Social psychology part makes me most interested with no doubt.
As what we know from the lecture of this course,social psychology is the part of psychology that studies human interaction and is about understanding individual behavior in a social context.
It is obvious that individual behavior covers self-presentation in our common sense. However,self-presentation in some degree decided by self-knowledge.
Self-knowledge and self-presentation,here comes the two topics which I what to talk about.
Why the impression which we format beyond other people sometimes quite different from our self-cognition? Why what we look like in others' eyes become extremely different compared with our self-knowledge? And which one is our true self?
These question are interesting. In my opinion, our self-knowledge,in most time,is not enough to help us to evaluate ourselves precisely. However,our impression which we format beyond others is not enough as well. It is the combination of these two images makes a true 'self'.
Some researchers have showed a conclusion that when we evaluate ourselves, we intend to consider 'what we can do' ,which means that we preferred to focus on our potential when we generate self-knowledge. However,it becomes quite different when others estimate us. People intend to estimate others by what they 'have done',which means people will focus on your current capability when they are evaluating you.
Not only the current capability but also the potential of a people which should be taken into consider and vice-versa. It is the reason that I think we should combine the two images,ourselves and the man in the mirror, when we want to know what is our true self. This theory also help us how to know what we look like in others' perception,for example,when we are in an interview.
Another topic that I want to talk about is self-presentation. In the lecture,we have known that Social psychologist identified 5 different strategic motives in the way we attempt to present ourselves which are:
Self-promotion,Ingratiation,Intimidation,Exemplification and Supplication.
However,what makes me interested is that why are these five different strategic motives happen? Which kind of individuals correspond to which kind of motive? Is there a general answer behind the appearance?
To answer these questions , I focus on my friends' 'signature' or what we call 'status' on some social networks such as 'renren' or 'qq' and try to find an answer. As far as what I consider,I found that ,from some perspective,people are inclined to make up a man in the mirror when they express themselves through social network.
'A man in the mirror',I use this description again. I think everyone can understand it when I used it first time,but I consider that it is necessary for me to make some explain when I use this description again.
According to a research conclusion, when we look into the mirror,we will generate brain illusion. Everyone wants to be more beautiful and it is obvious that everyone knows their shortcoming of their appearance.For example,a girl may be think her eyes are too small while the other boy think he is not strong enough. Consequently,our brain will generate illusion when we look into mirror to make the image looks better.What's more , it is just the shortcoming which we care about will be modified at first which means the girl think her eyes are too small will see herself with bigger eyes and the boy think he is not strong enough will see a stringer man when they are looking into mirror.
This interesting phenomenon is quite similar as what people intend to express themselves on the social network. For example,I found that it is always the people who are not confident enough want to make self-promotion,which can persuade others they are competent and people who actually think themselves are not strong enough tend to make intimidation so that they think they can protect themselves. It is just like we want to see 'a man in the mirror ',which represent the man we want to be and we appreciate.
Good observation and implication. We cannot deny that nobody is perfect and we are always subjective naturally when getting perception of things and people. Knowing ourselves by others can provide another angle and in more objective perspectives, so as to more precisely and completely to know ourselves. Perhaps, to brave enough to realize, admit, accept and appreciate our shortcomings in any circumstances is about the true knowing ourselves.
回复删除I think the term "man in the mirror" is mostly referred to the self-knowledge aspect. The reality is not that idealistic so we kindly cheated ourselves to make us become more suitable with our mind. But sometimes the feeling of fear is so strong that we choose to ignore something entirely from the brain. Maybe that's part of our self-defense too.
回复删除The title attract me to open this blog, and the content also make me fall into thinking. Actually, i think we may not call it man in the mirror, because when other people try to estimate you, they will base on not just what you have done, but also the feelings when they interact with you, and this may also be affected by others, and different people have different personalities, someone can estimate themselves correctly, but some guys may not. That should depend on different situations. This is my comment, thanks for your interesting topic!
回复删除From you philosophic article, I think everyone has a right to pursue perfect. But the pursuit some time be regarded as a vanity, some time is a way of hardworking. It's a research category of psychology. Fortunately, I get to know it from social actor behavior of tis course. And I consider your analysis is deep, maybe some day we could talk it together.
回复删除you really wrote a lot! Now I'm sure you are good at 'writing something', and I feel confident about our group paper! :)
回复删除BTW, i like the description of 'a man in the mirror'. it is very lively! However, for someone the mirror is not flat but a distorting one.