Chapter 3

Question 1

What is self-concept?

Answer 1

What we know and believe about ourselves.

Question 2

What is self?

Answer 2

A social construction, developed and maintained via inferences drawn from social experiences.

Question 3

Who is better at predicting success, ourselves or the ones around us?

Answer 3

The ones around us

Question 4

Do we know ourselves better than other people know us, like we would think?

Answer 4

It depends, because what we know and what others know may depend on the availability of information and motivational biases. Everybody captures different aspects of personality. We are motivated to see ourselves positively, and we’re not aware of many of our behind-the-scenes mental processes.

Question 5

What are schemas?

Answer 5

Internal cognitive structures containing generalized knowledge about the world. They serve as frameworks that guide our perceptions and interpretations of incoming information, and help us organize our knowledge about the world.

Question 6

What are self-schemas?

Answer 6

Cognitive generalizations about the self derived from past experience. They provide a framework, or template, for processing incoming information

Question 7

What is Bem’s self perception theory?

Answer 7

When we are uncertain about our attitudes and feelings, we infer them by observing our own behaviors.

Question 8

What are the 4 sources of self-knowledge?

Answer 8

1. Who am I?
2. Inferences from observations on our own behavior
3. Feedback and reactions from others
4. Social comparisons

Question 9

What does looking glass-self mean?

Answer 9

We come to know ourselves through people’s reactions to us.

Question 10

What are reflected self-appraisals?

Answer 10

Beliefs about what others believe of one’s self. Our self-identity develops from how we imagine others see us (not necessarily as they truly see us).

Question 11

What is the Chaiken & Baldwin study?

Answer 11

Participants had strong or weak attitudes about being an environmentalist. The researchers manipulated participants’ perceptions of their environment-related behaviors (ex: ”do you sometimes recycle” vs. “do you always recycle?”). The researchers then asked the participants to indicate their attitudes on environment. Only participants with weak attitudes engaged in self-perception processes.

Question 12

What is the social comparison theory?

Answer 12

1. We are driven to to evaluate our opinions and abilities.
2. When objective standards are not available, we engage in social comparisons.
3. We tend to engage in comparisons with people who are not too dissimilar.

Question 13

What is a downward comparison?

Answer 13

Comparing ourselves with people who are worse off.

Question 14

What is an upward comparison?

Answer 14

Comparing ourselves with people who are better off.

Question 15

What is self-esteem?

Answer 15

The positive or negative evaluation a person has of themselves

Question 16

What is the trait level of self-esteem?

Answer 16

An individual’s self-opinion over long periods of time. Fairly stable perception.

Question 17

What is the state level of self-esteem?

Answer 17

An individual’s self-opinion in a particular moment, due to a specific situation. Dynamic, changing feelings about the self. Varies from moment to moment.

Question 18

Would it be wise to stake our self-worth on a wide range of domains?

Answer 18

Yes. People seek to maintain, protect, and enhance self-esteem by attempting to obtain success and avoid failure in domains on which their self-worth has been staked. It impacts the situations we seek out and activities we engage in. Successes and failures in the domains we care about lead to greater and decreases in self-esteem, respectively. However, success in a given domain increases self-esteem to the extent that the domain is believed to be valued by others.

Question 19

What is the sociometer theory?

Answer 19

A theory positing that people use self-esteem as a “gauge” to assess the degree to which they are accepted by others

Question 20

What is naïve realism?

Answer 20

The belief that we see the world as it is. Similarly: Others see the world as we do (ex: Individuals with low self-esteem believe others share their negative self-views—but it is not true).

Question 21

What is low self-esteem associated with?

Answer 21

1. Poorer well-being (ex: anxiety, depression…)
2. Relationship problems

Question 22

What is high self-esteem associated with?

Answer 22

1. Higher initiative
2. Self-fulfilling prophecies
   But…
   High self-esteem is not a guarantee for professional and interpersonal success, or a positive impact on the world.

Question 23

What is a self-fulfilling prophecy?

Answer 23

Expectations of success can lead us to behave in ways that ensure success.

Question 24

What do we call the dark cousin of high self-esteem?

Answer 24

Narcissism

Question 25

What is narcissism?

Answer 25

Unrealistic and self-aggrandizing views of the self. It can lead to defensiveness and aggression toward people who threaten their positive self-view.

Question 26

What is self-enhancement motivation?

Answer 26

The motivation to view oneself positively.

Question 27

What is the better-than-average effect?

Answer 27

The finding that most people think they are above average on various personality trait and ability dimensions. But how can we all be better than average?

Question 28

On what kind of traits do people think of themselves as above average?

Answer 28

Ambiguous ones. When the domain is constrained to be specific, better-than-average effect diminishes. (ex: what other people are like on average vs. what I’m like at my best)

Question 29

We have the tendency to compare how we are at our _____ with how people are on _____.

Answer 29

best, average

Question 30

What is self-affirmation theory?

Answer 30

Theory explaining how people can maintain a positive overall sense of self-worth in the face of threats of their self-concept. We do this by affirming valued aspects of oneself unrelated to the threat.

Question 31

What is self-concept clarity?

Answer 31

The extent to which one possess a clearly defined, internally consistent, and temporally stable sense of self.

Question 32

What is self-verification theory?

Answer 32

People strive to maintain a coherent self-view because it serves our need for prediction and control. It predicts that people will seek feedback that reinforces their self-view, even when self-view is negative.

Question 33

What are 2 self-verification strategies?

Answer 33

1. Developing self-confirmatory social environments (ex: people with negative self-views prefer interaction partners who appraise them unfavorably rather than favorably, more desire to stay with roommates whose appraisals are congruent with one’s own
   self-views). Identity cues signal how we expect to be treated.
2. Engaging cognitive strategies that produce the illusion of a self-confirmatory social environment. There is a selective attention to feedback confirming one’s self-view, and we better recall self-confirmatory feedback than self-discrepant feedback.

Question 34

What do identity cues signal?

Answer 34

They signal (through our clothing, conduct, material possessions) how we expect to be treated.

Question 35

Generally, affective responses conform to _____ theory while cognitive responses conform to _____ theory.
self-verification theory, self-enhancement theory

Answer 35

self-enhancement theory, self-verification theory

Question 36

What is self-regulation?

Answer 36

Processes by which people initiate, later, and control their behavior in the pursuit of their goals. It involves ability to prioritize longterm goals over immediate rewards

Question 37

What is the self-discrepancy theory?

Answer 37

That there is an actual self, an ideal self, and an ought self.
1. Actual self: beliefs about what you are actually like
2. Ideal self: beliefs about what we would like to be
3. Ought self: beliefs about what we ought to be

Question 38

What are hot processes driven by?

Answer 38

Strong emotions. Hot processes energize us to pursue rewards.

Question 39

What are cold processes driven by?

Answer 39

Reasoning. Cold processes keep us on track for long-term goals. “Cooling down” can help us resist temptation.

Question 40

What is implementation-intention?

Answer 40

An “if-then” plan to engage in a goal-directed behavior (the “then”) whenever a particular cue is encountered (the “if”). It has been shown to be effective across a wide variety of domains.

Question 41

What is self-presentation?

Answer 41

Presenting the person we would like others to believe we are. It is social interaction as dramatic performance. The face is the public image we want to project.

Question 42

What is self-monitoring?

Answer 42

The tendency to monitor our behavior to fit the current situation. People can be high or low on this trait.

Question 43

What is self-handicapping?

Answer 43

The tendency to engage in self-defeating behavior in order to have an excuse ready should one perform poorly or fail.