Topic 3

• Self Concept


  Image of who you are, consisting of your strengths, weaknesses, abilities, limitations, aspirations and worldview
• Sources of self concept development

  • Others' images
  • Social comparison
  • Cultural teachings
  • Self-evaluations

  
• Others' image


  The image of yourself that others reveal to you through the way they treat you and react to you
• Social comparison


  Developing your self-concept by comparing yourself with others
• Social media tools for social comparison

  • Search engine reports
  • Network spread
  • Online influence
  • Twitter activities
  • Blog presence
  • References to written works
• Cultural teachings


  Beliefs, values and attitudes instilled in you by your parents, teachers and the media
• Self-evaluations


  Reacting to your own behavior, interpreting and evaluating it
• Self-awareness


  The extent to which you know yourself
• Johari window model of self-awareness

  • Open self
  • Blind self
  • Hidden self
  • Unknown self

  
• Growing in self-awareness

  1. Ask yourself about yourself

  2. Listen to others

  3. Actively seek information about yourself

  4. See your different selves
• Increase open self


  Revealing yourself to others and bringing into clearer focus what you may have buried within
• Self-esteem


  A measure of how valuable you think you are
• Types of self-esteem

  • Cognitive
  • Affective
  • Behavioral
• How to increase self-esteem

  1. Attack self-destructive beliefs

  2. Seek out nourishing people

  3. Beware the impostor phenomenon

  4. Work on projects that will result in success

  5. Remind yourself of your success

  6. Secure affirmation
• Perception in interpersonal communication


  The process by which you become aware of objects, events and especially people through your senses
• Stages of interpersonal perception

  1. Stimulation

  2. Organization

  3. Interpretation-evaluation

  4. Memory

  5. Recall
• Organization stage

  • Organization by rules (proximity, similarity, contrast)
  • Organization by schemata
  • Organization by scripts
• Interpretation-evaluation stage


  Greatly influenced by your experiences, needs, wants, values, etc.
• Recall stage

  • Recalling information consistent with your schemas
  • Failing to recall information inconsistent with your schemas
  • Recalling information contradicting your schemas
• Impression formation process


  Variety of processes in forming an impression of another person
• Impression formation processes

  • Self-fulfilling prophecy
  • Personality theory
  • Perceptual accentuation
  • Primacy-recency
  • Consistency
  • Attribution of control
• Self-fulfilling prophecy


  A prediction that comes true because you act on it as if it were true
• Personality theory


  Each person has a subconscious or implicit theory about which characteristics go together
• Halo effect


  If you believe a person has some positive qualities, you are likely to infer that they also possess other positive qualities
• Horns effect


  If you know a person possesses several negative qualities, you are more likely to infer that they also have other negative qualities
• Perceptual accentuation


  Magnifying or accentuating what will satisfy your needs and desires
• Primacy-recency


  What comes first exerts the most influence (primacy effect), or what comes last exerts the most influence (recency effect)
• Consistency


  The tendency to maintain balance among perceptions or attitudes
• Attribution of control

  • Potential errors: self-serving bias, overattribution, fundamental attribution error
• Increasing impression formation

  1. Avoid processing errors

  2. Analyze impressions

  3. Check perceptions

  4. Reduce uncertainty

  5. Beware the just-world hypothesis

  6. Increase cultural sensitivity
• Interpersonal Perception Stage: Stimulation

  • Your sense organs are stimulated – you hear new CD, see a friend etc.
  • Selective Attention
  • Selective Exposure
• Selective Attention 


  You attend to those things that you anticipate will fulfill your needs or will prove enjoyable (focuses on your name)
• Selective Exposure 


  You expose yourself to people or messages that will confirm your existing beliefs, contribute to your objectives, or prove satisfying in some way.