Chapter 6. The Key Self-motives: Consistency, Esteem, Presentation, and Growth

Introduction

People have a number of self-motives, such as a desire to view themselves as a coherent whole and to see themselves in a positive light. As discussed in your text (page 203), we are generally motivated to maintain and defend our self-esteem. There are several strategies we tend to use to explain our own behavior, as well as to compare ourselves to others. For instance, people may self-handicap or engage in compensation. Importantly, these kinds of strategies can lead to biases in how we perceive ourselves.

For this task you will be making a series of judgments regarding 10 traits.

Instructions

On the next screen you will be shown 10 traits. For each trait, rate it in terms of how well it describes you as a person.

Experiment

Results

Debriefing

Although it is statistically impossible for most people to be above average, we as individuals are often motivated to make this social comparison error. As discussed in the text, even prison inmates rate themselves kinder and more moral than the average person (Sedikides et al., 2014). Research suggests that people tend to think that their shortcomings are common, whereas their strengths are unique (e.g., Campbell, 1986). This can provide justification for thinking that we are better than the average person on a variety of dimensions. As mentioned at the beginning of this task, there are multiple routes we may take to maintain or defend our sense of self-worth, such as self-handicapping and compensation. One result of these motivations can be the perception that we are better than the average, even if objectively, that may not be the case.

References:

Campbell, J. D. (1986). Similarity and uniqueness: The effects of attribute type, relevance, and individual differences in self-esteem and depression. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50 (2), 281–294.

Sedikides, C., Meek, R., Alicke, M. D., & Taylor, S. (2014). Behind bars but above the bar: Prisoners consider themselves more pro-social than non-prisoners. British Journal of Social Psychology, 53 (2), 396–403.

Quiz