Chapter 2

Question 1

What is the self/what are its three components?

Answer 1

an evolving composite of self-awareness, self-concept and self esteem.

Question 2

Self awareness

Answer 2

the ability to view yourself as a unique person distinct from your surrounding environment and to reflect on your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Critical self-reflection is a way to target this aspect of self.

Question 3

Self-esteem

Answer 3

the overall value, positive or negative that we assign to ourselves. How do I evaluate myself?

Question 4

Self-concept

Answer 4

your overall perception of who you are. Based on beliefs, attitudes, and values you have about yourself.

Question 5

Social penetration theory

Answer 5

Altman and Taylor’s model that you reveal information about yourself to others by peeling back or penetrating layers.

Peripheral layers: demographic characters such as birthplace, age, gender, and ethnicity.

Intermediate layers: your attitudes and opinions about music, politics, food, entertainment, etc.

Central layers: core characteristics such as self-awareness, self-concept, self-esteem, personal values, fears, and distinctive personality traits.

Question 6

Looking-glass self

Answer 6

Sociologist Charles Horton Cooley’s idea that we define our self-concepts through thinking about how others see us.

Ex: A young girl who believe that others consider her poor in sports formulates an image of herself as uncoordinated even though she is a good dancer.

Question 7

Self-fulfilling prophecies

Answer 7

Predictions about future encounters that lead us to behave in ways that ensure the interactions unfold as we predicted.

Question 8

What three forces influence self?

Answer 8

1. Gender (it is learned, causes us to be socialized diff)
2. Family (plays key role in teaching sets of beliefs, attitudes and values)
3. Culture (collective sense of self shared by a group of people)

Question 9

What are the four different attachment styles?

Answer 9

1. Secure attachment: low in anxiety and avoidance. comfortable with intimacy and seek close ties with others.
2. Preoccupied attachment: high in anxiety and low avoidance. Desire closeness but fear rejection. May have sex to satisfy need to feel loved. Difficult with long-term relationships.
3. Dismissive attachement: low anxiety and high avoidance. See close relationships as unimportant and prioritize self-reliance
4. Fearful attachement: high anxiety and avoidance. Fear rejection and shun relationships.

Question 10

What are the four quadrants of the Johari window?

Answer 10

1. Public area: aspects of self that you and others are aware of.
2. Blind area: facets of yourself that are readily apparent to others but that you are not aware of.
3. Hidden area: Parts of yourself that you are aware of but that you hide from others.
4. Unknown area: aspects of yourself that you and others are not aware of (unconscious motives and impulses).

Question 11

Interpersonal process model of intimacy

Answer 11

the closeness we feel toward others in our relationships is created through self-disclosure and responsiveness of listeners to disclosure.

Relationships are intimate when both parents share private information and each partner response to the others’ disclosures with understanding, caring, and support.

Question 12

Actor-observer effect

Answer 12

the tendency to credit external factors as causes for our behaviors instead of internal factors

Question 13

Self-serving bias

Answer 13

A biased tendency to credit ourselves instead of external factors for our success.