Chapter 3 Flashcards
self concept
refers to an individuals self-beliefs and self evaluation; The Who am I, and, How do I feel about myself
what levels are our self concept defined at
individual, relational, collective
individual
in terms of our personal traits
relational self
connections to friends and coworkers
Collective self
membership in teams, organization, social groups, other entities
what can an individual’s self-concept be described by
complexity, consistency, clarity
complexity
refers to the number of distinct and important roles or identities that people perceive about themselves; more than one because different roles at different times
consistency
high consistency exists when the individual identities are compatible with each other and with the person’s actual personality and values; low consistency occurs when some self views require personal characteristics that conflict with attributes required for other self views
clarity
the degree to which a person’s self concept is clear, confidently defined, and stable; confident about who we are
self enhancement
when individuals rate themselves above average; better than average probability of success, attribute their success to personal motivation or ability while blaming situation for their mistakes
positive of self enhancement
tend to experience better mental and physical health and have more of a “can do” attitude
negatives of self enhancement
overestimate future returns in investment, engage in unsafe behavior; repeating poor decisions
self verification
confirm and maintain their existing self concept; stabilizes an individuals self view, which in turn provides an important anchor that guides his or her thoughts and actions; different because it seeks feedback
pieces of self verification
more likely to remember information that is consistent with their self-concept, high self concept will dismiss feedback that contradicts that, prefer interacting with those who affirm their self views
self evaluation
defined by three elements; self esteem, self efficacy, locus of control
self esteem
the extent to which people like, respect, and a re satisfied with themselves; high self esteem are less influenced by others
self efficacy
refers to a persons belief about successfully completing a task; high has a “can do” attitude
locus of control
defined by a persons general beliefs about the amount of control he or she has over personal life events; internal means caused by personal characteristics, eternal means fate, luck, conditions, etc.
The social self
two opposing human motives; be distinctive and different from other people, inclusion and assimilation with other people
social identity theory
says that people define themselves by the groups to which they belong or have an emotional attachment
categorical thinking
the mostly non conscious process of organizing people and objects into preconceived categories that are store in our long term memory
how are people normally grouped together
observable similarity (gender, age, race, clothing style, so forth, proximity to each other, filling in missing information about people or places
mental models
road maps of the environments in which we live; knowledge structures that we develop to describe, explain, and predict the world around us; visual or relational images in our mind; partly rely on perceptual grouping
stereotyping
the perceptual process in which we assign characteristics to an identifiable group and then automatically transfer those features to anyone we believe is a member of that group
why do people stereotype
non conscious energy saving process that simplifies our understanding of the world; innate need to understand and anticipate how others will behave (fill in the missing pieces that don’t have when we are first meeting someone); motivated by the observers need for social identity and self-enhancement
categorization
categorizing people into a distance group
homogenization
simplify comparison process, tend to think that people within each group are very similar to each other
differentiation
assign more favorable characteristics to people in our groups than to people in other groups
problems with stereotyping
inaccurate because they do not describe everyone, stereotype threat, lays the foundation for discriminatory attitudes and behaviors
stereotype threat
whereby members of a stereotyped group are concerned that they might exhibit a negative feature of the stereotype; negatively affects their behavior and performance which makes them fall into the actual stereotype that was being said
unintentional (systematic) discrimination
decision makers rely on stereotypes to establish notions of the “ideal” person in specific roles
intentional discrimination or prejudice
in which people hold unfounded negative attitudes toward people belonging to a particular stereotyped group
self fulfilling prophecy
occurs when our expectations about another person cause that person to act in a way that is consistent with those expectations
self fulfilling prophecy cycle; subordinate
supervisor forms expectation about the employee, supervisors expectations affect his/her behavior toward the employee, supervisor’s behavior affects the employee’s ability and motivating (self confidence), employees behavior becomes more consistent with the supervisors initial expectations
when does the self fulfilling prophecy have the strongest effect
the beginning of a relationship, such as when they are first hired; also when several people hold the same expectations
positive organizational behavior
suggests that focusing on the positive rather than the negative aspects of life will improve organizational success and individual well being
halo effect
occurs when our general impression of a person, usually based on one prominent characteristic, distorts our perception of other characteristics of that person; late for work a couple times, he becomes that guy and the good in him can’t be seen
false consensus
occurs when people overestimate the extent to which others have similar beliefs to our own; the promotion from the TBL, thought it was good/ thought they were trying to get rid of her cause of gender and race
primacy effect
tendency to rely on the first information we receive about people to quickly form an opinion of them; heard boss was scary, that’s what we think they are
recency effect
occurs when the most recent information dominates our perceptions; employee doing performance reviews at end of year, things completed more toward end are remembered more easily
how to improve perceptions
awareness of perceptual biases, self-awareness, and meaningful interaction
awareness of perceptual biases
by knowing they exist; like diversity training (although can reinforce by bringing it all up)
improving self awareness
complete formal tests that indicate any biases we might have toward one another, johavi window
johavi window
objective is to increase the size of the open area so that both you and your colleagues are aware of your perceptual limitations; conversations about ourselves
meaning interaction =
more indirect, yet potentially powerful, approach to improving self awareness and mutual understanding; anytime people engage in meaningful activities
contact hypothesis
theory stating that the more we interact with someone, the less prejudice we will be against that person
empathy
a person’s understanding of and sensitivity to the feelings, thoughts, and situations
