PSYCH 137J Self and Identity Midterm

current trends in the study of the self

- Back to a more social view of the self - Experimentation to examine social influences on the self - Social neuroscience techniques

20th century

- Behaviorist movement (1915-1955) - Behaviorism 1. Only phenomenon that can be concretely measured are suitable for scientific analysis (positivism) 2. Thoughts play no role in directing behavior (mechanism); Direct S-R links; Thoughts are epiphenomenal - 1950s: self was "dead" in psychological theory - 1970s and 1980s: resurgence of interest in the self 1. Cognitive revolution 2. Relied heavily on empirical methods 3. Quantitative data

adjustment to breast cancer (Wood, Taylor, and Lichtman, 1985)

- Downward comparisons may help victims cope with their diagnosis and treatment and feel less victimized

three motives shape our search for self-knowledge

1. Appraisal motive (weakest motive): looking for the truth about oneself, open minded curiosity 2. Self-enhancement motive (strongest motive): looking for flattering aspects of oneself, desire to learn favorable or flattering things about ourselves makes us biased 3. Consistency motive (second preference): looking for confirmation about current beliefs about oneself, we want to verify what we believe to be true about ourselves

strategies of self-verification

1. Developing an Opportunity Structure a. Displaying signs and symbols b. Selective interaction c. Interpersonal prompts 2. Seeing More Self-Confirmatory Evidence than Exists a. Attention b. Encoding/Retrieval c. Interpretation i. we pay more attention, easier to retrieve/encode information that confirms our beliefs about ourselves ii. we see interpretations as more valid with information that confirms our beliefs about ourselves

self-verification theory

1. Stable self views provide the individual with a sense of coherence 2. People think and behave in ways that promote the survival of their self-conceptions - even if their self-views are negative

is self-enhancement universal?

1. Westerners tend to self-enhance significantly more than East Asians 2. Example: False uniqueness effect - belief that one's talents are unique a. Exhibited among Americans b. Not among Japanese - Heine: a. People universally have a desire to be viewed as appropriate, good, and significant in their own culture. b. However, this common underlying motivation may be expressed in Western contexts as a desire for self-esteem and in East Asian cultural contexts as a desire for maintaining face. c. Face = having significant others believe that they are meeting the consensual standards associated with their roles.

four positions

Aristotle and the Spiritualists, Locke, Hume, and James

constructive model of the self

personality: what we are really like and situation: motives and social context --> self --> behavior

self-perception

- Self-perception theory 1. When they are uncertain about their attitudes and feelings, people observe their own behavior to infer what they are thinking and how they are feeling. 2. "To the extent that internal cues are weak, ambiguous, or uninterpretable, the individual is functionally in the same position as an outside observer, an observer who must necessarily rely upon those same external cues to infer the individual's inner states." (Bem, 1972) - The overjustification effect 1. Tendency for intrinsic motivation to diminish for activities that have become associated with rewards 1. undermines their own intrinsic motivation that they enjoy this task in making them do it for this external reward a. Ex. Not as fun to play basketball if you're doing it for money We know ourselves better on things that are not as observable

know thyself (Wilson, 2009)

- "Self-knowledge is less a matter of careful introspection than of becoming an excellent observer of oneself and deducing the nature of one's nonconscious dispositions and preferences." - Wilson argues that it's still worthwhile to try to understand the self better because there is evidence that having discrepant explicit and implicit self-dimensions is associated with numerous negative consequences 1. Combination of High explicit self-esteem and low implicit self-esteem is associated with narcissism, with unstable, fragile view of the self and greater self-enhancement tendencies (Bosson et. al.)

looking outside: the looking glass self

- "The looking-glass self" (Cooley, 1902): Other people's reactions to us (their approval or disapproval) can serve as a mirror. - This involves a 3-step process: 1. Imagine how you appear to others 2. Imagine how others will judge you 3. Develop an emotional response as a result of imagining how others will judge you - Reflected self-appraisal 1. A belief about what others think of one's social self - We internalize how we think others see us - But discrepancies exist between the view of self and others' views 1. Why doesn't the looking-glass self work better? If I ask you to describe yourself and then asked all your friends and acquaintances to describe you, why would there be so many differences? 2. 2 Reasons: a. People are reluctant to communicate negative feedback u 2. People are reluctant to receive negative feedback - Should we use others to revise our self-theories? 1. actual appraisals (what other people really think we are like) --> perceived appraisals (what we think other people think we are like) --> <-- self-appraisals (what we think we are like)

self-schemas and judgements of others

- Classic Study: Fong and Markus (1982) 1. 3 groups: extravert-schematics vs. Introvert-schematics vs. aschematics 2. Subjects were asked to interview another person 3. Subjects selected more schema-related questions to ask and were more confident when rating person on schema- relevant traits. 4. Schematics are "experts" in their domain.

when does reflective self-awareness (self-consciousness begin)?

- Between 16 and 24 months of age, children first exhibit clear evidence of reflective self- awareness - the ability to represent and reflect on themselves as independent, objective entities (self- consciousness) 1. recognize themselves in mirrors 2. refer to themselves by name 3. point to themselves referentially 4. express self-conscious emotions

eye gaze and social robots (Meltzoff et al., 2010)

- 18 month old babies - Only followed the gaze of "social" robots. - Social robots were seen as sentient - Suggests how we come to believe that other beings have self- awareness i. Witness a robot communicate with and imitate an adult would lead infants to treat the robot as a psychological agent who can perceive, which they measured by an increased likelihood of following the robot's gaze ii. Robot would act like a baby and imitate the adult iii. The babies were then left alone with the robot iv. Do babies follow the gaze of the robot when the robot looks at a toy? 1. They think the robot looks like a human if they follow the gaze of the robot 2. In comparison to a robot who doesn't imitate an adult, they followed the gaze of the social robots that were imitating an adult 3. They have to do things that are the essence of being a human in order for babies to look at where they're looking

functions of autobiographical memory

- 3 Functions of Autobiographical Memory: (Williams, Conway, & Cohen, 2008) 1. Self-Directive Function: a. Using the past to guide thought and behavior 2. Self-Representative Function: a. creating a sense of identity and continuity 3. Social Function: a. developing, maintaining, and nurturing relationships

James (1842 - 1910)

- 3 components of the self (empirical self): material self, social self, and spiritual self - He was among the first to examine self-esteem - A uniform feeling of 'warmth' ... pervades [our various selves] and this is what gives them a generic unity, and what makes them the same kind. ... where the resemblance and the continuity are no longer felt, the sense of personal identity goes too. (p. 335) a. Example: Capgras Syndrome 1. people with brain damage to connections in their brain that recognizes objects with amygdala (emotions), they assume this person is an imposter when they see them physically (damage from visual cortex to amygdala) but they can hear their family members and recognize them just fine because there is no damage from auditory cortex to amygdala 2. What makes it ours is the feeling attached to it - Identity is not a substance - There is a middle ground in terms of that we feel there is a core self

James's identity importance

- According to James, the spiritual self is the most important, the bodily self is the least important, and the social self and material self are in the middle. - Individualistic cultures emphasize personal (spiritual self) identities - Collectivistic cultures emphasize social identities a. Cousins (1989): Americans described themselves in terms of their personal identities, but Japanese were more likely to mention social identities - If in a Western culture, will pick traits that are most unique 1. Ex. If in a room full of men, a woman will describe herself as a female always - Americans were likely to say personal identities whereas Japanese were more likely to mention their social identities - James's view is Western/individualistic view because he put personal identity as being most important

responding to self-evaluative threats

- Alter closeness of the relationship - Devalue domain (reduce its relevance) - Affect the other person's performance

four positions summary

- Aristotle and the Spiritualists: humans alone possess an immaterial soul that provides our sense of personal identity - Locke: identity is a psychological phenomena, tied to memories which are stored in the throat - Hume: identity is a fiction, we are fooled into thinking something unites our various perceptions, but the unity is illusory - James: identity is a psychological phenomena, derived from a feeling that accompanies all of our perceptions, thoughts, and experiences

proprioceptive feedback

- As early as 3-5 months of age, infants are aware of the contingency between visual and proprioceptive feedback from their body movements (Rochat, 1998) - Infants looked longer at prerecorded, noncontingent displays of their leg movements than at contingent displays of their legs i. Noncontingent - something that didn't match their movement, contingent - something that does match their movement - Infants as young as 4 months old looked and smiled more at videotaped images of a mimicking other than at images of themselves. i. Infants are integrating this information about their movements to create this implicit (unconscious) representation of their bodies ii. Like to look at someone imitating their behavior and they look at it longer than a picture of themselves iii. Children like to look at novel things for longer periods of time

when do we assimilate?

- Assimilation effects: People assimilate to the qualities of those who surround them when they feel psychologically close them 1. Celebrities: Why do I tell people that I went to college with Brad Pitt even though I never actually saw him there? 2. Birthday Study a. Manipulating perceived closeness changed default tendency from contrast to assimilation

associative network models of the self

- Associative network models propose that trait knowledge about the self consists of summary trait representations that are linked in memory to the behavioral exemplars from which they have been abstracted ex. won the school spelling bee and won the chess tournament --> I am smart

development of self-awareness

- At what age can infants visually identify themselves u Modifying Gallup's research with chimpanzees, - Lewis and Brooks-Gunn found ... 1. 9 to 12 months of age: self-recognition with contingency cues 2. 15-18 months: Facial recognition with facial mark test 3. 18-21: Self-identification from photographs; use of personal pronouns i. Treat themselves as a playmate withdraw recognition ii. 21-24 mo. in which babies recognize themselves

autobiographical memory

- Autobiographical Memory: 1. Episodic - memories about events vs. Semantic Memory - facts 2. Compare 3 models: Independence, Heirarchical, Computational - Describe each model and research support for Independence a. Question: Do we store semantic knowledge or compute it as we go? - For example, if I ask you whether you are a good friend is this stored in memory or do you retrieve episodic memories at that moment to make this determination? 3. 3 Functions of Autobiographical Memory: Directive, Social, Self-defining 4. Research and Case studies - what do they tell us about memory and the self in more general terms?

self-knowledge and the duplex mind

- Automatic egotism: response by automatic system 1. Everything good is me; everything bad is not me - 1. Automatic system favors self-enhancement motive 2. Modesty requires conscious deliberate control, overcome this automatic impulse to feel good about oneself Modesty: conscious override of automatic egotism 1. Overcome impulse to offer a more humble account 1. Automatic system favors self-enhancement motive 2. Modesty requires conscious deliberate control, overcome this automatic impulse to feel good about oneself

the illusions of consciousness will

- Conscious will is experienced when we draw the inference that our thought has caused our action—whether or not this inference is correct. - When a thought appears in consciousness just before an action (priority), is consistent with the action (consistency) and - is not accompanied by conspicuous alternative causes of the action (exclusivity) we experience conscious will and ascribe authorship to ourselves for the action. (p. 67) i. Illusion that we have free will

Locke (1632 - 1704)

- Distinguish man from person a. Man = physical aspects of existence (bronze); b. person = personal identity (statue) - Self-awareness and perspective-taking a. Personal identity involves an ability to take ourselves as an object of our own attention - Memory a. Identity is a psychological phenomena that depends on episodic memory; if episodic memory goes, identity goes, too. b. Believed personal memories reside in the throat - Self-awareness is what makes us human, time travel - go from past, present, and future - Identity is equivalent to our episodic memories - If you take a person's memories away, you take your self away - No core self, could be something there, in the middle, its about your memories

different forms of memory

- Episodic Memory: autobiographical memory for the events and experiences of one's past; always involves some reference to the self (e.g. "I bought tomatoes at the farmer's market yesterday."). 1. Personal Ownership of these memories is also important to our sense of self (Klein, 2002) - Semantic Memory: generic, context-free knowledge about the world; does not have to reference the self (e.g. Paris is in France), but it can (e.g. "I am a Social Psychologist.").

problem of personal identity

- Even if we believe it is an illusion, something makes us believe we have a sense of self - Whether there is a core self that binds our perceptions, thoughts, and feelings

Sandra Murray et. al 2002

- Experimentally induced perceived relationship threat in dating couple - Examined response as a function of self-esteem - Participants were led to believe that their partner perceived a problem in their relationship. They then measured their self-esteem and their perceptions of the partner's acceptance, partner enhancement, and closeness. - participants were led to believe that their partner was spending an excessive amount of time listing qualities in the target that their partner disliked. They did this by giving the participant a one-page questionnaire that asked them to list important aspects of their partner's character that they disliked. The instructions also stated that participants should not list any more than one such quality. Although the targets were led to believe that their partner received the identical questionnaire, the partner actually received a questionnaire that asked them to list as many of the items in their dorm that they could generate. This caused participants to wait anxiously for their partners to finish. - For couples in the control condition, target and partner participants both received the one-page questionnaire that asked them to list important aspects of their partner's character that they disliked. As a result, target participants in the control condition finished the task at the same time as their partner (and thus had no reason to believe that their partner perceived a troubling number of faults in them). - low self-esteem participants in the experimental condition evaluated their partner much more negatively than did low self-esteem controls, whereas high self-esteem participants rated their partners positively in both conditions. So basically low self-esteem participants try to minimize the anticipated hurt of rejection by describing their partner more negatively, whereas those with high self-esteem respond differently to threat and still perceive their partner positively. - High self-esteem participants affirm their relationship in the face of difficulties even when they become more acutely aware of the risk of rejection. - Only low self-esteem participants, however, allowed these acute concerns about rejection to contaminate their perceptions of themselves and their relationship

infants and eye contact

- Eye Contact: contributes to 4 key Components of Social Cognition: 1. Language learning 2. Learning Emotions 3. Imitative learning and goal-directed human acts (understanding intentions) 4. Understanding others' preferences and desires i. We learn about the world by observing others ii. Line of regard - what you are looking at, if you say car and you're looking at the car, they can learn language as symbols, assists in learning the names of things iii. Learning emotions - when a person looks sad or scared, can look at line of regard and see what they're surprised about iv. Imitative learning and goal directed human acts - goal directed acts are visually guided v. Understanding others' preferences and desires - what do they look at vi. Autistic people tend to have difficulty having eye contact with others so they have problems with learning emotions, language learning, understanding others' preferences and desires, imitative learning and goal-directed human acts vii. Instances of shared attention which promote their language skills

the mirror test: a test of self-consciousness

- Gallup's Research on Mirror Recognition 1. Initial reactionu After ~10 days exposure (w/out training) 2. Red Dye Test 3. Importance of social interaction - False Negatives 1. Vision might not be the primary sensory modality of recognition in that species (i.e., could use chemical cues) 2. An individual might recognize self, but fail to give a behavioral response 3. Some species or individuals tend to avoid eye contact with same-sex conspecifics, because it is a threatening gesture - these individuals are hesitant about gazing directly into a mirror i. A test of self-awareness ii. Self-directed responses to the marked spot in mirror significantly increased compared to control condition iii. Grade A monkeys can recognize themselves in mirrors, then dolphins

Why are psychologists interested in the self?

- How we behave and interact with others depends a lot on how we see ourselves Ex. If I am an insecure person, I might interpret another person's ambiguous behavior like not smiling when I wave at them as hostility towards me - The self is a filter which affects all of our thoughts and behaviors. It's critical to understand the self in order to understand human psychology and behavior.

can the self-concept change?

- Identity slowly changes over time 1. Children add new knowledge and skills 2. Adults take up new hobbies or break bad habits u Our body changes throughout our life - Revising self-knowledge 1. Change how you think of yourself or change your behavior and a change in self-concept will follow - Changing the looking glass 1. What goes on inside the person is mainly there to serve interpersonal processes iv. Promoting change 1. Best to enlist support v. New self, new story 1. People tend to revise their stories once the self-concept has changed (Ross, 1989) 1. more likely to change self-concept when social environment changes (meeting new people or moving somewhere new) 2. other people/new environments are critical to change yourself 3. best to enlist support - AA meetings are so successful because there is a social reinforcement in this change in yourself 4. new self, new story a. people assume they are worse off than they actually were b. people revise their story to whatever theory they have on themselves

self-concept: a theory about the self

- Our self views shape the way we view the world - "I submit that the self-concept is a self-theory. It is a theory that the individual has unwittingly constructed about himself as an experiencing, functioning individual... Like most theories, the self-theory is a conceptual tool for accomplishing a purpose. [One of these purposes] is to organize the data of experience in a manner that can be coped with effectively." (Epstein, 1973) - Self-concept = our collection of self-knowledge stored in memory - Thoughts, beliefs, and memories of the self become organized and linked together in an associative network.

self-concept clarity

- In addition to how complex our schemas are, some are more or less well articulated - a. People who are more certain about themselves are happier and will not change as much as people who are less certain about themselves b. Young people aren't supposed to be certain in all aspects of yourself The Self-Concept Clarity scale (SCC) measures "the extent to which self-beliefs are clearly and confidently defined, internally consistent, and stable." 1. LOW SCORERS tend to have lower self- esteem, ruminate more, and their self- descriptions are less stable over time. 2. HIGH SCORERS tend to have higher self- esteem, more consistent self-descriptions, and less chronic self-analysis. a. People who are more certain about themselves are happier and will not change as much as people who are less certain about themselves b. Young people aren't supposed to be certain in all aspects of yourself

consciousness and free will

- Is behavior reflexive and determined or freely chosen and willed? - Most lay people believe in free will, but many psychologists do not 1. Absolute materialism 2. Behaviorism 3. Freud i. Hard deterministic approach - all behavior has a cause and is thus predictable, free will is an illusion, our behaviors are governed by external factors which we don't have control over ii. Most people believe that we have free will iii. Soft deterministic approach - middle ground that people do have a choice, but choices are constrained by internal and external factors iv. Absolute materialism - hard deterministic, human choices are a function of brain activity and brain activity is constrained by natural laws, predetermined v. Behaviorism - hard deterministic, no free will, our behaviors are determined by the events in our past vi. Freud - our actions and thoughts are controlled by the unconscious but goal of therapy is to overcome that force, he is in the middle because he thinks we have the power to turn unconscious into conscious

evolution of consciousness

- Julian Jaynes: consciousness is a recent cultural development (~ 3,000 years old) -- a story we pass on to our children 1. Early people believed their thoughts were the voices of gods or demons speaking to them 2. Some psychologically disturbed people still do 3. cultural explosion during Axial Age (500 BC) - philosophy, science, & government - A belief in consciousness facilitates our ability to plan, modify, and delay, but it's learned, not innate i. Ancient writers describe them as behaving in a way without any motives, desires, or causality 1000 BC there are writings with causality

self as both blessing and curse

- Leary: the Self is the mental apparatus that allows people to think consciously about themselves, but it's learned not innate - This leads to 5 important consequences: 1. Planning - requires mental time travel 2. Decision Making and Self-Control - we can override our automatic impulses 3. Self-Conceptualization and Evaluation - create mental representation of self and evaluate ourselves 4. Introspection - we can think about our own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors 5. Perspective-Taking - emerges at same time as self-awareness a. Deception in chimps - they pretend they don't see the food because they don't want another chimp to see the food - Thinking about the self is experienced an inner voice iv. Curse of Inner Voice: Self-Preoccupation u Distraction from real life 1. Choking under Pressure 2. Interferes with Intuition 3. Insomnia 4. Sexual dysfunction 5. Interrupts flow and spontaneity

Tesser's password study (Tesser and Smith, 1980)

- Male subjects came to session with friend (closeness = high) - Relevance manipulation 1. Told game measures important verbal skills (high) 2. Told game was not related to anything of importance (low) - Game rigged so that participant performs poorly - How will participants respond when it's their turn to give clues to their friend versus a stranger?

narratives and well-being

- McAdams et. al. (2001) looked at n arratives of both midlife adults (age 30-65) and college students (age 18-22) - Midlife adults: higher generativity was associated with more redemptive sequences and less contamination sequences - Both samples: redemption was a stronger predictor of well- being than ratings of the overall affective quality of life- narrative accounts 1. Positively predicted self-esteem, life satisfaction, sense of coherence and negatively predicted depression - Contamination narratives predicted low levels of well-being (for both samples) and generativity (midlife adults) 1. Generativity - adult's concern for promoting wellbeing in future generations, leaving a positive legacy for the future and contributing to society to make it a better place 2. Turned your suffering into something great predicts life satisfaction and not associated with depression

a narrative approach to the self

- McAdams' Life Story Inventory: 1. I would like you to begin by thinking about your life as if it were a book. Each part of your life composes a chapter in the book. Certainly, the book is unfinished at this point; still, it probably already contains a few interesting and well-defined chapters. 2. Please divide your life into its major chapters and briefly describe each chapter. You may have as many or as few chapters as you like, but I would suggest dividing it into at least two or three chapters and at most about seven or eight. Think of this as a general table of contents for your book. Give each chapter a name and describe the overall contents of each chapter. Discuss briefly what makes for a transition from one chapter to the next. You should keep this section relatively brief. Therefore, you don't want to tell me "the whole story" here - just give me a sense of the story's outline the major chapters in your life.

mirror neurons

- Mirror neuron: fires when an animal acts & when the animal observes the same action performed - Neuron "mirrors" behavior of another animal, as though the observer were itself acting - Mirror neuron theory of self: 1. Self awareness is simply using mirror neurons for "looking at myself as if someone else is looking at me" 2. The mirror neuron mechanism that originally evolved to help you adopt another's point of view was turned inward to look at your own self.

the role of object permanence

- Object permanence: the awareness that objects continue to exist even when they are no longer visible - Typically achieved at eight to nine months of age, during the sensorimotor stage of cognitive development (Piaget) - Just as infants come to understand that objects and other people endure over time and space, so too do they come to learn that the self has the quality of permanence. i. They can begin to understand that the self endures over time and space

personal narratives

- Our memories and experiences are organized in the form of a story - becomes a personal narrative or life story - Dan McAdams: Leading researcher in this area; argues that these life stories allow people to derive meaning and make sense of their lives

self-awareness vs. other-awareness (Uddin, 2007)

- Overlap between areas involved in self- recognition and mirror-neuron areas - Self-recognition engages mirror-neuron areas in right hemisphere - Significant overlap between self-recognition tasks and imitation and action observation tasks in frontal and parietal areas. 1. Physical Self: right, frontal and parietal areas 2. Abstract, Evaluative Self: cortical midline structures (DMN or default mode network)

social psychological aspects of self (Johnson, et al 2002)

- Participants answered yes/no questions in two conditions: 1. Self-Reflection: 'I get angry easily' and 'I'm a good friend' 2. General Knowledge: 'Ten seconds is more than a minute' and 'You need water to live'. - Results: Medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) are active during self-reflective thought (part of Default Mode Network or DMN)

social context: assimilation vs. contrast

- People are not always free to choose targets of comparison u Comparisons are often thrust upon us - Self-perceptions depend on the social context that we're in. - Contrast effects: Most of the time, people contrast their qualities with those who surround them 1. Will a student who scores 1200 on the SAT think she is smarter if she attends Stanford (assimilation) or CSUN (contrast)? 2. Big Fish Little Pond Effect

common themes

- Redemption sequence: Transformation of personal suffering into positive-affective life scenes that serve to redeem and justify one's life - Contamination sequence: A very good or affectively positive life-narrative scene or chapter is followed by a very bad or negative outcome. The bad ruins the good that preceded it 1. Participant falls in love with woman → she rejects him 1. Redemption sequence: Americans love redemption a. transform something negative into something positive b. ex. poor to rich, oppressed to liberated, how my depression led me to my passion 2. Contamination sequence a. involves the move from something good and positive to bad and negative

self-evaluation maintenance model (Tesser, 1988)

- Reflection process - basking in the reflected glory of others - Comparison process - evaluating one's performance in light of another's - What determines the outcome of self-evaluation 1. Closeness of the other 2. Personal relevance of the domain 3. Quality of the performance

which model has the most support?

- Research on the false alarms effect suggests that we do store semantic self- knowledge. - Priming research provides considerable evidence for independence model because priming traits does not facilitate the retrieval of behavioral information (as the hierarchical model suggests) or vice versa (as the computational model suggests). - Case studies provide additional support for the independence model because amnesia reflects a failure of episodic memory that leaves semantic memory intact. 1. K.C. has no episodic memory, but has new semantic knowledge about himself

organization of self-knowledge

- Self-Complexity Theory (Linville & colleagues) 1. Self is cognitively represented in terms of multiple aspects 2. Degree of complexity in the self varies. 3. Linville: "Some people have many different self-aspects, which they keep distinct from each other. Each role these people play in life, each goal they have, each activity they engage in, has its own separate existence in their self-image. These people are high in self-complexity. Other people's self-aspects are less distinct from each other. These people are lower in self-complexity" 4. Self-complexity is defined by: a. # of different self-aspects b. degree of overlap (i.e.,distinctiveness) of self-aspects 5. High self-complexity = large # of distinct self aspects 6. Low self-complexity = small # of non-distinct self aspects - Central Hypothesis 1. Degree of self-complexity related to how people feel in response to positive and negative events related to the self 2. Low self-complexity = more extreme swings in affect & self-evaluation 3. High self-complexity can be a buffer against the effects of stress 1. Deal better with negative events if you have high self-complexity 2. Should be less overlap between selves: depends on how comfortable we are with our identities 3. If things aren't going well in one area, you have other selves to go back on

accuracy of self vs. other perceptions (Vazire, 2010)

- Self-Other Knowledge Asymmetry (SOKA) model: self-perception and other-perception differ because of both informational differences (focus on internal traits vs external behavior) and motivational differences (self-enhancement vs accuracy) - Three components: 1. We are most knowledgeable about low observability, low evaluativeness traits (neuroticism) 2. Friends are most knowledgeable about low observability, high evaluativeness traits (intelligence) 3. Everyone is knowledgeable about high observability, low evaluativeness traits (extraversion).

is self-recognition really the same as self-awareness

- Self-recognition? 1. Recognizing our physical manifestation in the world - Self-awareness 1. Knowing who we are psychologically. Knowing our nature, preferences, and tendencies. a. My trait characteristics (self-knowledge) i. Self-mentalizing (what would I do?) ii. My experience (autobiographical memory) iii. My preferences and beliefs iv. Knowing what is related to me (self-relevance) v. Accuracy? (self-insight/meta-cognition) 2. The right hemisphere may selectively participate in processes linked to self- awareness

the organization of self-knowledge

- Self-schemas (Markus, 1977) 1. A cognitive structure, derived from past experience, that represents a person's beliefs and feelings about the self in general and in specific situations 2. Self-schemas serve as the basic units of organization for self-knowledge 3. We also use our self-schemas as a reference point when judging others - Social context 1. Sense of self may shift dramatically depending on with whom we are interacting - Working self-concept 1. Subset of self-knowledge that is brought to mind in a particular context 1. Self-schemas - important things to your self-concept vs. aschematic - not important things to your self-concept 2. Responds more quickly to traits that define you than to traits that don't define you 3. Act more consistently than those that are aschematic if that is something that is self-defining for you 4. Quick to categorize other people in terms of their weight if weight is important to me (use self-schemas as a reference point when judging others)

James's material self (extended self)

- body, family, and all things owned 1. All the people, places and things that are psychologically part of who we are. 2. Evidence that possessions are part of Extended Self: a. Mere Ownership Effect (Beggan, 1992) b. Endowment Effect (Kahneman et. al., 1990) c. Name Letter Effect (Nuttin, 1987) d. Implicit Egotism (Pelham et. al., 2002)

malleability vs. stability of the self

- Sense of Self shifts according to Context - Distinctiveness Postulate (Mcguire): May highlight aspects of the self that make us feel most unique in a given context 1. Example: age seems more important to self-definition if surrounded by older people 2. Minority groups are numerically distinctive so they tend to think of themselves more in these terms. - Self is both malleable and stable at the same time 1. Self shifts according to context, but core aspects of self-knowledge always come to mind a. LGBT people think about sexual minority-identity because of constant decision about whether to disclose their status 2. Overall pool of self-knowledge remains stable over time 3. Self in different contexts conforms to predictable, stable pattern a. Outgoing with friends, insecure around critical mother but pattern is stable - American children define themselves according to how they are unique and different from their classmates 1. Distinctiveness postulate a. Ex. If surrounded by men, focuses on the fact that you're a female 3. What makes a person distinct is what's most important in identity 4. Minority groups are by definition distinct from most people in population so they think this way

historical view of the self (Baumeister, 1986)

- Shift from hunter-gatherer to farming led people to develop unique identities 1. led to relatively more stable homes 2. Ability to accrue material possessions 3. Focus on immediate needs vs. long-term goals - We are defined by our hard choices - What was predetermined 1000 yrs ago? 1. Home, education, career, marriage, religion - Evidence: self-reflection in diaries, autobiographies, novels 1. No self in hunter-gatherer times, no hard choices to make and was made for you 2. Decisions were no longer made for you 3. Choices are what defines the self and increases over time especially starting with the Industrial Revolution

Hume (1711 - 1776)

- Skeptic best known for his attack on causality - Argued that personal identity is an illusion - We are fooled into thinking there is unity to our perceptions, but there is none - Self doesn't exist - True causes of events can't be known through direct experience, can only be inferred - Causality is an illusion, about inferences - We're a bunch of isolated perceptions - No core self - Influenced by Eastern philosophers, Buddists in particular

looking at others: social comparison theory

- Social Comparison Theory: examining the difference between oneself and another person 1. Learning at what the facts mean in the context of what other people are like 2. Most useful comparisons involve people who are similar to us - Downward social comparisons involving people worse off than yourself can make you feel better - Upward social comparisons involving people better than you can make you feel worse (but they can also provide hope and inspiration) a. Someone close to you outperforms you in something you find important b. If its revelant to their intelligence, people would give clues to a stranger rather than a friend because we don't want to be outperformed in an area that is of importance to us c. We feel threatened by close others in something that you find important

happiness and social comparison

- Social comparison makes us feel inadequate and unhappy. (Lyubomirksy & Ross, 1997) 1. There's always someone with more money, more Facebook friends, a stronger body, more athletic skills, etc. 2. Happy people don't compare themselves to others, just to their own internal standards of success. 3. Growth Mindset: if we think we are flexible and can grow and change, we are more likely to see others as a source of inspiration rather than as a threat

voodoo doll study (Pronin, Wegner, McCarthy, and Rodriguez, 2006)

- Ss are asked to stick pins into a voodoo doll in the presence of another subject (who is really a confederate) 1. During the procedure the confederate either complains of having a bad headache or is fine 2. Independently, the confederate was very dislikable or likable - When the confederate complained of a headache, Ss were more likely to believe they had caused the pain when they disliked the S than when they liked him 1. When what we want to happen happens, we assume we played a role in causing it. i. The subject claimed authorship of the victim's headaches ii. Having negative thoughts about confederate they think they're causing the confederate's headache

self-recognition and the right hemisphere (Keenan, Nelson, O'Connor, and Pascual-Leone, 2001)

- Studied a group of patients undergoing the intracarotid amobarbital (Wada) test. 1. Anaesthetization (inactivation) of one cerebral hemisphere 2. Information regarding cerebral dominance. - Shown pictures of morphed faces - Pictures were presented during selective anaesthesia of the right and left hemispheres - After anaesthesia recovery, had to choose the picture of the face that they had been shown - Suggests that the anterior right hemisphere may be critically engaged in detecting the self face.

defining consciousness

- Subjective awareness of sensory experience and mental products i. Meta-awareness - heightened awareness of processes of consciousness such as thinking and feeling ii. Like the shadow of a running horse that plays no causal role in the horse running, it might accompany a brain event but itself not have any function iii. Is it that conscious attention initiates it or does it just accompany a brain event, like picking up a cup? iv. Focus on material aspects of consciousness and not worry about the philosophical questions - leading view with neuroscientists

Aristotle and the Spiritualists (324 BC - 322 BC)

- Substance a. physical properties of an entity; substance is material - Form a. the essence of an identity or its function; form is immaterial - Example: A bronze statue a. Bronze is substance, Statue is form - Personal identity resides in the soul (a spiritual [immaterial]) entity that enters the body at birth and departs upon death - Believe in a core self - Essence of a person is not their physical substance, but their form which is the soul - Dominant view for 2000 years - Something substantial unites your perceptions and gives you a core self

defining the self: I vs. me

- The "I" refers to our subjective ownership of perceptual and cognitive experience - I (self-control, thinking about the self) - me (self-concept) 1. Self-Other Differentiation 2. Self-Control 3. Sense of Personal Identity - The "ME" refers to our beliefs about what we are like 1. Self-conceptions function as schemas 2. Guide current behavioral choices 3. Motivation - strive to become a certain type of person

self-referencing

- The "armpit effect" (self-referent phenotype matching): golden hamsters used their own scent to distinguish unrelated hamsters from their biological siblings 1. Separated hamsters from kin at birth 2. Examined mating preferences at 7 weeks 3. Preferred non-kin

looking inside: introspection

- The ancient Greek admonition to "know thyself" seems to imply that self- knowledge can be acquired through introspection (examining your thoughts & feelings) 1. Privileged access to our inner processes 2. People often go beyond such basic introspective efforts to weave full- fledged stories about themselves, which James referred to as the narrated self. - Limitations of introspection 1. Development and children's views of themselves 2. People often don't realize how their minds work 3. Nisbett & Wilson (1977) found little correspondence between self-report and real reasons for behavior a. e.g. Moon-Tide study 1. Moon-tide study: primed with words like moon and ocean to choose Tide, yet they made up reasons for why they chose Tide that wasn't the real reason which was the priming & Sexy Car Ad study

the accuracy of self-knowledge

- The reliability of introspection as a method of assessment has been debated for decades 1. Sometimes we lack self-insight because of strong motives; there are certain things many of us - We don't have access to our automatic, unconscious mental processes - Introspection can yield accurate self-knowledge, at least for certain aspects of the self, but for some aspects, other people can be a better source of information 1. We may know what we think or feel, but we may not know why. 2. We are better at judging inner traits, others are better at judging external, observable ones 3. Others may be more accurate for traits that we attach a lot of value to such as intelligence iv. Introspection and Happiness: 1. Things that people believe will make them happy in life do not always do so. 2. Better to use base-rate information

Turner: who makes the self - the individual or society?

- The self: interface between inner biological processes and a sociocultural network 1. A true or real self? a. Public actions and inner feelings 2. Culture and interdependence a. Selves differ across cultures 3. Social roles a. Social systems create and define roles • Individuals seek and adopt them - Turner: cultures disagree as to whether it is public actions or inner feelings that are a real or true self 1. Ex. You think you are a coward before running through a battle but then get over the fear and rush into battle. Is it actions in front of other people or the private self, the real or true self (personal vs. social self) 2. Public actions are real self - collectivistic culture vs. inner feelings are real self - individualistic culture

ship of theseus

- Theseus was an Athenian warrior who traveled to Crete, where he defeated the Minotaur, rescued some Athenian captives, and returned to Athens. In honor of his conquest, the Athenians preserved his ship and sailed it once a year on parade. Over the years, the ship began leaking, so planks were gradually removed and replaced with new ones. Eventually, none of the original planks remained. - Does the ship retain its identity even though all of its planks have been removed and replaced? - Aristotle: Because its form never changed, the refurbished Theseus is the true Theseus

why people seek self-knowledge

- Thirst for self-knowledge: We are constantly evaluating the self 1. We ask ourselves: am I a good person?, am I smart?, am I a fast runner? 2. Evolutionary origins 1. Evolutionary origins for this are hard to establish 2. If someone challenges you and you know your strengths, then you can determine whether to fight or flight 3. To fit in the group, its good to know your strengths and weaknesses

self-other differentiation

- Typically happens by the end of the first year - Critical elements 1. Intersubjectivity -- the ability to establish a shared or mutual understanding with interaction partners (e.g., joint attention) 2. Goal conflict i. Being able to do perspective-taking is important to caring or knowing about other person ii. When they have goal conflicts, they start to understand that they're separate from other people

does the unconscious mind make better decisions?

- Unconscious Thought Theory (UTT) (Dijksterhuis and Nordgren, 2006) - Three groups 1. Immediate Choosers: Decide quickly 2. Conscious Thinkers: Think carefully and decide 3. Unconscious Thinkers: Think carefully but delay decision (i.e., 'sleep on it') - Those who make a delayed decision after deliberation expressed the greatest liking for their choice - When we have been exposed to all the information to make an informed decision, we can then rely on intuition. 1. Unconscious thinkers made the best decision

body self-awareness

- Visual self-recognition is only one aspect of self- awareness. - When do children become aware of their bodies? - Brownell et al. (2007) 1. Experimental tasks: a. Body as obstacle (shopping cart task and mat task) b. Body size (replica toys task) i. Developmental bridge between proprioceptive awareness and children's more psychological self ii. Brownell et al. 1. Body as obstacle, kid is sitting on mat and adult asks for the mat 2. Shopping cart study - in order for them to solve the problem, they have to have a sense of self and recognize that their body is blocking the cart from moving to the mom 3. Babies recognize their bodily self-awareness at 18 months old 4. They did not modify their behavior with the toys even though the size was smaller 5. Number of errors declined with the shopping cart study 6. Two distinct aspects of body self-awareness: body as an obstacle and body size (22-26 months) a. 22-26 months have a good body self-awareness and others do not and try to fit in the car that is too small for them

how do we know ourselves?

- Where did your self-knowledge come from? 1. Sometimes self-knowledge is "provided" 2. Other times self-knowledge is "sought" - Sources of Self-Knowledge 1. Social World a. Feedback from others: Reflected Appraisals b. Social Comparison: upward and downward comparisons with others - Psychological World 1. Introspection 2. Self-Perception Theory (Observation or our own behavior)

over justification effect (Lepper, Greene, and Nisbet, 1973)

- Young children come into a lab that has lots of toys including markers - Three conditions are created: 1. Expected Reward: If you play with that marker I'll give you a ribbon 2. Unexpected Reward: Some are given a ribbon after they play with the marker, but they didn't know they were going to get it ahead of time 3. No Reward: Some don't get a ribbon at all - A few weeks later they come back and can play with whatever toy they want. - Dependent variable: Time spent playing with markers - children rewarded earlier for playing with markers played with them less when no rewards were available

Nisbett and Wilson (1997) sexy car ad study

- Young men were shown car ads which emphasized best feature (good mileage, good safety record, etc.) - A woman wearing sexy clothing was paired with each ad separately in different sessions - Men always chose car which was paired with sexy woman but explained their choice as whatever was good about the car (good safety record). - Woman is never mentioned

Psychology of the self

- goals are to understand: 1. what it means to have a self 2. how the self operates 3. the purpose of the self - What is similar about what everyone said? 1. Static, observable facts - positive traits 2. Generalizations, abstractions (instead of saying I teach, you say I'm a teacher) - What's missing? 1. The flow of ongoing experience (like I'm hungry) 2. Hopes for the future a. Is it our past or our future that detemines who we are now? We are not billiard balls. b. If you have a crush on someone, your hopes (with them) may completely define you for the moment 3. Defining ourselves from the outside

3 memory models

- independence model: self --> neurotic, felt tense and jittery, went to places under stress, extraverted, liked stranger, wanted to be with others - hierarchical model: self --> neurotic and extraverted --> felt tense and jittery, went to places under stress and liked stranger and wanted to be with others - computational: self --> felt tense and jittery, went to places under stress, liked stranger, wanted to be with others - Hierarchical model suggest that there are superordinate (i.e. main categories) that must first be activated before activating a specific memory in which that trait was used. For example: self --> neurotic (the trait) --> felt tense and jittery (the memory). This model suggests that a certain trait is activated kind of individually and then the memory/state ensues. - Computational model suggests that we only compute semantic memories on the spot to figure out if the situation registers to you and your core traits. For example: self--> feels tense and jittery (the feeling) --> neurotic (activates the trait feeling)

modifications and refinements to James's three components of the self (Brewer and Chen, 2007)

- individual: individual traits, abilities, and possessions ex. I am blonde, I am shy, I own a Lexus spiritual self and aspects of the material self (body possessions, initials) personal achievements; correspondence between current self-views and various self-standards - relational other people with whom we have a personal relationship ex. I am Noah's dad, I am Rose's son aspects of the social self pride in the accomplishments of particular others with whom we are joined - collective social roles, social categories, and social group memberships ex. I am a professor, I am Irish aspects of the social self pride in the various groups of which we are members

why it's important to distinguish reality from perception

- perceived qualities guide our behavioral choices ex. anorexia - self-perceptions also affect our interpretations of other's thoughts and behaviors ex. self-esteem and relationships - our self-perceptions can be more important than reality

James's social self

- self known by others; many social selves 1. Properly speaking, a man has as many social selves as there are individuals who recognize him and carry an image of him in their mind. 2. He generally shows a different side of himself to each of these different groups. Many a youth who is demure enough before his parents and teachers, swears and swaggers like a pirate among his 'tough' young friends. We do not show ourselves to our children as to our club-companions, to our customers as to the laborers we employ, to our own masters and employers as to our intimate friends. 3. From this there results what practically is a division of the man into several selves; and this may be a discordant splitting, as where one is afraid to let one set of acquaintances know him as he is elsewhere; or it may be a perfectly harmonious division of labor, as where one tender to his children is stern to the soldiers or prisoners under his command.

self-cognizance as a continuum (Bekoff and Sherman, 2004)

- self-referencing: perceptual process involving matching phenotypic characteristics of a target individual against the phenotype of the self - self-awareness: cognitive process that enables individual to discriminate between its own body and those of others - self-consciousness: sense of one's own body as a named self and thinking about one's self and one's own behavior in relation to the actions of others i. Self-referencing - distinguish the scent of kin from non kin even when they were born in isolation, distinguishes themselves from others, most animals can engage in ii. Self-awareness - bodily awareness, chimps iii. Self-referencing - unconscious process, "it's not me" iv. Self-awareness - "it's me" 1. Is that the mirror test? a. One controversial idea about what self-awareness is b. Criticisms: some animal's main perceptions are not visual v. Self-consciousness - "I'm thinking about me", abstract, evaluative self in terms of your traits, just humans 1. Autistic kids are not as aware of social emotions like embarrassment 2. Deception research - they will pretend they can't see food because then the other chimp will see what they're looking at

spreading activation

- spreading activation 1. A node in the network becomes activated when a person hears, sees, or thinks about the information the node represents 2. Activation then spreads from that node to adjacent nodes in the network along the associative links - Thinking of winning the spelling bee will activate thoughts of winning the chess tournament because they are linked through the trait "smart."

James's spiritual self

- state of consciousness, one's own subjective reality 1. All aspects of self that do not possess a material existence a. Perceived psychological qualities and traits b. Perceived Abilities c. Emotional states d. The self as a knower is the awareness of one's empirical self e. Tastes, hobbies, preference

what is the self?

- the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that arise from the awareness of self as object and agent (Hoyle et al., 1999) - the self involves reflexive consciousness or self-reflection 1. The definition of the self includes 3 components a. People's experiences of themselves - James's self as subject b. Their perceptions, thoughts, and feelings about themselves - James's self as object c. Their deliberate efforts to regulate their own behavior - self as executive agent

Swann, Pelham, and Krull (1989)

1. Had participants report their best and worst attribute in a pretest questionnaire 2. Had participants interact with three other potential partners 3. Gave participants false feedback regarding the potential 4. Three potential partners: a. Enhancing and verifying (i.e., made a favorable appraisal of the b. Enhancing but not verifying (i.e., made a favorable appraisal of the participant's worst attribute) c. Nonenhancing but verifying (i.e., made an unfavorable appraisal of the participant's worst attribute) a. Do you want to hear the truth (enhancing verifying) or false flattery (enhancing non verifying)? b. Enhancing-non verifying - said something positive about worst attribute c. Supports self-verification theory d. Self-enhancement theory predicts that we would want enhancing-non verifying e. If we have to hear our worst qualities, we want to hear the truth f. We want to hear the truth over false flattery g. We want to hear negative things about our negative qualities a. People with a positive self-concept would want to stay with the roommate that would see them more positively b. People with a negative self-concept would want to stay with the roommate that would see them more negatively c. If you have a positive self-view, you want to stay with the person who sees you that way d. You want to be with someone who sees you the way you see yourself

self-enhancement motives

1. People are motivated to see themselves positively a. Recall information about successes better than failures b. Think of the self as better than average c. High explicit and implicit self-esteem 2. In general, our self-evaluations tend to be overly positive a. self enhancement is the strongest motive because people really want to be accepted into society, our strongest motive is to belong

historical study of the self

Plato --> Aristotle --> Descartes --> Locke --> Hume --> James --> Cooley --> Mead

who possesses self-consciousness

i. Darwin - limited self-awareness and self-consciousness in animals ii. Hauser - what makes us different from other animals is self-awareness and self-consciousness

mirror test

children typically pass test between 18 and 24 months of age

consciousness, identity, and free will

consciousness: subjective awareness of our mental states, free will: perception that we consciously initiate behaviors, personal identity: belief that we are a unified, continuous entity that owns our mental states

personality psychology

objective experience

three parts of the self

self knowledge (or self-concept): information about self, self-awareness, self-esteem, self-deception, interpersonal self (or public self): self-presentation, member of groups, relationship partner, social roles, reputation, agent self (or executive function): decision making, self-control, taking charge of situations, active responding

self-psychology

subjective experience

social psychology

what we think you are like

personality

what you are really like

self-concept

what you think you are like