Chapter Six: The Self - Key Terms

Question 1

Assimilation

Answer 1

1) The cognitive process that occurs when new information is altered to fit an existing scheme.
2) In the formation of an ethnic identity, the approach that involves leaving the ethnic culture behind and adopting the ways of the majority culture.

Question 2

barometric self-esteem

Answer 2

The fluctuating sense of worth and well-being people have as they respond to different thoughts, experiences, and interactions in the course of a day.

Question 3

Baseline self-esteem

Answer 3

A person’s stable, enduring sense of worth and well-being.

Question 4

biculturalism

Answer 4

In the formation of ethnic identity, the approach that involves developing a dual identity, one based in the ethnic group of origin and one based in the majority culture.

Question 5

Emotional loneliness

Answer 5

Condition that occurs when people feel that the relationships they have lack sufficient closeness and intimacy.

Question 6

False self

Answer 6

The self a person may present to others while realizing that it does not represent what he or she is actually thinking and feeling.

Question 7

Feared self

Answer 7

The self a person imagines it is possible to become but dreads becoming.

Question 8

hybrid identity

Answer 8

An identity that integrates elements of various cultures.

Question 9

Ideal self

Answer 9

The person an adolescent would like to be.

Question 10

Identifications

Answer 10

Relationships formed with others, especially in childhood, in which love for another person leads one to want to be like that person.

Question 11

Identity

Answer 11

Individuals’ perceptions of their characteristics and abilities, their beliefs and values, their relations with others, and how their lives fit into the world around them.

Question 12

Identity achievement

Answer 12

The identity status of young people who have made definite personal, occupational, and ideological choices following a period of exploring possible alternatives.

Question 13

Identity crisis

Answer 13

Erikson’s term for the intense period of struggle that adolescents may experience in the course of forming an identity.

Question 14

Identity diffusion

Answer 14

An identity status that combines no exploration with no commitment. No commitments have been made among the available paths of identity formation, and the person is not seriously attempting to sort through potential choices and make enduring commitments.

Question 15

Identity foreclosure

Answer 15

An identity status in which young people have not experimented with a range of possibilities but have nevertheless committed themselves to certain choices- commitment, but no exploration.

Question 16

identity moratorium

Answer 16

An identity status that involves exploration but no commitment, in which young people are trying out different personal, occupational, and ideological possibilities.

Question 17

Identity status model

Answer 17

An approach to conceptualizing and researching identity development that classifies people into one of four identity categories: foreclosure, diffusion, moratorium, or achievement.

Question 18

Identity versus identity confusion

Answer 18

Erikson’s term for the crisis typical of the adolescent stage of life, in which individuals may follow the healthy path of establishing a clear and definite sense of who they are and how they fit into the world around them, or follow the unhealthy alternative of failing to form a stable and secure identity.

Question 19

Internal consistency

Answer 19

A statistic that indicates the extent to which the different items in a scale or subscale are answered in a similar way.

Question 20

Intimacy versus isolation

Answer 20

Erikson’s term for the central issue of young adulthood, in which persons face alternatives between committing themselves to another person in an intimate relationship or becoming isolated as a consequence of an inability to form an enduring intimate relationship.

Question 21

marginality

Answer 21

In the formation of ethnic identity, the option that involves rejecting one’s culture of origin but also feeling rejected by the majority culture.

Question 22

negative identity

Answer 22

Erikson’s term for an identity based on what a person has seen portrayed as most undesirable or dangerous.

Question 23

Possible selves

Answer 23

A person’s conception of the self as it potentially may be. May include both an ideal self and a feared self.

Question 24

postmodern identity

Answer 24

A conception of identity as complex and as highly variable across contexts and across time.

Question 25

psychohistory

Answer 25

The psychological analysis of important historical figures.

Question 26

psychosocial moratorium

Answer 26

Erikson’s term for a period during adolescence when adult responsibilities are postponed as young people try on various possible selves.

Question 27

Response bias

Answer 27

On a questionnaire, the tendency to choose the same response for all items.

Question 28

Self-esteem

Answer 28

A person’s overall sense of worth and well-being.

Question 29

Separation

Answer 29

In the formation of ethnic identity, the approach that involves associating only with members of one’s own ethnic group and rejecting the ways of the majority culture.

Question 30

Social loneliness

Answer 30

Condition that occurs when people feel that they lack a sufficient number of social contacts and relationships.

Question 31

Actual self

Answer 31

A person’s perception of the self as it is, contrasted with the possible self.