Lecture 4- Self

Question 1

What are self schemas?

Answer 1

cognitive generalizations about the self, derived from past
experience, that organize and guide the processing of self-related information
contained in an individual’s social experience

They give us a framework with which to view ourselves

Question 2

How do we use speed to determine whether traits are included in a person’s concept/ schema of self?

Answer 2

We measure the speed at which they say yes to identifying with a trait. This is similar to an implicit associations test.

Question 3

How do traits in our concept of self relate to our judgements of others?

Answer 3

It’s a similar concept to chronic accessibility. Basically the traits people identity with are the first they then use explain others actions.

Question 4

What is reverse correlation (Dotsch and Todorov, 2021)?

Answer 4

Start with a base image and slowly add noise. Ask at each addition whether the image more closely aligns with the participants concept of self or not. You can then average the results to see how they view themselves. Often a comparison is made in this test between people with high self- esteem and those who’s self esteem is low.

Question 5

What is the associative model of the self?

Answer 5

It is a conceptual model of how different traits are related in memory. The idea is that self is the center of everything and associations surrounding this are mapped out using association tests (speed)

Question 6

In an associative model of self what are the bold words?

Answer 6

Nodes = where many concepts link/ converge together

Question 7

In an associative model of self what is spreading activation? What is the implication of this?

Answer 7

When particular concepts in the network become activated at certain times. Therefore a particular view of the self may be active/ not-active at certain times. You aren’t just one person but a collection of different ideas and versions.

Question 8

What is the active version of self called?

Answer 8

The concept of self active right now is the working self.

Question 9

Why is relating things to yourself a useful memory task?

Answer 9

Because self is the center of your web. If you can form associations with it concepts become locked into your web and are easier to retrieve.

Question 10

What did the study by Csikszentmihayli and Figurski (1982) find?

Answer 10

People don’t actually think about themselves that much despite it being the center of the network/ everything being wrapped up in it.

Question 11

What is flow? Who invented the concept?

Answer 11

• Full absorption in a task, at optimal balance of skill and challenge
• Csikszentmihayli

Question 12

How does flow compare to other similar concepts?

Answer 12

Mindfulness: attending to present experiences in an objective and nonjudgmental was (stepping outside of self and observing)
Mindlessness: operating on “autopilot”
Mind wandering: thoughts drifting off-task

These are NOT flow

Question 13

What did Duval and Wicklund show in 1972 with their temptation resistance paradyme?

Answer 13

Participants were told not to look at a toy, 90% did. What they measured was there response when asked later if they did or not. What they found was that those who were asked this in front of a mirror (where they were self aware) were a lot more honest about having looked.

Question 14

What is the self discrepancy theory by Higgins (1989)?

Answer 14

There is the actual self The Actual self
And then the 2 self guides…
-ought self: who you should be
-ideal self: who you could be

People are motivated to reach a state where their actual self matches their self-guides (stable)

Discrepancies between different selves produce specific types of negative affect.

• Actual-ought discrepancies = high arousal
• Actual-ideal discrepancies = low arousal

Question 15

What did the study by Higgins, Bond and Klein and Strauman show (1986)?

Answer 15

Asked to write either own goals or parents expectations

• Goals (ideal prime: could be)= more dejection
• Parent expectations (ought prime: should be) = agitation

Question 16

What is the regulatory focus theory?

Answer 16

• Promotion focus: attainment of goals (ideals)
• Prevention focus: avoidance of negative outcomes (obligations)
• Regulatory ”fit” between focus and means leads to positive affect

Question 17

What is the self complexity theory (Linville, 1985)?

Answer 17

• People have multiple, distinct selves
• In a more complex model there is not much overlap between the selves (distinct identities / roles)
• In a more simple model there is a lot more overlap with traits associated in each of the selves being similar
• Self esteem is a function of evaluating self components. More complexity is a buffer against self esteem issues.

Question 18

What is social identity theory?

Answer 18

Add on to self complexity theory. Basically says self esteem is a function of the positivity of our group memberships.

Question 19

What is self evaluation and maintenance theory, (Tesser, 1988)?

Answer 19

Relies on the idea of either being able to compare upwards (to people better than ourselves) or downwards (to people worse than ourselves)

There are some domains where these comparisons have an effect on our well being and there is others where they don’t. The two components which predict whether comparison will have an effect are relative importance and closeness.

Question 20

Who showed that importance of the topic and closeness mattered in self evaluation maintenance theory?

Answer 20

Pleban and Tesser (1981)

• Participants got feedback that either a confederate did better or worse than them on tasks of varying importance. The measurement was in how much the participants distance themselves.
• For an important task where the confederate did well they literally distance themselves. However, when they did poorly participants got a lot closer. On the other hand for the unimportant task an interesting phenomenon was seen. They got a lot closer to confederates that did well. This is called basking in reflective glory or burging. We want to be close to people who do well, to success, so long as its a domain that not important to us and so doesn’t risk our wellbeing.

Question 21

What is Weiner’s view on self presentation?

Answer 21

People use attributions as strategies for managing others’ reactions.

Question 22

in terms of self-presentation what is handicapping? Use an example to show how with self-handicapping you are safe either way from individuals judgements…

Answer 22

Protecting self esteem by creating attributions for poor performance in advance. If we take an exam if you claim you went drinking the night before it augments and people think you are really smart while if you get a D is discounts and people just think well that’s expected cause you went drinking.