Chapter 3: The social self Flashcards
self-schemas
Social psychologists assume that self-knowledge is stored in memory in cognitive structures known as …. Built from past experience, … represent people´s beliefs and feelings about themselves, both in general and in particular kinds of situations
reflected self-appraisals
self-knowledge is derived in part from …, our beliefs about others’ reactions to us.
working self-concept
Markus and Wurf (1987) coined the term … to refer to the idea that only a subset of a person’s vast pool of self-knowledge is brought to mind in any given context—usually the subset that’s most relevant or appropriate in the current situation.
social comparison theory
Sometimes people actively seek out information about themselves through comparison with other people. This is the central tenet of …
Self-esteem
… refers to the overall positive or negative evaluation people have of themselves. self-esteem represents how we feel about our attributes and qualities, our successes and failures, and our self in general.
the self-worth model
According to contingencies of …, people’s self-esteem rises and falls with successes and failures in the domains in which they have staked their self-worth
sociometer hypothesis
…, Mark Lear maintains that self-esteem is primarily a readout of our likely standing with others; that is, self-esteem is an internal, subjective index of how well we are regarded by others and hence how likely we are to be included or excluded by them.
Self-enhancement
… is the desire to maintain, increase, or protect positive views of the self. To satisfy this very powerful motive, people use various strategies
better-than-average effect
Most people think they’re better than average
Self-affirmation theory
… focuses on people’s efforts to maintain an overall sense of self-worth when they’re confronted with feedback or events that threaten a valued self-image
Self-regulation
… refers to the processes by which people initiate, alter, and control their behavior in pursuit of their goals. Given that successful goal pursuit often requires resisting temptations, self-regulation also involves the ability to prioritize long-term goals
self-discrepancy theory
According to …, people hold beliefs about not only what they are like, but also what they would ideally like to be and what they think they ought to be.
promotion focus
When people regulate their behavior with respect to ideal self standards, they have a …, or a focus on attaining positive outcomes
prevention focus
when people regulate their behavior with respect to ought self standards, they have a …, a focus on avoiding negative outcomes
self-presentation
The public self is concerned with …—presenting the person we would like others to believe we are. Another term for this concept is impression management, which refers to how we attempt to control the particular impressions other people form about us.
