Chapter 5 - The Self Flashcards
Mention the differences between western and asian views of the self.
Western cultures tend to have a independent view of th self, which is a way of defining oneself in terms of one’s own internal thoughts, feelings, and actions, and not in terms of the thought, feelings, and actions of others.
In many Asian and other non-Western cultures, people have an interdependent view of the self, which is a wahy of defining oneself in terms of one’s relationships to other people and recognizing that one’s behavior is often determined by the thoughts, feelings , and actions of others.
Mention the general gender difference in defining the self.
Women tend to have more relation interdependence, meaning that they focus more on their close relationships. Men have more collective interdepence, meaning that they focus on their memberships in larger groups.
What is the Self-Awareness Theory?
The idea that when people focus their attention on themselves, they evalutate and compare their behavior to their internal standards and values.
Several studies have found that when people are self-aware (e.g. in front of a mirror), they are more likely to follow their moral standards, such as avoiding the temptation to cheat on a test.
What is reasons-generated attitude change?
Attitude change resulting from thinking about the reasons for one’s attitudes; people assume that their attitudes match the reasons that are plausible and easy to verbalize.
Which two steps are there in reasons-generated attitude change?
- Bringing to mind reasons that don’t really reflect how they feel, but are plausible and easy to verbalize.
- Talk themselves into believing that this is how they feel.
What is Self-Perception Theory?
The theory that when our attitudes and feelings are uncertain or ambiguous, we infer these states by observing our behavior and the situation in which it occurs.
What is intrinsic motivation?
The desire to engange in an activity because we enjoy it or find it interesting, not because of external rewards or pressures.
What is extrinsic motivation?
The desire to engage in an activity because of external rewards or pressures, not because we enjoy the task or find it interesting.
What is the overjustification effect?
The tendency for people to view their behavior as caused by complelling extrinsic reasons, making them underestimate the extent to which it was caused by intrinsic reasons.
This is why rewarding an intrinsically motivated activity could transform the motivation into an extrinsic one - which is weaker.
What is the Two-Factor Theory of Emotion?
The idea that emotional experience is the result of a two-step self-perception process in which people first experience physiological arousal and then seek an appropriate explanation for it. (Schachter, 1964).
What is misattribution of arousal?
When people make mistaken inferences about what is causing them to feel the way they do, i.e. in the Bridge-Experiment.
Our understanding of our own abilities can be related to two different mindsets (Dweck, 2006), which have consequences for how we meet failure. Which two mindsets?
The fixed mindset - the idea that we have a set amount of an ability that cannot change.
Growth mindset - the idea that our abilities are malleable qualities that can cultivate and grow.
Leon Festingers social comparison theory (1954) states that…
We learn about our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves to other people.
If we, as the social comparison theory states, learn about our own abilities and attitudes by comparison. Who do we compare ourselves to? What different types are there, and what what decides which we use?
We can do an upwards comparison, which is comparing ourselves to people who are better than we are with regard to a particular trait or ability.
We can do a downward social comparison, comparing ourselves to people who are worse than we are with regard to a particular trait or ability.
We can also compare ourselves to people who have a similar background in the area in question.
It seems that we use these different comparisons depending on our goal. If we want to make a accurate assessment, we compare ourselves to similar people. If we want to see what we can strive towards, we do an upward comparison. We do a downward comparison when we want to feel good about ourselves.
What is social tuning?
The process whereby people adopt another person’s attitudes?
