The self/Attribution processes
The self
Personal identity: height, eye color, intelligent
Group identity: left-handed, law student
Relational self: daughter, ex-girlfriend
Goals and motivations: wants to be a lawyer
Self-evaluations: content with appearance, proud of herself
- Personal self
- Unique individual
- Relational self
- Relationships with significant others
- Social identity
- Based on group membership
Evaluative and motivational aspects of the self
- Evaluative component: self-esteem
- Being proud, insecure
- Motivational component: self-regulation
Self-definition
What is the cognitive basis of the self?
- Self-concept
- The idea that we have of ourselves
- Working self-concept
- Part of the self that is activatted in a context
- Comparable to working memory
- Can change depending on the situation
- Self-schema
- Knowledge of a certain domain that is important for the self
- Things that you are sure about, you don’t have to think much
about these aspects. (e.g., dancing)
- Are used automatically
Self-focus
- The extent to which we focus on ourselves vs. the context
- Manipulate: mirror, so focus turns towards themselves. Then, priming
disappears and you start to think about more existential themes.
- Research self-focus: have people draw a letter on their forehead. Focus on
social context or themselves.
Personal identity and Social identity
- Western countries: personal identity is very important
- Social identity
, - Identity based on group membership and the emotional
meaning of the group
- Cognitive basis: social categorization
- Dividing world into ‘us’ and ‘them’
- This is by definition ‘self’-relevant
- You would like to see your groups as positive
- People strive for a positive social identity
- In-group positively differentiated from out-group
- Positive social identity serves motives such as
- Self-esteem
- Meaning
- Certainty
Cultural differences in self-definition
- Individual → Unique individual
- Relational → Relationships with signifiacnt others
- Social id. → Group membership
- Independent (individual) self → Western culture
- Relational self e.g. East-Asian countries
- These are extremes, there are variations
Self esteem
- Explicit self-esteem
- e.g. Rosenberg Scale
- I feel that i have a number of good qualities
- I feel I do not have much to be proud of
- Heatheron & Polivy: domain-specific self-esteem
- Appearance
- Academic
- Social
- Implicit self-esteem: name-letter effect: people like things that start with the
first letter of their name
- Koole et al. (2001)
- Research on ‘aesthetical impressions of simple
stimuli’
- Participants judged ‘beauty’ of letters of the
alphabet
- People prefer the letters from
their own name
- Can be influenced by context
- Has important consequences: implicit egoism
Effects of self-esteem
- In general high self-esteem is functional
- Mental health
- Physical health
- However…
- Instable self-esteem is the most defensive/aggressive after
threat to self
- Strong explicit, low implicit is bad for you
The self
Personal identity: height, eye color, intelligent
Group identity: left-handed, law student
Relational self: daughter, ex-girlfriend
Goals and motivations: wants to be a lawyer
Self-evaluations: content with appearance, proud of herself
- Personal self
- Unique individual
- Relational self
- Relationships with significant others
- Social identity
- Based on group membership
Evaluative and motivational aspects of the self
- Evaluative component: self-esteem
- Being proud, insecure
- Motivational component: self-regulation
Self-definition
What is the cognitive basis of the self?
- Self-concept
- The idea that we have of ourselves
- Working self-concept
- Part of the self that is activatted in a context
- Comparable to working memory
- Can change depending on the situation
- Self-schema
- Knowledge of a certain domain that is important for the self
- Things that you are sure about, you don’t have to think much
about these aspects. (e.g., dancing)
- Are used automatically
Self-focus
- The extent to which we focus on ourselves vs. the context
- Manipulate: mirror, so focus turns towards themselves. Then, priming
disappears and you start to think about more existential themes.
- Research self-focus: have people draw a letter on their forehead. Focus on
social context or themselves.
Personal identity and Social identity
- Western countries: personal identity is very important
- Social identity
, - Identity based on group membership and the emotional
meaning of the group
- Cognitive basis: social categorization
- Dividing world into ‘us’ and ‘them’
- This is by definition ‘self’-relevant
- You would like to see your groups as positive
- People strive for a positive social identity
- In-group positively differentiated from out-group
- Positive social identity serves motives such as
- Self-esteem
- Meaning
- Certainty
Cultural differences in self-definition
- Individual → Unique individual
- Relational → Relationships with signifiacnt others
- Social id. → Group membership
- Independent (individual) self → Western culture
- Relational self e.g. East-Asian countries
- These are extremes, there are variations
Self esteem
- Explicit self-esteem
- e.g. Rosenberg Scale
- I feel that i have a number of good qualities
- I feel I do not have much to be proud of
- Heatheron & Polivy: domain-specific self-esteem
- Appearance
- Academic
- Social
- Implicit self-esteem: name-letter effect: people like things that start with the
first letter of their name
- Koole et al. (2001)
- Research on ‘aesthetical impressions of simple
stimuli’
- Participants judged ‘beauty’ of letters of the
alphabet
- People prefer the letters from
their own name
- Can be influenced by context
- Has important consequences: implicit egoism
Effects of self-esteem
- In general high self-esteem is functional
- Mental health
- Physical health
- However…
- Instable self-esteem is the most defensive/aggressive after
threat to self
- Strong explicit, low implicit is bad for you
