SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY PSYC 3402 Professor Spikes TOPIC The Social Self Chapter 3 I Self Concept Activity Who Am I refer to attachment activity completed earlier Self Schemas Concept o Specific descriptions beliefs about yourself How are we affected by our self schemas Perception of self and others o Have an effect on how you perceive yourself and how you perceive others i e I m a person who is always early or on time and that affects how I perceive others when they are not on time or are late But still should not discriminate against them Evaluation of self and others o Have an effect on how we evaluate others o Judgments beliefs about others etc based on your own schemas o Confusion cognitive dissonance when you want people to evaluate you a certain way Self Reference Effect o Phenomenon that when information is relevant to oneself it is processed quickly and likely to be remembered o i e if someone is from Massachusetts I m more likely to remember that detail because I m from Massachusetts it s an important part of my self schema Is self concept synonymous to self esteem Explanation o NO they are not o Self concept o Self esteem your overall worth perception of who you are sense of self worth how you feel about yourself value of Note Refer to Identity Wheel completed earlier II Self Knowledge How well do we really know ourselves Explaining and Predicting our behavior o According to research we don t really know ourselves very well o We are usually off the mark when we try to explain our behavior and when we try to predict our behavior o Of the two we are a little better at predicting our behavior when we stop and consider how we act in similar situations III Self and culture Social connections and group identity Activity Count the number of statements on your Who Am I list that are linked to social identity Then assess how high on the list the statements occur Refer to attached Tables 1 and 2 INDIVIDUALISM Industrialized Western Cultures Identity is self contained start to enforce this in pre adolescence separate from parents become self reliant be a unique individual I am statements most of I am statements revolve around yourself and your personal goals traits Goal of life to enhance one s individual self not your family Place a lot of value on uniqueness how you differ from others emphasis on this Self esteem is stable enduring across situations not going to alter when you re with family members as opposed to when you re with peers coworkers stable Self esteem is more personal and less relational all about you not anyone else Threats to one s personal identity compared to threats to one s collective identity research shows that threats to our personal identity will make us feel angrier than when someone threatens our collective identity someone says to you your family is really messed up they need help you just sort of say oh well that s my family not me someone says to you you are dysfunctional and then you re ready to fight about it COLLECTIVISM Asia Africa and Central and South America Identity is defined more in relation to others cannot separate themselves from their family peers group people define themselves in relation to their families coworkers classmates More self critical Why Because they hold themselves to a group standard many groups standards have more of an impact on others so need to be perfect Less need for positive self regard Not wrapped up in individualistic stuff I am statements more reflective of social stuff group mentality Greater sense of belonging many selves different selves with parents neighbors coworkers friends peers etc Self embedded in social membership Conversation is less direct and more polite Goal of social life is to harmonize with and support one s community Place a lot of value on tradition and shared practices Self esteem correlates closely with what others think of them and their groups Self esteem is more relational and less personal Self esteem is malleable it s context specific fluid changes based on situations Collectivism in USA It does exist in the Deep South some in the Midwest even pockets in other areas like Northeast When are university students in collectivistic Japan and individualistic USA most likely to report positive emotions such as happiness and elations o Japan happiness comes with positive social engagement feeling close and friendly and respectful with others o USA happiness comes with disengaged emotions feeling effective superior and proud What happens when individuals from collectivist cultures are placed in exposed to individualistic western cultures Does his her self concept become more individualized o YES it does o The reverse could also happen collectivist culture An individualist will become more collectivist if they are placed in a it is harder for the collectivist to go back to the collectivist culture after being individualistic for a time because it s easy to think about only yourself it s much easier to only have your needs your ideas etc on your mind than a whole group s Self Efficacy How competent you feel to do something IV Can an individual have high self efficacy and low self esteem Explanation YES you can still be not confident in yourself and have high self efficacy you feel you are competent enough to do something but aren t confident Self Efficacy and Locus of Control LOC LOC the extent to which people believe that they are in control of their own efforts and actions internal LOC or if their efforts and actions are the result of chance or other outside forces external LOC Refer to attached Measure of Personal Beliefs completed earlier Self efficacy and Learned Helplessness LH LH occurs when an individual perceives that he she has no control over repeated bad events EFFECTS OF LH major difference btwn learned helplessness and external locus of control o learned helplessness in response to repeated bad events o external control related to good or bad events effects of LH o individual will fail to initiate o can t initiate b c they feel as though their efforts will have zero effects o very stressed out all the time how might others foster or instill learned helplessness in someone else o Helicopter parenting prevents kids from making their own decisions o Teacher who doesn t believe in a student doing poorly doesn t bother to see if they are doing better continue cycle of bad grades o Bullying bully consistently beats up on the target target will eventually feel like they don t care about taking