Chapter 3: Social Self
Part 2: Feb. 2, 2012
Self-esteem
• Positive and negative evaluations of ourselves
– What purposes are served by SE?
• 1.
• 2.
• Correlations w/self-esteem:
Contributors to Self-Esteem
• Self-discrepancy theory –
– What is compared?
• We differ in degree of self-awareness:
– How does it affect our behaviors?
» Halloween study – kids and free candy! Results?
Self-regulation
• Baumeister’s research on limits of self-control
– It requires lots of cognitive resources
• Self-control is a limited resource
– Link to glucose?
• What are Baumeister’s research results?
• How to re-energize our self-control?
– 1.
– 2.
Boosting self-concepts
• Our tendency to overestimate our abilities
may serve a purpose related to self-concept
– “implicit egotism” –
– Self-serving cognitions –
• 1. Take credit for successes:
• Self-serving cognitions (cont.):
– 2. Self-handicapping:
» What is its purpose?
– 3. Identifying with groups and BIRGing:
» ‘we won’ versus ‘they lost’
– 4. Downward social comparisons
» How do these work and why?
– Example: sibling rivalry
Self-presentation
• We may overestimate extent to which others
are focus on us
– ‘spotlight effect’
• 2 motives of self-presentation:
– Strategic self-presentation and self-verification
Strategic self-presentation
• Strategies?
– Possible link with unsafe behaviors?
Self-verification
• Attempt to increase overlap between selfperceptions & how others see us
• Negative traits?
• Swann’s research – with whom do we associate?
– How does this work in romantic relationships?
Self-monitoring
• Individual difference in how well we can
regulate our own behavior in response to
others’ reactions
– How do high vs. low self-monitors behave?
– Links between self-monitoring and age?