Social Psych Lecture 6 2.11

The nature of the self
- Definitions
  - Self-concept: "The overall set of beliefs that people have about their personal attributes." Our knowledge about who we are
- Views of the self:
  - Independent view of self
    - Define self in terms of own internal thoughts, feelings, and actions. "I enjoy being unique and different from others in many respects."
  - Interdependent view of self
    - Define self in terms of one's relationship to other people, recognize that one's behavior is often determined by thoughts, feelings, and actions of others. "Even when I strongly disagree with group members, I avoid an argument."
  - Cultural Differences:
    - Westerners: Ind>Interd
    - Asians, non-Westerners: Interd>Ind
- Self-knowledge
  - Introspection: look inward and examine thoughts, feelings, and motives
    - Has benefits and costs
    - Has limitations
  - Self-Awareness Theory: When we focus attention on ourselves, we evaluate and compare our behavior to our internal standards and values
    - We become self-conscious, objective, judgmental observers of ourselves
      - Can create discomfort (differences between behavior and internal standards)
      - Study of Teenagers (More et al., 2010)
        
        Random points in day
        
        More often thinking about self, the more likely to be in a bad mood
      - Escaping negative states of self-awareness:
        
        Alcohol abuse, binge eating, watching TV, etc.
        
        Religious expression, spirituality
      - Benefits of self-focus:
        
        following success
        
        keeping out of trouble (right and wrong)
      - Telling More Than We Can Know:
        
        Daily mood and possible predictors
        
        Correct about:
        
        Not getting along with friends influencing mood
        
        Incorrect about:
        
        Amount of sleep affecting mood
      - Observing our own behavior:
        
        Self-Perception Theory: we infer our attitudes and beliefs by observing our behavior and the situation in which in occurs
        
        Attitude must be weak, not fully formed
        
        Behavior must be freely chosen
        
        Two-Factor Theory of Emotion
        
        Schachter & Singer (1962)
        
        Emotion=unexplained physiological arousal + explanation or label
        
        Experiment:
        
        I.V. #1: Injection: "Suproxin"
        
        epinephrine (adrenaline) or saline (control)
        
        I.V. #2: Behavior of Accomplice
        
        Angry
        
        Happy
        
        I.V. #3: Arousal Info (effects of injection)
        
        Informed
        
        Uninformed
        
        Misinformed (headaches, numbed feet)
        
        No arousal (control)
        
        Misattribution of Arousal
        
        I.V. High bridge or 10+ minutes after crossing high bridge
        
        Female interviewer
        
        D.V.: # who called interviewer
        
        Exp: 13/20 called
        
        Control 7/23 called
        
        Intrinsic/Extrinsic Motivation
        
        Intrinsic Motivation
        
        Engage in an activity for enjoyment or interest
        
        Extrinsic Motivation:
        
        engage in an activity for external rewards or due to pressure
        
        Overjustification Effect
        
        Greene, Sternberg, & Lepper (1976)
        
        New Math Games popular with grade schoolers
        
        Baseline
        
        Reward Program
        
        Follow-up (no rewards)
        
        Task-Contingent Reward
        
        Rewarded simply for doing task
        
        Performance-Contingent Reward
        
        Rewarded based on performance
        
        Less likely to undermine intrinsic motivation
  - Using Other People to Know Ourselves:
    - Social Comparison Theory: we learn about our abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves to other people, when there is no objective standard, or there is uncertainty about self, to anyone around or ppl similar to us
    - Cancer/Coronary Bypass Patients:
      - Given a choice of being with someone doing a little better or a little worse
        
        Usually wanted to meet with someone doing a little better
        
        Mentioned a patient doing worse
        
        Upward social contact, downward social comparison
        
        Two Types of Comparison:
        
        Upward Social Comparison
        
        Informational Function
        
        Downward Social Comparison
        
        emotional function
        
        Generality: Social Networking Sites (Brailovskaia et al., 2020)
        
        Experimental group reduces Facebook use by 20 min. a day
        
        Depression decreased
        
        Life satisfaction increased