2 The Self in A Social World

“There are three things extremely hard, Steel, a Diamond, and to
know one’s self.”

- Benjamin Franklin
THE SELF IN A SOCIAL

WORLD
HOW SELF-CONSCIOUS ARE
YOU?
• SPOTLIGHT EFFECT
- the belief that others are paying more
attention to our appearance and behavior than
they really are.
• ILLUSION OF TRANSPARENCY
- the belief that our emotions are more
obvious than they are.
SOCIAL SURROUNDINGS
AFFECT OUR SELF-
AWARENESS.
SELF-INTEREST COLORS
OUR JUDGMENT
SELF-CONCERN
MOTIVATES OUR
BEHAVIOR
SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS
HELP DEFINE OUR SENSE
OF SELF.
SELF-CONCEPT: WHO AM I?
• What we know and believe about ourselves.
• I am _________________ ?
• Sense of Self
• Self-Schema
• Social Comparison
• Other people’s Judgments
•Self and Culture

• Individualism (independent self)
• Collectivism (interdependent self)
•Self-Knowledge
• Predicting our Behavior (Planning fallacy)
• Predicting our Feelings (Impact Bias)
WHAT IS THE NATURE AND
MOTIVATING POWER OF SELF-
ESTEEM?
•Self-Esteem
• Is the overall sense of self-worth we use to appraise our traits and abilities.
•Motivating power
• Social rejection lowers self-esteem and makes people more eager for
approval
• Terror management theory
• The reality of our own death motivates us to gain recognition from our
work and values.
• Research found out that students whose self-worth was
contingent on external sources (such as grades or others’
opinions) experienced more stress, anger, relationship
problems, drug and alcohol use, and eating disorders than
did those whose sense of self-worth was rooted more in
internal sources (personal virtues).
• Crocker and Lora Park found that whose who pursue
self-esteem, perhaps by seeking to become beautiful, rich,
or popular, may lose sight of what really makes them feel
good about themselves.
• When we focus on boosting our self-esteem, we
may become less open to criticism, less likely to
empathize with others, and more pressured to
succeed at activities rather than enjoy them.
• Overtime, such pursuit of self-esteem can fail to
satisfy our deep needs for competence, affiliation,
and autonomy.
• Compassion
• self-compassion
NARCISSISM: SELF-ESTEEM’S
CONCEITED SISTER
•High self-esteem becomes •Narcissists usually have high
especially problematic if it self-esteem, but they are
crosses over into narcissism, or missing the piece about caring
having an inflated sense of self. for others.
•Most people with high self- •Although narcissist can be
esteem value both individual outgoing and charming early
achievement and relationships on, their self-centeredness often
with others. leads to relationship problems
in the long run.
SELF-EFFICACY
•A sense that one is competent and effective,
distinguished from self-esteem, which is one’s sense
of self-worth.
•Children and adults with strong feelings of self-
efficacy are more persistent, less anxious, and less
depressed.
•If you believe you can do something, that’s self-
efficacy. If you like yourself overall, that’s self-
esteem.
W HAT I S SELF-SERVING BIAS?
- the tendency to perceive oneself favorably.
Self-Serving Attributions
A form of self-serving bias; the tendency to attribute positive
outcomes to oneself and negative outcomes to other factors.
Success Failures
•Ability •External factors such as bad luck
•Efforts •Problem’s inherent
impossibility
FALSE CONSENSUS AND
UNIQUENESS
False Consensus Effect
The tendency to overestimate the commonality of one’s
opinions and one’s undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors.
False Uniqueness Effect

The tendency to underestimate the commonality of one’s abilities
and one’s desirable or successful behaviors.
HOW DO PEOPLE MANAGE
THEIR SELF-PRESENTATION?
• Self-Handicapping
• Protecting one’s self-image with behaviors that create a handy excuse for later failure.
• Ex: students might procrastinate on their homework or put off studying until the
very last minute.
• Impression Management
• Self-presentation (social media)
• The act of expressing oneself and behaving in ways designed to create a favorable
impression or an impression that corresponds to one’s ideals.
• Self-monitoring
• Being attuned to the way one presents oneself in social situations and adjusting one’s
performance to create a desired impression.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO
HAVE SELF-CONTROL?
• Self-control operates similarly to muscular strength (Baumeister
and Julie Exline, 2000): Both are weaker after exertion,
replenished with rest, and strengthened by exercise (Muraven et
al., 1999)
• Study skills = planning and self-control
• Improving self-control in one area leads to improvement in
others (Oaten & Cheng, 2006)

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2 The Self in A Social World

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“There are three things extremely hard, Steel, a Diamond, and to

know one’s self.”

THE SELF IN A SOCIAL

•Self and Culture

- the tendency to perceive oneself favorably.

False Uniqueness Effect

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