Self: a person’s particular nature or qualities that make a person unique and distinguishable from othersTraits: characteristic ways that you feel, and act that mark you as different from othersSelf-schema: cognitive structures, derived from past experience, that represent a person’s beliefs and feelings about the self in particular domainsFive factor model of personality: five personality traits that psychologists believe are the basic building blocks of personality1. Openness to experience2. Conscientiousness3. Extraversion4. Agreeableness5. NeuroticismSelf Knowledge OverviewImportant functions1. Helps us remember informationSelf-reference effect: better memory for info related to the selfFor instance, better memory for a list of adjectives if considering whether the adjectives apply to the self2. Helps attend to information we encounterself-knowledge guides our attention to relevant traits3. Evaluating other peopleSelf-image bias: tendency to weigh our evaluations of other people by how we view our selfExample: if you view yourself as intelligent you may judge others strongly by how intelligent you perceive them to be4. Motivating Behaviorself-knowledge motivates behavior by comparing our actual selves to other selvesSelf-discrepancy theory: Individuals want to resolve discrepancies of who they are with who they want to be or ought to beTypes of selfActual self: the self we truly believe ourselves to beIdeal self: the person we aspire/want to beOught self: the person we feel we should be, the person others want us to beDifferent ways of solving the discrepancyPromotion focus: Focus on positive outcomes and moving toward becoming our ideal self; Thinking about “ideal” leads to promotion/sensitivity to positive experiences.Prevention focus: Focus on negative outcomes and attempt to avoid not living up to our ought self; Thinking about “ought” leads to prevention/sensitivity to negative experiencesAspects of the self may change depending on the situationthe unique or distinctive qualities is what we define ourselves in a given contextPersonality DevelopmentPersonality development can be socialBirth order may influence personality traitsDiversification: siblings may take on different niches in the family to minimize conflictsOLDER siblings are more dominant, achievement oriented, and conscientious; invest in the status quo; whereas YOUNGER siblings are more agreeable, open to new experiences/ideas, and rebellious; challenge the family status quo.Gender and the SelfAcross cultures, men have more independent (uniqueness & autonomy), and women have more interdependent (relationships, shared traits and social roles), views of selfWomen likely to refer to relationships when describing selfWomen more attuned to external social cues whereas as men more attuned to their internal responsesDifferences due to socializationCultural stereotypes, parental feedback, educational treatmentEvolution may contribute to gender differencesIndependent views of self may be an advantage for males in acts like physical competition and huntingInterdependent views of self may be an advantage for females in acts related to maintaining social bonds and care givingCulture and the SelfIn the West (Northwestern Europe & North America), independence is emphasizedIn the East (Asian, Mediterranean, African, South American), interdependence is emphasizedSelf-EsteemSelf-esteem: Overall positive or negative evaluation we have of ourselves; trait vs. state.Trait self-esteem: enduring level of regard we have for ourselves. Stable over time.E.g. how a person feels most of the timeState self-esteem: dynamic and changing feelings about the self, felt at different moments in timeHow a person feels after something unexpected happensSelf-esteem depends on:Domains that are important to an individual’s evaluation of the selfThe domains we find importance define our self-esteemWe need to have many domains to protect our self-esteem so that a setback in one domain doesn’t completely lower all our esteemSelf-complexity may protect self-esteemPeople who have many contingencies of self-worth may have smaller decreases in self-esteem after failure in any one domain(1) Self-evaluation maintenance (SEM) model :People are motivated to elevate our self-esteemTwo strategies to boost self esteem:1. Reflection: People can boost self-esteem by associating with the positive accomplishments of othersex. Wearing school colors after wins2. Social comparison: People often form judgments about their traits and abilities by comparing themselves to others.This comparison is done when People have no objective standard by which to judge themselvesPeople can either compare themselves to someone who they think is better than them (upwards) or someone who you think is worse than you (downwards).Downwards = self-esteem motivationUpwards = decrease self-esteem, but lead to an improvement motivationImplications of the SEM model for choosing friendsWe prefer friends who don’t outshine us in domains contingent to our self-worthHaving friends who excel in other domains can boost self-esteem by allowing us to bask in their reflected gloryCulture and Self-esteemMembers of individualistic cultures tend to report higher levels of self-esteem; Members of collectivistic(e.g. Eastern) cultures place more value on self-improvementIt’s not that Easterners feel bad about themselves; greater concern is just being placed on collective goalsGreater exposure to Western culture leads to higher self-esteemBiases & Illusions about the Self: What happens when we are only motivated to have high self-esteemWe can often be inaccurate with our self-assessmentsBetter-than-average effectMany Westerners tend to have a positive view of the self (Alicke & Govorun, 2005)Tend to report the self as better than average on most traits – (popularity, kindness, driving abilities)Weight abilities we excel at as more valuableEx. if someone is very social at parties but clams up during interviews, he or she might say that it’s more valuable to be sociable at parties than to come off well in interviews.When?: When the traits are ambiguous (vague) and easy to construe in different waysPeople with high self-esteem may be more sensitive to threats, insults, and challengesIf high self-esteem is unwarranted, it may make the person feel insecure, and those people may react more aggressively when their ego is threatenedInflated self-esteem can be counterproductiveHigh self-esteem