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The Self (Threat to one self (May cause long lasting and chronic damages,…
The Self
Threat to one self
May cause long lasting and chronic damages
Esp. dangerous for populations at risk (some people suffer heart disease)
Stress & change in hormone levels
how do we fight this
we can fight it by
Distraction – After negative feedback, people watch more TV, avoid interactions, avoid self awareness (e.g., stay away from mirrors)
Emotions-focused coping: 1) Emotional intelligence l 2)Emotion regulation
Coping with negative emotions
Emotion Regulation Strategies (Gross, 2003)
Cognitive Reappraisal(self reflect and become better next time)
Cognitive Suppression (to intake and push down the negative emotion)
Reaffirming our values – Terror Management Theory (Solomon et al., 1997). Focus on cultural values
Self handicapping
“Learned Helplessness” = Belief that we cannot change the course of events and failure is inevitable.
Negative intense emotions
maintain a positive self by
self reappraisal
self enhancement
attack the problem
Do we know about ourselves
By knowing who are we, we looking into these two component
Self concept
– Set of beliefs about our qualities
how do we construct a self concept?
Very similar processes as when we build impressions of others (integration of cues)
Possible sources of knowledge about ourselves are
Imagining behavior
Thinking about a behavior increases the accessibility of certain traits
Thoughts and feelings
How we feel tells us more about ourselves than our behavior – What you feel deep inside is more indicative of who you are
Other people’s reactions
Charles H. Cooley (1902): The lookingglass self contains other people’s reactions to us.
Miller, Brickman, & Bolen (1975): l Labeling kids as tidy actually makes them act in a tidy way. (Self-fulfilling prophecy!) l For adults, self views do not depend as much on other people’s opinions, ... l ... but on their
beliefs
about other people’s opinions and their
perception
of other people’s reactions
Social comparison
1)Comparing to others (similar others) shape how we see ourselves 2) Comparisons must be meaningful to give an accurate representation 3) Avoid extreme comparisons. They can lead to
contrast effect
(e.g., you compare yourself with a top athlete and you think you are very bad) 4) Comparisons can be biased – Even if you compare yourself to someone slightly better than you, you will move a bit toward that direction =
assimilation effect
can be
1) Upward vs. downward social comparisons 2) Can be context-dependent (winning vs. not losing) 3) Can serve our need to feel good about ourselves
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Own behavior
We are what we do
(Self perception theory, Bem, 1967) {We make inferences based on what we do (especially true when self is forming, and for ambiguous situations)}
We make inferences we behaviors are freely chosen
(Intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation (Deci & Ryan, 1971) l Do it for ourselves vs. other ends
are
Knowledge about self stored in longterm memory
Self esteem
–Self-esteem is an individual’s positive or negative evaluation of himself or herself. (E.E. Jones, 1990)
are
Evaluation of knowledge about self
How to Construct Positive Self-Esteem?
1) Our goal: Feel good about ourselves! 2) Self-enhancing bias: l Any tendency to gather or interpret information concerning the self in a way that leads to overly positive evaluations (p. 109). 3) Try to accumulate more positive than negative experiences (and remember the positive > negative) 4) Adjust our contribution based on the outcomes (if the group presentation was great, I did a lot! Vs. if it is bad, I did little) 5) Social comparisons: Upward vs. downward comparison
How do we achieve coherence?
How do we put all the pieces together to form an overall representation?
Self-Schema (Markus, 1977) is a way
A
self-schema
consists of some core traits or attributes that people believe characterize them across situations and set them apart from other people.
Once activated, people seek (and see) evidence for these traits in every interaction (e.g., I think I am helpful, I see my benevolence in each interaction = Confirmation)
Once We Have a Self-Concept
It is hard for us to change the way we see ourselves
We use what defines us the most to judge and understand others (e.g., I value morality -> I look for morality in others)
related to
Self presentation
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The Self and Emotions
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Self expression
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Shape our emotions
Regulates our behavior!!
Accessibility of a subset of traits is another
Coherence can be achieved by making accessible a certain subset of traits.
For instance, asking people to think of their good behaviors can increase their likelihood of seeing themselves as more moral
Selective Memory (always accurate?) is another way
People have selective memory, so that they forget inconsistent information about the self and easily retrieve consistent information. If some information needs to be reconstructed to be consistent, people will do this very easily.
Self-Discrepancy Theory (Higgins, 1987, 1989)
means
Discrepancies between various standards and actual aspects of the self.
Actual self (How one is) wishes and hopes)
Ideal self (How one would like to be
Ought self (How one should be; duties, social and moral norms)
we act based on two motivation
Promotion Focus
achieving positive outcomes (Ideal self)
-Succeed -> Happiness
Fail -> Sadness
Prevention Focus
avoiding negative outcomes (Should self)
Succeed -> Relief
Fail -> Anxiety