CHAPTER 2 THE SELF IN A SOCIAL WORLD Flashcards
Spotlight Effect
The belief that others are paying more attention to our appearance than they really are.
illusion of transparency
The illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and can be easily read by others.
self-concept
How a person answers the question “Who am I?” provides a glimpse of their self-concept.
self-schemas
Beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant information.
social comparison
Evaluating your abilities and opinions by comparing yourself to others.
individualism
The concept of giving priority to one’s own goals over group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications.
independent self
Construing one’s identity as an autonomous self.
collectivism
Giving priority to the goals of one’s groups (often, one’s extended family or work group) and defining one’s identity accordingly.
interdependent self
Construing one’s identity in relation to others
planning fallacy
The tendency to underestimate how long it will take to complete a task
impact bias
Overestimating the enduring impact of emotion-causing events.
dual attitudes
Differing implicit (automatic) and explicit (consciously controlled) attitudes toward the same object. Verbalized explicit attitudes may change with education and persuasion; implicit attitudes change slowly, with practice that forms new habits.
self-esteem
A person’s overall self- evaluation or sense of self-worth.
self-efficacy
A sense that one is competent and effective, distinguished from self-esteem, which is one’s sense of self-worth. A sharpshooter in the military might feel high self-efficacy and low self-esteem.
self-serving attributions
A form of self-serving bias; the tendency to attribute positive outcomes to yourself and negative outcomes to other factors.
explanatory style
A person’s habitual way of explaining life events. A negative, pessimistic, and depressive explanatory style attributes failures to stable, global, and internal causes.
defensive pessimism
The adaptive value of anticipating problems and harnessing one’s anxiety to motivate effective action.
false consensus effect
The tendency to overestimate the commonality of one’s opinions and one’s undesirable or unsuccessful behaviours.
false uniqueness effect
The tendency to underestimate the commonality of one’s abilities and one’s desirable or successful behaviours.
Temporal comparisons
Comparisons between how the self is viewed now and how the self was viewed in the past or how the self is expected to be viewed in the future.
self-handicapping
Protecting one’s self-image with behaviours that create a handy excuse for later failure.
self-presentation
The act of expressing yourself and behaving in ways designed to create a favourable impression or an impression that corresponds to your ideals.
self-monitoring
Being attuned to the way you present yourself in social situations and adjusting your performance to create the desired impression.
self-presentation theory
A theory positing that we are eager to present ourselves in ways that make a good impression.
learned helplessness
The hopelessness and resignation learned when a human or animal perceives no control over repeated bad events.
