Exam 4 | Self and Self-Esteem

• Stigma


  An attribute that is deeply discrediting and reduces a person to a trained, devalued identity
• Stigma


  Some characteristic that conveys a social identity that is devalued in a particular social context
• Stigmatized status can vary across time, cultures, and situations
• Stigmatizing conditions vary in the extent to which they elicit stigmatization
• Goffman's scheme of stigmas


  • Tribal stigmas: born membership into devalued race, ethnic, or religious groups
  • Abomination of the body (uninherited physical attribute)
  • Blemishes of character
• Criticism: Goffman's scheme has some overlap between categories and does not represent stigma entirely
• Dimensions of stigma


  • Visible vs. concealable stigmas
  • Controllability vs. uncontrollability
• Functions of stigma


  • Self-enhancement: feeling good about ourselves
  • In-group enhancement
  • System justification
  • Terror management
• Stigmatized person's perspective


  • Experience with prejudice/discrimination
  • Awareness of negative value placed on identity
  • Stereotype threat
  • Attributional ambiguity
• Non-stigmatized person's perspective


  • Anxiety when interacting with the stigmatized
  • Ambivalence in values (egalitarianism vs. individualizing)
  • Attitudes vs. behaviors
• Overweight people


  • Lack a sense of group identity
  • Overweight meant low self-esteem
• Overweight stigma study


  1. Primed with PE (Protestant ethic) or inclusive ideology

  2. Read article about overweight stigma

  3. Measured well-being and appearance self-esteem

  4. Inclusive political speech resulted in overweight people having higher psychological well-being
• Concealable stigma


  • Preoccupation model of secrecy
  • Thought suppression —> thought inclusion —> anxiety —> more thought suppression
• Concealable stigma study


  1. Participants had eating disorder and role-played not having an ED

  2. Concealed stigma —> higher secrecy, stigma, thought suppressions thought intrusion, and projected ED onto others. Not viewed as socially inept.

  3. Concealed stigma group —> more body related thoughts, but no effects on cognitive performance
• Recalling or suppressing a secret


  Estimated hills to be steeper, perceived distances as further, less likely to help with physical tasks
• Reject


  To refuse to accept
• Ostracize


  To exclude from a group
• Effects of rejection/exclusion


  • Anxiety/depression
  • Low self-esteem (hyperviligent to rejection)
  • Poor sleep
  • Early death
• Examples of Rejection


  • Excommunication in church communities where they were exiled
  • Solitary confinement
• Ostracism (Williams and Zadro, 2005)


  • Threatens sense of belonging, self-esteem, control, meaningful existence
• Dimensions of Ostracism


  • Modality: Physical ostracism (solitary confinement), Social ostracism (silent treatment), Cyber ostracism (exclusion in virtual spaces like chat rooms)
  • Degree of ostracism (low to high)
  • Casual clarity: Why am I being ostracized? (Low to high)
• Motives for ostracism


  • Not ostracism
  • Role-prescribed behaviors (e.g being silent in an elevator)
  • Defensive, wanting to protect themselves (preemptive)
  • Punitive (punishing)
• Ball-toss paradigm


  1. Ostracism condition would only throw ball to others and ignore you

  2. Ostracized Ps looked dejected and depressed

  3. On a subsequent group task women showed greater compensation (more likely to smile and show eye contact and offer support) and men showed social loafing (distanced themselves more)
• Explanation: Men being excluded is especially painful while women want to remain in a collective group
• Cyberball


  1. Ball-toss paradigm via internet

  2. Negative reactions to ostracism even when online

  3. First were amused then were angry and then depressed

  4. Greater activation of anterior cingulate cortex

  5. Social pain ~ physical pain - overlapping feelings
• Immediate reaction to ostracism is universal, but coping responses differ (drinking, isolation, seek other friends, etc.)
• Exception to universality argument: Park and Crocker (2008) Study - Rejected condition with poor personality traits; when threat presented the state self-esteem was much lower
• Personality characteristics associated with childhood rejection


  • Aggressive
  • Withdrawn
  • Less socially and cognitively skilled
• Consequences of childhood rejection


  • Poor academic performance
  • More absences, drop out
  • Affiliate with antisocial others
• Consequences for different types of rejected children


  • Aggressive-rejected children: Externalizing problems (delinquency, criminals)
  • Withdrawn-rejected children: Internalizing problems (depression, LSE)
• People nowadays feel less connected to others than before, leading to more divorce, depression, anxiety, and poor self-regulation
• Study 1: Risk-taking

  1. Feedback: Future alone, Future belonging, Misfortune (unpleasant but not lonely future)

  2. Future belonging: better mood > other 2 conditions

  3. Future alone: Ps made riskier choice, more confident in their decision
• Study 3: Same manipulation as study 1, DV: health-related choices
• Social exclusion and drug use

  1. IVs: Recall a time when you were accepted, physically ill, and excluded, Visibility of behavior (trying cocaine) public with friends or alone

  2. DV: Willingness to try cocaine

  3. Results: Ps imagining exclusion were more willing to try cocaine around their friends
• Social exclusion and purchases


  1. IV: Rejection vs. no rejection (from partner who supposedly watched a videotape of Ps)

  2. DVs: mood, impulsive spending questionnaires (no effects)

  3. Ps told they would be interacting with new partner, But first "shop" for products

  4. Results: Rejected Ps were more likely to buy school wristbands, signaled they were part of a group
• Adolescents who spend moderate amounts of time alone (20-35% of waking hours) have better concentration, positive emotions, and better adjustment
• Stereotypes


  Cognitive beliefs that associate group members with certain traits
• Prejudice


  Negative feelings toward outgroup
• Discrimination


  Differential treatment based on group membership
• Stereotypes


  • A type of scheme
  • Easily accessible - saves cognitive resources to things that require effort
  • Biased info processing