To Thine Own Self Be True

Abstract

Previous research demonstrates that psychology courses have the potential to reduce students’ biases (e.g., biases against women). In the current research, we hypothesized that taking a seminar-style course on the self (as compared to a research methods course) could reduce students’ typically biased views of the self (i.e., unrealistically favorable perceptions of the self). Supporting our hypothesis, by the end of the semester, students in the self-course were less biased in their views of the self than students in the comparison research methods course. Implications for course structure and bias reduction are discussed.

Keywords

bias self self-bias reduction seminar course

Psychology instructors often design courses with the goal of reducing students’ biases. Among the most prevalent of these are courses aimed at reducing biases toward racial and ethnic groups (e.g., Case, 2007; Kernahan & Davis, 2007, 2010) and women (e.g., Katz, Swindell, & Farrow, 2004). However, to date, there is no evidence of courses or class activities that effectively reduce a set of biases most students possess: biases that promote the self (e.g., self-serving biases, unrealistic optimism, the “better than average” effect; see Friedrich, 1996). In Western society, people tend to hold more favorable views of themselves than they do of others (Heine, Lehman, Markus, & Kitayama, 1999). Even after one instructor explicitly informed students about a specific self-serving bias (i.e., the “better than average” effect) during a class activity, the students believed that, relative to others, they were less likely to hold the bias (Friedrich, 1996). Indeed, under normal circumstances, people seem to possess a “blind spot” that prevents them from noticing and modifying their own biased judgments and overly favorable attitudes toward the self (Pronin, Gilovich, & Ross, 2004). In the current research, we sought to determine whether involvement in a psychology seminar-style course on the self could lead students to develop a more “true” or accurate view of the self.

Reducing Self-Biases

Reducing students’ self-biases is a desirable outcome of psychology courses for a variety of reasons. First, with regard to education and learning, previous research shows that biased views can hinder critical thinking (i.e., Bensley, 1998). Self-biases can preclude accurate self-reflection (Hanley, 1995), consideration of other interpretations and perspectives (King, 1995; Wade, 1995), and acknowledgement of how biases and assumptions can influence judgments (Halonen, 1995). In addition, biased self-views are associated with lower academic achievement (Kim, Chiu, & Zou, 2010). Indeed, the American Psychological Association acknowledges the importance of bias reduction. One of the organization’s desired learning outcomes for undergraduate psychology majors is for them to recognize how personal biases, which could include self-promotion biases, shape research questions, and interpretations (American Psychological Association, 2007). Given these previous findings and guidelines from the American Psychological Association, we consider finding effective ways of reducing self-biases to have worthy educational purposes.¹

In addition, reducing students’ self-biases may promote their individual and interpersonal psychological functioning. Self-biases create overly positive views of the self that can lead to poor interpersonal interactions and mental health (Colvin, Block, & Funder, 1995; Crocker & Park, 2004). Specifically, these biased self-views are associated with low subjective well-being (Kim et al., 2010), disruptive functioning and lowered liking in group interactions (Anderson, Ames, & Gosling, 2008), and depression and dejection among adults (Kim & Chiu, 2011) and children (Kistner, David-Ferdon, Repper, & Joiner, 2006).² Thus, reducing students’ self-biases could have desirable effects for their functioning both in the classroom and in their personal lives.

Despite the potential benefits of reducing self-biases, there is no research evidence of a way in which psychology instructors might effectively reduce students’ self-biases. Individual class activities that explicitly point out self-biases have been ineffective at reducing them (see Friedrich, 1996). As discussed previously, immediately after an instructor informed them that people tend to hold self-serving biases, students reported they were personally less likely to fall victim to this error in judgment. Thus, it appears that merely pointing out these biases to students is a technique that is ineffective at reducing them.

Another approach to reducing these biases might involve participation in courses that foster critical thinking skills. Critical thinking entails thorough and thoughtful analysis of claims and a willingness to be open- and fair-minded about them (Bensley & Murtagh, 2012). If students could apply this same critical lens when viewing themselves, they may realize the biased and overly favorable views they hold. One psychology course that researchers often believe effectively promotes critical thinking is research methods (e.g., Penningroth, Despain, & Gray, 2007; VanderStoep & Shaughnessy, 1997). This is because research methods courses often emphasize skepticism and encourage careful evaluations of claims (i.e., not simply making assumptions). Thus, courses in research methods may be able to reduce self-biases.

However, emerging evidence indicates that education in general critical thinking skills—as might be acquired by completing a research methods course—may insufficiently prepare students to think critically in particular domains (e.g., with regard to the self; see Bensley, Crowe, Bernhardt, Buckner, & Allman, 2010). For example, students in courses that focused on skepticism about paranormal phenomena, but not a comparison course on research methods, reduced their beliefs about these phenomena; this was because the course fostered critical thinking specifically with regard to that topic (Manza et al., 2010; McLean & Miller, 2010). Thus, training students in general critical thinking may be ineffective at reducing their self-biases. Indeed, the pervasive nature of these self-biases (Kim et al., 2010) suggests they may be resistant to disconfirmation without specific instructional focus on them (e.g., repetition of their presence, discussion about them). Therefore, participation in a course specifically focused on self-biases may be especially important, possibly because it facilitates the development of the domain-specific critical thinking skills necessary for such bias reduction.

In addition to focusing instructional content on self-biases, utilizing seminar-style courses could also help reduce such biases. Because seminar courses feature relatively smaller numbers of students, opportunities for discussion, and a broader array of active learning approaches, research suggests they can create an environment where critical thinking is likely to occur (Tsui & Gao, 2006), which may produce reductions in biases. Indeed, classroom discussions, a cornerstone of seminar-style courses, can be a key tool in acknowledging different perspectives and transforming personal beliefs (Brookfield & Preskill, 1999). Corroborating this perspective, research has shown that seminar courses which include a large discussion component on a particular topic can be helpful at reducing biased views (e.g., racism, see Chick, Karis, & Kernahan, 2009).

Hypothesis

In the current study, we examined students’ self-bias reduction based on participation in either a seminar-style course on the self (Self and Self-Esteem) or a comparison course on research methods (Scientific Inquiry in Psychology). Students from both courses completed a measure of self-serving biases at the beginning and end of the semester. We hypothesized that students in the self-course would demonstrate a reduction in self-biases, but that students in the comparison research methods course would not show this reduction. We selected research methods as a comparison to determine whether courses that encourage general critical thinking skills would be sufficient to change self-biases or whether the focus of the course must be domain specific in order to effectively reduce biases.

Method

Participants

Fifty-three undergraduate students at a large public university in the northeastern United States participated in this study. Specifically, 17 women and 4 men participated from the self-course and 26 women and 6 men participated from the research methods course. Participants’ average age was 22.58 years (SD = 3.82). Fifty-one percent of the sample identified themselves as White, 21% as Asian, 19% as Black, 4% as Hispanic, and 6% identified themselves as other (the racial breakdown was similar for both courses). The vast majority of students in both classes were upper level students (95% in the self-course and 97% in the research methods course were of junior or senior status). Students participated in exchange for a small amount of extra credit in their course. In addition, participants that completed both surveys were entered in a raffle to receive one of two $25 gift certificates to a local vendor. The courses were taught during the same day and time of the same summer semester, and, thus, no students were enrolled in both courses.

Procedure

Students enrolled in each course participated in a study examining “learning and attitudes.” On the first day of class (Time 1), they completed a questionnaire packet including measures of biases toward the self. They also completed the same measures on the last day of class (Time 2). Classes were held twice a week, for 3 hr each class period. The instructor for the self-course taught the course once before and had 1 year of teaching experience. The instructor for the comparison research methods course had not previously taught the course and did not have prior teaching experience.

The self-course (self and self-esteem) focused on understanding the topics of self-concept, self-esteem, and self-knowledge. The instructor designed it as a seminar course in which he lectured on course content and implemented various active learning activities during the first half of the class period (e.g., group work, discussion of video examples, and class demonstrations of course concepts). For the second half of the class period, small groups of students led class-wide discussions on research articles related to the course material. Students facilitated the discussion by presenting the material in a creative manner and posing thought-provoking questions to the class. There were ample opportunities to share personal experiences, discuss the content of the course, and think critically about the self. Three specific lectures and discussion periods were dedicated to content related to self-biases, but these biases were often part of the class lecture and discussion during other class periods as well. In fact, many students mentioned them during class discussions and seemed to grapple with the notion that they were biased in favor of themselves.

The comparison research methods course (Scientific Inquiry in Psychology) focused on how psychologists scientifically study human behavior and included topics of research ethics, measurement in research, survey research, experimental methods, and so on. The instructor sought to teach students to think critically about psychological research and its implications. To ensure the discussion of self-biases only occurred in the self-course (and thus, was specific to that course), the instructor purposely avoided topics pertaining to biases toward the self. The instructor of the comparison research methods course lectured for the entirety of the class period. Similar to the self-course, these lectures also contained active learning activities. However, there was no significant classwide discussion component to the course.

Materials

We assessed participants’ self-biases using the Self-Attributes Questionnaire (SAQ; Pelham & Swann, 1989), a well-established measure of biased views of the self (Pelham, 1991a, 1991b). In completing the SAQ, participants rated themselves on a series of 10 positive attributes, such as intellectual ability, physical attractiveness, common sense, and sense of humor (Time 1: α = .70; Time 2: α = .72) as compared to other people of their sex and age. Participants made their responses on a scale from A (bottom 5%) to J (top 5%). Rating the self higher than other people of their sex and age across a variety of attributes was indicative of a higher bias toward the self. After collecting the data, we converted letter responses to numbers and computed an overall means for students in each class at Time 1 and Time 2.

Results

We hypothesized that students in the self-course would show greater reductions in self-biases by the end of the semester than students in the comparison research methods course. To test our hypothesis, we conducted a 2 (Course: self, research methods) × 2 (Time) repeated-measures analysis of variance. We found no significant effects due to gender or race of participants and therefore these variables were not included in the reported results.

The predicted Course × Time interaction was significant, F(1, 41) = 6.73, p = .01, η² = .14. Specifically, simple effects tests revealed that this interaction was driven by students in the self-course reducing their self-biases over time (M ₁ = 6.96, SD ₁ = .69 and M ₂ = 6.56, SD ₂ = 1.00), t(17) = 2.04, p = .06, d = 0.52, a medium effect size. However, students in the comparison research methods course (M ₁ = 6.96, SD ₁ = .96 and M ₂ = 7.12, SD ₂ = .90), t(24) = −1.39, p = .18, d = −0.27, did not change their self-biases over time. In other words, by the end of the semester, as compared to students in the comparison research methods course, students in the self-course came to evaluate their attributes as less superior over others.

Discussion

The current research examined whether students would reduce self-biases based on participation in a seminar-style course on the self. Results supported our hypothesis: students in the self-course demonstrated reduction in self-biases by the end of the semester, whereas students in a comparison research methods course did not reduce such biases. These results suggest that despite the difficulty of reducing self-biases (see Friedrich, 1996; Pronin et al., 2004), a seminar-style psychology course on the self can produce such reductions.

This research is important because it is the first to demonstrate that involvement in a seminar course that discusses self-biases can reduce students’ inflated views of the self. Previous research demonstrates that self-biases are pervasive and known to have negative and sometimes severe consequences for classroom functioning (critical thinking in particular), interpersonal functioning, and mental health (Anderson et al., 2008; Colvin et al., 1995; Crocker & Park, 2004; Halonen, 1995; Hanley, 1995; Kim & Chiu, 2011; Kim et al., 2010; King, 1995; Kistner et al., 2006; Wade, 1995). Class activity approaches (see Friedrich, 1996) have yet to successfully reduce these biases or even increase students’ recognition of them. However, participating in a seminar course on the self consisting of a wide array of teaching techniques (i.e., lecture, activities, and classwide discussions) led to reduction of these biases, possibly through fostering critical thinking skills specific to the topic.

We designed both courses to facilitate the development of critical thinking skills (this was a course objective for both classes). It is reasonable to assume this occurred, given that previous research has demonstrated that participation in research methods courses increases critical thinking (Penningroth et al., 2007; VanderStoep & Shaughnessy, 1997), as does participation in seminar courses (Tsui & Gao, 2006) and courses with significant discussion components (Brookfield & Preskill, 1999). The results provide support for our view that courses that foster critical thinking in a general sense may be insufficient for reducing biases within particular domains. Indeed, previous research has shown that students who completed a research methods course did not share the same skepticism (i.e., a component of critical thinking) of paranormal phenomena as students who completed a course in paranormal psychology (Manza et al., 2010; McLean & Miller, 2010). It is likely that courses featuring ample analysis and discussion of these specific topics provide students with the opportunity to critically evaluate them (Brookfield & Preskill, 1999; Chick et al., 2009). We assume this process occurred in the self-seminar course but not the comparison research methods course.

Limitations and Future Directions

A notable limitation of the present study is that we did not directly assess critical thinking skills (either general or specific to self-biases). Although we assume students in the self-seminar course became less biased through improvements to critical thinking skills specific to self-biases, we do not provide any direct evidence that this was the underlying mechanism. It is possible that some other variable potentially influenced by course involvement, such as increased self-concept clarity (see Campbell, 1990), is responsible for the obtained effect. Future research should directly examine critical thinking skills, as well as other variables, as potential mediators of the relationship between participation in self-courses and reduced self-bias.

Another limitation of the current work is that we are unable to conclude exactly which aspect of the self-course structure was responsible for the self-bias reduction. Indeed, a notable difference between the courses in this study is that the self-course was a seminar-style course and featured a significant discussion component, whereas the comparison research methods course did not contain discussion. We presume the discussion component of the self-course was the distinguishing characteristic and responsible for our effects; this is consistent with previous work on discussion-based courses reducing racism (Chick et al., 2009). However, it is possible that other active learning techniques (e.g., group work, video examples, and class demonstrations) or some combination of these techniques aided in this bias reduction. Future research should determine what specifically about seminar-style self-courses contributes to reductions in self-biases.

It is also possible that demand characteristics may have influenced our results. Specifically, participants in the self-course may have responded in a manner that would help the researchers obtain the hypothesized effects. It is worth mentioning that we had research assistants who were unknown to the students administer the questionnaires in an effort to minimize the association between the study and the instructors. Furthermore, the questionnaires included additional scales that were not related to the topic of this research, which could have also reduced the influence of demand characteristics. Regardless, future research should take caution and include measures to ensure students are not responding is a socially desirable manner. It would also be worthwhile to include more subtle measures of self-biases (e.g., the self-esteem implicit association test, an implicit measures of the positivity of the self, see Greenwald & Farnham, 2000) to further analyze this topic in a way in which students are unaware of what is being assessed.

It is also worth noting that in the current research our sample only included students enrolled in summer courses. It is possible that these students may be in some ways different than students enrolled in the same courses during the regular semester calendar (e.g., more motivated, distinct from the general student population). Furthermore, these courses were held during the summer, and the shorter semester coupled with more frequent, longer class periods could have influenced our results. Although we would expect a similar pattern of results to emerge with students during the regular semester, future research should seek to replicate our findings among samples that are more representative of typical college students.

Given that this is the first research to demonstrate a seminar course on the self could effectively reduce self-biases, there are many questions that future research should attempt to answer. Specifically, future research could examine whether these self-biases are reduced over the long term. Indeed, previous research shows that bias reduction (i.e., reduced racial bias) may regress toward initial levels after a few months (see Kernahan & Davis, 2010). More long-term data collection approaches would help determine whether these self-bias reductions are maintained over time. In addition, it would be worthwhile for future research to explore the nature of self-bias reduction. One topic worth investigating would be whether other self-biases (e.g., unrealistic optimism) are reduced by self-courses in a similar fashion.

Conclusion

Many instructors seek to reduce various student biases in their psychology courses (e.g., introductory psychology, social psychology, advanced seminars on gender, race, etc.). The current research demonstrates that a seminar-style course on the self can reduce students’ self-biases. Although the specific mechanism for such an effect is yet to be determined, it is likely that desirable pedagogical approaches involving lengthy, classwide discussion and repetition of the important concepts may have contributed to this effect. Furthermore, this research suggests that instruction aimed at reducing biased views in a general sense (e.g., through a research methods course) may not be as effective at reducing specific biased views (e.g., self-biases) as instruction which target them in particular. Thus, this research demonstrates the potential that psychology instructors have to teach students the important lesson of viewing the self accurately, or being “true” to oneself, a lesson that can extend far beyond the classroom.

Footnotes

Acknowledgment

We thank Guy Boysen for his helpful insights in developing the materials for this research. We also thank Amanda Arnst and Olivia Schlager for their assistance with data collection.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Notes

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