Social Psychology W2 P1

Introduction to Social Psychology, University of Queensland, EdX.

-The idea of "knowing yourself" is a pretty modern idea, and there are three different ways people choose to think about the create of their "self":
-Existentialism: You are created based on your choices and actions
-Predisposition: You were just born that way
-Sociology: You are a product of your time
Chances are, the true formation of the self is a mix of all three.

Many people credit their spouses to knowing themselves better than they do, and many children say that their mothers know them better then they do.
-Privileged access is the idea that we know ourselves better than anyone else - this leaves much room for inaccuracies.
-People tend to overestimate themselves; in one study where students were asked to rate their abilities to make friends, 25% of the students placed themselves in the top one percent - doesn't that seem a bit off?

-We often up play our abilities, and overestimate our control on life; we think good things will happen because we want them to.
-People are also more optimistic in comparing themselves; this creates a self serving bias
-A self serving bias means that people will attribute their successes to themselves, but blame their failures on external reasons. We don't question our good results, but we do question the bad ones.
-People with depression usually don't do this as often; they usually see things as they really are.

-People with high self esteem have more initiative, and tend to be happier. They also tend to exaggerate how good they are.
-This is beneficial because people tend to believe them.
-Many schools pushed to raise students self esteem, thinking that it would lead to higher success. This failed.
-Success is more closely tied with good self control.
-Self control is tied to standards (How you think you should be), monitoring (tracking your behavior), and willpower (the capacity to change).
-The most clear example of this principle would be in successful dieting, but can be seen in school and workplace situations.
          Information from Introduction to Social Psychology, by Queensland University, on EdX.org