CHAPTER 2

The Self in a Social World

Social Psychology
by David G. Myers 9th Edition

The Self in a Social World

Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

 Spotlights and Illusions
• Interplay between sense of self and the
The Self in a Social World

social world
– Spotlight effect
The belief that others are paying more attention
to one’s appearance and behavior than they
really are
– Illusion of transparency
The illusion that our concealed emotions leak
out and can be easily read by others

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 – Social surroundings affect our self-awareness
American in Nepal feels more white
American in Asia feels more American
The Self in a Social World

– Self-interest colors social judgment

We blame others
1923 Nobel prize for discovering Insulin

– Self-concern motivates our social behavior

We manage our Image

– Social relationships help define our self

We have different roles
The Self in a Social World

• “No topic is more interesting to people than

people . For most people, moreover, the
most interesting person is self ”
Roy F.Baumeister, the self in social psychology

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 Self-Concept: Who Am I?
• Our sense of self
The Self in a Social World

– Self-concept
 A person’s answer to the question, “who am I”

– Self-schemas
 Beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing of
self-relevant information.
 Perception of one’s self (smart,cunning,fat,ugly,handsome)

– Self-reference effect
 The tendency to process efficiently and remember well
information related to oneself
  Possible selves
 Images of what we dream of or dread becoming in the
future
• Development of the social self (surroundings)
The Self in a Social World

– The roles we play: role playing becomes reality

– Social identity: ethnicity/nationality
– Social comparisons: Evaluating one’s abilities and
opinions by comparing oneself to others.
– Success and failure: achievements contribute to high
self-esteem
– Other people’s judgments: The looking-glass self:
what we perceive them as thinking.

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 Who Am I?
The Self
The Self in a Social World

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 • Self and Culture
– Individualism: The concept of giving priority to one
'own goal over group goals and defining one’s identity
The Self in a Social World

in term of personal attribute rather than group

identifications.
– Collectivism: Giving priority to the goals of one’s
groups(often one’s extended family or work group) and
defining one’s identity accordingly.
– Interdependent self

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The Self in a Social World

Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

 Self-Concept: Who Am I?
The Self in a Social World

Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

 Self-Concept: Who Am I?
• Self-knowledge
The Self in a Social World

– Explaining our behavior

 Electric shocks and pills
– Predicting our behavior
 Its difficult to predict our own behavior
 Positive behaviors are often predicted wrong and
negative behaviors are often predicted rightly
 Consider your past
– Predicting our feelings
 Difficulty in predicting the intensity and duration of
their future emotions
 Less happy after favorable event and more sad after
unfavorable event
 • The wisdom and illusions of self-analysis
 The thought process cannot be explained by artists and
scientists
The Self in a Social World

 Dual attitude system

 Implicit: what we feel at first sight
 Explicit: what we feel consiously

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The Self in a Social World

When a feeling was there,

they felt as if it would never
go: when it was gone, they
felt as it had never been :
when it returned , they felt as
if it had never gone
 Locus of Control
The Self in a Social World

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 Perceived Self-Control
The Self in a Social World

• Self-efficacy: A sense that one is competent and effective

• Locus of control: The extent to which people perceive
outcomes as internally controllable by their own efforts and
actions or as externally controlled by chance or forces
• Learned helplessness versus self-determination:
The hopelessness and resignation learned when a human or
animal perceives no control over repeated bad events
 Learned Helplessness
The Self in a Social World

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 Self-Esteem
The Self in a Social World

• Self-esteem: Overall self-evaluation of self-

worth
– Self-esteem motivation
 Friction among siblings
 Friction among friends
– The “dark side” of self-esteem
 Consequences of low and high self-esteem

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 • Self-Serving Bias : The tendency to perceive oneself
favorably Explaining positive and negative events
The Self in a Social World

 Success to inner abilities and failure to external forces

• Can we all be better than average: everyone over

estimates himself
• Unrealistic optimism: future will be better
• False consensus and uniqueness: The sense we seem to
make of world seems like common sense

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 Self-Serving Bias
The Self in a Social World

• Reflections on self-
efficacy and self-
serving bias
– The self-serving bias
as adaptive
– The self-serving bias
as maladaptive
– The group-serving bias

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 Self-Presentation
The Self in a Social World

• False modesty: rating themselves low but not actually

feeling it.
• Self-handicapping: Protecting one’s self-image with
behaviors that create a handy excuse for later failure
• Impression management
– Self-presentation
– Self-monitoring

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 More on Self-Presentation
The Self in a Social World

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The Self in a Social World

Supplemental Slides

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 Elements of the Self
The Self in a Social World

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 What Affects Self-Concept?
The Self in a Social World

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 Cultural Influences
The Self in a Social World

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 Cultural Influences
The Self in a Social World

Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

 More on Self-Concept
The Self in a Social World

Copyright © 2008 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.