PSYCH 135 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Self Esteem (Song), Lake Wobegon, Sampling Bias
07.05.2018!
Self Esteem !
•How good of a friend are you to your friends?!
•are you a better friend to them than they are to their friends?!
•60% - a lot of people had their hands raised !
•if I asked you anonymously, people will say that they are better than 75%-80%!
•but you would not do that in a large group, because you don’t !
•regardless of the dimension, people think that they are better than 75% of the people
•reasons for thinking we are better than everyone else!
•because we want to be!
•some go out of their way to be empathetic, it is part of their personality to be
extremely friendly to people!
•we have a pretty good ego, !
•thinking that we are not as good makes us feel bad about ourselves!
•Tim Wilson - we make those reasons up all of the time!
•how smart, how happy, how long do you think you will leave!
Positive Illusions/ Self Serving Biases!
•we overestimate!
•mythical town - Lake Wobegon where everyone is better than average - everybody in this
town is better than !
•when 90% think that are better than 70%!
Cognitive explanations!
•when we are growing up, it is hard to get negative feedback towards ourselves!
•eg parents tell kids that they are the smartest, greatest!
•only give positive feedback to the kids!
•there is a lot going on to protect us from that negative feedback!
•if we actually!
•if people don’t just avoid you, instead!
•told your friends negative feedback - How do I look in that? You look !
•take a mental sample of our friends and think of what they think of us !
•the biased sample that we take!
•false cons effect!
•memory!
•memory is !
•example of where he was a good friend, he can think of all of these examples
from memory than think about when other people are good friends!
•the limits of cognition and what we can remember !
•Motivation explanations!
•according to Freud, we !
•reasons !
•defense mechanism to protect your ego !
•What makes a ‘good friend’?!
•what is the definition of what makes a good friend!
•eg supportive, fun, understanding, reliable, caring, (well rounded), someone
who shares the same values, honest, loyal, not putting themselves first!
•if I ask each of you what makes a good friend, we don’t give characteristics we
don’t have!
•it’s not just !
•define it in terms of things we are good at!
•construals - that makes us of who we are!
•Study!
•rate ‘fun' as 8/10 on how imp it is in friendship!
•did some test and told them that they are not fun!
•later on when people come back to the lab, they rate ‘fun’ as a 3!
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•people change their definition of friendship based on what they are
good at!
•shift away from the things you don’t have!
•pretty motivational explanation!
•want to see yourself in a very positive light!
•Study #2!
•married couples!
•on average, both parties thought they were more responsible for 16/20 of the
household tasks!
•this is not a great thing to happen in relationships because some great delusions are
happening here!
•reason!
•we can remember more examples of us doing the chores!
•we are not even there when they are doing them !
•we are there when we do it so we can remember !
•we don’t notice it and we can’t remember the time when they are doing these
things!
•Study #3!
•pre rated with an attractive and unattractive person - in previous study!
•you morphed with the unattractive person up to 15%!
•you morphed with the attractive person up to 50%!
•they randomly present the faces, mixing them all up, and you see them one at a time
and they ask you which one is you !
•people choose that they are them + 20% of the more attractive person morphed
together!
•what kind of limitations of cognition will help you explain this?!
•none, because that is not you!
•you can’t remember this because you have never seen this person before but
you think that this is you !
•we have slightly positive perception biases about ourselves!
•motivational biases!
Self-Esteem: Motivational Aspects of the Self!
•have slightly positive perceptions of yourself are good and healthy for you in many ways!
•we don’t want to have something that is so departed!
Self - Esteem !
•how you feel about yourself!
•looking in the mirror !
•esteem = to regard with respect!
•self-esteem - the way with which we regard !
•we are both esteemed and the ones doing the esteeming !
•it is not a literal self assessment!
•it’s not where we stand !
•it is very motivational and biased !
•we are built to care what others think about us!
Why do we have self esteem?!
•Hypothesis 1: Sociometer !
•reminds of Sartre - passage from The Look!
•when we become aware that we are an object of judgement!
•we can’t really know for sure what people think about us!
•we come up with an estimate of what a generalized !
•study: people had lower self esteem when they were in front of the mirror rather
than when watching TV!
•evolutionary, you depended on your group for survival !
•we use this gage to !
•if it is low, we shoudl behave in behaviors that should increase it !
•Hypothesis 2:!
•coping mechanism !
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
