PSY325H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Social Rejection, Social Comparison Theory, Substance Abuse
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Motivational: energize the individual to pursue selected goals and provide plans and incentives (e. g. future possible selves) Identify standards that allow one to achieve ideals in the service of self-improvement (e. g. actual-ideal and actual-ought discrepancies) Protective: maintaining favorable impressions of ones attributes: maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. Moti(cid:448)atio(cid:374) to e(cid:374)ha(cid:374)(cid:272)e the positi(cid:448)it(cid:455) of o(cid:374)e"s self-conceptions or protect the self from negative information. People will selectively process self-relevant information in a way that: focuses on information that has favorable implications for the self, avoids information that has unfavorable implications for the self. How do people maintain positive self-evaluations: self-serving biases: a tendency to perceive oneself favorable. Can also have positive illusions about othe(cid:396)s a(cid:374)d o(cid:374)e"s (cid:396)elatio(cid:374)ships. Positive illusions = discrepancy between self-(cid:396)ati(cid:374)g a(cid:374)d (cid:396)ati(cid:374)g of a (cid:862)ge(cid:374)e(cid:396)alized othe(cid:396)(cid:863) Difficult to distinguish between positive self-views that are accurate or biased and cannot control the characteristics of the generalized other that are brought to mind.
