THE SELF IN A SOCIAL

WORLD
CHAPTER 2
There are three things extremely
hard, Steel, a Diamond, and to
know one’s self

-Benjamin Franklin
 Outline
I. Spotlights & Illusions
II. Self-concept: Who am I?
III. Self-esteem
IV. Perceived self-control
V. Self-serving bias
VI. Self-presentation
How would you feel
walking around the
campus with that
look?
I. Spotlights & Illusions
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
emotion are “leak
out” and can be
easily read by
others.
II. Self-Concept: Who am I?
 A. Our sense of Self
Self-concept– A person’s answers to the question “Who
am I?”.
 Your idea of yourself.
 Multidimensional and multifaceted
 Active and changing
 Depends on what we are thinking at the
moment and on the social context.
Schemas-- Are mental templates by which we organize
our worlds.
Self-schema– Specific beliefs by which you define
yourself.
 A. Our sense of Self
Possible selves– Images of what we dream
of or dread becoming in the future.
What contributes to our self-concept?
 B. Dev. of the Social Self
1. THE ROLES WE PLAY
Whether we are a college student, parent, or
salesperson our sense of role affects the way we see our
self.
leader, officer, kapatid, bestfriend
2. SOCIAL COMPARISONS
Social Comparison– Evaluating one’s abilities and
opinions by comparing oneself with others.
Smart or dull?, rich or poor?, Good looking or kind?

 B. Dev. of the Social Self
3. SUCCESS & FAILURE
Our daily experiences of success and failure gives us a
sense of social self.
What would you feel if you get a high score in math?
4. OTHER PEOPLE’S JUDGMENTS
What people think well of us, it helps us think well of
ourselves.
Looking-glass self= tendency to use others as a mirror
for perceiving our selves.
 B. Dev. of the Social Self
5. THE CULTURE
In Cultural psych, self and culture are seen as mutually
constitutive.
Culture and self construct each other!
Culture transforms
us and then we
transform the
culture!
Activity:

Write (as much as you can) self-concepts that you

know of about yourself

Discuss what these self-concepts reveal about the

Filipino self-concept.
 C. Self & Culture
Individualism– The concept of giving priority to one’s
own goals over group goals & defining one’s identity in
terms of attributes rather than group identifications.
-Can result to independent self (identity as unique
individual).
Collectivism– Giving priority to the goals of one’s
group and defining one’s identity accordingly.
-Can result to interdependent self (identity in relation
to others).
 C. Self & Culture
Twenty Statements Tests (Cousins, 1989)
Repeatedly asks the questions “Who am I?”
Americans used more trait descriptions while
Japanese used more role-specific and situational
answers.
In Bali, individuals are not known by their names but
rather in terms of whose children they are (Geertz,
1975)
In the PH, the self and the other are integrated into
kapwa (Enriquez, 1997)
 C. Self & Culture
GROWING INDIVIDUALISM
“The Me Generation”.
 Even parents are now concerned with the
uniqueness of their children’s name.
CULTURE & COGNITION
Asian thinking (more collectivist) vs. Western
thinking (more individualist).
What goes together?
Bulatao (1964, 1965, 1992, 1998)
 The Filipino Youth
Peña-Alampay (2003)
Filipino youth scored higher in the interdependent
self compared to independent self.
Five major categories of self-aspects:
Relational social roles (e.g. anak)
Social roles (e.g. estudyante)
Situations (e.g. sa bahay)
Superordinate categories
(e.g. ang gusto kong baguhin)
No contextual reference
(e.g. ako)
 C. Self & Culture
CULTURE & SELF-ESTEEM
• Self-esteem– overall self-evaluation or sense of self-
worth.
Americans tend to have high self-esteem with
disengaged emotions– feeling effective, superior
and proud. (Kitayama & Markus, 2000)
Asians tend to have high self-esteem with positive
social engagement– feeling close, friendly, &
respectful. (Kitayama & Markus, 2000)
How well do you know your self?

“We want. We get. We are happy.”

 Why did you choose Psych?

Why do you love that special someone?

 D. Self-knowledge
EXPLAINING OUR BEHAVIOR
When it comes to explanation of our behavior
sometimes we know sometimes we don’t.
We tend to dismiss the subtle factors or predictors of
some of our behaviors.
Mondays are not really a contributing factor to the
participants’ moods (Stone et al., 1985)
Thus, sometimes we don’t really know ourselves!
 D. Self-knowledge
PREDICTING OUR BEHAVIOR
Your roommate better predicts whether your romance
would survive or not ( Lutsky & others, 1993)
Planning Fallacy– The tendency to underestimate the
time of completion of task.
On average, students finished three weeks later than
their “most realistic” estimate (Buehler & others, 2002)
How can you improve your self-predictions?
The best way is to be more realistic about how long tasks
took in the past.
However, we tend to misremember those previous tasks
(Roy & others, 2005).
 D. Self-knowledge
PREDICTING OUR FEELINGS
How would you feel if during interview you were asked
sexually harassing questions?
Most women said they would feel angry if asked sexually
harassing questions. However, they felt more fear
(Woodzicka & LaFrance, 2001).
Impact bias- overestimating the enduring impact of
emotion-causing events.
Immune Neglect-- Tendency to underestimate the speed
& strength of the “Psychological Immune System”.
 Emotional Recovery or Resilience
 D. Self-knowledge
THE WISDOM & ILLUSIONS OF SELF-ANALYSIS
Implicit attitudes= automatic attitudes.
Explicit attitudes= controlled and conscious attitudes.
Dual attitudes= having a differing implicit and explicit
attitude.
 Explicit can change with education and
persuasion.
 Implicit can change through practice, w/c
forms new habits.
Part 2
 Outline
I. Spotlights & Illusions
II. Self-concept: Who am I?
III. Self-esteem
IV. Perceived self-control
V. Self-serving bias
VI. Self-presentation
III. Self-Esteem
 A. Self-Esteem
Self-Esteem-- A person’s overall self- evaluation or sense
of self- worth.
Self-Esteem is contingent (bound by circumstance).
You feel good when you feel smart & good looking
vs. you feel good when you meet some moral
standards.
Self-perceptions can have an influence. (E.g. if you think
you’re good in Math you tend to do well in Math).
In an exam in Psychology, the students whose self-
esteem was boosted did by far the worst on the final—in
fact, they flunked it (Forsyth & others, 2007).
B. Self-Esteem Motivation
Self-esteem feelings are radars for social rejection.
Sibling rivalries & married couples with identical
career goals.
We want to avoid social rejection, consequently, it
motivates us to act with greater sensitivity to others’
expectations.
Social acceptance= Self-Esteem ;Social rejection=
Self-Esteem.
Self-Esteem is bound by the standards of the society.
In times of failures, self-esteem people sustain their
self-worth by perceiving other people as failing, too,
and by exaggerating their superiority over others.
C. The “Dark side” of Self-
Esteem
People with low self-esteem often have
problems in life– they make less money,
more likely to abuse drugs and be depressed
(Nurmi et al., 2007)
People with high self-esteem become teen
gang leaders, terrorists, and men in prison
for committing heinous crimes (Bushman &
Baumeister, 2002)
C. The “Dark side” of Self-
Esteem
Narcissism: Self-Esteem’s conceited sister

Bushman & Baumeister (1998),

undergraduate volunteers wrote essays and
received rigged feedback that said, “This is
one of the worst essays I’ve read!”
Self-Esteem + Narcissism= aggression.
Bushman & Baumeister (1998)
IV. Perceived Self-Control
Self-Efficacy
•Self-Efficacy– A sense
that one is competent &
effective.
•How competent we feel
on the task.
•Given challenging tasks,
people who imagine
themselves as hardworking
and successful outperform
those who imagine
themselves as failures
(Ruvolo & Markus, 1992).
High self-efficacy means high self-esteem?
 A or B?
a. In the long run, b. Unfortunately, people’s
people get the respect worth passes unrecognized
no matter how hard they
they deserve in this
try.
world.
b. Sometimes I feel that I
a. What happens to me don’t have enough control
is my own doing. over the direction my life is
taking.
a. The average person
can have an influence b. This world is run by the
few people in power, and
in government
there is not much the little
decisions. guy can do about it.
 A. Locus of Control
Locus of control-- The extent to which people
perceive outcomes as internally controllable by
their own efforts or as externally controlled by
chance or outside forces.
“Swerte lang”, “Na-malas ako!”
“The Law of Attraction”
“Kasi magaling ako”
“Because I practiced well”
 A. Locus of Control
External locus of
Internal locus of control control

You probably believe You probably feel

you control your chance or outside
own destiny. forces determine
your fate.
“I failed because I
didn't’t study.” “I failed because my
teacher didn’t like
‘They can because me by chance.”
they think they can.”
“Wala ng pag-asa”
 B. Learned Helplessness
Learned helplessness– The sense of hopelessness and
resignation learned when a human or animal
perceives no control over repeated bad events.
E.g. Depressed or oppressed people become passive
because they believe their efforts have no effect.
 C. Self-Determination
People benefit by training their self-control “muscles.”
(Oaten &Cheng, 2006).
Prisoners given some control over their environments—
by being able to move chairs, control TV sets, and
operate the lights—experience less stress, exhibit fewer
health problems, and commit less vandalism (Ruback
& others, 1986; Wener & others, 1987).
In all countries studied, people who perceive
themselves as having free choice experience greater
satisfaction with their lives . And countries where
people experience more freedom have more satisfied
citizens (Inglehart & others, 2008).
Where would you want to have our fieldtrip?
 Self-Determination
The Costs of Excess Choice
Too many choices can lead to paralysis!
Students who chose which classes they would take
during the upcoming semester tend to most likely
procrastinate and fail exams (Vohs & others, 2008 ).
More satisfaction in marriages decades ago when it was
more irrevocable Vs. Today that we have greater
freedom to escape (annulment, divorce).
Part 3
 Outline
I. Spotlights & Illusions
II. Self-concept: Who am I?
III. Self-esteem
IV. Perceived self-control
V. Self-serving bias
VI. Self-presentation
V. Self-Serving Bias
 Self-Serving Bias
Self-serving bias-- The tendency to perceive
oneself favorably.
Group-serving bias- The tendency to
perceive one’s group
favorably
Most of us have a
good reputation with
ourselves.
A. Positive & Negative events
Self-serving Attributions-- A form of self-serving bias;
the tendency to attribute positive outcomes to oneself
and negative outcomes to other factors.
Salient in games, exams, & job applications.
People attribute their success to their ability and
effort, but they attribute failure to external factors
such as bad luck or the problem’s inherent
“impossibility” (Campbell & Sedikides, 1999).
Ironically, we are even biased against seeing our own
bias. People claim they avoid self-serving bias
themselves, but readily acknowledge that others
commit this bias (Pronin & others, 2002).
 B. Better than average?
Compared with people in general, most people see
themselves as more ethical, more competent at their job,
friendlier, more intelligent, better looking, less prejudiced,
healthier, and even more insightful and less biased in
their self-assessments.
Young married Canadians usually believed they took
more responsibility for such activities as cleaning the
house and caring for the children than their spouses
credited them for (Rios & Sicoly, 1979).
 C. Unrealistic Optimism
A predisposition of a positive approach in life.
Myself= Unrealistic optimism about my future ;
Others= Pessimism to others’ fate
Illusory optimism increases our vulnerability. Believing
ourselves immune to misfortune, we do not take sensible
precautions.
Sexually active undergraduate women who don’t
consistently use contraceptives perceive themselves,
compared with other women at their university, as much
less vulnerable to unwanted pregnancy (Burger & Burns,
1988).
 D. False Consensus and
Uniqueness
False Consensus effect-- The tendency to overestimate
the commonality of one’s opinions and one’s
undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors.
We think that others think and act like we do.
We generalize from a limited sample, which
prominently includes ourselves.
“Everyone cheats anyway!”
False Uniqueness effect--The tendency to underestimate
the commonality of one’s abilities and one’s desirable or
successful behaviors.
“I’m the one who studies in this class anyway!”
D. False Consensus and
Uniqueness
In Summary…
VI. Self-Presentation
 A. Self-Handicapping
Self-handicapping-- Protecting one’s self-image
with behaviors that create a handy excuse for
later failure.
Handicaps protect both self-esteem and public
image by allowing us to attribute failures to
something temporary or external.
We always have a DISCLAIMER!!
Because we are always concerned with our SELF-
IMAGE!
TAE ka ba?

Kasi mahal kiTA Eh.

B. Impression Management
Self-presentation-- The act of expressing oneself
and behaving in ways designed to create a favorable
impression or an impression that corresponds to
one’s ideals.
We want to present a desired image both to an
external audience (other people) and to an
internal audience (ourselves).

That’s why we apologize if necessary.

We also must make sure not to brag too much and
risk the disapproval of others (Anderson & others,
2006).
B. Impression Management
Self-monitoring-- Being attuned to the way one
presents oneself in social situations and
adjusting one’s performance to create the
desired impression.
We are Social “Chameleons”
Social Desirability is salient among Filipinos
whenever we answer surveys or questionnaires.