The Assignment (2–4 pages):
- Discuss something important you learned about yourself and how you learned it through introspection or through self-perception.
- Do you have an interdependent view of yourself, an independent view of yourself, or both? What is your culture(s), and how does your culture(s) contribute to this view? Provide one example of how this view influences your behavior or your beliefs. Your example may include, but is not limited to: (a) how your interdependent or independent self-view influences what kinds of things make you feel especially proud, (b) how your interdependent or independent self-view influences what kinds of things make you feel especially embarrassed, and (c) how your interdependent or independent self-view influences the way you interact with others.
- Then, select one specific aspect of your life, such as your role as a student, a spouse, a parent, an employee, or some other role, and apply the social comparison theory to this role.
- Briefly discuss a time you engaged in one of the following types of self-justification: Justification of effort, external justification, internal justification, or justification of a good deed. What was the source of your cognitive dissonance and how did this self-justification reduce that dissonance?
