Chapter 5 This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following...

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The Self: How We Answer the Question “Who Am I?”

Copyright 2006, Allyn and Bacon


The SelfThe Self

• Thinking About the Self: Personal versus Social Identity

• Self-Esteem: Attitudes Toward the Self

• Social Comparison: Knowing the Self

• The Self as Target of Prejudice


Thinking About the SelfThinking About the Self• Personal-Social Identity Continuum—signifies the two distinct

ways that the self can be categorized– Personal level

• Self can be thought of as a unique individual– How it’s described depends on intragroup comparisons.

– Social identity level• Self can be thought of as a member of a group

– How it’s described is a result of intergroup comparisons.

• Situational factors impact how people define themselves.


Thinking About the SelfThinking About the Self

• Who I Am Depends on the Situation– People see themselves differently depending on which

relationships and which contexts are considered.– Self-Complexity—refers to how the self-concept is organized

• High complexity: Aspects of the self are distinct from one another– Failure in one domain has less impact on one’s overall feelings about one’s

self

• Low complexity: Aspects of the self overlap each other



– Culture affects how the self is perceived.• Independent Self-Concept—in individualistic cultures, people

develop a self-concept as separate from or independent of others.

• Interdependent Self-Concept—in collectivist cultures, people develop a self-concept in terms of one’s connections or relationships with others.

– Group membership, like being a member of a gender group, influences how one sees one’s self.



– Which aspect of the self has influence depends on • Context and its features that make an aspect of the self

distinctive

• Importance of the aspect to the self

• References other people make about one’s self



– Who I Am Depends on Others’ Treatment • How people are treated by others and how they

believe they will be treated in the future affects how they think about themselves.

– People may try to hide an aspect of the self that they think will result in rejection from others.

» Or, they may choose to emphasize this feature.



• Self-Awareness: Terror Management– Subjective Self-Awareness—thought to be the first

level of the self to emerge and is the recognition that the self is separate from other objects in one’s physical environment

– Objective Self-Awareness—organism’s capacity to be the object of its own attention



– Symbolic Self-Awareness—uniquely human capacity to form an abstract representation of the self through language and is connected with knowing that death is inevitable

• Terror Management Theory—humans confront existential terror due to their awareness of the inevitability of their own death

– People attempt to deal with this threat to the self when their own mortality is salient

» Self-esteem can act as a buffer against the anxiety that is a result of the awareness of their own inevitable death.



• Possible Selves: The Self Over Time– Possible Self—image of how the self might be in the future

• Could be avoided or desired• Can motivate people to change behavior• Awareness that one is failing to live up to one’s standards can result in

distraction as a way to reduce uncomfortable self-awareness• People may be overly optimistic about their ability to become the self

that they desire.



• Successful change is more likely when feelings of self-efficacy, believing that one can achieve a goal, are present.

• Other changes to the self occur due to changes in situational factors.

– For example, age, relocation, new job, and major life events



• What are your thoughts?What are your thoughts?– What are factors that influence how people think

about themselves?– What are the benefits of increased self-

awareness?– What are the costs of becoming more self-aware?


Self-EsteemSelf-Esteem

• Measurement of Self-Esteem– Self-Esteem—degree to which the self is perceived

positively or negatively; one’s overall attitude toward the self

– Self-esteem can change readily in response to social situations.

• It easily can be enhanced or decreased in laboratory settings.



– Rosenberg’s (1965) scale is the most common method to measure self-esteem.



– Unconscious measurement procedures also are used to measure self-esteem.

• Self-Reference Effect—people seem to orient themselves toward stimuli that are associated with the self and show preferences for objects owned by and reflective of the self

– Suggests that strategies to improve self-esteem may be more successful if implemented below conscious awareness



• Self-Serving Biases – Above Average Effect—tendency for people to rate themselves as

above the average on most positive social attributes– People do not tend to take responsibility for negative outcomes,

but do so for positive outcomes.• People may do this for both personal and group outcomes.

– Culture affects likelihood that people will engage in this process

• However, when people attribute negative outcomes to internal factors they receive more positive evaluations from others than do people who blame external circumstances.



• Is High Self-Esteem Always Positive? – It has found to be related to bullying, narcissism,

and interpersonal aggression. • Men with high self-esteem rather than low self-esteem

are more likely to commit acts of violence toward those who contest their positive self-view.



• Do Gender Differences in Self-Esteem Exist?– Women who are devalued (face gender discrimination) and are

aware of this inequality have lower self-esteem compared to others.

– Men’s self-esteem tends to be higher than women’s self-esteem.• These differences are less in the professional class than in middle-lower

income classes.

• Strongest gender difference has been observed among white North Americans

– No reliable difference was found among minority Americans



• What are your thoughts?What are your thoughts?– What are successful strategies that people use to maintain their

overall self-esteem?– Why are members of high status groups more likely to

complain about unfair outcomes?– Why is high self-esteem associated with violence in men?– What are reasons why gender differences in self-esteem are

higher in white North Americans compared to minority Americans?


Social Comparison: Knowing the SelfSocial Comparison: Knowing the Self

• Social Comparison Theory—Festinger (1954) suggested that people compare themselves to others when there is no objective yardstick to evaluate the self against others’ performance– Downward Social Comparison—comparing oneself to others who

do less well than the self– Upward Social Comparison—comparing oneself to others who do

better than the self• Method of comparison affects how people think and feel about themselves



• Method of comparison depends on people’s motives for comparison: to feel good or to be accurate

– To be accurate, it may be best to compare one’s performance with someone who is similar on various dimensions (e.g., gender, ethnicity, or proficiency in a specific domain).

» Also, comparison to similar others (those in one’s in-group) may result in a more positive result



– Contexts within which comparisons occur have different consequences

• Self-Evaluation Maintenance Model—suggests that to maintain a positive view of the personal self people distance themselves from others who perform better than they do on valued dimensions, but move closer to others who perform worse than they do

• Social Identity Theory—suggests that to maintain a positive view of their group identity people will move closer to positive others with whom they share an identity, but distance from (or derogate) those who perform poorly or somehow make social identity negative (black-sheep effect)



• Self-Presentation and Self-Regulation– Ingratiation—when people try to make others like

them by conveying that they like them – And, people can attempt to present themselves to

others as possessing positive attributes• This tendency is affected by cultural norms.

– American students are more likely to describe themselves in terms of their strengths than are Japanese students who tend to be more self-critical.



– Self-Monitoring—refers to how motivated and able people are to monitor their behavior in response to others’ expectancies

• High self-monitors are concerned with the reactions of others and are very good at monitoring their behavior and adjusting their actions in front of other people.

– Use third person pronouns that show outward focus on others– Tend to have higher self-esteem due to social approval

• Low self-monitors are not as adept at this and prefer to act consistently with their personal views.

– Use first person pronouns that show a focus on the self – Lose self-esteem when they violate own personal standards


Social Comparison: Knowing the SelfSocial Comparison: Knowing the Self• Another method to know the self, which is assumed to be useful,

is introspection—the process of privately thinking about “who one is.”– However, looking inward may not be the best way to gain self-

knowledge. • People often do not have conscious awareness of the reasons for their actions.

– Analyzing reasons for liking or choosing something can result in attitude change that misleads people when making another choice.

• People are not very good at predicting their future feelings.• The usefulness of introspection depends on which aspects of the self are analyzed.



• What are your thoughts?What are your thoughts?– Why do people make downward social comparisons?– If someone close to you performs better than you do on

a task that is important to you, what may happen according to the self-evaluation maintenance model?

– Who is likely to stay in relationships longer, a low self-monitor or a high self-monitor?

• Why?


The Self as Target of PrejudiceThe Self as Target of Prejudice

• Emotional Consequences– It has been proposed that attributing negative outcomes

to prejudice may be a way to maintain self-esteem• However, perceived discrimination and self-esteem have been

found to be negatively correlated.– Discrimination against one’s group may implicate the self

• An attribution to prejudice may be self-protective when compared to making attributions to other internal, stable features of the self.

• The pervasiveness of the prejudice is also a factor.


The Self as Target of PrejudiceThe Self as Target of Prejudice• Cognitive Consequences

– Perceived prejudice can hinder the ability to learn new skills

• Behavioral Consequences– Stereotype Threat—can occur when people believe that they

might be judged in light of a negative stereotype about their group or that they may, because of their performance, in some way confirm a negative stereotype of their group

• Effects appear hard to control and performance deficits result from anxiety due to threat


The Self as Target of PrejudiceThe Self as Target of Prejudice

• What are your thoughts? What are your thoughts? – Why don’t attributions to prejudice always serve a

self-protective function?– When is stereotype threat likely to be felt?

• Is anyone immune to stereotype threat?– Why or why not?

– What are potential consequences of stereotype threat?– What are ways to decrease stereotype threat?

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