David Myers
11e
The Self in a Social World
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Spotlights and Illusions
 Spotlights
 Spotlight effect (Lawson, ‘2010)

Belief that others are paying more attention to one’s
appearance and behavior than they really are
 Illusions
 Illusion of transparency (Stavitsky & Gilovich, 2003)

Illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and can be
easily read by others
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Research Close-Up: On Being
Nervous about Looking Nervous
 Examples of interplay between our sense of self and
our social world
 Social surroundings affect our self-awareness
 Self-interest colors our social judgment

Self-serving bias
 we attribute favorable outcomes to internal causes (self)
 We attribute unfavorable outcomes to external causes
 Self-concern motivates our social behavior

We monitor our own and others’ behavior (Snyder)
 Social relationships help define our self

Could mindful meditation help?
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Self-Concept: Who Am I?
 A person’s answers to the question, “Who am I?”
 Take time to answer this question…

Are your answers more relational (collectivist) or about self
(individualist)?
 Which brain hemisphere helps you to recognize
yourself? (Decety & Sommerville, 2003)
Right?

Left?
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At the Center of Our Worlds: Our
Sense of Self
 Schema
 Mental templates by which we organize our worlds)

We bolster our self-schema by remembering things better that
are consistent with it. (Kilstrom & Cantor, ’84)
 Self-schema
 Beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing
of self-relevant information
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Possible Selves
 Images of what we dream
of or dread becoming in
the future
 Spend more time in the
present!
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Development of the Social Self
 What Determines Our Self-Concept?
 Roles we play
 Social identities we form
 Comparisons we make with others
 How other people judge us
 Surrounding culture
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Development of the Social Self
 The Roles We Play
 New roles begin as playacting then become reality

As we play them we begin to believe them (self perception
theory, (D. Bem)
 Social Comparisons
 We compare ourselves with others and consider how we
differ …Via Social Comparison theory (Festinger, ‘54)


We tend to compare upward
 Who is your referent group?
Can diminish satisfaction
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Development of the Social Self
 Success and Failure
 Our daily experiences cause us to have empowerment or
low self-esteem

Remember Self-esteem <-> Competence?
 Other People’s Judgments
 Looking-glass self (Cooley, 1902 –sociologist)

How we think others perceive us is a mirror for perceiving
ourselves
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Self and Culture
 Individualism
 Concept of giving priority to one’s own goals over group
goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal
attributes rather than group identifications


Independent self
Western cultures
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Self and Culture
 Collectivism
 Giving priority to the goals of one’s group and defining
one’s identity accordingly



Interdependent self
Asian, African, and Central and South American cultures
Thought ? Can you think of groupings other than just national
cultures?
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Self and Culture
 Culture and Cognition
 Richard Nisbett’s The Geography of Thought (2003)

Contends that collectivism results in different ways of
thinking
 Asians tend to think more in relationships than Americans
 Americans see choices as expressions of themselves.
 Which focus more on the focal object/background?
 Japanese / Americans?
 What does this tell us?
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Self and Culture
 Culture and Self-Esteem
 In collectivist cultures



Self-concept is context-specific rather than stable
Conflict takes place between groups
Persist more when failing
 In individualistic cultures



Self-esteem is more personal and less relational
Persist more when winning
Conflict takes place between individuals
 Crime
 Divorce
 In your opinion, which culture is ‘better’?
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Self-Knowledge
 Explaining Our Behavior
 Do we know what affects our mood?
 Predicting Our Behavior
 Can your roommate predict the longevity of your romantic relationship
better than you? (McDonald & Ross, ‘97)
 Planning fallacy


Tendency to underestimate how long it will take to complete a
task
What are the implications for goal setting
 In job or in school?
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Self-Knowledge
 Predicting Our Feelings (Gilbert & Wilson)
 Studies of “affective forecasting” reveal people have the greatest
difficulty predicting the intensity and the duration of their future
emotions
 We underestimate the effects of situational cues
 Impact bias
 We overestimate the enduring impact of emotion-causing
events



How much time would you like on a island holiday?
How long would it take to get over a job loss?
Immune neglect

Tendency to neglect the speed and strength of the “psychological
immune system” which enables emotional recovery and resilience
after bad things happen
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Self-Knowledge
 The Wisdom and Illusions of Self-Analysis
 We often aren’t aware of how thinking brought an “aha” experience.
 Dual attitude (T. Wilson, “85)



Mental processes that control or behavior are distinct from
those we use to explain our behavior
Automatic implicit attitudes regarding someone or
something often differ from our consciously controlled,
explicit attitudes
 What’s the difference in the two?
 How are we strangers to ourselves?
 Implicit ones change more slowly
Self-reports are untrustworthy – no guarantee of their validity
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Self-Esteem
 Our overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth
 What are your “domains” of SE? (Crocker & Wolfe)

Attractive/smart/athletic/rich/loved? +++
 Are is it “bottom up”? (Brown & Dutton?)

What is the baby example?
 Feedback is best when it is true and specific



Leads to high “self-efficacy”
General praise…”you can do anything you want”
 -Can lead to unrealistic optimism What were you told in
school? Competence feedback -> High Self-efficacy
Which do better? Those failing were told “feel great about
yourself-hold your head high” or “taking control will help”
 (Forsyth et al., 2007)
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Self-Esteem Motivation
 Self-esteem maintenance
 What level is best to have? Hi/med/lo?
 Self-esteem threats occur among friends whose
successes can be more threatening than that of
strangers (remember social comparison theory?)
 Referent others
 Terror Management Theory states humans must find
ways to manage their fear of death.
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The “Dark Side” of Self-Esteem
 Narcissism
 Delroy and Williams (2002)


“The Dark Triad” of negative traits
 Narcissism
 Machiavellianism (manipulativeness)
Over time: college students’ (Twenge, ‘06)
 Narcissism
 Empathy
 Hi Narcissims > more “hooking up”, gambling, cheating
 Me generation
 Need for autonomy/ competence/relationships (E. Deci)
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Perceived Self-Control
 Effortful self-control depletes our limited willpower
reserves… controlling emotions during upsetting film
resulted in


Showing more aggression and fighting with their partner
Became less restrained in sexual thoughts and behaviors
 DeWall et al., ‘07 Finkel & Campbell, ‘01)
 Our brain’s “central executive” consumes available
blood sugar when engaged in self-control
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Self-Efficacy (Albert Bandura)
 What’s the difference between self-esteem and self-
efficacy?
 How competent we feel on a task
 Leads us to set challenging goals and to persist
 Competency + persistence = accomplishment / self
confidence

…if you have control over the outcome!
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Locus of Control (Julien rotter)
 Who would you rather dance with?
 Extent to which people perceive outcomes as
internally controllable by their own efforts and actions
or as externally controlled by chance or outside forces
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Learned Helplessness versus SelfDetermination
 Learned Helplessness
 Hopelessness and resignation learned when a human or
animal perceives no control over repeated bad events

Martin Seligman
 Self-Determination
 Development of self-discipline in one area of your life
may cause self-control in other areas as well

Edward Deci
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The Costs of Excess Choice
 Excess Freedom
 Too many choices can lead to dissatisfaction with our
final choice
 People tend to be generally happier with decisions when
they can’t undo them

So does love cause marriage or does marriage cause love?
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Self-Serving Bias
 Tendency to perceive oneself favorably
 Explaining positive and negative events

Self-serving attributions
 Tendency to attribute positive outcomes to oneself and
negative outcomes to other factors
 Contribute to marital discord, worker dissatisfaction, and
bargaining impasses How so?
 I got an “A” in social ψ
 Dr. Mitchell gave me a “C” in social ψ
 “only others fall prey to the self-serving bias!”
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Self-Serving Bias
 Can We All Be Better than Average?
 Lake Wobegon effect

“all the children are above average”
 Most people see themselves as better than the average
person on the following dimensions



Subjective
Socially desirable
Common dimensions
 On which of the above is the phenomenon more
pronounced ? Why?
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Self-Serving Bias
Areas in which we believe we are above average
…but sometimes you’re right….but how will you know when?
 Ethics
 Parental support
 Professional competence
 Health
 Virtues
 Attractiveness
 Intelligence
 Driving
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Self-Serving Bias
 Unrealistic Optimism
 Is on the rise
 Illusory optimism increases our vulnerability

Remember the tendency to underestimate the strength of
situational cues on our ability to self-control?
 How does this explain the 2008 housing bubble?
 Defensive Pessimism (Julie Norem, ‘2000)
 Adaptive value of anticipating problems and harnessing
one’s anxiety to motivate effective action
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Self-Serving Bias
 False Consensus Effect
 Tendency to overestimate the commonality of one’s
opinions and one’s undesirable or unsuccessful
behaviors

Why do you think integrity tests for employment work?
 False Uniqueness Effect
 Tendency to underestimate the commonality of one’s
abilities and one’s desirable or successful behaviors
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Self-Serving Bias
 Explaining Self-Serving Bias
 Self-serving bias is a by-product of how we process and
remember information about ourselves
 Self-Serving Bias may be
 Adaptive

Protects people from depression
 Depressed people may be more in tune with reality!
 Maladaptive


Why didn’t I get the big merit raise?
Group-serving bias
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Self-Presentation (Barry Schlenker)
 Wanting to present a desired image both to an external
audience (other people) and to an internal audience
(ourselves)
 It’s a good thing in employment interviews!
 Self-Handicapping (fear of failure)

Protecting one’s self-image with behaviors that create a handy
excuse for later failure
 Self-Monitoring

Tendency to act like social chameleons
 Twin truths: self-efficacy and self-serving bias
 Find the middle ground through careful self-reflection!
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