CH 3 The Social Self Flashcards
Individual self
Beliefs about our unique personal traits, abilities, preferences, tastes, talents, and so forth. (page 67)
Relational self
Beliefs about our identities in specific relationships. (page 67)
Collective self
Beliefs about our identities as members of social groups to which we belong. (page 67)
Reflected self-appraisals
Beliefs about what others think of our social selves. (page 68)
Working self-concept
Subset of self-knowledge that is brought to mind in a particular context. (page 71)
Social comparison theory
The hypothesis that people compare themselves to other people in order to obtain an accurate assessment of their own opinions, abilities, and internal states. (page 75)
Self-schemas
Cognitive structures, derived from past experience, that represent a person’s beliefs and feelings about the self in particular domains. (page 78)
Self-reference effect
The tendency for information that is related to the self to be more thoroughly processed and integrated with existing self-knowledge, thereby making it more memorable. (page 79)
Self-complexity
The tendency to define the self in terms of multiple domains that are relatively distinct from one another in content. (page 81)
Self-esteem
The positive or negative overall evaluation that each person has of himself or herself. (page 82)
Contingencies of self-worth
An account of self-esteem that maintains that self-esteem is contingent on successes and failures in domains on which a person has based his or her self-worth. (page 84)
Sociometer hypothesis
A hypothesis that maintains that self-esteem is an internal, subjective index or marker of the extent to which a person is included or looked on favorably by others. (page 85)
Better-than-average effect
The finding that most people think they are above average on various trait and ability dimensions. (page 89)
Self-evaluation maintenance (SEM) model
A model that maintains that people are motivated to view themselves in a favorable light and that they do so through two processes: reflection and social comparison. (page 90)
Self-verification theory
A theory that holds that people strive for stable, subjectively accurate beliefs about the self because such beliefs give them a sense of coherence. (page 93)
Self-regulation
Processes that people use to initiate, alter, and control their behavior in the pursuit of goals, including the ability to resist short-term awards that thwart the attainment of long-term goals. (page 95)
Possible selves
Hypothetical selves that a person aspires to be in the future. (page 95)
Self-discrepancy theory
A theory that behavior is motivated by standards reflecting ideal and ought selves. Falling short of these standards produces specific emotions – dejection-related emotions for actual-ideal discrepancies, and agitation-related emotions for actual-ought discrepancies. (page 95)
Actual self
The self that people believe they are. (page 95)
Ideal self
The self that embodies people’s wishes and aspirations as held by themselves and by other people for them. (page 95)
Ought self
The self that is concerned with the duties, obligations, and external demands people feel they are compelled to honor. (page 95)
Promotion focus
Regulating behavior with respect to ideal self standards, entailing a focus on attaining positive outcomes and approach-related behaviors. (page 96)
Prevention focus
Regulating behavior with respect to ought standards, entailing a focus on avoiding negative outcomes and avoidance-related behaviors. (page 96)
Ego depletion
A state, produced by acts of self-control, in which people lack the energy or resources to engage in further acts of self-control. (page 97)
Self-presentation
Presenting the person that we would like others to believe we are. (page 99)
Face
The public image of ourselves that we want others to believe. (page 100)
Self-monitoring
The tendency for people to monitor their behavior in such a way that it fits situational demands (the current situation). (page 101)
Self-handicapping
People’s tendency to engage in self-defeating behavior in order to have a ready excuse should they perform poorly or fail. (page 101)
