The Social Psychological Take

1. The Social Psychological Take • Evolutionary contributions to social self • Temperament • Family Dynamics • Cultural contributions to social self • Situational determinants of social self • Self Knowledge: culture, truth? • Self evaluation: culture, narcissism • Self presentation

2. Temperament: Early, Biological roots of social self: Evolutionarily Stable Strategies Heritable Stable Biologically based dopamine Early to emerge Shapes life contexts Selective interpretations Evocation

5. Table 11.5. Positive emotionality, as assessed in the magnitude of the smile shown in a photograph at age 20, predicts adult personality, relationship satisfaction, and personal well—being over the next 30 years. Measure Positive Emotionality Negative Emotionality Age 21 -.37** Age 27 -.21* Age 43 -.21* Age 52 -.27** Affiliation Age 21 .33* Age 43 .18+ Competence Age 27 .19+ Age 43 .20* Age 52 .29** Well-being Age 21 .20* Age 27 .25* Age 43 .18+ Age 52 .28** Marital Well-being Age 52 .20* Source: Harker & Keltner, 2001. Note: ** = p < .01, * = p < .05, + = p < .10.

6. Evolution has crafted social traits • Extraversion: outgoing, energetic, talkative • Function: acquire status • Anderson et al., 2001: within a week High E individuals are influential, respected • Biological system: • Dopamine: VTA, NACC (DePue) • Anticipate reward

7. Agreeableness • Warm, kind, friendly, prosocial • Function: Caregiving, altruism • System: caregiving system • High A have higher baseline • Vagal tone (Oveis, 2009)

8. Openness to experience • Novelty, Art, culture, ideation • Function: Acquire new knowledge • System? Oxytocin gene

9. Your first test! How are Traits Shaped by Birth Order? James Bond characters, British Prime Ministers, Oprah Winfrey? Van Gogh, Ben Franklin, Charles Darwin, Madonna?

10. Birth order, sibling dynamics • Frank Sulloway, Born To Rebel • Enormous Conflict between Siblings • Sand sharks devour each other • Blue footed boobies • Humans: conflict every 8 minutesl • Principle of Diversification • Occupy different ecological niches • First Born: Status focused • Latter Born: Cooperative, revolutionary

11. Evidence for Diversification • Personality Differences • Meta analysis of 196 studies, 120,000 • First born higher Extraversion • Latter borns more Agreeable, Open to Exper. • Scientific revolutions • 100 historians: 28 scientific revolutions, 3400 Scientists: Latter borns endorse • Evolution: 100% latter borns, 50% first borns • Darwin: 5 of 6, travel, risky, multiple disciplines • Baseball Brothers who play: Who steals bases?

12. Culture and the Social Self Declaration of independence: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Emerson, Thoreau: free expression of self Self Actualization movement:

13. Observations of East Asian A person of humanity (jen) wishing to establish his own character, also establishes the character of others. Jibun (shared sense of life space)

14. Independence, Interdependence • INDEPENDENT INTERDEPENDENT • Autonomous Connected • unique, independent Part of community • Internal causes Situational causes • Stable traits Roles, duties, Relationships

15. Cultural Differences in Self-Construals • Differences in Self-Knowledge: • On “I am” task: US define in terms of traits (58 vs. 19), Japan in terms of roles (27 vs. 9) • Cohen & Gunz (2002): write about 10 events where you were at center of attention: • US: first person; East Asian: third person • Differences in Self-Evaluation: East Asian lower self esteem • Differences in situations: • US more self esteem enhancing • East Asia More critical