Lesson 9 & 10

• Adolescents' lives revolve around themselves as well as them
• How you feel, how you think, and how you behave can all have an effect on your family members, your friends, and even that new person you find yourself liking
• Self-concept


  Consists of two elements: self-schemas (how you define yourself) and possible self (who you might become)
• Self-schemas


  • Greatly affect how you perceive, remember, and evaluate yourself and others
• One of these possible selves motivates you to achieve the life you want or to avoid the life you dread
• Self-concept


  What determines it - genetic influences and social experience (e.g. roles as a high school student or a friend)
• Social self


  • Influenced by social comparisons - comparing yourself to others and seeing how you differ
  • The more you succeed, the more you tend to raise your standards and compare yourself with others who are doing even better, which may diminish your satisfaction
• Self-concept


  Also determined by how other people think of us - e.g. children who are labeled as gifted or hardworking tend to incorporate the same ideas into their self-concept and behavior
• Individualism


  • Prioritizing one's own goals over group goals, developed especially in industrialized Western cultures
• Independent self


  • The formation of one's identity as a unique individual, defined during adolescence - a time of self-reliance and separation from parents
• Collectivism


  • Prioritizing the goals of one's group (e.g. family or friends) and identifying one's self accordingly, valued in most cultures native to Asia, Africa, and Central and South America
• Interdependent self


  • The formation of one's identity in relation to others, whether it's with family, friends, or colleagues
• When influences upon our behavior are subtle or unconscious, our explanations for why we feel or act the way we do may differ because we may dismiss factors that matter and focus on ones that don't
• We often have difficulty predicting the intensity and duration of our future emotions
• Self-esteem


  The overall sense of self-worth that we use to evaluate traits or abilities
• If you see yourself as attractive, intelligent, or talented

  The tendency is to have high self-esteem
• If you generally value yourself

  You are also likely to value your looks or abilities
• When self-esteem is threatened (e.g. due to failure or comparison to someone else)


  People with high self-esteem might react by blaming someone else or perceiving others as failing, too (to protect their self-worth)
• When self-esteem is threatened


  People with low self-esteem might react by blaming someone else or perceiving others as failing, too (to protect their self-worth)
• People with low self-esteem


  • Less satisfied in their relationships and more vulnerable to clinical problems, such as anxiety or loneliness
• Secure self-esteem


  • Feeling good about who you are rather than grades, looks or approval, likely leads to greater well-being
• Self-serving bias


  The tendency to see yourself in a favorable light
• We take credit for our success


  Attribute failure to external factors
• Self-serving attributions


  A form of self-serving bias
• Self-serving attributions


  • Attributing a high grade to studying hard
  • Attributing a low grade to an "unfair teacher"
• We compare ourselves to others

  Most people see themselves as better than the average person in subjective, desirable traits
• We exhibit self-serving bias about our future


  Many of us have "unrealistic optimism" about future life events
• Unrealistic optimism


  • Parents assuming their child is more likely to finish school, graduate top of the class, and stay healthy
  • Students seeing themselves as more likely to get a stable and higher salary than their classmates
• Unrealistic optimism


  Leads us to believe we are immune to misfortune, so we tend not to take precaution
• Defensive pessimism


  Anticipating problems and lowering expectations to prepare for the worst
• Self-presentation


  Adjusting our words and actions to create an impression that will suit our audiences
• Self-handicapping


  Protecting your self-esteem with behavior that will conveniently excuse failure
• Self-handicapping


  • Deciding to watch movies all night instead of studying for a big exam
• Self-handicapping


  If you fail while being "handicapped", you can attribute failure to something external rather than a lack of intelligence
• Self-handicapping


  If you watched movies and still got a good exam score, it boosts your self-image
• False modesty, self-serving bias, and self-handicapping prove how important self-image is to us
• Self-presentation


  Our desire to present a favorable image to other people (external) and ourselves (internal)
• Self-monitoring


  The degree to which people monitor and control their self-presentation and expressive behavior
• Those who score low in self-monitoring


  Are more likely to act as they naturally feel and believe, regardless of their audience
• Those who score extremely low in self-monitoring


  May come across as insensitive