Chapter 3 - Perceptions Flashcards
Self-concept
Includes an individual’s self-beliefs and self-evaluations
Self-enhance
People are inherently motivated to promote and protect their self-concept
Self-verification
People motivated to verify and maintain their existing self-concept
Self-evaluation
Consists of self-esteem, self-efficacy and locus of control
Social Identity theory
How people define themselves in terms of the groups to which they belong or have an emotional attachment
Perception
Involves selecting, organizing and interpreting information to make sense of the world around us
Perceptual organisation engages
Categorial thinking
Stereotyping
Occurs when people assign traits to others based on their membership of a social category
Stereotyping
Occurs when people assign traits to others based on their membership of a social category
Stereotyping is good because it:
economises mental effort, fills in missing information, and enhances self-concept
Stereotyping is bad because it:
lays foundation for prejudice and systematic discrimination
Attribution Process
Involves deciding whether an observed behavior or event is caused mainly by the person (internal factors) or the environment (external factors)
Attributions decided by perceptions of:
the consistency, distinctiveness and consensus of the behavior
Fundamental attribution error
The tendency to see the person rather than the situation as the main cause of that person’s behavior
Self-fulfilling prophecy
the perceptual process in which our expectations about another person cause that person to act more consistently with those expectations
