Ind - Introduction to selfhood

WHAT IS THE SELF? self knowledge, interpersonal self, agent self.
1. 1. SELF KNOWLEDGE - self-awareness, self-esteem. 2. INTERPERSONAL SELF - public self, social roles. 3. AGENT SELF - self-control, decision making
2. purpose of the self is towards social acceptance and to play social roles.
3. we have private and public self-awareness
4. people in the USA are now getting more concerned with having plastic surgery to prepare their bodies for their funeral. we have deep rooted tendency to care what others think of us
5. much of the self is designed to enable you to relate to others. FURTHERMORE, the self is in the middle of a complex battle between selfish impulses and social conscience
STANDARDS and SELF-AWARENESS
1. DUVAL AND WICKLUND - 1972 - SELF AWARE people feel bad as they notice a discrepancy between who they are and standards. they either match up to standards or escape
2. standards are concepts of how things might possibly be, around age two begin the use of standards - KAGAN - 1981
3. self-awareness improves behaviour, enables social desirability. when self-awareness is bad, people seek to escape that through drastic measures such as self-harm
4. self-awareness has a purpose for self-regulation, adopting the perspective of others, managing behaviour through goals.
5. SENTYRZ AND BUSHMAN - 1998 - people are less likely to eat fatty food when they are sat in front of a mirror
6. HEATHERTON - 1993 - self-awareness makes people less aggressive, conform more and diet
LOOKING OUTSIDE
1. COOLEY - 1902 - LOOKING-GLASS SELF - you imagine how you appear to others and how others will judge you. we see ourselves as a reflection of how we imagine others see us
  1. PROBLEMS WITH LGS - may not know how people REALLY regard them, people reluctant to give negative comments
2. GENERALISED OTHER - MEAD - 1934 - feedback from others tells us who and what we are
LOOKING INSIDE - introspection is better after age 11, before this, parents know best
1. NISBETT AND WILSON - 1977 - say there is no such thing as an introspective access to higher order cognitive processes.
LOOKING AT OTHERS
1. SOCIAL COMPARISON - FESTINGER - 1954 - upward / en / discouraging social comparisons, downward social comparisons (settle for less)
2. OVER JUSTIFICATION EFFECT - intrinsic motivation diminishes for activities associated with expected rewards
SELF-KNOWLEGE is sought after for three key reasons, 1. APPRAISAL MOTIVE - look for truth about self. 2. SELF-ENHANCEMENT - look for flattering things about self. 3. CONSISTENCY - look for confirmation about self.
1. the strongest motive is self-enhancement (to feel good), the weakest is the appraisal (truth)
SELF-HANDICAPPING - failure blamed on an obstacle. BERGLAS AND JONES - 1978 - self-handicapping is seen as a preservation of self-esteem. people either withdraw effort or create obstacles. Berglas and Jones gave half participants easy the other half hard tasks to complete, participants who were given harder tasks chose the impairing drug and the easy ones the enhancing drug. the harder task group chose the impairing drug as they were looking for an external attribution (excuse) for their expected poor performance in future.
SELF AND INFORMATION PROCESSING
1. SELF-REFERENCE EFFECT - information to do with the self is processed more deeply and remembered better.
  1. ROGERS ET AL., - 1977 - more likely to remember words if they describe you
2. ENDOWMENT EFFECT - items gain in value to the person that owns them
SELF-ESTEEM - low self-esteem (don't want to fail, more prone to emotional highs and lows)
1. DISTORTIONS OF NON-DEPRESSED PEOPLE - they overestimate good qualities and underestimate faults and unrealistically optimistic
  1. SELF-DECEPTION STRATEGIES - 1. SELF-SERVING BIAS - "didn't sleep" 2. COMPARE TO THOSE DOING WORSE. 3. MORE SKEPTICAL OF BAD FEEDBACK - "bad exam"
2. BENEFITS OF HIGH SELF-ESTEEM - confidence you can do the right thing, adventurous, feels good, more likely to try again
  1. SOCIOMETER MODEL OF SELF-ESTEEM - LEARY AND DOWNS - 1995 - self-esteem is a gauge of the degree to which one is being accepted versus rejected by others. In addition, self-esteem is a reflection of successful social connectedness. social exclusion from a group depressed participants self-esteem.
3. NEGATIVE ASPECTS OF SELF-ESTEEM - NARCISSISM - tend to be more aggressive and have higher prejudice (look down on others)
  1. pursuit of self-esteem may have harmful consequences. pressure to meet others expectations. can damage relationships if too much competition.
    1. high self-esteem is associated with saying no to sex. however women with higher self-esteem are more likely to underestimate the risks of sex.
CULTURAL DIFFERENCES - INDEPENDENT AND INTERDEPENDENT
1. MARKUS AND KITAYAMA - 1991 - began the idea that cultural styles of selfhood differ along an independence continuum.
FLUCTUATING IMAGES OF THE SELF - working self-concept
1. SELF-PRESENTATION - public self-esteem is more important than private self-esteem.
2. SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE - increase acceptance with good presentation.
A REAL OR TRUE SELF - the idea of an inner "true" self has origins in class prejudice, for example, when rich aristocrats became poor, they wanted to continue believing they were inherently better than others, even if others had more money. different cultures have different views about a true self, such as thoughts and feelings vs. public self.
1. GOFFMAN - 1959 - people put on a public performance that differs from how they feel inside.
  1. attitudes towards marriage may reflect different attitudes towards the real self, such as self as IMPULSE (feelings) what people feel about eachother, compared to self as INSTITUTION - significance on role performance, not feelings/
2. CULTURAL DIFFERENCES - easteners (japan, china) are more interdependent, whereas westerners (UK, USA) tend to be more independent. asian idea of selfhood is of more of a team player, such as japanese team player in the olympics who carried on despite a broken kneecap
OVERVIEW - the main aspects of the self are to gain social acceptance and to play social roles. we have an interdependent or an independent sense of self.
1. NEED TO ADD INFO FROM THE BOOK!! FROM PG. 65

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