The Self: What We Are & What We Might Be
This question has been there since time immemorial! Who are You?
We spend a great deal of time and effort in thinking about the object
that is, in an important respect, the very center of our social universe:
i.e. ourselves.
This is closely related to other forms of social thought i.e. social/self
perception. The key difference, is here now it is ‘us’ than ‘others’
who is on the focus, radar, subject of scrutiny.
Because of this process we acquire our self-identity or self concept…
primarily through social interaction with others.
The Self: What We Are & What We Might Be
The self has long been a topic of discussion in social psychology.
So we need to review…
The current knowledge about the self, primarily from the
perspective of social cognition.
In other words…
We’ll focus on the self as special type of cognitive
framework, one that strongly influences our processing
of social information.
Defining The Self: A Self-based View
If you are asked to describe your self-concept: What kind of
information would you provide?
Most of the people would answer by…
Describing their appearance;
Listing their major traits;
Explaining their central goals and motives;
Some would go on to provide specific examples or evidence
for these characteristics.
Some would focus on disparities b/w what they are at present
and what they would like to become.
In short, for most people, the self concept is a complex collection of
highly diverse information. Yet somehow it is all held together.
Defining The Self: A Self-based View
So what is the glue?
That holds this information together
What allow us to combine so much diversity into a
fairly unified self-image?
According to social psychologist, the answer lies in a concept known as
Schema.
Schemas are cognitive frameworks… organized collections of information
about some objects. (The object can refer to virtually anything… other people,
their traits, physical objects, issues or even ourselves)
Once developed, can be viewed as ‘mental scaffolds’… existing cognitive
structure that give form and shape to our thoughts and to new social
information.
Defining The Self: A Self-based View
I AM THIS
Information
consistent
With schema
Less likely to
Be noticed
Information
Consistent with
Schema
Easier to recall,
notice
Early
Late
I AM
MORE
LIKE THIS
SCHEMA DEVELOPMENT
I AM
NOT
LIKE
THIS
Information
Inconsistent
With schema
Easier to notice &
Recall
Information
Inconsistent with
schema
Harder to notice,
recall
WHAT IS
THIS?
Defining The Self: A Self-based View
What role do schemas play with respect to the self?
Self is a cognitive framework that organizes and guides the processing of
information related to ourselves.
Self can be viewed as a special type of schema: a self-schema
Self-schema reflects…
all our past self-relevant information
all knowledge and memories about ourselves
all information about what we were like in the past
all information about what we would like to be in the future
In nut shell, they are the sum of everything, we know or can imagine
about ourselves.
Origins of The Self Concept: The Role of Social Input
Self concept reflects the sum of al our self-relevant experience.
But what experiences are most crucial in shaping this knowledge about
ourselves and our major characteristics?
The self-concept emerges primarily from information provided by other
people i.e. from social input. As without the…
Feedback and
Evaluations provided by others, there would be no
personal identity. (James 1890)
Looking glass self: self concept is a reflection of information provided by
the other persons around us (Cooley 1964)
Cognitive Effects of The Self : The Self Reference Effect
The tendency for information that is somehow related to the self to be
more readily processed and remembered is known as self-reference
effect.
Why does it occur?
The Cognitive basis of the self-reference effect (Klein & Loftus 1988)
More
categorical
Processing
Information
Related to
The self
concept
The Self
Reference
Effect
More
Elaborative
Processing
Possible Selves: Our Many Potential Me’s
When people talk about self: they do it in static terms…
This is me… (don’t expect anything different)
People think that self is unchanging, but self is quite capable of change
We are all somewhat aware of a whole succession of possible ‘selves’
Markus says…
At any given time point, we possess a working self-concept
Yet we imagine alternatives
We also often ponder about ideal selves (what should be)
We also have an Ought self (what in the eyes of others and
according to social norms, we should be)
The self-concept
• The self-concept is the sum total of a person’s
beliefs (i.e., cognitions) about their own
personal attributes.
• These beliefs can be about affect, behaviour,
(other) cognitions, motives, etc.
• Sometimes evaluations of these beliefs (i.e.,
self-esteem) is considered part of the selfconcept.
Definitions
• Self-concept: Picture or perception of
ourselves
• Self Esteem: Feelings we have about
ourselves
• Self-ideal: The way we would like to be
Self-Esteem
Self-esteem: Self-perception of self-value
• Self-esteem is the result of the self’s evaluations of the
self-concept.
• Self can be evaluated in part (‘specific’) or whole
(‘summary’).
• Evaluations can be positive, negative, neutral,
ambiguous, and ambivalent.
• ‘State’ and ‘trait’ self-esteem.
How self-esteem affects us
• High self-esteem has all sorts of benefits.
• Conversely, low self-esteem predicts an altogether
poorer life experience.
Self-enhancement
• Four mechanisms to improve self-esteem
• Self-serving cognitions
• Self-handicapping
• Basking in reflected glory
• Downward social comparison
• How much do you believe in your self? On a
piece of paper write down the percentage of
how much you believe in yourself. 100%?
75%? 50%?
• What are you achieving with that percentage?
• What would happen if you believed in yourself
25% more?
Dreams and self belief are free. You can take all
you want and walk away.
How is self-concept build &
destroyed
Building
Find a good role model
Praise & compliments
Focus on the positive
Keep criticism to a
minimum
Set & achieve goals
Destroyed
Comparing yourself to
others
Putting yourself down
Drug abuse
?
How do values and morals fit into
feeling good about yourself?
• Knowing yourself is a prerequisite to a
good self esteem
• Discover your values – a value is
something you strongly believe in
• Live by what you value – the closer your
values come to your actions the happier
you will be.
Overview
• Self-esteem
– What is it?
– How do we measure it?
• Biases that protect self-esteem
– Self-Serving Bias
– Optimism vs. Pessimism
– False Consensus Effect
Self-esteem
refers to our positive and
negative evaluations of the self
How should we measure self-esteem?
Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale
• On the whole, I am satisfied with myself
• I feel that I have a number of good
qualities
• I am able to do things as well as most
other people
• I feel that I’m a person of worth, at least
on an equal plane with others
• I take a positive attitude towards myself
Do most of us suffer from low selfesteem?
“I don’t want to belong to any club that would
have me as a member.”
-Grouch Marx
Or, are we too easy on ourselves?
Self-serving bias = the tendency
to perceive and present oneself
favorably
Overestimating our competence
• College students misremember their SAT
scores, overestimating by about 17 points.
– Low scorers overestimate more
– Low scorers complain more about the validity
of the test
• Athletes tend to credit themselves for
victories and tend to blame circumstances
beyond their control for losses
“all the women are strong, all the men are goodlooking, and all the children are above average.”
The Lake Wobegon Effect
• Most drivers believe they are more skilled and
•
•
safer than the “average driver”
Most businesspeople believe they are more
ethical and more competent than the “average
businessperson”
In a 1997 Gallup poll, only 14% of White
Americans rated their prejudice as 5 or higher
on a scale from 0 to 10. However, 44% of
White Americans thought that other White
Americans were prejudiced.
Subjective vs. Objective Qualities
• The more subjective the quality, the more we
are able to distort our self-concept
– For instance, community residents perceive
themselves as caring more about the environment
than doing much about it
• We interpret subjective criteria to our best
advantage in order to see ourselves as
successful
– A College Entrance Examination Board survey of
829,000 high school seniors asked students to rate
their ability to get along with others
Self-rated ability to
get along with others
• 0% rated themselves
•
•
as below average in
their ability to get
along with others
60% rated
themselves as in the
top 10%
25% rated
themselves as in the
top 1%
"top
10%"
"top 1%"
"top
50%"
Optimism
• Most of us feel that our futures will be
brighter than those of our peers
• Rutgers University students were found to
perceive themselves as more likely to get
a good job, draw a good salary, and own
a home than their fellow classmates
• Most marriage license applicants correctly
estimate that half of marriages end in
divorce, but they estimate their own risk
of divorce as nearly 0%
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Is optimism good for you?
• A pessimistic
•
attribution style for
bad events leads to a
sense of helplessness
and despair: “me,
always, everywhere”
Optimistic people get
sick less often, live
longer, are happier,
have better marriages
and make more
money
Or is pessimism good for you?
• But what about smoking,
contraception, and
seatbelts? Isn’t illusory
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• It has been argued that
thinking through worstcase scenarios helps
manage anxiety and
motivates us to carry out
effective actions
• Overconfident students
tend to underprepare for
exams
False Consensus Effect
• We tend to overestimate the extent to which
others agree with us
– Like the self-serving bias, assuming others agree with
us protects our self-esteem
– BUT it seems unavoidable that our own opinions are
more salient to us than the opinions of others
– AND extrapolating from ourselves to the world at
large isn’t completely irrational if we have no other
information to go by
– AND we tend to associate with likeminded folks, so
our judgments of the world at large are naturally
biased by a limited sample that looks, acts and thinks
like we do
But, let’s not get carried away…
• Most judgments of how other people think
or feel are not skewed by false consensus
• For instance, which do you think most
people would prefer?
– a dish of ice cream
– a poke in the eye with a sharp stick