (1978)
- 1. given anagrams that were either solvable or not
- 2. gave them praise - told some the reason while others were not told why
- 3. then could choose to take performance-inhibiting drug or not
- RESULTS: only 13% of those told why decided to take drug but 70% of those who were NOT told why took the drug!
- SELF-PROMOTION: strategy to make others think of you as competent in some way
CULTURE = nature of self is function of culture you live in
- AMERICANS
- +ve events more likely to happen to them than siblings
- -ve events more likely to happen to siblings than themselves
- JAPANESE
- +ve events equally likely to happen to them and siblings
- -ve events more likely to happen to them
- BUT RMB ECOLOGICAL FALLACY - error assuming that r/s between variables at group level are same as those at individual level!!
- AMERICANS