Glossary S Flashcards
When someone or some object stands out from its background or is the focus of attention
salience
Mental frameworks centering on a specific theme that help us to organize social information
schemas
Splintering of a group into distinct factions following an ideological rift among members.
schism
A style characterized by high self-esteem
and high interpersonal trust. This is the most successful and most desirable attachment style.
secure attachment style
A tendency to direct attention away from information that challenges existing attitudes. Such avoidance increases resistance to persuasion.
selective avoidance
Refers to the tendency to respond to a threat to one’s self-concept by affirming one’s competence in another area
(different from the threat).
self-affirmation
How we characterize ourselves, which can vary depending on what identity is salient at any given moment.
self-construal
Achieved by refraining from actions, we like and instead performing actions we prefer not to do as a means of achieving a long-term goal.
self-control
Putting ourselves down or implying that we are not as good as someone else.
self-depreciating
A framework used to study motivation that involves two forms of human initiative: intrinsic and extrinsic. People persist longer at tasks they are intrinsically motivated to complete and gain enjoyment from, whereas extrinsic motivation to achieve awards or financial gains is less likely to promote happiness.
self-determination theory (SDT)
The goal of increasing the positivity of one’s
self-image.
self-enhancement
The degree to which we perceive ourselves positively or negatively; our overall attitude toward ourselves. It can be measured explicitly or implicitly.
self-esteem
This perspective suggests that to maintain a positive view of ourselves, we distance ourselves from others who perform better than we do on valued dimensions and move closer to others who perform worse than us. This view suggests that doing so will protect our self-esteem.
self-evaluation maintenance model
Attempting to present ourselves to others as having positive attributes.
self-promotion
Limited capacity to engage our willpower and control our own thinking and emotions.
self-regulation
The tendency to attribute positive outcomes to
internal causes (e.g., one’s own traits or characteristics) but negative outcomes or events to external causes (e.g., chance, task difficulty)
self-serving bias
Theory that addresses the processes by
which we lead others to agree with our views of ourselves; wanting others to agree with how we see ourselves.
self-verification perspective
When we use one group as the standard but shift to use another group as the comparison standard when judging members of a different group.
shining standards
The consistent finding that people
respond positively to indications that another person is similar to themselves and negatively to indications that another person is dissimilar from themselves.
similarity-dissimilarity effect
