Markus 1977 - Self-Schemata and Processing Information About the Self

Google Scholar Link

Markus, H. (1977). Self-schemata and processing information about the self. Journal of personality and social psychology, 35(2), 63.

This is a great example of why latency information (how long it took to answer) should be considered in surveys.

Summary

Self-schemata consist of a person’s self-conceptualization, based on their past experience. This structure serves in the organization of self-related information, filtering both incoming and outgoing information. They are a cognitive resource-saving heuristic that one uses when dealing with oneself. Schemata allow a person to 1) quickly process information about oneself, 2) provide behavioral examples related to the schemata, 2) predict future behavior (consistent with the schemata), and 4) resist information that does not fit into the self-schemata.

In the first task of experiment 1, the presence of dependent or independent schema were tested for using latency responses for word associated with the self. Though both groups indicated that they were independent, dependent subjects took much longer to answer. This slower response time indicated that they did not have a self-schemata (heuristic) in place that would allow them to quickly rate these words as consistent with the self. In the second task, subjects wrote examples of behavior that exhibited either dependent or independent traits. The three adjectives from task 1 that were responded to most quickly by independent subjects were also the three words most likely to be judged self-descriptive in task 2. Additionally, independent subjects gave the greatest number of example behaviors for these three adjectives. The same was true for the dependent subjects and their three highest adjectives. This pattern did not hold for aschematics (people who did not have a self-schemata that involved the bipolar dimension of dependence-independence).

Application

If theoretically motivated, response latencies should be taken into account. In evaluating new information, we should take extra caution to strive for objectivity, especially when dealing with information that goes against our self-schemata.