THE SELF IN A SOCIAL WORLD

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

HIGHLIGHTS

① Spotlight and illusions

② Self concept: Who am I?
③ Self-esteem
④ Perceived self-control
⑤ Self-serving bias
⑥ Self-presentation

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

SPOTLIGHT AND
ILLUSIONS

Gilovich, Medvec,
& Savitsky (2000)
experiment on
spotlight effect

Spotlight effect: the belief that others are paying more attention to
one’s appearance and behavior than they really are.
Concerned with the impression we make on others, we tend to believe that others are
paying more attention to us than they are.
by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)
SPOTLIGHT AND
ILLUSIONS

Savitsky & Gilovich

(2003):
Not only nervous
but also anxious of
being seen as
nervous

Illusion of transparency: the illusion that our concealed emotions

leak out and can be easily read by others.
Tendency of people to believe that our emotions are more obvious than they are.

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

SAYA ADALAH…. (10 KALIMAT)

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

#1. SELF CONCEPT
Self concept: a person’s answers to the question “Who am I?”
The elements:
• Self-schema: beliefs about self that organize and guide the
processing of self-relevant information.

• Self-reference effect: the tendency to process efficiently and

remember well information related to oneself.
• Possible selves: images of what we dream or dread in the future.
by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)
Self-schemas:
• Physical characteristics ('I'm pretty,' 'I'm overweight')
• Interests ('I love sports,' 'I like art')
• Personality traits ('I'm shy,' 'I'm friendly')
• Behaviors ('I'm assertive,' 'I avoid conflict')

Self-Schemas Form Our Self-Concept

All our various self-schemas combine and interact to form our
self-concept.

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

BRAINSTORMING

APAKAH RELEVAN MEMBICARAKAN

SELF-CONCEPT DALAM KONTEKS
SOSIAL?

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

#1. SELF CONCEPT
INFLUENCES ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL SELF

• The roles we play : Students? Singer? Lecturer?

• Social identity : Race? Religion? Gender? SES?
• Social comparison
• Success and failure
• Other people’s judgment
• looking-glass self - how we think others perceive us as a mirror for
perceiving ourselves (Cooley, 1902)
• Culture

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)
#1. SELF CONCEPT
SELF & CULTURE

Individualism Collectivism
(independent self) (interdependent self)
Giving priority to one’s own goals over Giving priority to the goals of one’s
group goals and defining one’s identity groups and defining one’s identity
in terms of personal attributes rather accordingly.
than group identification.

- I am honest - I am student

- I am tall - I am Christian

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

 SELF-CONCEPT

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)
#1. SELF CONCEPT

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

#1. SELF CONCEPT

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

#1. SELF CONCEPT:
SELF KNOWLEDGE
C.S. Lewis :
“There is one thing, and only one in the whole universe which we
know more about than we could learn from external observation.
That one thing is ourselves. We have inside information; we are
in the know.”

Self knowledge gives us insight to explain and predict our

behavior and feeling.
• Some of the inside information is wrong and unavoidable. (ex:
negative moods on Monday, longevity by dating couple, money
they will spend)

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

#1. SELF CONCEPT:
SELF KNOWLEDGE
Studies of “affective forecasting”: people have greatest difficulty
predicting the intensity and duration of their future emotions (Wilson &
Gilbert, 2003).
• Ketika sedang lapar, seseorang membeli lebih banyak makanan
daripada yang sebenarnya diperlukan.
• Hanya 1 dari 7 perokok ‘iseng’ (occasional smokers) yang
memprediksi akan berhenti merokok 5 tahun ke depan, yang berhasil
berhenti merokok.
• Rasa senang dari menurunnya berat badan, menang undian, dan
aktivitas lain tidak pernah sama atau lebih daripada yang dipikirkan.

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

#1. SELF CONCEPT:
SELF KNOWLEDGE
• Impact bias – overestimating the enduring impact of emotion-causing
events.
• Negative events tend to give more impact bias.

• Immune neglect – the human tendency to neglect the speed and the
strength of the “psychological immune system”, which enables
emotional recovery and resilience after bad things happen.
• e.g.: romantic breakups, exam failures, disabilities.

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

#1. SELF CONCEPT:
SELF KNOWLEDGE
WHY?
The mental processes that control our social behavior are distinct from the ones
through which we explain our behavior.
• Rational explanations may omit the unconscious attitudes that actually guide
our behavior.
• Wilson et al. (1989):
• Attitude toward relationship --- predicts --- relationship satisfaction
• When people were first asked to analyze their feeling: failed to predict.

• Dual attitude system: differing implicit (automatic) and explicit (consciously

controlled) attitudes toward the same object.
• Verbalized explicit attitudes changes with education and persuasion,
• Implicit attitudes slowly change with practice of new habits

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

#2. SELF-ESTEEM
Self-esteem: a person’s overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth.

Is self-esteem sum of all self-schemas and possible selves?

• Yes (Crocker & Wolfe, 2001)

• No (Brown & Dutton, 1994): the relationship can be reciprocal.

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

#2. SELF-ESTEEM
The Dark Side of Self-Esteem

LOW HIGH & OVER

• Depression • Easily threatened and react by

• Drug abuse putting others down
• Delinquency • Violence
• Threatened by success • Arrogant

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

 DO YOU THINK THE NARCISSISTIC,
ASSERTIVE, AND BOLD PEOPLE ARE
ACTUALLY HAVING HIGH / LOW SELF-
ESTEEM?

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

#2. SELF-ESTEEM
Baumeister (1996):
“My conclusion is that self-control is worth 10 times as much as self-
esteem.”
• Studies failed to find that those persons are having low self-
esteem.
• 2 forms of self-esteem:
• Explicit
• Implicit
• Explicit = implicit  more secure, behave less defensively, and
display less prejudice.
• Secure self-esteem: one rooted more in feeling good about
who one is than on grades, looks, money, or others’ approval.

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

#3. PERCEIVED SELF-CONTROL
• Self-efficacy: a sense that one is competent and effective.

If you believe you can do something, will that belief

necessarily make a difference?

• Locus of control: the extent to which people perceive

outcomes as:
• Internally controllable by their own efforts and action, or
• Externally controlled by chance or outside forces

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

#3. PERCEIVED SELF-CONTROL
Locus of Control

People with Int. LOC:

- Do well in school
- Successfully stop smoking
- Wear seat belts
- Deal with marital problems
directly
- Delay instant gratification
by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013) to achieve long-term goals
#3. PERCEIVED SELF-CONTROL
• Learned helplessness: the hopelessness and resignation
learned when a human or an animal perceives no control over
repeated bad events.

• Excess choice: less satisfaction and paralysis caused by too

much choices and freedom.

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

WHICH ONE WILL YOU
PREFER?

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

#4. SELF-SERVING BIAS
Self-serving bias: the tendency to perceive oneself favorably.
• Self-serving attribution: the tendency to attribute
• +++ = caused by me.
• - - - = caused by other factors.

Kalau menang: “Saya pintar!”

Kalau kalah: “Mesinnya curang!”

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

SURVEY!
Choose the word BEST describe you!

DISCIPLINED PUNCTUAL

• Subjective behavior dimensions (e.g. “disciplined”) trigger greater self-

serving bias than observable behavioral dimension (e.g. “punctual”).

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

#4. SELF-SERVING BIAS
• Unrealistic optimism: the tendency to become overly optimist
to gain positive thing in the future.
• Defensive pessimism: the adaptive value of anticipating
problems and harnessing one’s anxiety to motivate effective
action.

Success in school and beyond requires enough optimism to

sustain hope and enough pessimism to motivate concern.

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

#4. SELF-SERVING
BIAS
• False consensus effect: the tendency to overestimate the
commonality of one’s opinions and one’s undesirable or
unsuccessful behavior.
• Usually arise when we behave badly or fail in a task
• False uniqueness effect: the tendency to underestimate the
commonality of one’s abilities and one’s desirable or
successful behavior.
• Usually arise on matters of ability or when we behave well
or successfully

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

QUIZ: GUESS WHAT?

#1. Saya mendapat nilai A pada psikologi umum 1 karena belajar sungguh-
sungguh.
Saya mendapat nilai F pada psikologi faal karena dosennya ga bisa
ngajar.

#2. Saya sudah sangat bekerja keras sehingga berhasil menjadi salah satu
siswa teladan di kampus.

#3. Saya tahu saya salah karena menabrak dia. Tetapi ini kan hal yang
sangat normal terjadi di jalan raya, bukan?

#4. Sekalipun 50% pernikahan gagal, saya tahu pernikahan saya pasti
berhasil!

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)
#4. SELF-SERVING BIAS
The Bright Side
• Sustain the good feelings
• Protect people from depression
• Buffer stress

The Dark Side

• Unhappier than the ones who can
acknowledge their mistakes
• Can lead to group-serving bias

by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)

#5. SELF-PRESENTATION
False modesty: being modest as a subtle way of self-serving.
“Saya ngerasa bodoh banget.”
“Nggak kok! Keren tahu. Saya ga yakin bisa begitu.”

Self-handicapping: protecting one’s self-image with behaviors that

create a handy excuse for later failure.
e.g.: watch midnight movies the night before exams.

Impression management:
• self presentation: the act of expressing oneself and behaving in ways
designed to create a favorable impression
• Self monitoring: being attuned to the way one presents oneself in
social situations and adjusting one’s performance to create the
desired impression.
by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)
 QUESTIONS?
“There are 3 things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self”
– Benjamin Franklin
“He who knows others is learned. He who knows himself is enlightened”
– Lao-tzu
by: Karel Karsten & Eunike Mutiara (2013)