1The Self, Pt. 2Psy 240; Fall 2006Purdue UniversityDr. Kipling WilliamsPsy 240: Williams 2The Totalitarian Ego• Inspired by:– Greenwald, A. G. (1980). The totalitarian ego:Fabrication and revision of personal history.American Psychologist, 35, 603-618.• George Orwell’s 1984 describes atotalitarian society.• The protagonist is Winston Smith, whosejob it is to rewrite history to be consistentwith his government’s current policy.Tony Greenwald2Psy 240: Williams 3Three Cognitive Biases• Totalitarian mechanisms for the organization ofknowledge– Egocentricity– Beneffectance– Cognitive conservatismPsy 240: Williams 4Egocentricity• Self perceived as more central to events than itis.– Memory revolves around self• Events are encoded and recorded such that selfis remembered as a leading player in the past(sort of like Forrest Gump).• Self is perceived as the axis of cause and effect.3Psy 240: Williams 5Beneffectance• Self is selectively perceived as being responsible for desired, butnot undesired, outcomes.– Taking responsibility for successes.• Dispositional attributions– Denial of responsibility of harming.• Situational attributions.– In group tasks, self is perceivedas contributing more to the group’ssuccess, but less if the group fails.– Vicarious beneffectance:• Higher group identification whenone’s group is successful; lowerwhen it is unsuccessful(BIRGing; Cialdini et al, 1976).Psy 240: Williams 6Cognitive Conservatism• Resistance to cognitive change– Assimilation• Fitting new information into old schema’s– Confirmation bias• Search for information that confirmspreconceptions.1 5 13 17 25 29 …..???4Psy 240: Williams 7Selective Attention• Seeing and hearing what we expect tosee and hear.• Power of first impressionsPsy 240: Williams 8Expectancy ConfirmationABIRDIN THETHE HAND5Psy 240: Williams 9Expectancy ConfirmationFINISHED FILES ARE THE RESULTSOF YEARS OF SCIENTIFIC STUDYCOMBINED WITH THE EXPERIENCEOF YEARS.Count the Fs:Psy 240: Williams 10Selective Memory• Greenberg, Williams, & O’Brien– Harsh to lenient order– Lenient to harsh order6Psy 240: Williams 11Self-fulfilling Prophecy• Evoking expected responses in others– Snyder, Tanke, Berscheid– Snyder & SwannPsy 240: Williams 12When We Do Change• We re-write history– Leading questions• Crash vs. Hit• Did you see:– Any broken glass?– The broken glass?7Psy 240: Williams 13When We Do Change, WeThink We Didn’t• I-knew-it-all-along– Perception that we did not, in fact, change.• I’ve always felt this way– After attitudes have been changed as theresult of an experimental manipulation.Psy 240: Williams 14Are These Biases Functional?• Inspires confidence• Maintains self-esteem• Encourages persistence and not giving up.• Depressed individuals less likely to showevidence of cognitive biases.• But, if extreme, they can be