Social and Abnormal psychology- Year 1 -Teaching Block 1
Lecture 1- Self in a social world
Learning objectives –
Theories of the self and social identity:
– Why important for understanding the social world
– How self-knowledge is formed
– The major motives underlying self-perception
– Why we compare ourselves with others
– How our culture and social context influences who we think we are
Perceiving the self- James 1890
• We perceive ourselves as we perceive others – we become an object to ourselves
• James (1890) distinguished between the ‘I’ and the ‘me’ - when we ask, “who am I?”,
the I reflects on the me as an object
Perceiving the self – Mead 1934
- Mead (1934) - we take the attitude of the generalized other - society, reference
groups - towards ourselves
- Mead’s looking-glass self is a theory of symbolic interaction
- Mead suggests that our sense of self is socially constructed through shared abstract
gesture and language – we try to see ourselves as others see us
- Mead’s theory suggests we learn about ourselves from the abstract representations
of the collective other – how we think the generalized other (i.e., society, social
groups that are important to us) sees us
- This is important as Mead suggests that people are motivated to preserve their self-
views, which they do by thinking and behaving in ways that perpetuate their
conceptions of self (Swann et al., 1987).
Sources of Self Knowledge –
Self-perception- Bem, 1967, 1972
- Bem’s theory of self-perception is based upon attribution theory. The premise is
that we attribute other people’s identity, or who they are, based upon their
behavior. If they act aggressively, or we see them shouting, we think that they are
aggressive
- We do the same for ourselves. For example, I get pleasure from helping others, so I
help others when I can, and I therefore think of myself as a kind person. I am
intrinsically motivated to be kind. If I were to be excessively paid or punished for
behaving in a particular way, this would then be extrinsic motivation.
, - Self-attribution bias = my success is due to internal factors and my failures are due
to external factors.
- The over justification effect occurs when there is no obvious external reward for
doing what I’ve done – then I must have enjoyed it
Social comparison – Festigner 1954
- Comparing our behaviors and opinions with others in order to find the correct way
to be.
- Social evaluation maintenance model
- People who are constrained to make esteem-damaging upward comparisons can
underplay or deny similarity to the target, or they can withdraw from their
relationship with the target
Self-Affirmation
- Self-Affirmation is a defensive reaction to a perceived damage or insult to the sense
of self.
- Self-affirming individuals are able to adapt their self-belief so that damage to one
domain is protected by enhanced levels of self in another domain important to the
individual.
- This can be seen to occur for example in the case of prisoners who on arrival at
prison take importance from body building to compensate from damaged sense of
self.
The mutual constitution of culture and selves – Markus and Kitayama 2010
- Markus and Kitayama (2010) suggest that the ‘self’ requires input from the social
context in order to define itself and gain meaning through social situations (i.e.,
home, school, workplace) and that the interaction between the self and social
context collectively adapts and is mutually interdependent.
- It is this interrelatedness that functions as ‘culture’ and can therefore be considered
fluid.
Lecture 1- Self in a social world
Learning objectives –
Theories of the self and social identity:
– Why important for understanding the social world
– How self-knowledge is formed
– The major motives underlying self-perception
– Why we compare ourselves with others
– How our culture and social context influences who we think we are
Perceiving the self- James 1890
• We perceive ourselves as we perceive others – we become an object to ourselves
• James (1890) distinguished between the ‘I’ and the ‘me’ - when we ask, “who am I?”,
the I reflects on the me as an object
Perceiving the self – Mead 1934
- Mead (1934) - we take the attitude of the generalized other - society, reference
groups - towards ourselves
- Mead’s looking-glass self is a theory of symbolic interaction
- Mead suggests that our sense of self is socially constructed through shared abstract
gesture and language – we try to see ourselves as others see us
- Mead’s theory suggests we learn about ourselves from the abstract representations
of the collective other – how we think the generalized other (i.e., society, social
groups that are important to us) sees us
- This is important as Mead suggests that people are motivated to preserve their self-
views, which they do by thinking and behaving in ways that perpetuate their
conceptions of self (Swann et al., 1987).
Sources of Self Knowledge –
Self-perception- Bem, 1967, 1972
- Bem’s theory of self-perception is based upon attribution theory. The premise is
that we attribute other people’s identity, or who they are, based upon their
behavior. If they act aggressively, or we see them shouting, we think that they are
aggressive
- We do the same for ourselves. For example, I get pleasure from helping others, so I
help others when I can, and I therefore think of myself as a kind person. I am
intrinsically motivated to be kind. If I were to be excessively paid or punished for
behaving in a particular way, this would then be extrinsic motivation.
, - Self-attribution bias = my success is due to internal factors and my failures are due
to external factors.
- The over justification effect occurs when there is no obvious external reward for
doing what I’ve done – then I must have enjoyed it
Social comparison – Festigner 1954
- Comparing our behaviors and opinions with others in order to find the correct way
to be.
- Social evaluation maintenance model
- People who are constrained to make esteem-damaging upward comparisons can
underplay or deny similarity to the target, or they can withdraw from their
relationship with the target
Self-Affirmation
- Self-Affirmation is a defensive reaction to a perceived damage or insult to the sense
of self.
- Self-affirming individuals are able to adapt their self-belief so that damage to one
domain is protected by enhanced levels of self in another domain important to the
individual.
- This can be seen to occur for example in the case of prisoners who on arrival at
prison take importance from body building to compensate from damaged sense of
self.
The mutual constitution of culture and selves – Markus and Kitayama 2010
- Markus and Kitayama (2010) suggest that the ‘self’ requires input from the social
context in order to define itself and gain meaning through social situations (i.e.,
home, school, workplace) and that the interaction between the self and social
context collectively adapts and is mutually interdependent.
- It is this interrelatedness that functions as ‘culture’ and can therefore be considered
fluid.
