Download SS Chapter 6

Chapter 6:
The Self in a Social World
Dr. M. Davis-Brantley
Schemas
• Schema is a set of beliefs and feelings
– Ex: stereotypes, prejudices, and generalization
• Adolf Hitler
• Role Schema is a schema about how
people in certain roles are expected to
behave
– Ex: Wife, teacher, man, etc…
• Person Schema is a schema about how a
particular individual is expected to behave
– First impressions often form our schemas
(cognitive anchors
Schemas Continued
• Self-Schema is the set of beliefs, feelings,
and generalizations we have about
ourselves
– Core of our psychological world
– Built around our physical self, social self,
personal self
• Self is the totality of our impressions,
thoughts, and feelings, such that we have a
conscious, continuous sense of being in the
world
– Rogers-the self is “in born”
Parts of the Self
• Physical Self
– Plays a significant role in your selfconcept
– Can be formed by how others view you
or respond to your presence
• Dove Campaign
• Dove Campaign 2
– Ex: Height, gender, physical
attractiveness
• Height and Forbes statistics
• Ex: Gender and sex features influence
identity
• Importance of weight, athletic condition, &
hair style
Parts of the Self: Social Self
– How you present yourself to the world
– Changes from situation to situation
– Refers to the social roles we play
• Suitor, student, worker, husband, wife, mother, citizen,
leader, follower
– What are some social roles we play in life?
• Ex: Attorney
– Strengths & Weaknesses?
• Social vs. Professional (Japanese Professional
Language
Parts of the Self
• Personal Self
– Refers to one’s private, continuous sense of
being oneself in the world
– Refers to who you feel you are, not what you are
perceived to be
– One’s inner identity
• Names: Labels of the Self
– A rose by any other name would smell just as
sweet!
– Unusual or Unattractive names may be linked to
success later in adulthood
– New Names: Apple, Flite, Jermajesty, Brooklyn
Self-Concept and Self-Esteem
• Self-Concept is one’s perception of oneself
including one’s traits and evaluation of these
traits
– Includes self-esteem and ideal self
• Can evaluate one’s self-concept according
to a continuum
• Examples include fairness, attractive,
intelligent, religious, sociable, etc…
1=Extremely _______ to 7=Extremely
Un_______
Self-Concept and Self-Esteem
• Self-Esteem is belief in ability and
favorable opinion of oneself
• Begins during childhood and stems
from parenting style of the parents
• Researchers found that high esteem is
evoked when parents hold
expectations of their children but are
also involved their children’s life
The Ideal Self
• One’s perception of what one ought to
be or do
• Can be your perception of your selfactualization
• Where do you see yourself on the
continuum now vs. where you’d want
to be concerning education
1=Extremely ____ to 7=Extremely
Un____
Identity Status
• Refers to your sense of who you are
and what you stand for
• Erik Erikson (Psychologist)
• Believed in growth throughout specific
stages and resolution of certain crises
• James Marcia conceptualized these
stages and identified four identity
statuses
Identity Achievement
• The identity status that describes
individuals who have resolved an
identity crisis and committed to a
relatively stable set of beliefs or a
course of action
• Ex: Making a career choice or religious
decision after going through a crisis
Identity Foreclosure
• Refers to individuals who have adopted a
commitment to a set of beliefs or a course of
action without undergoing a personal
identity crisis
• Ex: Adopting something, just because,
without questioning and without going
through crisis
• Adopting something because “Everybody’s
doing it”
Identity Moratorium
• The identity status that describes
individuals who are in an identity crisis
• There is an intense examination of the
alternatives
Identity Diffusion
• The identity status that describes
individuals who have neither arrived at
a commitment as to who they are and
what they stand for nor experienced
crisis
• These individuals are acting on a whim
and are not attempting to resolve life
decisions
• Ex: Sexual Identity or Professional
Decision
Identity Statuses
Presence of
Crisis
Absence of
Crisis
Presence of
Commitme
nt
Identity
Achievement
Absence of
Commitme
nt
Identity Moratorium Identity Diffusion
Identity
Foreclosure
Perception of Others
• Primacy Effect
– The tendency to evaluate others in terms
of first impressions
– Why are first impressions so important?
• Recency Effect
– The tendency to evaluate others in terms
of the most recent impressions
– The is often taught so that we don’t make
snap judgments supported with no
evidence
Before we start!
Write down something about yourself
or something you enjoy that your social
or cultural group would not approve of
Group Presentation
Prejudice and Attribution Theory
Attribution Theory
• Attribution is a belief concerning why people behave a
certain way
• Attribution Process is the process by which people draw
inferences about the motives and traits of others
• Dispositional Attribution an assumption that a person’s
behavior is determined by internal causes such as personal
attitudes or goals
• Situational Attribution an assumption that a person’s
behavior is determined by external circumstances, such as the
pressure found in a situation
• Fundamental Attribution Error is the tendency to assume
that others act on the basis of choice or will even when there
is evidence suggestive of the importance of their situations
• Actor-Observer Effect—tendency to attribute our own
behavior to external, situational factors but to attribute the
behavior of others to internal, dispositional factors such as
choice and free will
Attribution
• The mental process of inferring the causes of
people’s behavior, including one’s own
• The explanation given for a particular behavior
• When someone cuts us off in traffic they did it
because “They’re stupid or don’t know how to
drive”
• Right? We attribute the behavior to their stupidity
not the fact that we could be in their blind-spot
and WE couldn’t see them
• We tend to spontaneously attribute the behavior
of others to internal, personal characteristics,
while ignoring or underestimating the effects of
external, situational factors
Prejudice and Discrimination
• Prejudice—is the belief that a person or group, on the basis of
assumed racial, ethnic, sexual, or other features, will possess
negative characteristics or perform inadequately. Linked to
your schema
– Ex: Racism, Sexism, Ageism, Homophobia
• Discrimination—the denial of privileges to a person or group
based on your prejudice
– Ex: Denial of job, housing, voting privileges, education, etc…
• Stereotype—Fixed, conventional ideas about a group that can
lead us to process information about member of the group in a
biased way
– Ex: Women are overly emotional, Blacks are superstitious or
overly religious, Hispanics are dirty or loud. What are other?
Social Categories
• In-group—the social group to which we
belong
– In-group bias—tendency to make favorable
attributions for members of our in-group
– Ethnocentrism is one type of in-group bias
– WE are Tactful—THEY are Sneaky
• Out-group—the social group to which you
do not belong
– Out group homogeneity effect—tendency to
see members of the out-group as more similar
to each other
• How do we get pass prejudice and racism?
– We used to think, simply by exposing different
groups to one another…WRONG ANSWER
– This contact theory could lead to confirming
stereotypes, especially since reality is all in your
Prejudice and Discrimination
•
Sources of Prejudice
– Dissimilarity—People prefer to affiliate with people who have similar
attitudes. This can breed superiority or inferiority
• What would happen to the world if we only associated with those similar to us?
– Social Conflict—Social and economic conflict give rise to feelings of
prejudice. People of different races and religions often compete for jobs
giving rise to prejudice
– Social Learning—Where do children learn prejudice and discrimination?
Parents often reinforce their children for behaving in ways that may be
prejudicial.
– Social categorization—People tend to divide their social world into “us”
and “them” which also breeds prejudice and discrimination
•
Combating Prejudice and Discrimination
– Brown eyes and green eyes research
– Revisit: Fundamental Attribution Error: They are late because their Black
not because there was bad traffic