Chapter 2

Question 1

What is the self-concept?

Answer 1

The complete set of beliefs that people have about themselves.

Question 2

What is the self-schema?

Answer 2

Beliefs about oneself that help people process self-relevant information.

Question 3

What are the benefits of high self-complexity?

Answer 3

Buffer against stress.

Question 4

What is multiple role theory?

Answer 4

Theory asserting that it is beneficial for a person’s health to have multiple self-identities.

Question 5

What is priming?

Answer 5

Exposure to stimuli that activate a mental representation of a particular concept, value, goal or object.

Question 6

Which is more important when it comes to roles?

Answer 6

Quality, in terms of satisfaction, happiness, and optimism.

Question 7

What is self-concept clarity?

Answer 7

The extent to which self-schemas are clearly and confidently defined, consistent with each other, and stable across time.

Question 8

Why does self-concept clarity help with long-term projects?

Answer 8

Because it helps us to act consistently across time.

Question 9

What are the benefits of a clear and coherent self-concept?

Answer 9

Better coping with stresses, injustices and rejections. Gives us confidence and motivation to commit to and enjoy relationships with others.

Question 10

Why are stressful events so damaging to mental health?

Answer 10

They undermine the clarity with which you understand who you are.

Question 11

What is self-awareness?

Answer 11

The psychological state of being aware of one’s own characteristics, feelings and behaviours, or the awareness of oneself as unique.

Question 12

What is public self-awareness?

Answer 12

Awareness of the public aspects of the self and how these aspects may be seen by others.

Question 13

What is public self-consciousness?

Answer 13

Chronic public self-awareness and concern about how one looks and is evaluated by others.

Question 14

What is private self-awareness?

Answer 14

The psychological state where an individual is aware of the private, personal aspects of the self.

Question 15

What is a boundary condition?

Answer 15

A level of a third variable under which an otherwise observed effect is no longer observed.

Question 16

What is private self-consciousness?

Answer 16

Chronic private self-awareness and concern about the private aspects of the self.

Question 17

What is self-perception theory?

Answer 17

Theory that people learn about the self by examining their own thoughts, feelings and behaviours.

Question 18

What is self-discrepancy theory?

Answer 18

Theory that focuses on people’s perception of the discrepancies between their actual self and their perceived and ought selves.

Question 19

What is the actual self?

Answer 19

How a person is at the present time.

Question 20

What is the ideal self?

Answer 20

How a person would like to be.

Question 21

What is the ought self?

Answer 21

How a person thinks they should be, based on ideals of duty and responsibility.

Question 22

What is self-regulation?

Answer 22

The attempt to match behaviour with an ideal or ought standard of the self.

Question 23

What is regulatory focus theory?

Answer 23

Theory asserting that people have two distinct self-regulatory systems: promotion, which makes people more approach-oriented in constructing the self, and prevention, which makes people more cautious and avoidant in constructing the self.

Question 24

What is the control theory of self-regulation?

Answer 24

Theory of the self proposing that people test the self against private standards and regulate their behaviours to meet these standards.

Question 25

What is ego depletion?

Answer 25

The notion that self-control and willpower are a finite resource that can be used up.

Question 26

That is the strength model of self-control?

Answer 26

Theory arguing that self-control cannot be maintained for an unlimited period of time and needs to be replenished.

Question 27

What is the social comparison theory?

Answer 27

Theory of the self arguing that to learn about, and define, the self, people compare themselves with other people.

Question 28

What is upward social comparison?

Answer 28

The act of comparing oneself with someone who is perceived to be better on the relevant dimension.

Question 29

What is downward social comparison?

Answer 29

The act of comparing oneself with someone who is perceived to be worse on the relevant dimension.

Question 30

What is temporal comparison?

Answer 30

The act of comparing oneself with the way one was in the past, or with an anticipated future self.

Question 31

What is the self-evaluation maintenance model?

Answer 31

Theory explaining how people are able to maintain their self-esteem in situations where they engage in upward social comparisons.

Question 32

What are the four strategies to maintain a positive sense of self according to the self-evaluation maintenance model?

Answer 32

Exaggerate the ability of the better person; engage in downward social comparison against someone else; avoid the comparison person; devalue the dimension on which the other person is better.

Question 33

What is social reflection?

Answer 33

Ability to derive self-esteem from the successes and achievements of close others, without thinking about one’s own achievement on a particular domain.

Question 34

What is self-esteem?

Answer 34

A person’s subjective appraisal of the self an intrinsically positive or negative.

Question 35

What are the three parenting styles?

Answer 35

Authoritarian, permissive, authoritative.

Question 36

What is the sociometer theory?

Answer 36

Theory of self-esteem arguing that people are motivated to maintain high levels of self-esteem and to do this by ensuring they are socially included.

Question 37

How does self-esteem influence a person?

Answer 37

It regulates mood; it protects from the terror of death (mortality salience); it influences aggression; it controls narcissism.

Question 38

What is impression management?

Answer 38

How people manage the self they present to others, so that they appear to others in the best possible light.

Question 39

What is self-monitoring?

Answer 39

How people control how they present themselves, depending on the person (individual differences) and the situation.

Question 40

What is self-presentation?

Answer 40

How people make deliberate efforts to create an impression (usually favourable) of themselves to others.

Question 41

What are the motives for self-presentation?

Answer 41

To be seen as competent; to be liked by others; to make people believe we are dangerous; to be seen as morally respectable; to be seen as helpless in other to gain pity.

Question 42

What are the limits of self-awareness?

Answer 42

People do not notice when or why their attitudes change; people do not understand how situational factors affect their behaviour; people do not understand why they like things; people believe their behaviour is influenced by factors that are not actually relevant.

Question 43

What is the affective forecasting error?

Answer 43

The tendency for people to overestimate the emotional impact that positive and negative events will have on them.

Question 44

What is motivated social cognition?

Answer 44

The acquisition, processing and storage of information that is motivated and affected by goals. Refers mostly to social cognition that is biased by goals. Refers to the processes by which people are capable of believing what they want to believe.

Question 45

What are the motivations that influence social cognition?

Answer 45

To find out more about a topic; to protect or enhance our self-esteem; to ensure cognitive consistency (fight cognitive dissonance); to feel that we are in control of our world.

Question 46

What is self-assessment?

Answer 46

The motivation to know objectively who we are.

Question 47

What is self-verification?

Answer 47

The motivation to seek out information that confirms one’s view of the self.

Question 48

What is self-enhancement?

Answer 48

The motivation to seek out information that allows one to see one’s self in a positive light.

Question 49

What is the self-serving attribution bias?

Answer 49

Self-other bias whereby people make internal attributions for positive aspects of the self but external attributions for negative aspects of the self.