1.

Perceiving Ourselves
1.1 Self Concept
 An Individual’s Self-beliefs and evaluations
- “Who am I?” and “How do I feel about myself?”
 3 levels = Individual, Relational, Collective
1.2 Self Concept - 3 Characteristics Model
 3 Characteristics: Complexity, Consistency, Clarity
1. Complexity = How many roles you see in yourself?
2. Consistency = How compatible those roles are?
3. Clarity = How clear and stable your self-definition is?

1.2.1 Self Concept - 3 Characteristics Model (Influences)

Self-Concept Influences
Complexity High Complexity
1. More adaptive decision making and performance
2. More diverse social networks = More access to resources + social support
3. More effort to maintain + juggle = More stressful
Low Complexity
1. Less effort and resources to develop
Consistency  When one’s multiple selves are in harmony = Better psychological well-being
 Compatible multiple selves = more adaptable but may cause internal conflict
Clarity High Clarity
1. Better Performance = Clear path forward
2. Less threatened by interpersonal conflict
3. Role inflexibility
Low Clarity
1. More easily influenced by others
2. Experience more stress when decision making
3. Feel more threaten by social influences

1.3 Self-Concept - Self Enhancement

 When Individual rate themselves above average
- Believe they have better-than-average probability for success
 Positive Influences
1. Better Mental and Physical Health
2. Overconfidence = “Can do” Mentality
 Negative Influences
1. Make poor decision = Overestimate capability
2. Engage in unsafe behaviours
1.4 Self-Concept – Self Verification
 When Individual try to confirm and maintain their existing self-concept
 Influences include:
1. Affect our perceptual process = Remember information that is consistent with our self-concept
2. High self-concept person = More likely to dismiss feedback that oppose their self-concept
3. Preference to interact with people who affirm our self-views
1.4.1 Self-Concept – Self Verification (3 model)
 3 Characteristics: Self-Esteem, Self-Efficacy, Locus of Control
1. Self-Esteem = Overall value that a person place on themselves (Do I like and respect who I am?)
2. Self-Efficacy = Person’s belief in their ability to successfully complete a task (Can I, do it?)
3. Locus of Control = Belief on whether outcomes are mainly controlled by oneself
1.4.2 Self-Concept – Self Verification (Influence)
Self-Concept Influences
Self-Esteem High Self-Esteem
 Feel confident, positive, and worthy
 “I’m not perfect, but I like who I am, and I believe I deserve respect!”
Low Self-Esteem
 Feel inadequate, unworthy, and insecure
 “I’m trash, and nothing I do is good enough”
Self-Efficacy High Self-Efficacy
 Confident in performing the task
 “I’ve practiced a lot; I can do this!”
Low Self-Efficacy
 Doubt in one’s abilities
 “I’m bad at math, I’ll probably fail”
Locus of Control Internal Locus
 “I control my success through my action”
 “I need to work on my skill more next time!”
External Locus
 “My life is up to luck, fate, or powerful others”
 “The paper was set too hard”

1.5 Social Self – 2 Opposing Human Motives

1. Motivation to be distinctive and difference from others:
- Personal identity or internal self-concept
- Define oneself by their personality, values, abilities, qualifications, etc
- Fulfil the need for Distinctiveness
2. Motivation for inclusion and assimilation with other people:
- Relational and collective self-concepts
- Social identity or external self-concept
- Fulfills the fundamental drive for affiliation
2. Perceiving the World around us
2.1 Perceptual Process
 Process of receiving information about the world = making sense of it

2.2 Categorical Thinking and Mental Models

 Categorical Thinking
- Unconscious process of organising people/things into preconceived categories stored in Memory
- Perceptual Grouping Principles
1) Similarity or proximity – Label group based on similar (clothes) and proximity (together)
2) Cognitive Closure – label someone based on first impressions
3) Identifying trends in ambiguous information – fill in blank in unclear information
 Mental Models
- Internal representation (visual or relational images) of how the external world works
- Help us quickly make sense of situation by perceptual grouping
- Limit Recognition of new opportunities or perspectives
3. Special Perceptual Processes and Problems

3.1 Stereotyping
 Perceptual Process in which we assign characteristics to an identifiable group
- Automatically transfer those characteristics to anyone we believe to be in that group
3.1.1 Reason for People Stereotype others
1. Categorical Thinking
- Natural and non-conscious process to simplify our understanding of others
2. An innate need to understand and predict others’ behaviours
- Higher need for cognitive closure = Higher reliance on stereotypes
3. Observer’s need for social identity and self-enhancement
- Categorisation = Putting people into distinct group
- Homogenisation = Thinking people within each group are like each other
- Differentiation = Assign more favourable characteristic to personal group than people of other groups
3.1.2 Problem with Stereotyping
3.2 Attribution Theory
 Forming belief about the causes of behaviours or events
 Perceptual Process of deciding whether an observed behaviour or event is caused by either
1. Internal Factor = Characteristics of person
a. If Student gets “A” = She must be smart and hardworking
b. If Student forget homework = He must be forgetful
2. External Factor = Environment
a. If Student gets “A” = The exam must be easy, or she got lucky with the question
b. If Student forget homework = He must have a lot of homework to do at once

3.2.1 Attribution Theory Rule

3.3 Attribution Errors
3.3.1 Self-Serving Bias
 Tendency to attribute our failures to external cause more than internal causes
- Our successes are due to more internal causes than external causes
 Occurs due to = Self-enhancement process
3.3.2 Fundamental Attribution Error or Correspondence bias
 Tendency to overemphasize internal causes and underemphasize external cause to explain other’s behaviour
 Occurs due to:
1. Observer can’t easily see external factors that constrain others’ behaviour
2. People like to think human being are prime source of their behaviour
3.4 Self-fulfilling Prophecy
 Perceptual process where one’s expectation about another cause them to act in a way that meets those
expectations
 Self-fulfilling prophecy effect is stronger:
1. Start of relationship
2. Several people have similar expectations about the person
3. People with weaker past performance are easier to influence/motivated
 Leaders need to develop and maintain positive, yet realistic expectations toward all employees

3.5 Other Perceptual Effects

4. Improving Perceptions

4.1 Awareness of Perceptual Biases

 Diversity Awareness Training:
- Make people aware of unconscious biases (e.g., gender, race, age stereotypes).
- Encourage appreciation of diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and work styles.
- Provide strategies to reduce bias in decision-making (e.g., structured interviews, objective performance
measures).
4.2 Improve self-awareness
1. Implicit Association Test (IAT)
- Detect subtle racial, age, gender, disability, and other forms of biases
- Raise awareness of own values, beliefs, and prejudices
2. Johari Window
1) Open-to-all area (Open Self) = information knows to you and others
2) Blind-to-you area (Blind Self) = What others see in you, but you don’t notice
3) Hidden-from-others area (Hidden Self) = What you know, but choose not to reveal
4) Unknown-to-all area (Unknown Self) = No one (include you) is aware till new situation arises
- Strategies: Disclosures to others and feedback from others
4.3 Meaningful interaction
 Contact hypothesis:
- Under certain situations, people who interact with each other will be less perceptually biased because
they have a more personal understanding of the other person and their group.
 Meaningful Interactions:
1. Reduces dependence on stereotypes
2. Improves empathy toward others:
a. empathy refers to understanding and being sensitive to the feelings, thoughts, and situations of
others
b. Reduces attribution errors with more contextual information

Comment
For why complexity is important, I said that high complexity is better as having more role mean you don’t have to
rely on the role feel validated.

For corresponding bias, I said that our mistake or failure we tend to attribute it to external cause such as the bus
came late and it is raining.

The use of slides that show us the relevant news of the Xiaomi home lock case where we are able to see how it the
insight is relevant to us.