Social Psychology by R. Smith, M. Mackie, and M. Claypool (fourth edition) – Summary chapter 4

Self-concept refers to all of an individual’s knowledge about his or her personal qualities. People construct the self-concept by interpreting various types of cues. There are several cues we use when learning about our self:

1. Behaviour
   People learn about their self by interpreting their own behaviour.
2. Thoughts and feelings
   Interpretation of our own thoughts and feelings is an important cue to learning who we are. It plays a bigger role in constructing our self than our behaviour.
3. Other people’s reactions
   The reaction of our people is a source for self-knowledge. Other people’s reactions have the largest effect on people whose self-concepts are uncertain or still developing.
4. Social comparison
   People learn about the self by comparing themselves to others. It is best to compare with someone with a similar skill level.

The self-perception theory states that we judge ourselves on the behaviours we show when the internal cues are almost non-existent. The over-justification effect states that we lose a part of our intrinsic motivation when we receive extrinsic motivation. The social comparison theory states that people learn about and evaluate their personal qualities to others. The contrast effect occurs when people compare themselves with someone whose skill is very different than theirs at something and their self-concept of that skill with either be extremely good or extremely bad. People see the contrast of what they compare themselves with if the skill level is not similar. The assimilation effect occurs when we compare ourselves with someone with a similar skill level and see ourselves as slightly better. The attributes that distinguish us most from others often become defining features of the self.

People characterise the self and close others as flexible and variable. We see others as different because of differences in cues and knowledge (e.g: we don’t have access to inner thoughts) (1) and differences in inferences (2). The actor-observer effect is the idea that we attribute our own behaviours to situational causes while seeing other’s acts as due to their inner characteristics. The actor-observer effect operates differently depending on whether the to-be-explained action is positive or negative.

Self-aspects are summaries of a person’s beliefs about the self in specific domains, roles or activities. The way we see ourselves changes over situations and roles and depends on the self-aspect. Self-schema are core characteristics that a person believes characterizes him or her across situations. People believe that they have a coherent and stable self. Looking for confirmation of self-schemas help with this. People also don’t notice the contradiction between their different selves, because there is only one self there at the time. People also tend to remember the memories that are coherent with the idea they have about their self. The construction of the self differs across cultures. People in individualistic cultures tend to see themselves as stable, while people in collectivistic cultures tend to see themselves as changing. People in collectivistic cultures also construct their self bases more on the situation and the relations.

Self-esteem is an individual’s positive or negative evaluation of himself. People generally rate themselves higher than average on traits. People have a desire to view themselves in a positive light. Self-enhancing bias is the tendency to gather or interpret information concerning the self in a way that leads to overly positive evaluations. Self-complexity is the extent to which a person possesses many and diverse self-aspects. The model of self-evaluation maintenance is a theory outlining the conditions under which people’s self-esteem will be maintained or will suffer based on social comparisons to close or distant others. The closer someone is to us, the greater the chance for social comparison. Social comparisons can also lift our self-esteem, by comparing ourselves to someone who performed worse. Self-regulation refers to efforts to control one’s behaviour in line with internal standards or external standards. People in individualistic cultures are more susceptible to positive information and people in collectivistic cultures are more susceptible to negative information. Men’s self-esteem is more influences by successes or failures and women’s self-esteem is more influenced by connectedness.

Emotions depend on the perceiver’s interpretation of events. Emotions are caused by appraisals of a self-relevant object or event. Appraisal is an individual’s interpretation of a self-relevant event or situation that directs emotional response and behaviour. In short, emotions are caused by an individual’s interpretation of a self-relevant object or event. Different appraisals can have different emotional results in the same situation. Our appraisals are often based on salient cues. Emotions that are most common and most intense are those that fit culturally valued types of relationships. Some physiological responses following emotions are biologically determined and some are learned. Emotions affect thinking, focusing us on the content of our appraisals. Appraisals, bodily response, subjective feelings and emotionally driven behaviour are frequently activated together and they become associated so that any one aspect can engage all the rest. Emotions follow bodily responses and bodily responses follow emotions.

Self-expression is a motive for choosing behaviours that are intended to reflect and express the self-concept. Self-presentation is a motive for choosing behaviours intended to create in observers a desired impression of the self. Self-monitoring is whether someone prefers self-expression or self-presentation. It is the degree to which people are sensitive to the demands of social situations and shape their behaviour accordingly. Self-knowledge motivates our behaviour toward important goals or standards. Self-guides, conceptions of what e is currently like, but also personal standards to which we strive come in two forms:

1. Ideal-self (promotion focus)
   This is the self we would want to be. This includes the traits that help people match their aspirations.
2. Ought-self (prevention focus)
   This is the self we feel like we are. This includes the traits that help people match their obligations.

The regulatory focus theory states that people typically have either a promotion or prevention focus, shaping the ways they self-regulate to attain positive outcomes versus avoiding negative outcomes. Self-presentations have a difference on the private self.

In order to avoid short-term temptations that may derail self-regulation, we can use rewards or think of acts that help us in the long-term in positive ways. It is also possible to view temptations in more abstract ways. Self-regulation depletes some inner resource. People that are fatigued, under stress or are low in regulation resources are more prone to behaviours that are damaging in the long run (e.g: binge-eating). This is because some cognitive resources are required to recognize the tempting nature of such stimuli. Self-affirmation refers to any action or event that enhances or highlights one’s own sense of personal integrity. Self-affirmation can restore the depleted resources that self-control uses. Self-awareness is a state of heightened awareness of the self, including our internal standards.

When events set of defence systems of the self, we can attempt to deal with what set of the alarm to try to change the way it makes us feel.

Anything that contradicts our sense of self can cause negative implications for the self. Inconsistencies can include both positive and negative events. People with high self-esteem are partially protected from negative events. If the self-esteem is unrealistically inflated it may work the other way around and have negative consequences for an individual. Threats to the self can also have negative effects on our physical health. The effects of positive emotions endure across major portions of a lifetime. Positive emotion is strongly associated with better health across many years. Feeling that events are beyond one’s control increases the likelihood of many kinds of negative outcomes. The anxiety and frustration that accompany a lack of control take their toll on physical well-being.

Learned helplessness is a negative result of repeated experiences of lack of control. There are several ways people can cope with threatening events:

1. Emotion-focused coping
   Dealing with the negative emotions associated with the event by escaping or avoiding the threatening situation (e.g: find a distraction of the event).
2. Escaping from threat
   People tend to try to escape after a negative event. This can be done by physically leaving, but also by doing another activity.
3. Focussing on positive aspects of the self
   People tend to downplay the negative event in comparison to other domains of life (e.g: failing as a student will result in downplaying the importance of studying in general and focussing on other aspects of life).
4. Writing
   Writing or talking about feelings produced by threatening events can help overcome some of their emotional and physical cost. The immediate impact of writing about negative events was negative, but the long-term effect was positive. Writing or talking about negative events can help relieve the cost of suppressing and inhibiting painful thoughts.
5. Tend and befriend
   One way of coping with stress is nurturing one’s self and other people, by creating and maintaining social networks of close others.

The terror management theory states that reminders of one’s mortality lead individuals to reaffirm basic cultural worldviews (e.g: religious beliefs), which can have both positive and negative effects. Suppressing emotions has a cognitive cost. A good excuse can be useful for threatening events, especially if the excuse is lined up before the performance. Self-handicapping is seeking to avoid blame for expected poor performance, either by claiming an excuse in advance or by actively sabotaging one’s own performance. Self-handicapping can lower the probability of good performance.

When people feel in control, their self-regulatory abilities improved. Confidence in the ability to deal with a particular area gives people the feeling they can control events in their lives. Focusing on ‘if-only’ thoughts make us feel more negative, but also help us improve for the next time.

Self-esteem is an important resource for coping with threats to the self. High self-esteem leads to self-enhancement and successful coping, which restores high self-esteem. The best way to cope depends on the characteristic of the threat as well as on those of the threatened person.