THE SELF

IN A SOCIAL WORLD
Chapter 2
PREVIEW
◦ Spotlights and illusions: What do they teach us about ourselves?

◦ Self-concept: Who am I?

◦ What is the nature and motivating power of self-esteem?

◦ What is self-serving bias?

◦ How do people manage their self-presentation?

◦ What does it mean to have “self-control”?

Spotlights and Illusions: What Do They
Teach Us About Ourselves?

The belief that others are focusing

Spotlight Effect
on your appearance and behavior

Illusion of The illusion that our hidden

transparency emotions can be seen by others
Self-Concept: Who Am I?

What we
Self-concept know and
believe
about
ourselves
At the Center of Our Worlds: Our Sense of
Self
• mental templates by which we organize
Schemas our world

• beliefs about self that organize and guide the

Self-schemas processing of self-relevant information

• evaluations of one’s opinions and abilities by

Social comparison comparing oneself with others

• our use of how we think or imagine others

Looking glass self perceive us as a mirror for perceiving ourselves
Self and Culture (1)

Individualism VS Collectivism
Table 2 Self Concept: Independent or Interdependent

Concept Area Independent (Individualistic) Interdependent (Collectivist)

Identity is… Personal, defined by individual Social, defined by connections

traits and goals with others

What matters? Me—personal achievement and We—group goals and solidarity;

fulfillment; my rights and our social responsibilities and
liberties relationships

Disapproves of… Conformity Egotism

Illustrative motto “To thine own self be true” “No one is an island”

Cultures that support Individualistic Western Collectivistic Asian and Third

World
Figure 4 Self-Construal as Independent or Interdependent
The independent self acknowledges relationships with others—mother, father, friends, sibling(s),
co-workers(s). But the interdependent self is more deeply embedded in others (Markus & Kitayama, 1991).
 Self-Knowledge: Predicting Our Behavior
Planning fallacy: the tendency to underestimate how long it will
take to complete a task
 Self-Knowledge: Predicting Our Feelings
Impact bias: overestimating the enduring impact of
emotion-causing events
What Is the Nature and Motivating Power of Self-
Esteem?

Self- a person’s overall

esteem self-evaluation or
sense of self-worth
 Self-Esteem Motivation
Most people are extremely motivated to maintain their self-esteem
Terror management theory
Low self esteem vs high self esteem
 •a sense that one
is competent
Self - and effective—
efficacy how competent
we feel on a task
 Self Serving Bias and its Role in Explaining Events

Self-serving bias: the tendency to perceive oneself favorably

Self-serving attributions: a form of self-serving bias; the
tendency to attribute positive outcomes to oneself and negative
outcomes to other factors
 Unrealistic Optimism
Optimism predisposes a positive approach to life
Defensive pessimism
 False Consensus and Uniqueness
• False consensus effect: the tendency to overestimate the commonality of
one’s opinions and one’s undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors
• False uniqueness effect: the tendency to underestimate the commonality
of one’s abilities and one’s desirable or successful behaviors
 Self-serving bias Example

Attributing one’s success to I got the A in history because I studied hard.

ability and effort, but failure I got the D in sociology because the exams
to luck and things external were unfair.

Comparing oneself favorably I do more for my parents than my

sister does.
to others

Unrealistic optimism Even though 50% of marriages fail, I

know mine will be enduring joy.

False consensus and uniqueness I know most people agree with me that
global warming threatens our future.

Figure 6 How Self-Serving Bias Works

 Explaining Self-Serving Bias
Self-serving bias may occur because of errors in how we process
and remember information about ourselves
 How Do People Manage Their
Self-Presentation?

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

behaviors that create a handy excuse for later failure
• Example: performing poorly at the beginning of a task to not
create unreachable expectations

Self-presentation: expressing oneself and behaving

in ways designed to create a favorable impression
• Example: the “humblebrag”

Self-monitoring: being attuned to the way one

presents oneself in social situations and adjusting
performance for the desired impression