Key Terms
| Personality | Stable intrinsic traits that influence behaviour |
| Social Self | How individuals perceive themselves and their roles in different social interactions |
| Self-Concept | What we know about ourselves |
| Self-Esteem | Our emotional evaluation of our worth |
| The spotlight effect | Overestimating how much others notice our appearance or behaviour |
| Illusion of transparency | The belief that everyone can easily read our hidden emotions |
The Social Self
What is the social self?
- Made up of 2 parts: self concept and self esteem
- Adapts according to context & shifting roles
- Self perception is highly flexible
Context & the Social Self
At home:
- Responsibilities
- Family expectations
- Caretaking & reliability
With friends:
- Humour
- More relaxed
- Entertainer
- Confidant
At work:
- Professional
- Responsibility
- Attention to detail
In sports:
- Assetive
- Competitive
- Teamwork
- Determination
How does group membership influence social identity?
Social comparison:
- We evaluate ourselves in comparison to others
- Downward comparisons boost self esteem
- Upward comparisons lower self esteem
Social identity:
- The groups we belong to shape our identity
- We favour people in our own group
- We reduce diversity in people outside our own group
Self-stereotyping:
- We adopt behaviours form groups we strongly associate with
The Social Mirror
What is the Spotlight effect?
- Our tendency to overestimate how much other people are noticing us
Research on the spotlight effect
- Researchers got people to wear t-shirts they liked and disliked and walk into a room with people
- People consistently over-estimated how many people noticed their shirt
- In reality, people are less focused on us than we imagine
What is a Self-Schema
- Mental structures we use to organise the information we have about ourselves
- Shaped by experiences & social interactions
General beliefs:
- Broad ideas we hold about ourselves
- Formed from experiences & feedback
- Influences our self-esteem and responses
Specific Situations:
- Memories of specific events that reinforce general beliefs about self
- Helps guide behaviour in similar situations
Guiding Behaviour:
- Self schemas guide our behaviour
- It filters what behaviours match your self image
Self-reference effect:
- We remember information better when it relates to ourselves
- Self-schemas are deeply woben into memory and learning
Origins of the self
Family & Socialisation:
- Early caregivers have a large influence on our self-concept
- Certain values and activities can be internalised
Reflected Self-Appraisal & the Looking Glass Self:
- We form our self image by imagining how others see us
- Other people act as mirrors for our perceived qualities
- Important in adolescence
Context & Culture:
- Our sense of self can shift according to context
- Individualist vs collectivist cultures shift identity
- Independent vs Interdependent self
Self Knowledge & Self Esteem
Key Terms:
| Self-knowledge | The information we have about ourselves built from experiences & reflections |
| Self-Esteem | Our emotional evaluation of ourselves and our self worth |
| Self-enhancement | Our tendency to see ourselves in an overly positive light, due to self-serving biases |
Errors in Self-Explanation & Prediction
Explaining Our Own Behaviour
- We often misunderstand the reasons behind our actions
- People’s reported life satisfaction can be influenced by weather
- A study showed men confused excitement from crossing a scary bridge with attraction
Predicting Our Own Behaviour
- People are bad at predicting how they will behave in morally challenging situations
- Milgram’s Obedience studies show people underestimate their ability to be peer pressured
- Family & friends are better at predicting our traits/ behaviours
Predicting Our Feelings/ Impact Bias
- We overestimate the intensity & duration of our interactions
- People think winning the lottery will make them happy for the rest of their life
- Emotional wellbeing returns to baseline faster than we expect
- Impact bias can influence our long term decision making
The Dunning-Kruger Effect: Ignorance & Overconfidence
What is the Dunning-Kruger effect?
“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge”
– Darwin, 1871
- The tendency for individuals to overestimate their competence in areas you are bad at
- Kruger & Dunning (1999) found that people who performed badly when judging quality of jokes thought they did much better
- Lacking skill = lacking ability to recognise you lack the skill. lmao baha
Real Life Examples:
- People think they are good drivers when they kinda suck
- People claim to be ethical when they are not
Why does it happen?
- The skills we need to do well are the same we need to accurately self-assess
- Double blind spot: we don’t know what we don’t know
Self Esteem in Depth
Sources of Self- Esteem
- Comparisons to others/ social media
- Achievements
- Feedback from others
- Measured commonly with Rosenberg’s Self-Esteem scale (1965)
Social Comparison
- Upward comparison = motivates but lower self esteem
- Downward comparison = makes us feel better about ourselves
Sociometer
- Leary’s sociometer hypothesis
- Self-esteem is an internal measurement of social acceptance & rejection
- Low self-esteem = social relationships need to be strengthened
- High self esteem = we feel attractive and competent which increases social inclusion
- Based on the idea the group acceptance has been important for survival in evolution
The Double-Edged Sword of Self-Enhancement
Self-enhancement biases
- Taking credit for success and blaming others for failures
- People believe they are better at driving, ethics, intelligence when they aren’t
- Boosts confidence but distorts reality
Benefits of self-enhancement
- Moderate levels linked to better psychological adjustment & resilience
- People who think positively about themselves cope better with stress
The dark-side of self esteem
Heatherton & Vohs (2000)
- Looked at how people with high vs low self esteem were seen by others after an ego threat
- People with high self esteem became more defensive
- People with low self esteem become more affiliative and engaged in relationship-repair behaviours
Affirmations & Self-Esteem
Wood et al. (2009)
- Evaluated the impact of positive self-statements on mood & self-esteem
- People who already had high self esteem experienced a small improvements in mood
- People who had low self esteem reported worse mood
- Showed that positive affirmations are not universally beneficial
Forming Impressions
Key Terms
| First Impression | The initial, fast and limited judgements we make about people. |
| Thin Slices | Very short samples of behaviour that form strong impressions |
Speed of First Impressions
Speed Dating Studies:
(Asendorpf, Penke, and Back, 2011)
- People form impressions about potential partners within a few minutes
- First impressions rarely predict long-term relationship success
Thin Slices of Behaviour:
Ambady & Rosenthal (1993)
- Observers could watch a 10 sec silent video of a teacher and make judgements about confidence and likability
- Quick ratings were similar to those who had the teacher for a whole semester
Snap Judgements of Leadership:
Antonakis & Dalgas (2009)
- Showed children pictures of political candidates & asked who would make a better leader
- Kids’ choices matched election outcomes 71% of the time
- Showed that first impressions based on appearance alone has a strong influence on important decision making
Are first impressions accurate?
Consensus vs accuracy:
- Consensus = people agree on a judgement
- Accuracy = how true those judgments are
- Consensus & accuracy can exist without each other
Surprising findings:
- Rapid judgements can be surprisingly accurate
- Studies have shown correlations between CEO’s faces and company profits
Limits & biases:
- Gut feelings can be sensible
- First impressions are vulnerable to biases & stereotypes
- May not reflect reality
Implicit Personality Theories
What are implicit personality theories?
- Mental shortcuts we use to fill in missing information in our perception of people
Examples of Implicit Personality Theories
Baby-faced Features
- Large eyes & round cheeks
- Judged as more naive & submissive
- Can receive more lenient treatment in court
- May be seen as less competent
- Caused by our evolutionary response to baby-like features
Appearing Gullible
- Jaeger et al. (2022) constructed composite prototypes of gullible and non-gullible faces.
- Gullible looking faces have more baby-like features
- Relies on appearance instead of actual behaviour
Asch’s Trait Order
- Some traits have a larger effect on our overall impression of a person
Central Traits: Warm vs Cold
- Participants given a list of adjectives to describe a hypothetical persons
- Warm vs cold had a large impact on how people rated all other qualities
- Warm = person seen as generous and happy
- Cold = person seen negatively even if all other traits where the same
Peripheral Traits: Polite vs Blunt
- Barely changed the overall impression of the person
- Not all traits have the same weight when we form impressions of people
Primacy Effect
- Presentation order of traits is important
- Traits presented first influence how we interpret later traits
- Starting with positive traits set a more positive impression even if negative traits were later added
Biases, Schemas, Stereotypes
Key Terms
| Schema | A mental framework of expectations that help us interpret new information |
| Stereotype | A widely held belied that people in a group share traits |
| In-group favouritism | The tendency to favour people in our own group than those in the outside group |
Negative Information & Physical Appearance
Bad is stronger than Good
- Negative information has a stronger impact on our impressions than positive information
- Bad news sticks with us longer
Physical Attractiveness Bias
- Attractive people judged more positively even without evidence
- Bias can affect legal decisions
- We associate good looks with positive qualities
Why do these biases exist?
- Evolutionarily they increased survival and reproductive success
- Paying attention to negative information helped them avoid risks
- Physical attractiveness was cue for health & fertility
Schemas: Making Sense of People
How schemas shape perception?
- Guide what we notice, remember & interpret about others
- Helps us make sense of complex information fast
- Risk of bias & incomplete information
Stereotypes: Group Schemas in Action
- Schemas about groups of people based on limited information
- Can be positive & negative
Inaccuracy
- People retell stories & change details to fit stereotypes
In- Group Favouritism & Intergroup Conflict
In-group favouritism
- People favour those in their own group
- We exaggerate the differences in outsiders
- People give more resources to those in our own group
- Jane Elliott’s Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes study
- Children divided by eye colour
- One eye colour given higher status
- Children quickly showed in group favouritism & out group bias
Out-group homogeneity & bias
- Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979)
- We see people in other groups as more similar than reality
- We homogenise people in other groups
- Leads to overgeneralisation & prejudice
- Reinforces stereotypes
The Robbers Cave Experiment
- Sherif and colleagues’ Robbers Cave study (1966)
- Boys placed in separate groups, not knowing about the other group
- Groups developed strong group identities
- Once they were aware of each other, they became very hostile
- Tension only decreased when they needed to cooperate on goals to succeed together
- Competition –> increased intergroup bias
- Cooperation –> reduces hostility
