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The Self
Pertemuan 07
The Self
• Self-concept
– what we believe to be true of ourselves
• behaviors, traits, attitudes
• Self-esteem
– how we feel about ourselves
Why study the self?
• Much of self-knowledge is based on our thoughts about
and relations with others
• How we think about ourselves influences virtually every
aspect of social psychology
William James: Duality of Self
• Self as object than can be observed
– I have property X
– “me”
• Self as agent doing the observing
– self is both the perceiver and the perceived
– “I”
– related to consciousness--something must do the perceiving,
defining, feeling, etc.
Where Does Self Come From?
• Role of other people
• Role of internal reflection
Where Does Self Come From?
• Other People
– Symbolic Interactionism--William James; Meade, Cooley
– Self can’t be understood in isolation--must be studied in
interaction with others
– Self is not an inherent property of human nature--it is constructed
through experience
Symbolic Interactionism
– Goal of children is to anticipate environment
– Look at others to accomplish this--take their perspective
– When we look through their eyes, we see oursleves--”looking
glass self”
– This reflection forms the basis for self-concept
Gallup (1977)
– 2 groups of chimps
• One in isolation, one in social environment
–
–
–
–
Place chimps in cages with mirrors
Collect baseline measure of touching forehead
Anesthetize chimps and put red dot on forehead
Return to cages and count forehead touches
Results
– Baseline--social and asocial chimps touch foreheads the same
amount
– Red Dot--social chimps touch foreheads more
– Evidence that they “know” that the reflection in the mirror is
them--socialization is important
– no other animals show this
– humans show this by about age 2
Lord et al. (1992)
• When we think about ourselves, do we take into account
the views of others?
– Measure time to make judgments about self following 3 different
tasks:
• Would parents say this trait describes you?
• Would acquaintance say this trait describes you?
• Control task--no first task
Results
• Thinking about what
others think of you
makes it easier to
decide what you are
like
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
• especially thinking
about close others
0
Control
Acquaint
ance
Parents
Where Does Self Come From?
• Comparisons to other people
• How are we relative to others?
• Identify ways in which we are unique
– unique features become important parts of our identities
Social Comparison Theory
• Festinger (1954)
– Compare to others roughly comparable to ourselves
• because we are interested in accurate self-perception
– Not always--sometimes concerned with feeling good--raising
self-esteem
Where Does Self Come From?
• Internal reflection on states and feelings
• Common sense--we have direct access to our feelings
Problems with Self-Reflection
• Many biases
– Often see what we want, not what is true
• Don’t always know what we are feeling or why
– Nisbett & Wilson (1977)--pick items on the right
– Wilson et al. (1982)--diary study
• what we think causes our moods doesn’t!
Where Does Self Come From?
• Internal reflection on our own behavior
• How do I know I like wheat bread?
– Gee, I guess I had it for lunch
Self-Perception Theory
(Bem, 1967)
 Basic idea: do not know what we think or feel until we
see (or remember) what we do
– same as how we come to know other people
– Began as behaviorist response to other self-theories
– Ended up incorporating elaborate cognitive processes
Self-Perception Theory Cont’d
• Examine our behavior and the circumstances in which it
is occurring
• Is situation sufficient to explain behavior?
– If yes, then our behavior is due to external factors
– If no, then assume behavior is due to internal reasons--reflects
on our traits
Evidence
• Festinger & Carlsmith
– like experiment more when paid $1 than $20
– when paid $1--assume we enjoyed experiment
• Lepper et al. (1973)--overjustification effect
– rewards decrease intrinsic motivation
– kids like pen less when they are rewarded to play with it
How to avoid overjustification
• Make rewards less salient
• Offer rewards as surprises
• Make rewards similar to task
– e.g., give a book for reading a book
• Immunize people--warn them
When Does Self-Perception Theory Work?
• When internal Cues are Weak
• Chaiken & Baldwin (1981)
– test people with strong & weak attitudes about environmentalism
– manipulate them to either endorse environmental or nonenvironmental behaviors
• “occasionally” vs. “frequently”
– then measures attitudes about environmentalism
Chaiken & Baldwin (1981)
• Manipulating
behavioral
endorsement only
influences those
with weak attitudes
to begin with!
12
10
8
negative
endorsed
positive
endorsed
6
4
2
0
weak
attitudes
Is Self-Perception Necessary?
• NO!
– Tulving (1993)
• amnesic--no autobiographical memory
– Klein et al. (1997)
• temporary amnesic
– Consistent and reliable self judgments