PSYC 333 - FINAL

• This is an advanced social psychology course that integrates personality and social psychology
• Personality psychology


  To predict a person's behaviour, you need to understand what they're like as a person (e.g. personality traits, social identities)
• Social psychology


  To predict a person's behaviour, you need to understand the situation they're in (social situations predict behaviour regardless of a person's personality)
• The person-situation debate is about whether the person or the situation is more influential in determining behaviour
• The situation argument is that the average correlation between a person characteristic and specific behaviour is only 0.3, meaning only about 15% of behaviour can be predicted by characteristics of a person, and consistency in behaviour across situations is low
• The person argument is that personality intuitively exists, is pretty stable across time, and predicts behaviour in general pretty well, even if not as accurate for behaviour at any one given time
• Interactionist consensus


  Behaviour is an interaction between characteristics of the person and the situation they're in - people influence the situation and the situation influences the person
• This course focuses on the self
• Self


  Your social identity and your inner processes that enable you to operate your body successfully in society
• The self is not a thing, but a system/process - the body is in flux and always adapting, selves are always in flux dealing with new situations, learning, and adapting
• Self-concept


  A cognitive representation of the knowledge and beliefs we have about ourselves, including our personality traits, abilities, social roles, values, goals and desires, and physical characteristics
• The self-concept is important because it shapes how we think about the world, feel, and behave
• Self-concept as an associative network


  Knowledge is organized as a metaphorical network of cognitive concepts interconnected by links, where some concepts are more central and links between concepts vary in strength
• People have lots of ideas about themselves, sometimes in contradiction with each other, so the self-concept is not a unitary, fixed, and integrated idea
• Working self-concept


  The subset of self-knowledge that is the current focus of awareness, created moment-to-moment
• Situational activation


  Different situations can activate different pieces of self-knowledge, thus creating different working self-concepts
• Spreading activation


  When a specific self-aspect is activated, other self-aspects that are linked with it are also activated, with strongly linked self-aspects being activated more quickly
• The contents of the working self-concept are determined by: 1) distinctiveness to the situation, 2) relevance to the situation/activity, and 3) frequency of activation
• The working self-concept is malleable and highly dependent on the context, allowing for contradictory self-aspects to simultaneously exist
• The working self-concept influences how we behave, explaining why we behave differently in different situations
• Studies show that experimentally manipulating the working self-concept can influence behaviour, demonstrating priming effects
• Several elements are common to theories about the true self: 1) natural endowment, 2) feeling authentic, 3) people naturally wanting to be true to themselves, and 4) competing with external influences
• Studies show that people believe following one's true self is an important strategy for making satisfying decisions, and difficulties accessing the true self are related to less decision satisfaction
• There are several conceptual problems with the idea of a true self, including the lack of provability of a natural endowment, the inaccuracy of self-beliefs, and the tendency for the true self to be equated with what is socially desirable
• Desired reputation


  What is valued by society (ideals) + what distinctive role one's own abilities and traits are best suited to (actual self) - the most important "non-false self-concept" as it determines how one will be treated by others
• People will feel most authentic when their actions are consistent with their desired reputation, which is an ongoing project that may vary slightly across different audiences
• Self-complexity refers to the number of self-aspects (attributes, roles, relationships, goals, etc.) and the degree to which these self-aspects are distinct from each other
• The self-concept is organized as an associative network of various self-aspects and is highly malleable
• Working self-concept


  A small subset of our self-concept that is accessible at any given moment
• Working self-concept


  Made up of situationally activated self-knowledge + frequently activated self-knowledge
• The idea of a true self resonates with people, but ultimately has several conceptual issues that makes it unworkable
• Desired reputation


  The most important non-false self-concept. People will feel most authentic when behaving in line with it.
• Self-complexity


  • People's self-concepts differ in the number of self-aspects (attributes, roles, relationships, goals, etc.) and the degree to which these self-aspects are distinct from each other
• High self-complexity


  Many self-aspects that are relatively distinct from each other
• Low self-complexity


  Few self-aspects that have a high degree of overlap with each other
• Low self-complexity


  Greater affective spillover, more extreme emotional reactions and changes in self-esteem
• High self-complexity


  Less affective spillover, more emotional stability, and may serve as a buffer against stress
• Review of 24 studies examining buffering effects of self-complexity showed mixed results
• Self-concept clarity (SCC)


  The extent to which the contents of the self-concept are clearly defined, consistent with each other, and stable
• SCC is unrelated to self-complexity