Self-PresentationAs social animals, we adjust our words and actions to suit our audiences. To varying degrees, we note our performance and adjust it to create the impressions we desire. Self-serving bias, false modesty, and self-handicapping reveal the depth of our concern for self-image. To varying degrees, we are continually managing the impressions we create. Consider: Social networking sites such as Facebook provide a new and sometimes intense venue for self-presentation. Users make careful decisions about which pictures, activities, and interests to highlight in their profiles. Some even think about how their friends will affect the impression they make on others; one study found that those with more attractive friends were perceived as more attractive themselves (Walther & others, 2008). Self-presentation refers to our wanting to present a favorable image both to an external audience (other people) and to an internal audience (ourselves). Our concern for self-image explains examples of false modesty, in which people put themselves down, extol future competitors, or publicly credit others while privately crediting themselves. Sometimes people will even self-handicap (создание препятствий самому себе) with self-defeating behaviors that protect self-esteem by providing excuses for failure. In that case, people sabotage their chances for success by creating impediments that make success less likely. Far from being deliberately self-destructive, such behaviors typically have a self-protective aim (Arkin & others, 1986; Baumeister & Scher, 1988; Rhodewalt, 1987). Recall that we eagerly protect our self-images by attributing failures to external factors. Can you see why, fearing failure, people might handicap themselves by partying half the night before a job interview or playing video games instead of studying before a big exam? When self-image is tied up with performance, it can be more self-deflating to try hard and fail than to procrastinate and have a ready excuse. Handicaps protect both self-esteem and public image by allowing us to attribute failures to something temporary or external (“I was feeling sick”; “I was out too late the night before”) rather than to lack of talent or ability.
Task #1: A. Analyze each of six influences that determine your self-concept. See example below: Ø the roles we play: a student, a daughter, a part-time shop assistant… Ø the social identities we form: one of two girls in a group. Ø the comparisons we make with others: neither short nor tall, smarter than two-third of a group, the poorest in a group. Ø our successes and failures The highest rates of ЕГЭ in her class. But, once she has got “2” mark for one of the exams and, as a result, repeating of the exam. Ø how other people judge us: “good girl” in a class and “nice fellow” in a group. Ø the surrounding culture: Russian
B. In a group characterize a created person (an appearance, traits of a character, etc.) and then formulate six influences that determine that person self-concept. Then, read these six influences aloud and let other groups to describe the possible appearance and traits of your created character. Task #2 “We tend to see ourselves at center stage”: Write the following question on a piece of paper: “What unusual can you see for me today?” Write also, please, you name and surname and give it to your group’s classmates to answer.
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