chapter 13 - knowing ourselves, knowing others Flashcards
theory of mind
a well-developed set of untaught, intuitive beliefs about other’s mental states and processes and an understanding of how to use those beliefs to infer other’s goals and explain their actions
sense of self
a composite of the various ways an individual thinks about himself and has distinct kinds of self-awareness
ecological self
a sense of the self as moving through the world, gained through perception and action
interpersonal self
a sense of the self as engaged in social interactions with others
extended self
a sense of the self as traveling along an autobiographical timeline
private self
a sense that we have experiences that no one else has, such as dreams, points of view, and thought
conceptual self
a view of the self that includes a sense of the roles that we occupy in broader cultural and social contexts
mirror test
a test of someone’s sense of self in which a mark is put on an object such that it can only be seen when the subject views himself in a mirror
self-concept
a conscious sense of the self that involves both facts about the self and evaluative beliefs about the self
kinesthetic self-concept
a concept of the self that arises from an awareness of our motor actions as we move in an environment
gender identity
a sense of whether we are male or female
gender role
the behaviors and traits that are considered typical of each sex
self-esteem
the extent to which we value our own worth and the emotions that accompany such an assessment
self-efficacy
our beliefs about our ability to achieve certain goals, often tied to a particular set of circumstances
module
in Fodor’s sense, a functionally specialized cognitive system that is tailored for processing certain forms of information in ways that are not influences by other cognitive systems
dominance hierarchy
a network of relations between members of a social group, often primates. The structure of the network often involves a single powerful individual at the top and groups of subordinates that get ever larger with decreasing in the phenotype
false-belief task
a task that assesses the ability to understand how others might have beliefs that are contrary to a true state of affairs in the world
false-photograph task
a task developed to investigate whether children who fail false-belief tasks actually misunderstand beliefs per se. The task does not involve beliefs, but young children still have trouble inhibiting a default (incorrect) response based on the objects that are in view when they are questioned
theory of mind module
a specialized, autonomous system dedicated to processing the beliefs and mental state processes in others
dispositional factor
a factor intrinsic to a person, such as a trait or the person’s temperament
situational factor
a factor that arises from external circumstances and influences behavior
fundamental attribution error
the tendency to explain the behavior of others in terms of dispositional factors as opposed to situational factors
attribution theory
a theory that encompasses the way that people explain their own behavior and the behavior of others
trait-based reasoning
thinking about an individual’s qualities and behaviors in ways that focus on specific traits
evaluative reasoning
thinking about an individual’s qualities and behaviors in terms of whether the person is entirely good or entirely bad and predicting his future behavior on that basis
fixed-trait theorist
an individual who tends to think that traits are intrinsic and unchangeable regardless of effort
incremental theorist
someone who views traits as changeable through effort
overjustification effect
a drop in spontaneous behavior due to reduced motivation, produced when we perceive the behavior as having been done for an external reward
self-determination
a sense of having a choice in decisions about our life and daily activities, of feeling that we have had an important role in determining our behaviors
