11The SelfPsy 240; Fall 2006Purdue UniversityDr. Kipling Williams2Why study the self in socialpsychology?• Recall that social psychology is thestudy of how people– Think about– Influence, and– Relate to one another (or interact withinsituations)• The self influences all of these23The Center of Our World:Ourselves• Spotlight Effect:– We over-estimate how much others are attendingto us.• Barry Manilow t-shirt study (Gilovich et al, 2000)– Guess 50%; actually 23%• Illusion of Transparency– We think our emotions are easily detected byothers, when they are not.• Cocktail Party Effect– In a noisy room, we can still hear our names beingsaid.4Self Concept• Self-concept – “Who am I?”– Self-schemas: beliefs about ourselves that help usprocess and organize our world• Affects what you pay attention to, how quickly youprocess information, and what you remember– Social self – We have multiple selves• Roles• Social identities– Self-knowledge – “How can I explain and predictmyself?”35Development of Self-Concept• Social experience– Self-perceptions• Roles• Social identities– Social Comparison• Who am I? Depends on who I’m comparing myself with.– Our successes and failures– How others judge us• “looking glass self”– Surrounding culture• Our culture affects how we view ourselves– Collectivistic / Individualistic6How Well Do We KnowOurselves?• Explaining and predicting our behavior– How likely are you to vote in the upcomingelection?__– If 180 Purdue students were asked, whatpercentage of these people do you think wouldvote in the upcoming election?__• Our guesses of others’ behaviors are often betterpredictors of our own behaviors.• Also: obedience, bystander responsiveness,suicide baiting47How Well Do We Know Ourselves?• Predicting our feelings– In general, how happy are you now?Not at all 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Extremely– Imagine that you were involved in an accident andwere paralyzed below the waist due to injuries yousuffered. How happy would you be?Not at all 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ExtremelyHow happy do you think you would be a year afterthe accident?Not at all 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ExtremelyThis issue is called “affective forecasting”8The Self and Influence• Self Awareness Theory– Public self-awareness• More likely to follow external expectations– Private self-awareness• More likely to follow internalized norms andbeliefs• What can trigger self-awareness?59The Self and How We Relateto One Another• Independent vs. Interdependent self– Content of interactions (e.g., praise)– Ingroup vs. outgroup relations– Explaining successesIn-groupSelfOut-groupIn-groupSelfOut-group10The Self and How We InteractWith Situations• Self Complexity Theory (Linville)– People have multiple selves and these selves mayoverlap to varying degrees• Low = overlapping• High = nonoverlapping– How people respond to success and failure• Lows respond more extremely to both success andfailure.– The extent to which the selves overlap influencesour mental health• But, it depends on how much control we feel we haveover our multiple