Spotlight effect

--The belief that others are paying more attention to one’s appearance and behavior than they really are
Illusion of transparency
--The illusion that our concealed emotion are “leak out” and can be easily read by others.
Furthermore…
Social surroundings affect our self-awareness- When we feel “Out-of-place” or O.P.
Self-interest colors our social judgment- We tend to blame other people for something bad or credit ourselves for
something good.
Self-concern motivates our social behavior- We agonize our self-appearance to make a good impression.
Social relationships help define our self- My relationship with my mom vs. with my friends.

A. Our sense of Self

Possible selves– Images of what we dream of or dread becoming in the future.
What contributes to our self-concept?
E.g. American Idols

B. Dev. of the Social Self

1. THE ROLES WE PLAY

Whether we are a college student, parent, or salesperson our sense of role affects the way we see our self.
leader, officer, kapatid, bestfriend

2. SOCIAL COMPARISONS
Social Comparison– Evaluating one’s abilities and opinions by comparing oneself with others.
Smart or dull?, rich or poor?, Good looking or kind? 

3. SUCCESS & FAILURE

Our daily experiences of success and failure gives us a sense of social self.
What would you feel if you get a high score in math?
4. OTHER PEOPLE’S JUDGMENTS
What people think well of us, it helps us think well of ourselves.
Looking-glass self= tendency to use others as a mirror for perceiving our selves (Cooley & Mead).
5. THE CULTURE
In Cultural psych, self and culture are seen as mutually constitutive.
Culture and self construct each other!
Culture transforms
us and then we
transform the
culture!
C. Self & Culture
GROWING INDIVIDUALISM
“The Me Generation”.
Even parents are now concerned with the uniqueness of their children’s name.
CULTURE & COGNITION
Asian thinking (more collectivist) vs. Western thinking (more individualist).

The Filipino Youth

Peña-Alampay (2003)
Filipino youth scored higher in the interdependent self compared to independent self.
Five major categories of self-aspects:
Relational social roles (e.g. anak)
Social roles (e.g. estudyante)
Situations (e.g. sa bahay)
Superordinate categories
(e.g. ang gusto kong baguhin)
No contextual reference
(e.g. ako)
C. Self & Culture
CULTURE & SELF-ESTEEM
Self-esteem– overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth.
Americans tend to have high self-esteem with disengaged emotions– feeling effective, superior and proud.
(Kitayama & Markus, 2000)
Asians tend to have high self-esteem with positive social engagement– feeling close, friendly, & respectful.
(Kitayama & Markus, 2000)
D. Self-knowledge
EXPLAINING OUR BEHAVIOR
When it comes to explanation of our behavior sometimes we know sometimes we don’t.
We tend to dismiss the subtle factors or predictors of some of our behaviors.
Mondays are not really a contributing factor to the participants’ moods (Stone et al., 1985)
Thus, sometimes we don’t really know ourselves!
PREDICTING OUR FEELINGS
How would you feel if during interview you were asked sexually harassing questions?
Most women said they would feel angry if asked sexually harassing questions. However, they felt more fear
(Woodzicka & LaFrance, 2001).
Impact bias- overestimating the enduring impact of emotion-causing events.
Immune Neglect-- Tendency to underestimate the speed & strength of the “Psychological Immune System”.
Emotional Recovery or Resilience
THE WISDOM & ILLUSIONS OF SELF-ANALYSIS
Implicit attitudes= automatic attitudes.
Explicit attitudes= controlled and conscious attitudes.
Dual attitudes= having a differing implicit and explicit attitude.
Explicit can change with education and persuasion.
Implicit can change through practice, w/c forms new habits.
A. Self-Esteem
Self-Esteem-- A person’s overall self- evaluation or sense of self- worth.
Self-Esteem is contingent (bound by circumstance).
You feel good when you feel smart & good looking vs. you feel good when you meet some moral standards.
Self-perceptions can have an influence. (E.g. if you think you’re good in Math you tend to do well in Math).
In an exam in Psychology, the students whose self-esteem was boosted did by far the worst on the final—in fact,
they flunked it (Forsyth & others, 2007).
*****Self-esteem is a “two headed arrow”. High self-esteem makes you good in math. A result of good
performance affects self-esteem again.
*In this research, expe group received a self-esteem boosting email. While the control group did not
Poor students told to feel good about themselves, the researchers muse, may have thought, “I’m already great—
why study?”
B. Self-Esteem Motivation
Self-esteem feelings are radars for social rejection.
Sibling rivalries & married couples with identical career goals.
We want to avoid social rejection, consequently, it motivates us to act with greater sensitivity to others’
expectations.
Social acceptance= Self-Esteem ;Social rejection= Self-Esteem.
Self-Esteem is bound by the standards of the society.
In times of failures, self-esteem people sustain their self-worth by perceiving other people as failing, too, and by
exaggerating their superiority over others.
C. The “Dark side” of Self-Esteem
People with low self-esteem often have problems in life– they make less money, more likely to abuse drugs and be
depressed (Nurmi et al., 2007)
People with high self-esteem become teen gang leaders, terrorists, and men in prison for committing heinous
crimes (Bushman & Baumeister, 2002)
Narcissism: Self-Esteem’s conceited sister
Bushman & Baumeister (1998), undergraduate volunteers wrote essays and received rigged feedback that said,
“This is one of the worst essays I’ve read!”
éSelf-Esteem + éNarcissism= éaggression.
Self-Efficacy
Self-Efficacy– A sense that one is competent & effective.
How competent we feel on the task.
Given challenging tasks, people who imagine themselves as hardworking and successful outperform those who
imagine themselves as failures (Ruvolo & Markus, 1992).

A. Locus of Control
Locus of control-- The extent to which people perceive outcomes as internally controllable by their own efforts or
as externally controlled by chance or outside forces.
“Swerte lang”, “Na-malas ako!”
“The Law of Attraction”
“Kasi magaling ako”
“Because I practiced well”

Internal locus of control

You probably believe you control your own destiny.
“I failed because I didn't’t study.”
‘They can because they think they can.”

External locus of control

You probably feel chance or outside forces determine your fate.
“I failed because my teacher didn’t like me by chance.”

B. Learned Helplessness
Learned helplessness– The sense of hopelessness and resignation learned when a human or animal
perceives no control over repeated bad events.
E.g. Depressed or oppressed people become passive because they believe their efforts have no effect.

C. Self-Determination
People benefit by training their self-control “muscles.” (Oaten &Cheng, 2006).
Prisoners given some control over their environments—by being able to move chairs, control TV sets, and
operate the lights—experience less stress, exhibit fewer health problems, and commit less vandalism
(Ruback & others, 1986; Wener & others, 1987).
In all countries studied, people who perceive themselves as having free choice experience greater
satisfaction with their lives . And countries where people experience more freedom have more satisfied
citizens (Inglehart & others, 2008).
****Studies confirm that systems of governing or managing people that promote personal control will indeed
promote health and happiness (Deci & Ryan, 1987).

The Costs of Excess Choice

Too many choices can lead to paralysis!
Students who chose which classes they would take during the upcoming semester tend to most likely
procrastinate and fail exams (Vohs & others, 2008 ).
More satisfaction in marriages decades ago when it was more irrevocable Vs. Today that we have greater
freedom to escape (annulment, divorce).
Self-Serving Bias
Self-serving bias-- The tendency to perceive oneself favorably.
Group-serving bias- The tendency to perceive one’s group
favorably
Most of us have a
good reputation with
ourselves.

A. Positive & Negative events

Self-serving Attributions-- A form of self-serving bias; the tendency to attribute positive outcomes to
oneself and negative outcomes to other factors.
Salient in games, exams, & job applications.
People attribute their success to their ability and effort, but they attribute failure to external factors such
as bad luck or the problem’s inherent “impossibility” (Campbell & Sedikides, 1999).
Ironically, we are even biased against seeing our own bias. People claim they avoid self-serving bias
themselves, but readily acknowledge that others commit this bias (Pronin & others, 2002).

B. Better than average?

Compared with people in general, most people see themselves as more ethical, more competent at their
job, friendlier, more intelligent, better looking, less prejudiced, healthier, and even more insightful and less
biased in their self-assessments.
Young married Canadians usually believed they took more responsibility for such activities as cleaning the
house and caring for the children than their spouses credited them for (Rios & Sicoly, 1979).

B. Unrealistic Optimism
A predisposition of a positive approach in life.
Myself= Unrealistic optimism about my future ; Others= Pessimism to others’ fate
Illusory optimism increases our vulnerability. Believing ourselves immune to misfortune, we do not take
sensible precautions.
Sexually active undergraduate women who don’t consistently use contraceptives perceive themselves,
compared with other women at their university, as much less vulnerable to unwanted pregnancy (Burger
& Burns, 1988).
****22 cultures reveal that most humans are more disposed to optimism than pessimism (Fischer &
Chalmers, 2008). However, it tends to get unrealistic!

C. False Consensus and Uniqueness

False Consensus effect-- The tendency to overestimate the commonality of one’s opinions and one’s
undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors.
We think that others think and act like we do.
We generalize from a limited sample, which prominently includes ourselves.
“Everyone cheats anyway!”
False Uniqueness effect--The tendency to underestimate the commonality of one’s abilities and one’s
desirable or successful behaviors.
“I’m the one who studies in this class anyway!”
***They guess that others think and act as they do: “I lie, but doesn’t everyone?”

VI. Self-Presentation
A. Self-Handicapping
Self-handicapping-- Protecting one’s self-image with behaviors that create a handy excuse for later
failure.
Handicaps protect both self-esteem and public image by allowing us to attribute failures to something
temporary or external.
 We always have a DISCLAIMER!!
Because we are always concerned with our SELF-IMAGE!

B. Impression Management
Self-presentation-- The act of expressing oneself and behaving in ways designed to create a favorable
impression or an impression that corresponds to one’s ideals.
We want to present a desired image both to an external audience (other people) and to
an internal audience (ourselves).
That’s why we apologize if necessary.
We also must make sure not to brag too much and risk the disapproval of others (Anderson & others,
2006).
Self-monitoring-- Being attuned to the way one presents oneself in social situations and adjusting one’s
performance to create the desired impression.
We are Social “Chameleons”
Social Desirability is salient among Filipinos whenever we answer surveys or questionnaires.

****authors logic uds for gender ek ek

Gender identity is how a person feels and who they know them self to be when it comes to their gender. There are
more than two genders, even though in our society the genders that are most recognized are male and female (called
the gender binary) and usually is based on someone’s anatomy (the genitals they were born with). This is gender
assignment and it is based on an assumption that someone’s genitals match their gender. However, gender isn’t
about someone’s anatomy, it is about who they know them self to be. There are many different gender identities,
including male, female, transgender, gender neutral, non-binary, agender, pangender, genderqueer, two-spirit, third
gender, and all, none or a combination of these.
There are many more gender identities then we’ve listed. Gender can be complex and people are
defining themselves in new and different ways as we gain a deeper understanding of identities. Some terms may
mean different things to different people. There are certain terms some folks may not like to use or call themselves
and some terms that they may like to use or call themselves. If you’re not sure what to call a person, it’s best to ask
the person what they would like to be called. It is always up to us to decide how we identify, and how we express our
gender. However you decide or identify deserves to be respected and supported.