Chapter 7 - Self-Identity and Group Identity Flashcards
Define self-concept/self-identity
how an individual defines him or herself based on self-schemas
Define self-consciousness
awareness of one’s self
Define personal identity
one’s own sense of personal attributes (ex: smart, funny)
Define social identity
social definitions of who you are (ex: race, occupation, religions)
What is the self-reference effect?
the ability to remember information relevant to ourselves
Carl Rogers suggested personality is composed of what two things? When these two things are similar, what is the result?
ideal self: who you ought to be
real self: who you actaully are
When they are similar, you hold a positive self-concept
What is meant by incongruity of self?
when the real self falls short of the ideal self
Define self-efficacy
belief in one’s own competence and effectiveness
What is the difference between an internal and external locus of control?
Internal: individual believes they are able to influence outcomes through their own efforts and actions
External: individual believes outcomes are controlled by outside forces
What is learned helplessness?
When a person with an external locus of control stop taking action in any situation, whether they can control it or not.
Define self-esteem
one’s overall self-evaluation of one’s self-worth
Define identity formation/individuation
When does this normally occur?
the development of a distinct individual personality
This normally occurs during adolescence.
Describe Charles Cooley’s idea of the looking-glass self.
A person’s sense of self develops from interpersonal interactions with others in society and the perceptions of others. People shape their self-concepts base on their understanding of how others perceive them.
Describe George Herbert Mead’s idea of social behaviorism.
The mind and self emerge through the process of communicating with others.
What is symbolic interactionism?
the idea that the mind and self emerge through the social process of communication or use of symbols
What are the stages of self-developement according to George Herbert Mead?
- preparatory stage: children imitage others
- play stage: children take on roles of others (playing house)
- game stage: children consider multiple roles simultaneously
- understanding of the generalized other (the common behavioral expectations of society)
What are the characteristics of George Herbert Mead’s ideas of “me” and “I”
me: how the individual believes the generalized other (societal expectations) perceives it (the social self)
I: the response to the “me”: response of the individual to the attitudes of others
Define socialization
the process through which people learn to be proficient and functional members of society (lifelong process whereby people learn the attitudes, values, and beliefs that are reinfored by a particular culture)
What are feral children?
individuals who were not raised with human contact or care (lack of socialization)
What are norms?
societal spoken/unspoken rules and expectations for the behavior of its members
What are sanctions?
rewards and punishments for behaviors that are in accord with or against norms
What are formal norms?
societal expectations that are generally written down (ex: laws)
They are precisely defined and often accompanied by strict penalties for those that violate them.
What are informal norms?
societal expectations that are generally understood but are not precise and often don’t carry specific punishments
What are mores?
norms that are highly important for the benefit of society and so are often strictly enforced
What are folkways?
norms that are less important but shape everyday behavior (ex: greetings, style)
What are 6 agents of socialization?
- Family
- School
- Peer groups
- Workplace
- Religion/govenment
- Mass media/technology
What is cultural assimilation?
the process in which an individual forsakes aspects of his/her own cultural tradition to adopt those of a different culture
What is cultural amalgamation?
majority and minority cultural groups combine to form a new group
What is multiculturalism/pluralism?
a perspective that endorses equal standing for all cultural traditions
What is a subculture?
a segment of society that shares a distinct pattern of traditions and values that differs from that of the larger society (ex: bike enthusiasts, medical personnel)
What are the 6 stages of moral development according to Lawrence Kohlberg and what are the 3 levels they fit in?
Level 1: pre-conventional
- Stage 1: obedience and punishment orientation
- Stage 2: self-interest orientation
Level 2: conventional
Stage 3: interpersonal accord and conformity
Stage 4: authority and social-order maintaining orientation
Level 3: post-conventional
Stage 5: social contract orientation
Stage 6: universal ethical principles
Describe stage 1 of moral development: obedience and punishment orientation
Individuals focus on the direct consequences to themselves of their actions (“How can I avoid punishment?”).
Describe stage 2 of moral development: self-interest orientation
Individuals focus on the behavior that will be in their best interest, with limited interest in the needs of others (“What’s in it for me?”).
Describe stage 3 of moral development: interpersonal accord and conformity
Individuals focuse on the approval and disapproval of others, and try to be “good” by living up to expectations (“What will make others like me?”).
Describe stage 4 of moral development: authority and social-order maintaining orientation
Beyond a need for individual approval, individuals feel a duty to uphold laws, rules, and social conventions (“What am I supposed to do?”)
Describe stage 5 of moral development: social contract orientation
Individuals see laws as social contracts to be changed when they do not promote general welfare (“The greatest god for the greatest number of people”).
Describe stage 6 of moral development: universal ethical principles
Morality is based on abstract reasoning using universal ethical principles; laws are only valid if they are grounded in justice.
Describe level 1 of moral development: pre-conventional
Typical of children: morality judged by direct consequences to self, no internalization of right and wrong
Describe level 2 of moral development: conventional
Typical of adolescents and adults: morality judged by comparing actions to society’s views and expectations, acceptance of conventional definitions of right and wrong
Describe level 3 of moral development: post-conventional
Usually never reached: morality judged by internal ethical guidelines, rules viewed as useful but malleable guidelines
What is attribution theory?
attempts to explain how individuals view behavior (their own and others)
What is dispositional attribution?
Assigning an internal cause to a behavior (ex: drive cut me off because he’s an asshole)
What is situational attribution?
assigning external causes to a behavior (ex: I cut that drive off because I have an emergency)
What 3 factors influence an attribution decision?
- consistency
- distinctiveness
- consensus
Describe the consistency factor of attribution
Is the behavior typical of this person?
Describe the distinctiveness factor of attribution
Is this person’s behavior directed toward everyone or just me?
Describe the consensus factor of attribution
Is the behavior specific to this person or everyone?
What is the fundamental attribution error?
We tend to attribute other people’s actions to their personalities and underestimate the influence of a situation.
What is the actor-observer bias?
We tend to attribute our actions to the situation.
What is the self-serving bias?
When we success, we attribute our success to ourselves. When we fail, we attribute our failure to others/external situations. (ex: good grade means I’m smart and worked hard, bad grade means the test was unfair)
What is the optimism bias?
We like to believe that bad things happen to other people, but not to ourselves. This defensive attribution keeps us from feeling that the world is a scary, unpredictable place.
What is the just world phenomenon?
We tend to believe the world is fair and people get what they deserve. When bad things happen to others it is because of their actions.
What is the halo effect?
a tendency to believe that people have inherently good or bad natures, rather than looking at individual characteristics
What is the physical attractiveness stereotype?
people tend to rate attractive individuals more favorable for personality traits
How do western cultures tend to impact attribution?
They endorse an individualistic attitude and influence people toward internal attributes.
How do eastern cultures tend to impact attribution?
They system as a whole is scrutinized more than the individual, thus external attribution is predominant.
What is social perception?
the initial information we process about other people in order to try to understand their mindsets and intentions
What is social cognition?
ability of the brain to store and process information regarding social perception
What is a false consensus in social perception?
we assume that everyone else aggress with what we do
What is the projection bias?
We assume others have the same beliefs we do.
What are stereotypes?
oversimplified ideas about groups of people, based on characteristics
What is prejudice?
thoughts, attitudes, and feelings someone holds about a group that are not based on actual experience (these can be subconscious)
What is discrimination?
acting a certain way toward a group
What is racism?
prejudices and discrimination based on race/ethnicity
What is institutional discrimination?
unjust and discriminatory practices employed by large organizations that have been codified into operating procedures, processes, or institutional objectives
What are scapegoats?
unfortunate people at whom displaced aggression is directed
What illusory correlation in stereotyping?
a false correlation between a group of people and a characteristic based on a unique case (ex: black people are more athletic based on examples like Michael Jordan)
What is a self-fulfulling prophecy?
stereotypes can lead to behaviors that affirm the original stereotypes
What is a stereotype threat?
a self-fulfilling fear that one will be evaluated based on a negative stereotype
Define ethnocentrism
a tendency to judge people from another culture by the standards of one’s own culture
Define cultural relativism
judging another culture based on its own standards
Define an aggregate of people
people who exist in the same space but do not interact or share a common sense of identity
Define a category of people
people who share similar characteristics but are not otherwise tied together
Define a group of people
people who regularly interact and identify with each other, sharing similar norms, values, and expectations
What is a person’s primary group?
the group that plays a more important role in the individual’s life, usually smaller, long-term, emotionally-involved (these serve expressive functions, meeting emotional needs)
What is a person’s secondary group?
a person’s larger, more impersonal group that they may interact with for specific reasons for short periods of time (these serve instrumental functions, meeting pragmatic needs)
What is an individual’s in-group?
a group the individual belonds to and believes to be an integral part of who he/she is
What is an individual’s out-group?
a group an individual does not belong to
What is a reference group?
a standard measure that people compare themselves to
Define mere presence and its affect on performance
People are simply in each other’s presence, but not directly interacting.
What is the social facilitation effect? What is it based on?
People tend to perform better at well-learned (dominant) tasks when other people are present.
It is based on arousal. The presence of others stimulates arousal, which serves to activate our dominant responses (the practiced responses that come most easily to us).
Define bystander effect
a person is less likely to provide help when there are other bystanders (diffusion of responsibility)
Define deindividualization
In situations that provide a high degree of arousal, people may lose their sense of restraint and their individual identity in exchange for identifying with a group. This is a disconnection of behavior from attitudes.
What factors create ideal conditions for deindividualization to occur?
Factors that reduce self-awareness:
- group size
- physical anonymity
- arousing activities
Define social loafing
In circumstances in which people are working together toward common goals, there is a tendency for people to exert less effort if they are being evaluated as a group than if they are individually accountable (ex: not clapping as hard in a larger audience).
What is group polarization?
A group tends toward more extreme versions of the average views they intially shared before discussion.
What is information influence?
In a group discussion, the most common ideas to emerge are the ones that favor the dominant viewpoint.
What is normative influence?
wanting to be accepted by others
What are the 2 reasons group polarization occurs?
- informational influence
- normative influence
Define groupthink
a state of harmony within a group (no one wants to provide dissenting opinions)
Define mindguarding
filtering out information and facts that go against the beliefs of a group
Define deviance
a violation of society’s standards of conduct or expectations
Define stigma
a demeaning label
What are confederates in an experiment?
people are a part of the experiment, unknown to participants
Define conformity
the phenomenon of adjusting behavior or thinking based on the behavior of thinking of others
How did Solomon Asch test the effects of peer pressure? What were his findings?
He performed an experiment in which subjects were asked to pick a line out of three that was most similar to a comparison line. Paid participants chose the obviously incorrect one, changing the behavior of others to pick that one as well.
How did Stanley Milgram study the effect of peer pressure? What were the results?
Participants were told to administer fake shocks to students who gave incorrect answers. Few questioned the researcher.
What are 3 ways behavior may be motivated by social influences?
- compliance: desire to seek reward or avoid punishment
- identification: desire to be like another person or group
- internalization: motivated by personal values and beliefs (this is the most enduring motivation)
What is normative social influence?
People conform because they want to be liked and accepted by others.
What is informational social influence
The process of complying because we wnat to do the right thing and we feel like others “know something I don’t know.”
What factors influence conformity?
- group size
- unanimity: pressure not to dissent when everyone agrees
- cohesion: swayed by opinion of those you identify with
- status: higher status = stronger influence
- accountability: held accountable for opinions
- no prior commitment: sticking to public commitments
What are the 5 social structure elements?
- statuses
- social roles
- groups
- social networks
- organizations
What is a master status?
out of all an individual’s statuses, the one that dominates and determines that individual’s general position in society
Define ascribed status
status that is assigned to a person by society regardless of the person’s own efforts (ex: gender, race)
Define achieved status
status considered to be largely due to an individual’s efforts (ex: doctor, parent)
What are social roles?
expectations for people given a social status
What is role conflict?
a conflict in society’s expections for multiple statuses held by the same person (ex: gay priest)
What is role strain?
a single status results in conflicting expectations (ex: gay man avoids being too gay or not gay enough)
What is role exit?
the process of disengaging from a role that has become closely tied to one’s self-identity to take on another (ex: workforce to retirement)
What is a social network?
a web of social relationship, including direct relations and indirect relations
What is an organization?
large, impersonal groups that com together to purpuse particular activities and meet goals efficiently
What is a utilitarian organization?
organization in which members get paid for their efforts (ex: businesses)
What is a normative organization?
organization that motivates membership based on morally relevant goals (ex: MADD)
What is a coercive organization?
organization in which members do not have a choice in joining (ex: prisons)
Define empathy
the ability to identify with others’ emotions
How does gender shape expression?
Women are better at reading emotional cues, describing complex emotions, and expressing their emotions physically. Women tend to experience emotional events more deeply, with greater brain activation in the areas the process and remember emotion.
What is impression management/self-presentation?
the conscious or unconscious process whereby people attempt to manage their own images by influencing the perceptions of others
What is self-handicapping?
a strategy in which people create obstacles and excuses to avoid self-blame when they do poorly
What is the dramaturgical perspective?
we imagine ourselves as playing certain roles when interacting with others, suggesting we remake who we are, depending on the situations we are in
In dramaturgical theory, social interaction can be broken into what two types?
- front stage: we play a role and use impression management
- back stage: we let down our guard to be ourselves
What are warning colors?
bright colors meant to advertise to predators that an organism is toxic or noxious, ensuring its survival and evolution
What is evolutional mimicry?
an organism can benefit by employing surviving mechanisms that other organisms use (ex: bright colors signifying it is poisonous, when it is not actually poisonous)
What 3 characteristics foster attraction?
- proximity (geographic nearness)
- physical attractiveness
- similarity
What is the mere exposure effect?
People prefer repeated exposure to the same stimuli.
What are 3 predictors for aggressive behavior?
- genetic
- neural
- biochemical
What is the frustration-aggression principle?
When someone is blocked from achieving a goal, this frustration can trigger anger, which can lead to aggression.
Define foraging behavior
the search for an exploitation of food resources by animals
What is random mating?
All members of a species are equally likely to mate with each other, meaning there are no spatial, genetic, or behavioral limitations to mating. This ensures the largest amount of genetic diversity, and protects against genetic drift and bottlenecking.
What is assortative mating?
nonrandom mating pattern in which individuals with similar genotypes or phenotypes mate with one another more frequently than would be expected with random mating
What is disassortative/negative assortative mating?
Individuals with more disparate traits mate more frequently than would be expected with random mating.
What is inclusive fitness of an organism?
defined by the number of offspring it has, how it supports its offspring, and how its offspring support others in a group
An organism can improve its genetic success by helping others with similar genes to survive.
What is the inclusive fitness theory?
An organism can improve its overall genetic success through altruistic social behaviors.
What is an altruistic behavior?
a behavior that ensures the success or survival of the rest of a social group, possibly at the expense of the success/survival of the individual
What is the purpose of evolutionary game theory?
to try and predict large, complex systems, such as overall behavior of a population
