Chapter 3 The Social Self Flashcards
Self-Concept
The sum total of beliefs that people have about themselves
Self-schema
Beliefs about oneself that guide the processing of self-relevant information.
How we would feel or act in certain situations.
self-awareness
The knower aspect: act of thinking about ourselves
Introspection
A process of looking inward at one’s own thoughts and feelings. Understanding your thoughts,feelings and behaviour.
Affective forecasting
The process of predicting how one would feel in response to future emotional events.
Impact bias
People OVERestimate strength and duration of their emotional reactions.
Self-Perception Theory
When internal cues are difficult to interpret, people gain insight by observing their own behaviour
Intrinsic motivation
Factors within a person that motivate behavior. Ex., doing something for personal interests, the challenge, or enjoyment
Extrinsic motivation
Factors outside the person that motivate behavior. Ex., doing something for tangible benefit (money/grades/recognition), to fulfill an obligation, or to avoid punishment/penalty.
Over justification effect
The tendency for intrinsic motivation to diminish for activities that have become associated with reward or other extrinsic factors.
Social Comparison Theory
The theory that people evaluate their own abilities and opinions by comparing themselves to others. (Festinger, 1954).
Self-esteem
An affective component of the self, consisting of a person’s positive and negative self-evaluations
Self-discrepancy theory
According to Higgins (1987), our self-esteem is defined by the match or mismatch between how we see ourselves and how we want to see ourselves.
Actual self vs ought self vs ideal self
Self-presentation
Enhancing the self to oneself and to others
Strategic self-presentation
Consists of our efforts to shape others’ impressions in specific ways in order to gain influence, power, sympathy, or approval.
Ingratiation
A term used to describe acts that are motivated by the desire to “get along” with others and be liked.
Self-promotion
A term used to describe acts that are motivated by a desire to “get ahead” and gain respect for one’s competence.
Self-verification
The desire to have others perceive us as we truly perceive ourselves. According to William Swann (1987), people are highly motivated in their social encounters to confirm or verify their existing self-concept in the eyes of others.
Self-monitoring
(Mark Snyder, 1987), the tendency to regulate one’s own behavior to meet the demands of social situations.
Favourable Self-Views / Above average effect
People see themselves as better than average on most positive dimensions (and things they personally value)
Dunning-Kruger effect
People tend to overestimate own abilities - But some do it more than others
Participants with lowest scores on logic, humour, and grammar were the ones most likely to overestimate their own abilities
Implicit Egotism
A non-conscious form of self-enhancement/ subtle expression of self-esteem.
We like stuff associated with the self
Self-enhancement
4 major strategies we employ to feel better about themselves:
* Self-serving cognitions
* Self-handicapping
* BIRGing
* Downward social comparisons
Self-Serving Cognitions
Intrinsic explanations for successes and extrinsic explanations for failures
Self-handicapping
Behaviours that sabotage performance provide an excuse for failure (And therefore protect the self)
Sandbagging
A paradoxical tactic used to reduce performance pressure where people play down their own ability, lower expectations, and publicly predict that they will fail
Basking in Reflected Glory (BIRG)
To increase self-esteem by associating with others who are successful
Cutting Off Reflected Failure (CORF)
Dissociating with others who are experiencing failure
Downward Social Comparisons
The defensive tendency to compare ourselves with others who are worse off than we are
Positive illusion may be adaptive
Individuals with depression are actually more accurate about their future probabilities, their own abilities, how others perceive them
“Beliefs about the self that guide how we process self-relevant information” is the definition for which of the following terms?
Self-concept
Self-schemas
Self-esteem
Self-awareness
Self-schemas
A person who frequently changes their behaviour in response to self-presentation concerns and situational factors is displaying a high level of…
self-monitoring
Which of the following is higher self-esteem not associated with?
greater life satisfaction
greater intelligence
less anxiety
higher self-efficacy
greater intelligence
According to the video, “Why incompetent people think they’re amazing,” who is the most likely to overestimate their abilities?
Unintelligent people
Arrogant people
Domain experts
All people do this
All people do this
Which of the following types of comparisons do most people tend to make most of the time?
Downward social comparisons
Upward social comparisons
Lateral social comparisons
Non-social comparisons
Downward social comparisons
Self awareness theory
Self-focused attention leads people to notice self-discrepancies, thereby motivating either an escape from self-awareness or a change in behaviour.
