Psychology 2620
The Self
Mondays, 1-3, WJH 442
http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~psy1552/
Instructor
Nick Epley
Office: William James 1480
Phone # 4-7831
e-mail: epley@wjh.harvard.edu
Office Hours: By appointment
Brief Course Description
Investigates how people across different cultures develop, maintain, and utilize
self-knowledge. Topics will include egocentrism in social judgment, motivated
reasoning, self-perception, and cognitive dissonance.
Actual Course Description
Course Requirements
Participation (30%). This is not meant to be a lecture course, and thus all students
are expected to play an active role in discussion. I may begin from time to time with a
short introduction, but all students are expected to come to class ready to participate with
questions, new ideas, or interesting insights (think football, not golf). Each week, one or
two members from the class will be assigned as the discussion leader. The discussion
leader is expected to provide a quick summary to the day’s reading, facilitate discussion
when necessary, as well as introduce the class to the “below the line” reading(s) wherever
helpful. Weekly participation and performance as the discussion leader will comprise
your participation grade.
Thought papers (35%). In order to stimulate class discussion, each student is
expected to prepare a short thought paper for each class (no more than 1 page). There are
no explicit guidelines for what should be included in a thought paper, just say something
smart. Perhaps bring up an interesting point not considered by the authors, or a mortal
flaw in a set of experiments, or a subtle connection between topic areas. These papers are
to be turned in by 5:00 on the Saturday evening before class by posting them in the
discussions section on the course website. You are expected to read all of your fellow
student’s thought papers before coming to class, both to help organize your own thoughts
as well as to stimulate discussion.
I will grade these papers on a 4 point scale: exceptional papers will receive a +,
most papers will receive a , and those in need of improvement will receive a -. Papers
turned in late or not at all will receive a 0.
Term paper (35%). A more substantial term paper is due at the beginning of
reading period, Monday, May 5. Ideally, this paper would be an empirical proposal that
would begin with a coherent argument on some issue covered in the course and end with
a proposal for future research. You do not have to collect actual data to test your ideas,
but doing so will NOT be discouraged as long as it does not violate any ethical
guidelines. If you do not wish to write an empirical proposal, you may instead write a
more theoretical review paper in which you present a coherent argument extending,
reinterpreting, or resolving contradictions in research we have covered in the course.
These papers should not simply be restatements of material we have already considered
but need to be an original contribution to our understanding of judgment and decision
making. Please discuss your term paper idea with me before you begin writing.
There is no explicit page limit for these term papers, but do not add length under
the illusion that it is also increasing quality. Make every word count.
Syllabus
Readings are divided by a line. Those above the line for a particular week are
required for the entire class and will serve as the focus for discussion. Those below the
line are recommended for the class but only required for the discussion leader(s).
I. Background and Overview
February 3: Introduction—The Replicator
II. Self-concept
February 10: What is the self?
Baumiester, R.F. (1987). How the self became a problem: A psychological
review of historical research. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 163176.
Dennett, D. (1992). The self as a center of narrative gravity. In F. Kessel, P.
Cole, & D. Johnson (Eds.), Self and Consciousness: Multiple Perspectives, Hillsdale, NJ:
Erlbaum, 1992.
Craik, F. I. M., Moroz, T. M., Moscovitch, M., Stuss, D. T., Winocur, G.,
Tulving, E., & Kapur, S. (1999). In search of the self: A Positron Emission Tomography
Study. Psychological Science, 10, 26-34.
Brewer , M.B. (1991). The social self: On being the same and different at the
same time. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 17, 475-482.
James, W.J. The Principles of Psychology (Chapter 10). Can be found online at:
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/James/Principles/prin10.htm
February 17—No Class. University Holiday
February 24— The self across cultures
Markus, H.R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for
cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98, 224-253.
Ross, M., Xun, W.Q.E., Wilson, A.E. (2002). Language and the bicultural self.
Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 28,1040-1050.
Iyengar, S.S., Lepper, M.R. (2000). When choice is demotivating: Can one desire
too much of a good thing? Journal of Personality & Social Psychology. 79, 995-1006.
Cross, S. E., & Madson, L. (1997). Models of the self: Self-construals and
gender. Psychological Bulletin, 122, 5-37.
March 3—The self over time
Eibach, R., Libby, L., & Gilovich, T. (in press). Journal of Personality and
Social Psychology,
Ross, M., Wilson, A.E. (2002). It feels like yesterday: Self-esteem, valence of
personal past experiences, and judgments of subjective distance. Journal of Personality
& Social Psychology, 82, 792-803.
Aron, A., Aron, E.N., Tudor, M., Nelson, G. (1991). Close relationships as
including other in the self. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 60, 241-253.
Sprecher, S. (1999) "I love you more today than yesterday": Romantic partners'
perceptions of changes in love and related affect over time. Journal of Personality &
Social Psychology, 76, 46-53.
III. Self-defense
March 10—Self-esteem: What is it and why do we care?
Campbell, J. D., & Lavallee, L. F. (1993). Who am I? The role of self-concept
confusion in understanding the behavior of people with low self-esteem. In R. F.
Baumeister (Ed.), Self-esteem: The puzzle of low self-regard (pp. 3-20). New York:
Plenum Press.
Pelham, B.W; Mirenberg, M.C; Jones, J.T. (2002). Why Susie sells seashells by
the seashore: Implicit egotism and major life decisions. Journal of Personality & Social
Psychology, 82, 469-487
Leary, M. R. & Baumeister, R. F. (2000). The nature and function of self-esteem:
Sociometer theory. In M. P. Zanna (Ed) Advances in experimental social psychology, 32,
pp. 1-62.
Greenberg, J., Solomon, S., Pyszczynski, T., Rosenblatt, A., Burling, J., Lyon, D.,
Simon, L., & Pinel, E. (1992). Why do people need self-esteem? Converging evidence
that self-esteem serves an anxiety-buffering function. Journal of Personality & Social
Psychology, 63, 913-922.
Kityama, S., & Karasawa, M. (1997). Implicit self-esteem in Japan: Name letters
and birthday numbers. Personality and social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 736-742.
March 17—Self-enhancement
Taylor, S.E., & Brown, J.D. (1988). Illusion and well-being: A social
psychological perspective on mental health. Psychological Bulletin, 103, 193-210.
Colvin, C. R., Block, J. (1994). Do positive illusions foster mental health? An
examination of the Taylor and Brown formulation. Psychological Bulletin, 116, 3-20.
Swann, W B. (1987). Identity negotiation: Where two roads meet. [Journal
Article] Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 5, 1038-1051.
Sedikides, C., Gaertner, L., Toguchi, Y. (2003). Pancultural self-enhancement.
Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 84, 60-79.
March 24—No Class, Spring break.
March 31— Self-deception
Quattrone, G.A., Tversky, A. (1984). Causal versus diagnostic contingencies: On
self-deception and on the voter's illusion. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology,
46, 237-248.
Gur, R. C., & Sackheim, H. A. (1979). Self-deception: A concept in search of a
phenomenon. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 147-169.
Robinson, M.D., Ryff, C.D. (1999). The role of self-deception in perceptions of
past, present, and future happiness. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 595606.
Mele, A.R. (1997). Real self-deception. Behavioral & Brain Sciences, 20, 91136.
BBS Open commentaries and author response (1997). Behavioral & Brain
Sciences, 20, 91-136.
April 7—Self-presentation
Jones, E.E. (1990). Interpersonal Perception (pp. 167-200). New York: W.H.
Freeman and Company.
Gilovich, T. (1991). How we know what isn’t so: The fallibility of human reason
in everyday life (pp. 146-155). New York: The Free Press.
Cialdini, R.B., & DeNichols, M.E. (1989). Self-presentation by association.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 626-631.
Leary, M.R., & Kowalski, R.M. (1990). Impression management: A literature
review and two-component model. Psychological Bulletin, 107, 34-47.
Baumeister, R.F., & Cairns, K.J. (1992). Repression and self-presentation: When
audiences interfere with self-deceptive strategies. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 62, 851-862.
IV. Self-Knowledge
April 14— Self-Assessment
Epley, N., Savitsky, K., & Gilovich, T. (2002). Empathy neglect: Reconciling
the Spotlight Effect and Correspondence Bias. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 83, 300-312.
Kruger, J., & Gilovich, T. (in press). Actions, intentions, and self-assessment:
The road to self-enhancement is paved with good intentions.. Personality and Social
Psychology Bulletin.
Kruger, J., & Dunning, D. (1999). Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties
in recognizing one’s own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 1121-1134.
Wilson, T.D. (2002). Strangers to ourselves: Discovering the adaptive
unconscious (pp. 93-115). Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University
Press.
Krueger, J., & Mueller, R.A. (2002). Unskilled, unaware, or both? The betterthan-average heuristic and statistical regression predict errors in estimates of own
performance. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 82, 180-188.
Kruger, J., & Dunning, D. (2002). Unskilled and unaware--but why? A reply to
Krueger and Mueller (2002). Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 82, 189-192.
April 21— Self-Prediction
Epley, N., & Dunning, D. (2003). The bitter-blessings of self-knowledge in
behavioral prediction. Unpublished Manuscript, Harvard University.
Buehler, R., Griffin, D., & Ross, M. (1994). Exploring the “planning fallacy”:
Why people underestimate their task completion times. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 67, 366-381.
Gilbert, D. T., Pinel, E. C., Wilson, T. D., Blumberg, S. J., & Wheatley, T. P.
(1998). Immune neglect: A source of durability bias in affective forecasting. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 617-638.
Van Boven, L., Loewenstein, G., Welch, E., & Dunning, D. (2003). The illusion
of courage: Underestimating social-risk aversion in self and others. Unpublished
manuscript, University of Colorado-Boulder.
Nisbett, R. E., & Wilson, T. D. (1977). Telling more than we can know: Verbal
reports on mental processes. Psychological Review, 84, 231-259.
April 28—Self-Control/ Course wrap-up
Baumeister, R.F., Bratslavsky, E., Muraven, M., & Tice, D.M. (1998). Ego
depletion: Is the active self a limited resource?
Wegner, D.M. (1994). Ironic processes of mental control. Psychological Review,
101, 34-52.
Ward, A., & Mann, T. (2000). Don’t mind if I do: Disinhibited eating under
cognitive load. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 753-763.