HPS204 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Motivation, Egalitarianism, Overjustification Effect
HPS204 WEEK 5
Self and Identity
Have some historical understanding of the concept of self and some of the different
approaches to understanding self;
The ‘self’ is a relatively new idea, historically. Prior to the 16th century, people’s lives and
identities were tightly mapped out according to their position in social order. However,
during this time, several forces influenced change in the concept of self:
Secularisation: The idea that fulfilment occurs in the afterlife was replaced by the idea that
you should actively pursue personal fulfilment in this life.
Industrialisation: People were increasingly seen as units of production that moved from
place to place to work, and thus had a portable personal identity that was not locked into
static social structures such as extended family.
Enlightenment: People felt that they could organise and construct different, better identities
and lives for themselves by overthrowing orthodox value systems and oppressive regimes
(e.g. the French and American revolutions of the late 18th century).
Psychoanalysis: Freud’s theory of the human mind crystallised the notion that the self was
unfathomable because it lurked in the gloomy depths of the unconscious.
Freud viewed the self as a manifestation of three interacting structures. The ‘id’ was
uncivilised and selfish, and represents the want for everything here and now. The ‘superego’
represents internalised social norms, which aims to repress the id. The ‘ego’ negotiates
between the two, creating our actions.
The individual self (‘I am...’) refers to what distinguishes oneself from other humans,
whereas the collective self refers to shared characteristics with others (for example, ‘I live in
Melbourne’, though so do four million others). It has been debated whether a group is
made up of individuals who interact with one another, or rather individuals who have a
collective shared sense of identity. Allport proclaimed that ‘there is no psychology of groups
which is not essentially and entirely a psychology of individuals’.
Symbolic interactionism refers to the theory of how the self emerges from human
interaction, which involves people trading symbols (through language and gesture), that are
usually consensual, and represent abstract properties rather than concrete objects. The
looking glass self refers to the self as derived from seeing ourselves as others see us.
Empirical evidence supports these theories, demonstrating that after participants in a study
were instructed to act in a certain way in front of others, they then rated their true selves
more similarly in accordance with this.
Understand what is a self-schema and the major features of self-discrepancy and
regulatory focus theory;
Self-schemas represent ideas about ourselves and ‘how’ we are. They influence information
processing and behaviour much in the same way as schemas about other people: self-
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schematic information is more readily noticed, is overrepresented in cognition, and is
associated with longer processing time. The major types of self-schemas are the actual self
(how we currently are), the ideal self (how we would like to be), and the ought self (how we
think we should be). Self-discrepancy theory refers to the consequences of making actual-
ideal and actual-ought self-comparisons that reveal self-discrepancies. Discrepancies
between actual and ideal selves leads to dejection, and discrepancies between actual and
ought selves lead to agitation. Self-regulation refers to the strategies we use to match our
behaviour to an ideal or ‘ought’ standard, and we engage in this when these discrepancies
are recognised.
Regulation focus theory suggests that a promotion focus (motivation to attain hopes and
aspirations: your ideals) causes people to be approach-orientated in constructing a sense of
self, and a prevention focus (motivation to fulfil duties and obligations: your ‘oughts’) causes
people to be more cautious and avoidant in constructing a sense of self.
Understand the sorts of social comparisons we make;
Bem’s self-perception theory suggests that we gain knowledge of ourselves only by making
self-attributions. For example, we infer our own attitudes from out behaviour: I eat curry of
my own free will and in preference to other foods, therefore I like curry.
The over-justification effect proposes that in the absence of obvious external determinants
of our behaviour, we assume that we freely choose the behaviour because we enjoy it. With
this, the implementation of extrinsic rewards reduces intrinsic motivation (inner desire) to
complete the task, as enjoyment is attributed to the extrinsic rewards.
Social comparison theory suggests that we compare our behaviours and opinions with those
of others in order to establish the correct or socially approved way of thinking or believing.
The self-evaluation model proposes that people who are constrained to make esteem-
damaging upward comparisons can underplay or deny similarity to the target, or they can
withdraw from their relationship with the target. For example, silver medallists were
constrained to make unfavourable upward comparisons with gold medallists, whereas
bronze medallists could make self-enhancing downward comparisons with the rest of the
field, who received no medal at all.
BIRGing stands for ‘basking in reflected glory’, and refers to when you name-drop to link
yourself with desirable people or groups, thus improving other people’s impression of you.
Know the major classifications of self and identity and major claims of social identity
theory as well as the processes and consequences of social identity salience;
According to social identity theory, the two major classes of identity are social identity (that
part of the self-concept that derives from our membership of social groups), and personal
identity (the self defined in terms of unique personal attributes or unique interpersonal
relationships).
Brewer and Gardner proposed three forms of self: the individual self (based on personal
traits that differentiate the self from all others), the relational self (based on connections
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Have some historical understanding of the concept of self and some of the different approaches to understanding self; The self" is a relatively new idea, historically. Prior to the 16th century, people"s lives and identities were tightly mapped out according to their position in social order. However, during this time, several forces influenced change in the concept of self: Secularisation: the idea that fulfilment occurs in the afterlife was replaced by the idea that you should actively pursue personal fulfilment in this life. Industrialisation: people were increasingly seen as units of production that moved from place to place to work, and thus had a portable personal identity that was not locked into static social structures such as extended family. Enlightenment: people felt that they could organise and construct different, better identities and lives for themselves by overthrowing orthodox value systems and oppressive regimes (e. g. the french and american revolutions of the late 18th century).
