The Self Lecture 13 1 What makes something part of the self The parts of human behavior that require or are altered by self reflection Includes self concept and self esteem 2 What is self concept When do the various parts of self concept develop Know the steps Self concept is the basis for self understanding Who am I Stages of self concept development Infant 2 3 years old 3 4 Ages 5 6 self concept based on developing abilities basic self awareness of own body recognizes own gender age self concept expands to family Social comparison private self concept Learn to keep secretes lie 3 What is one way to test if a child or ape has self awareness Candles in Crayon Box Test a child is given a crayon box only to find the box is full of candles instead of crayons When the experimenter asks the child what another child would expect to find in the same box a child who is over four years of age will answer crayons and a younger child will answer candles Based on these findings it is assumed children under four years of age do not have a fully developed theory of mind concept 4 What is theory of mind and how can we test if a child has developed theory of mind Theory of mind understanding that others may have different perspective and want different things than you do How we test if a child has developed theory of mind seeing if the child gives a person the food that the child believes the person likes versus the food the child likes 5 What is a self schema Self schema the abstract knowledge structure about the self Compared to other schemas it is larger richer and used in daily info processing more complex and more loaded with emotion compared to other schemes 6 What is self complexity How does self complexity affect how people cope with negative events Self complexity the extent to which self schemas are differentiated and compartmentalized People with more domains more self complexity and non overlapping domains tend to be happier and healthier Those who have higher self complexity are able to better buffer the negative effects on their self esteem because they have other domains to turn to 7 What is self discrepancy theory What are ought selves and ideals selves Self discrepancy theory people compare themselves to internalized standards called self guides These different representations of self can be contradictory and result in emotional discomfort We are strongly motivated to maintain a sense of consistency among our various beliefs and self perceptions Actual self what you are Ideal self what you want to be pay attention to opportunities focus on promotion achievement pleasure Ought self what you think others want you to be pay attention to avoiding harm shame punishment etc focus on prevention achievement relief 8 How do those selves relate to promotion and prevention foci Ideal self focus on promotion of oneself Ought self focus on prevention of harm to oneself 9 What emotion do people feel when they achieve an actual self that matches their ought self Or an actual self that matches their ideal self Actual self Ought self relief Actual self Ideal self pleasure 10 Know what self esteem is and what it s not Self esteem IS how you FEEL about yourself Self esteem is NOT your beliefs about how capable you are self concept or necessarily a reflection of reality 11 Know the differences between various kinds of self esteem State self esteem Trait self esteem State vs trait Global vs specific Global self esteem Specific self esteem how a person feels about themselves at a particular moment in time how a person feels about themselves generally how you feel about yourself in general across domains how you feel about yourself in a specific domain 12 Overall what is the relationship between self esteem and positive life outcomes Specifically what relationship was found between achievement and performance in the study of 3rd and 6th graders academic achievement Those with higher self esteem do better in a lot of areas feel happier positive relationships etc and the 3rd and 6th graders had higher grades 13 What are three potential issues with concluding that increasing a person s self esteem would lead to positive outcomes Self report Causality dealt with by using longitudinal studies like the 3rd 6th graders Very few people actually have LOW self esteem 14 How does self esteem relate to initiative and responses to failure High self esteem predicts initiative and trying again after failure 15 Understand the three theories of self esteem that were covered in class What are the theories What does each theory have to say about self esteem Terror Management Theory self esteem is a way for us to cope with the fact of our own mortality We cope with this by believing we are individuals of value in a culture that will continue after we Awareness of our own mortality anguish distress pain die Sociometer Theory self esteem is a gauge of how well you are getting along with others We have a fundamental need to belong Self esteem measures your belongingness Self Determination Theory self esteem is a reflection of the extent to which we feel competent related and autonomous independent From the book pages 321 328 16 What were the results of the study done by Hazel Markus on how people respond to self relevant information versus non self relevant information bottom of page 322 People process information that is especially relevant to their self schemas in high efficient ways Those who were put in the independent self schema categories responded more quickly to adjectives that described independence while those who had a dependent self schema responded more quickly to dependent adjectives The aschematics self schema category neither dependent or independent did not differ at all in their response time to the different adjectives 17 What did Laura King find about individual differences in participants lost selves pages 324 326 Lost possible self what a person might have been in the past Current happiness tends to be associated with the extent to which people are able to let go of their lost possible selves and invest energy in their current goals for the future 18 Which gap actual self being different ideal or ought predicts depression Which predicts anxiety Actual Ought discrepancies predicts anxiety Actual Ideal discrepancies predicts depression Personality and Social Interaction Lecture 14 1 What is the person situation debate Whether traits or situations better predict behavior Relative stability of traits
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