Chapter 3 Notes | Self and Self-Esteem

• Three broad motivations that guide the search for self-knowledge:

  • Self-enhancement needs (a desire to feel good about ourselves and to avoid feeling bad about ourselves)
  • Accuracy needs (the need to know what we are really like)
  • Self-consistency needs (a desire to keep our self-views consistent and to protect them against change)
• Sources of information people consult when seeking to learn what they are like:

  • Physical factors
  • Social factors
  • Psychological factors (such as introspection and self-perception processes)
• Most people think of themselves in highly evaluative domains in very positive terms, especially compared to their beliefs about most other people
• People's self-views in highly evaluative domains are only moderately correlated with what they are really like
• Mechanisms that enable people to maintain their positive self-views:

  • Ensure individuals receive predominantly positive feedback in their lives
  • Minimize the degree to which negative feedback implicates central aspects of the self
• The desire to feel good about ourselves is the major motivational factor driving the search for self-knowledge
• People actively acquire knowledge of themselves throughout their lives, shaped by self-enhancement needs, accuracy needs, and consistency needs
• Sources of self-knowledge people consult:

  • Consult the physical world
  • Compare themselves with others (social comparison)
  • Incorporate the opinions of others toward them (reflected appraisals)
  • Look inward (introspection)
  • Examine their behavior in context and draw appropriate inferences (self-perception and attributions)
• Most people regard themselves in highly positive terms, believing they have many positive qualities and few negative qualities
• People's self-views in non-valuative domains are fairly accurate, but in highly evaluative domains, they are not
• People are overly confident about their ability to predict their future behavior, especially socially desirable or positive behaviors
• Various mechanisms help people maintain their positive self-views:

  • Eagerly seek self-relevant positive feedback
  • Reluctantly seek self-relevant negative feedback
  • Actively obscure the informational value of negative feedback
  • Selectively affiliate with those who like them
  • Compare themselves with others to promote and maintain positive self-views
  • Attributions for positive and negative outcomes further bolster positive self-views
• Not everyone holds positive views of themselves or seeks positive self-relevant feedback

  • Under some circumstances, people with negative self-views seek negative information about themselves, especially in interpersonal settings