Psychology 2070A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Western People, The Need, Motivation
20 Nov 2016
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Chapter 5 – Self-Knowledge and the Need to Maintain Self-Esteem
A. The Nature of the Self
• What composed the Self? (- by William James)
o Self-Concept: The contents of the self; that is, our knowledge about who we are. → Known Aspect
o Self-Awareness: The act of thinking about ourselves. → Knower Aspect
• Self-Recognition develops at around 2 years of age.
o The older we grew, the more emphasis we will put on psychological states and traits than
physical characteristics when answering the question Who am )?
a. Functions of the Self: Self-Regulation
• The self serves as an executive function to regulate people’s behavior, choices, and plans for the
future.
• How successful we will be at exerting self-control when there is a difficult choice?
o Self-control is a limited resource that gets tired with frequent use but then rebounds in strength.
o Spending self-control on one task limits the amount that can be spent on another task.
o Indicate why our self-control is lowered when we are under stress and at night.
b. The Content of the Self: Self-Schemas
• Self-Schemas: An organized body of knowledge about the self (e.g. Attitudes, preferences, traits) that
influences what people notice, think about, and remember about themselves.
• Self-Reference Effect: The tendency for people to remember information better if they relate it to
themselves
o Integrating information with our self-schemas help us to organize the info better and connect it to
other info about ourselves, which makes it more likely that we will remember it later.
o Biased information processes → People conduct selective memory search of past behaviours
consistent with that desired quality or trait
▪ Experiment – Ziva Kunda and colleagues @ U of Waterloo
• Asking students to think of one thing that they have done in the past after researchers
telling them
o Introverts are more related to success OR
o Extroverts are more related to success.
• No matter which group participants are in, they are more likely to think of events that are
consistent with the sentence the researcher told.
i. Self-Concept Clarity (-Jennifer Campbell @ UBC)
• Self-Concept Clarity: The extent to which knowledge about the self is stable, clearly and
consistently defined.
o Some of us have a clearer sense of who we are than others
o People who are in self-concept clarity tend to have
▪ self-esteem
▪ Depression prone (strongest for women)
▪ More neurotic
▪ Less aware of their internal states
▪ Engage in chronic self-analysis and self-handicapping
• Self-Handicapping: If one does poorly on a task, one can avoid self-blame.
▪ Rumination: Involuntary, negative form of self-focus associated with threat or
uncertainty.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
c. Cultural Differences in Defining the Self
• Independent View of the Self: Defining oneself in terms of one’s own internal thoughts, feelings, and
actions, and not in terms of the thoughts, feelings, and actions of other people.
o More likely to happen in a Western culture
o People from Western culture are describe themselves with personal characteristics (Attractive)
• Interdependent View of the Self: Defining oneself in terms of one’s relationships to other people;
recognizing that one’s behavior is often determined by the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others.
o More likely to happen in collectivist cultures.
o People from Asian cultures are more likely to refer to social groups, and tend to describe
themselves with characteristics associated with a group (Loyal, accepting)
o People might have lower self-concept clarity than people from Western culture, and their self—
concept clarity are also less related to their self-esteem
d. Gender Differences in Defining the Self
• Women’s self-concepts reflect more relational interdependence, focus more on their close
relationships.
o Women rated relational traits as more self-descriptive than did men
Men tend to define themselves in terms of social group. → Collective Interdependence
o Experiment #1 – John Adair from U of Manitoba.
▪ Administered the sentence completion test ) am… to participants from 15 cultures.
▪ Women from Individualist cultures were found to hold a more relational view of the self
while women and men were equally likely to hold a relational view of the self in collectivist
cultures.
B. Knowing Ourselves through Introspection
• Introspection: The process whereby people look inward and examine their own thoughts, feelings,
and motives.
o People do not rely on this source of information as often as you might think.
▪ Only 8% of thoughts are about the self, people, at other time, tend to think more about their
work, chores and time.
o The reasons for their feelings and behavior can be hidden from conscious awareness.
a. Focusing on the Self: Self-Awareness Theory
• Self-Awareness Theory: The idea that when people focus their attention on themselves, they evaluate
and compare their behaviour with their internal standards and values.
o Experiment – Sophia Moskalenko and Steven Heine @ 2003
▪ Separate participants into 2 groups
• Group A - Had done very poorly on a task that reflected their intelligence
• Group B – Done very well
▪ Findings: People in group A are more motivated to escape self-awareness; therefore, they pay
more attention to a video that was on in the room.
• Roy Baumeister @ 1991
o People regularly engage in harmful behaviours is an indication of how aversive self-focus can be.
o People sometimes escape self-awareneess through positive means.
▪ People present their ideal self on Facebook and other social networks rather than on their
actual self.
o People who are self-aware are more likely to follow their moral standards → Away from trouble
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Chapter 5 self-knowledge and the need to maintain self-esteem: the nature of the self, what composed the self? (- by william james, self-concept: the contents of the self; that is, our knowledge about who we are. Independent view of the self: defining oneself in terms of one"s own internal thoughts, feelings, and. Men tend to define themselves in terms of social group. Collective interdependence: gender differences in defining the self while women and men were equally likely to hold a relational view of the self in collectivist cultures, knowing ourselves through introspection. School grade: rewards will not undermine interest, leads to worse performance if there is penalty for poor performance, convey positive feedback w/o making people feel nervous and apprehensive about being evaluated, knowing ourselves through social interaction. If we are reminded of a significant person in our lives who seems critical or disapproving, we will tend to see ourselves as possessing negative traits: experiment baldwin and holmes @ 1987.
