Social Psychology Ch.5-7
Self-concept
A person's knowledge about himself or herself, including one's own traits, social identities, and experiences William James (1890): The "Me" - self-concept Freud: The "I" - or ego (Freud)
Solo status
A sense that one is unique in some specific manner in relation to other people in the current environment
The same action can take on different meaning, depending on how it connects to goals. Concrete conceptions specify how the action is accomplished. Abstract conceptions specify why the action is performed.
Action identification theory: Explains how people conceive of action—their own or others'—in ways that range from very concrete to very abstract
Misattribution in Everyday Life Excitation transfer theory (Zillmann et al., 1972)
An individual is physiologically aroused by a stimulus. A short time later, a second, potentially emotionally provocative, stimulus is encountered. Leftover excitation from the first stimulus becomes misattributed (transferred) to the reaction to the second stimulus.
Situational Variables Affect Conformity Group size The effect of diminishing returns for group size is more apparent with more subtle behaviors. Milgram's "looking up" experiment
An individual's reference group Reference group: A group with which an individual strongly identifies Escape Moynihan and colleagues suggested that conformity can serve as an escape from existential burdens and insecurities
Self-schema
An integrated set of memories, beliefs, and generalizations about an attribute that is part of one's self-concept
How Do We Come to Know the Self? People learn about themselves over the course of their everyday social interactions in a variety of ways
Appraisals they get from others Social comparisons Self-perceptions People use their understanding of how others view them as the primary basis for knowing and evaluating themselves.
Malleable
Aspects made accessible in specific social situations, motives, and cues
Individual Differences in Self-Presentation Self-monitoring: Individual difference in people's desire and ability to adjust their self-presentations for different audiences High self-monitors: Better at cynical performances Low self-monitors: More consistent in self-presentations
Audience-monitoring errors People often have difficulty getting beyond their own subjective experience when judging how others view them. Spotlight effect (Gilovich et al., 2000) Illusion of transparency (Gilovich et al., 1998)
Errors in Social Comparison Over- or underestimating your own attributes Over- or underestimating the attributes of those to whom you compare yourself
Better-than-average effect: On many abilities and traits, most people think they are better than average (a statistical impossibility!) Better-than-average effect. The tendency to rank oneself higher than most people on positive attributes.
Possible selves: Vivid images of what the self might become in the future
Can be positive or negative Motivate and guide behavior
Stable
Central aspects of self-concept
Cognitive Dissonance Theory, Part 1 Three primary ways to reduce dissonance
Change one of the cognitions Add a third cognition that makes the original two cognitions seem less inconsistent with each other. Trivialize the cognitions that are inconsistent.
Other Variables That Play a Role in Obedience
Closeness to the authority figure Closeness of the victim Witnessing defiance Indirect involvement
Self-Presentation: The Show Must Go On
Dramaturgical perspective: Using the theater as a metaphor and the idea that people, like actors, perform according to a script. If we all know the script and play our parts well, then like a successful play, our social interactions go smoothly and seem meaningful, and each actor benefits (Goffman, 1959).
Dissonance as Motivation
Experiencing inconsistency induces negative affect (dissonance). Physiological arousal Neurological signs of motivation to exert control Extent of dissonance predicts how much people change their attitudes (dissonance reduction).
Types of Self-Esteem
Extrinsic: Self-esteem is provided by standards dictated by environment and feedback from others. Intrinsic: Self-esteem is connected to feelings of enduring inner qualities. Levels of explicitly reported self-esteem and implicit self-esteem are often different.
Social Priming Others influence us by priming ideas, norms, and values.
Focus theory of normative conduct (Cialdini, 2003) Injunctive norm: A belief about what behaviors are generally approved of or disapproved of in one's culture Descriptive norm: A belief about what most people typically do
Self-determination theory: People function best when they feel that their actions stem from their own desires rather than from external forces (Deci & Ryan, 2000).
Fulfillment of needs fosters self-determination Relatedness Autonomy Competence
Neurological underpinnings of self-regulation Ventromedial prefrontal cortex: Processing emotional information Orbitofrontal cortex: Regulating social behavior Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC): Involving planning, inhibition, and regulation toward abstract goal Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC): Signaling when some behavior or outcome is at odds with goals
Functional magnetic resonance imagery (fMRI) Scanning technique that provides information about the activity of regions of the brain when people perform certain cognitive or motor tasks.
Insufficient Energy or Diminished Motivation
Goal pursuit is an effortful process. Ego depletion: Mental fatigue from extended use of self-control Behavior regulation is more difficult. Risky behavior may occur. Biological mechanisms underlie self-control. Elevated glucose use to support self-regulation function of prefrontal cortex
Goals can be activated either by consciously bringing them to mind or by being unconsciously cued by the environment.
Goals send urgent messages to the ego to act. Even subtle exposure to goal-related stimuli can automatically activate the goal and guide behavior (auto-motive theory; Chartrand & Bargh, 2002). Goals are also influenced by other people.
Self-Regulatory Challenges One of the keys to effective self-regulation is the capacity for willpower (impulse control). Willpower is the capacity to overcome the many temptations, challenges, and obstacles that could impede pursuit of one's long-term goals
Hot processes are driven by strong emotions Cold processes rely on level-headed reasoning Activated through mindful attention Activated by tricking ourselves into thinking we don't value a temptation Hot system domination = impulsive; caving into challenges; derailing long-term goal progress Cold system domination = hurdles managed
Social Influences on the Self-Concept Culture and socialization shape
Identities Roles Traits
Correcting Errors of Comparison
Ignorance of ignorance affects performance ratings "The skills needed to produce correct responses are virtually identical to those needed to evaluate the accuracy of one's responses."
What happens when we perceive ourselves as falling short of our standards but feel incapable of changing our behaviors?
In these situations, we often try to escape self-awareness. A tendency to escape self-awareness in times of failure may be especially true of people with generally high levels of self-awareness.
Protecting and Enhancing Self-Esteem: Cultural Differences Self-esteem is pursued universally, but the attributes, values, and roles that lead to feelings of worth vary depending on the individual's culture.
Individualistic cultures: Self-esteem is derived from proving superior skills and abilities. Collectivistic cultures: Self-esteem is derived from sustaining honor, gracefully performing cultural rituals, and group harmony promotion.
Dissonance Paradigms, Part 2
Induced compliance paradigm: A laboratory situation in which participants are induced to engage in a behavior that runs counter to their true attitudes
Research Support of Mead and Cooley Baldwin and colleagues (1990): Unconscious reminders of approval and disapproval from significant others influence self-evaluations.
Mead (1934): People internalize an image of a generalized other, a mental representation of how people, on average, appraise the self.
Inferences
Women do more socially oriented and caregiving behaviors because that is what they are intrinsically good at Men assume positions of leadership and power because that is what they are intrinsically good at
My Story: Self-Consistency Across Time
Clear self-narrative over time Enhances well-being Provides a basis for effective action Aids in the prediction of future challenges By middle-age, people tend to adopt one of two self-narratives Contamination stories Redemption stories Nostalgic memories Generate positive moods, boost self-esteem, enhance sense of connectedness and meaning, and support greater sense of self-continuity
Self-Consistency at the Micro Level: Cognitive Dissonance Theory
Cognitive dissonance theory: People so dislike inconsistencies in their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that they will bias their attitude and beliefs to deny the inconsistency (Festinger, 1957). Inconsistencies between two cognitions can create psychological tension (i.e., cognitive dissonance).
Getting Our Emotions Under Control
Cognitive reappraisal Reframe a situation to minimize one's emotional reaction to it. Other approaches work, too View the event from a "future you" Work to precisely identify which emotions are being felt
Asch: Why Do People Conform? Normative influence: Occurs when we use others to know how to fit in 25% of Asch's participants never conformed to the group opinion in at least one experimental trial.
Conformity links Gender differences Size of group exerting pressure (reference group) Group member unanimity Women are more likely to conform on stereotypically masculine topics such as sports or cars. Men are more likely to conform on stereotypically feminine topics such as fashion or family planning. People more readily conform on topics they know little about.
Conformity, Part 1
Conformity: The phenomenon whereby an individual alters his or her beliefs, attitudes, or behavior to bring them in accordance with those of a majority Example: Autokinetic effect (Sherif, 1936; Jacob & Campbell, 1961)
How Minorities Exert Their Influence, Part 1 Moscovici and colleagues (1969) Research indicated that a consistent minority can indeed have an influence over the majority.
Conversion theory: The explanation that people are influenced by a minority because the minority's distinctive position better captures their attention
Why is self-presentation so prevalent and important?
Conveys and protects self-image Supports meaningfulness of social interactions by enacting cultural scripts and roles Serves self-improvement and personal growth
Applications of Cool Strategies
Cool strategies Designing environment to avoid temptations Practicing mindful attention Tricking ourselves into thinking temptation is not valued
Influence of Gender on the Self-Concept Men and women are much more similar to one another than they are different (Hyde, 2005).
Differences are exaggerated and imagined. Differences are assumed to be biological but are culturally based. Gendered behavior is learned by being told what is appropriate.
Reciprocity is seen in humans and nonhuman animals. Often used to induce compliance Often plays a role in negotiations
Door-in-the-face effect: A phenomenon whereby people are more likely to comply with a moderate request after they have first been presented with and refused to agree to a much larger request
Social Comparison Theory People come to know themselves partly by comparing themselves with similar others (Festinger, 1954).
Downward comparison. Comparing oneself with those who are worse off. Upward comparison. Comparing oneself with those who are better off.
Dissonance Paradigms, Part 1 Spreading the alternatives. After a choice is made, people emphasize the positive characteristics of the chosen alternative and the negative aspects of the rejected alternative.
Free choice paradigm: A laboratory situation in which people make a choice between two alternatives, after which attraction to the alternatives is assessed Cope by spreading the alternatives
Why Do We Obey?
Innate predisposition to obey authority Learning experiences: We are socialized to obey authority. Gradual increases in obedience Self-perception theory Cognitive dissonance theory Difficulty in defying a legitimate authority
Self-Awareness Promotes Behaving in Line with Internal Standards
Internalized attitudes, values, and goals guide behavior only to the extent that people are self-aware. Attitudes and behaviors do not always line up (mirror research) Self-awareness helps to bring behavior in line with cultural morals and values.
Self-Determination Consequences Self-determined people are more creative, happier, and more satisfied across a wide variety of domains. Law students (Sheldon & Krieger, 2007)
Locus of control: The extent to which a person believes that either internal or external factors determine life outcomes
Gender differences in behavior, personality, and self-definition related to:
Long history of role distribution between the sexes Error-prone assumptions that those roles are essential to men and women's natures
Social Contagion The phenomenon whereby ideas, feelings, and behaviors seem to spread across people like wildfire
Many behaviors are socially contagious Yawns, Laughter, Applause, Obesity, Mass psychogenic illness
Ironic processing (Wegner, 1994): The more we try not to think about something, the more those thoughts enter our mind and distract us from other things.
Mental processes used to control thoughts Monitor. Mental process that is on the lookout for signs of unwanted thoughts. Operator. Mental process that actively pushes any signs of the unwanted thoughts out of consciousness. Rebound effect
Minimal Deterrence: Advice for Parenting
Minimal deterrence: Use of the minimal level of external justification necessary to deter unwanted behavior
How Minorities Exert Their Influence, Part 2 Martin and colleagues (2007) Minorities influence via thoughtful processing; tends to lead to private attitude change that guides behavior Majorities influence via automatic processing; tends to be more superficial, shorter lasting, and less influential in guiding behavior
Minority slowness effect: Occurs when people who hold the minority position take longer to express their opinions
Using the Self to Know One's Feelings Two-factor theory of emotion: People's emotions are the product of both their arousal level and how they interpret that arousal based on contextual cues. Emotion = Arousal × Cognitive level
Misattribution of arousal: Inadvertent ascription of arousal resulting from one source to a different source
Self-Perception and Commitment
Norm for social commitment: A belief whereby once people make a public agreement, they tend to stick to it, even if circumstances change Lowballing: Occurs when, after agreeing to an offer, people find it hard to break that commitment, even if they later learn of some extra cost to the deal
When Is Minority Influence Strong?
On matters of opinion, rather than fact When the minority is self-confident and consistent When the minority presentation style is flexible and open-minded When it achieves defection from the majority When people identify with the person attempting to persuade them toward the minority opinion
People can fall into depression by persistent self-focus on an unattainable goal. Sometimes it is better to shift goals; shifting from concrete to abstract goals can often help. Some goals are hard to abandon.
Optimal well-being requires a balance between self-focused pursuit of some goals and a relinquishment of goals beyond one's means. Self-regulatory preservation theory of depression
The Overjustification Effect: Undermining Intrinsic Motivation
Overjustification effect The tendency for salient rewards or threats to lead people to attribute the reason, or justification, for engaging in an activity to an external factor, which thereby undermines their intrinsic motivation for and enjoyment of the activity Occurs only if external incentive viewed as reason for behavior
Self-Evaluation Maintenance Model
People adjust their perceived similarity to successful others to minimize threatening comparisons and maximize self-esteem-supporting identifications.
Self-Regulatory Challenges Delay of gratification task research Performance on a delay of gratification task at age four predicts a variety of indicators of self-regulatory success up to 30 years later.
People also differ in their consideration of future consequences.
Social learning theory
People are encouraged or discouraged to engage in both new and known behaviors Depending on the consequences of the action, if the behavior fits motivational state of observer, or if observer identifies with the model
Self as independent or interdependent Social identity theory:
People define and value themselves largely in terms of the social groups with which they identify (Tajfel & Turner, 1979)
Self-Perception Theory The basic idea of self-perception is that we often lack a strong internal feeling about who we are or how we feel, so we look to our own behavior to make inferences about what we are like.
People form impressions of themselves by observing their own behavior and the situation in which it occurs (Bem, 1965). For example, people use their movements to know themselves. Facial feedback hypothesis. The idea that changes in facial expression elicit emotions associated with those expressions.
The Chameleon Effect Tendency to mimic unconsciously the nonverbal mannerisms of someone with whom you are interacting Is not limited to causal, nonverbal behavior
People shift their attitudes toward what they think another person's opinions might be, especially when they like or are motivated to get along with that person.
Errors of Self-Perception Humans are not good at accurately judging how situations influence thought and behaviors. Overestimating effect Underestimating effect
Perceptions are based on an imperfect inference process.
Obedience to Authority Obedience: Any action engaged in to fulfill the direct order or command of another person
Pressure to obey is direct and explicit Involves commands and is common form of social influence Sometimes essential to preserve societal health and functioning (e.g., social distancing and 2020 COVID-19)
Maintaining and Defending Self-Esteem, Part 2
Projection: Assigning to others those traits that people fear they possess themselves Symbolic self-completion: Compensating when a self-defining aspect is threatened by acquiring and displaying symbols that support their desired self-definition Compensation: Shoring up an overall sense of self-worth by bolstering success in an unrelated domain after a self-esteem blow occurs in one domain
Conformity, Part 2
Public compliance: Conforming only outwardly to fit in with a group, without changing private beliefs Private acceptance: Conforming by altering private beliefs as well as public behavior Informational influence: Occurs when others are used as a source of information about the world
How Can You Maximize Self-Growth?
Pursue goals that support core needs, Get into the zone (flow), Challenge versus threat, Foster a positive mood, Act mindfully, Expand your mind and explore the world, Feel challenged rather than threatened
Motives for Growth and Self-Expansion Ideas about self-growth toward optimal fulfillment of one's potential have a long history from early Greek philosophers to modern times.
Rank (1932/1989): Life force strives for the establishment of a unique self contained inside each person. Erikson (1959/1963): Person progresses through eight stages of growth Rogers (1961): People are motivated to expand/enrich the self, but conformity to societal expectations may derail this process. Maslow (1970): All humans are motivated toward self-actualization.
Mindlessness Many daily routines and tasks are scripted (autopilot) Once these scripts are set in motion, we sometimes fail to stop and think about whether or not our actions are actually reasonable. Specific requests can break automatic tendencies.
Recycling mindlessness to enhance sustainability Break mindless reliance on familiar categories. Accept that people can create conditions and opportunities in mindless conditions Design environments that make recycling less cognitively taxing
Errors in Reflected Appraisals Which view is more accurate? Accuracy depends on traits Internal versus external characteristics
Reflected appraisals: What we think other people think of us; as compared with actual appraisals Gap between reflected and actual appraisals may be due to distortion in feedback from others Reduced with recognition of unrealistic self-perceptions of personality
Social proof: A tendency to conform to what we believe respected others think and do
Scarcity: People have a (potentially innate) preference for anything in short supply.
Maintaining and Defending Self-Esteem, Part 3
Self-affirmation theory: Responding less defensively to threats to an aspect of oneself if one thinks about another valued aspect of oneself Social comparison and identification: Comparing self with others who are superior or inferior Basking in reflected glory: Affiliating with successful others to bolster self-esteem
The Role of Self-Awareness in Self-Regulation Awareness of self increases self-regulation.
Self-awareness theory (Duval & Wicklund, 1972) Self-awareness highlights the gap between what one is doing and what one should/could be doing. Strategies for coping with negative discrepancy include distraction from self-focus and commitment to do better.
According to self-awareness theory, an internal focus of attention leads relevant standards to become salient. If a discrepancy is perceived when comparing one's current state to the standard, negative affect results and motivates the person to either reduce the discrepancy or escape self-focus.
Self-awareness theory. The theory that aspects of the self—one's attitudes, values, and goals—will be most likely to influence behavior when attention is focused on the self.
If the shortcoming is given a behavioral attribution, people feel guilty; if given a dispositional attribution, people conclude they are bad people.
Self-discrepancy theory: People feel anxiety when they fall short of how they ought to be but feel sad when they fall short of how they ideally want to be (Higgins, 1989). Ought self Ideal self
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Self-Esteem
Self-esteem cannot be easily granted. Unstable or low self-esteem may be linked to psychological problems. Cultural worldviews influence self-esteem in many ways. Striving for self-esteem can have constructive or destructive consequences.
Maintaining and Defending Self-Esteem, Part 1 Self-serving attributions: Taking credit for successes and blaming situations for failures
Self-handicapping: Placing obstacles in way of personal success to protect from future failure Better-than-average effect: Believing that personal shortcomings are common and strengths are unique
Compliance: The Art and Science of Getting What You Want
Self-perception and commitment Bem's self-perception theory: Once we freely engage in a behavior, we often infer (i.e., adopt) attitudes that are consistent with that behavior (Bem, 1967). Foot-in-the-door effect: A phenomenon whereby people are more likely to comply with a moderate request after having initially complied with a smaller request
Self-Consistency at the Macro Level: Sustaining a Self as a Unified Whole Most people prefer a clearly defined, internally consistent, and temporally stable sense of self (self-concept clarity; Campbell, 1990). Self-verification Self-complexity
Self-verification. Seeking out other people and social situations that support the way one views oneself in order to sustain a consistent and clear self-concept. Self-complexity. The extent to which an individual's self-concept consists of many different aspects.
Why Do People Need Self-Esteem?
Serves as anxiety buffer that allows people to face threats with minimized anxiety over course of development Maximizes social status and indicates how much one is accepted by other people (sociometer model; Leary and colleagues, 1995)
Construal level theory: People focus more on concrete details when thinking about the near future and focus more on abstract meaning when thinking about the distant future.
Short run: pragmatic concerns matter Long run: abstract concerns matter
The Dramaturgical Perspective Performing and self-presentation help to accomplish goals that are important in a particular social situation.
Sincere performances Well-practiced scripts Cynical performances Conscious attempts to perform in a certain way to make a particular impression
Harmful Media-Inspired Social Learning Social learning is generally adaptive.
Some downsides Media portrayals of celebrity suicides are associated with subsequent increases in suicides and car accidents among the general public. Feature films can also inspire unfortunate examples of social learning. The Deer Hunter The Program
People Use Others' Appraisals To Know their own attributes, to evaluate themselves, to judge their actions as good or bad
Symbolic interactionism Looking-glass self Appraisals
Self-Regulation A set of processes for guiding one's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors to reach desired goals
The ability to self-regulate is based on three key capacities of the human mind that emerged with the evolution of the human cortex Self-awareness Goal-setting Mental time travel
Cognitive Dissonance Theory, Part 2 People feel dissonance primarily when the inconsistent cognitions are salient or highly accessible to consciousness.
The aroused dissonance level depends on several factors Weak external justification Perceived choice Commitment Foreseeable aversive consequences Cultural influences
Chapter 7 Introduction to Social Influence
The effects of other people on an individual's beliefs, attitudes, values, or behavior Social learning: Capacity to learn from observing others Mirror neurons: Activated both when one does an action oneself and when one simply observes another person perform that action Self-efficacy: Believing you can do something
Working self-concept
The portion of one's self-schema that is currently activated and strongly influences thoughts, feelings, and action
Minority Influence
The process by which dissenters (or numerical minorities) produce attitude change within a group, despite the extraordinary risk of social rejection and disturbance of the status quo
Minimizing Ironic Processing
There are two basic ways to minimize ironic processing Minimizing distraction, stress, and time urgency when regulating thoughts and behavior Disengaging from effortful control when cognitive strain is present Paradoxical intervention
Affective Forecasting Predicting one's emotional reactions to potential future events
These predictions are often inaccurate. The predictions often overestimate the impact of a salient factor (e.g., winning the lottery). Affective forecasting affects our behaviors.
What Personality and Situational Variables Influence Conformity? Little is known about the personality characteristics of those who tend to conform as opposed to those who do not.
Those who are less likely to conform tend to have A high need to achieve A propensity to be leaders Greater self-awareness High self-esteem
Induced hypocrisy paradigm: Participants are asked to advocate an opinion they already believe in, but then are reminded about a time when their actions ran counter to that opinion, thereby arousing dissonance.
Used to promote Water and resource conservation Safe driving Exercising; other health-protecting behaviors Volunteering
Self-Compassion
Three elements of self-compassion Self-kindness Recognition that everyone fails or makes mistakes on occasion Mindfulness
Self-Esteem Motive: Establishing and Defending One's Value Self-esteem: The level of positive feeling one has about oneself
Trait self-esteem versus. state self-esteem Sources of self-esteem Genetics, inherited traits Reflected appraisals, social comparisons Cultural-based standards
Chapter 6 Four Self-Related Motives That Guide Human Behavior Across Cultures and Historical Periods
We want to view ourselves as a coherent whole. We want to see ourselves in a positive light. We want to control how others perceive us. We want to grow, learn, and improve.
Neural Processes Associated with Conformity
When participants conformed to the opinions of others, the areas of the brain implicated in spatial perception and mental rotation (the occipital-parietal areas) were more active.
Effort Justification When people chose an action that results in negative consequences, they experience dissonance because of their choice.
When the action is irreversible, dissonance reduction may occur, when people convince themselves that the negative consequences were meaningful. Severe initiation group participation Young child effort to earn rewards Psychotherapy outcomes
Factors Affecting Obedience, Part 1 Distance and legitimacy are two important factors that influence obedience. When the "teacher" is the "learner," the rate of obedience is higher.
When the experimenter is removed from the teacher, the rate of obedience is lower. When the authority is seen as being more legitimate, the rate of obedience is higher.
Anticipating Your Questions
Women show the same obedience as men. People from different cultures show similar obedience. There are few personality/demographic differences in who obeys. Submissive attitudes, education Institutional review boards have ethical concerns regarding replication, but some variations suggest same rate of obedience today as in Milgram's time.
The Social Construction of Reality Cultural worldview is internalized during childhood, reinforced with maturity, and becomes a profound form of social influence. Culturally defined social situations Culturally defined social roles
Zimbardo's Stanford Prison experiment demonstrated power of role More recent research shows adoption of role-consistent behavior related to internalization of social role identity
