social self

social self

1. Aspects of the social self

   • Self concept - how do people come to know themselves
     • the sum of total beliefs people have about themselves
   • self esteem how do people evaluate themselves

2. Self perception theory (Bem 1972)

   • by observing ourselves

3. Facial feedback and emotions

   • (Strack et al 1988)
     • rate cartoons
       • hold a pen between their lips
         • RESULTS
           • those with the pen between the teeth had a higher score of positive evaluation and lips least
       • hold a pen in their hands
       • hold a pen between their teeth
   • Zajonc et al 1989
     • participants were asked to repeat vowels 20x
       • a
       • e
         • RESULTS
           • A and e had the highest score means positive mood
       • u
   • Wells et al 1980
     • test headphones
       • head nodding
         • RESULTS
           • higher scores is more agreement in nodding than shaking
       • head shaking

4. overjustification effects

   • The tendency for intrinsic motivation to diminish for activities that have become associated with a reward or other extrinsic factors
     • intrinsic motivation _ i do this because I like it
     • extrinsic motivation - i do this because i'm paid to
     • effect only occurs if people have a choice

5. Social Comparison Festinger 1954

   • people evaluate their own abilities and opinions by comparing themselves to others

6. 2 factor theory of emotion (Schachter 1961)

   • physiological arousal + social cues = emotions

7. Anxiety and affiliation

8. Self esteem

   • An affective component of the self consisting of a person's positive and negative self evalutions
     • categories of thought (Csikszentmihalyi et al., 1982)
       • Participants were asked to carry a ‘bleeper
         • Each time the bleeper went off, they were asked to write down their thoughts
           • RESULTS
             • mainly thought about work
             • self and people were joint lowest
     • Self-focusing effect on behaviour (Beaman et al., 1979)
       • Children were in a room and observed by an adult via a one-way mirror They were told that they could take one sweet each out of a bowl
         • no mirror
         • bowl was in front of a mirror so that they could see themselves taking a sweet
           • RESULTS
             • particiant in no mirror condition had a higher % of children taking second sweet
               • Effects of using A Mirror
                 • decrease shoplifting
                 • make people more aware of themselves

9. Self regulation

   • We control behaviour to strive personal and social aims (dieting, not too much drinking, smiling politely)
     • All self control efforts draw from a single source and exercising self-control is like flexing a muscle: it gets tired and loses strength (Muraven & Baumeister, 2000)
       • Vohs and Heatherton (2000)
         • Dieters and non-dieters saw a dull film with within arm reach (high-tempted) or far away (low-tempted) bowls with sweets and peanuts After watching the movie, they were taken to a room for an ice-cream taste test
           • RESULTS
             • High-tempted dieters ate the most
             • After watching the movie, they were taken to a room to solve impossible problems
               • High-tempted dieters gave up most quickly

10. Four methods to enhance self esteem

    • biased self serving cognitions
    • Self handicapped strategies
    • Reflection in the glory of others
    • Downward comparisons
      • Breast cancer patient interviews
        • Woman 1: lump removed: - ‘how awful must it be for women who have had a full mastectomy’
        • Woman 2: old and mastectomy: - ‘the people I really feel sorry for are these young gals. To lose a breast when you’re so young must be awful’
        • Woman 3: young, married and mastectomy: - ‘if I hadn’t been married, this thing would have really gotten to me’