How does Culture effect Motivation Flashcards
What is self-enhancement?
The motivation to view oneself positively
Is self-enhancement seen as universal?
No, not anymore
Self-enhancement leads to people to have _______?
Self Serving Biases
Self Serving Biases
The tendency to overstate one’s attributes
-typically seen with attributes that DON’T yield concrete negative feedback.
What are the 5 strategies for positive self-enhancement?
- Downward Social Comparison
- Compensatory Self-Enhancement
- Discounting
- External Attributions
- Basking in Reflected Glory (BiRGing)
Downward Social Comparison
-Comparing oneself to someone who is worse off than you
ie I’m comparing myself to those in poverty to make myself feel better
Compensatory Self-Enhancement
-Acknowledging negative feedback, but focusing only on what you’re good at
ie Understanding that I did not perform well on a presentation, but instead focusing on how I’m good at video games
Discounting
-Downplaying the importance or value of an attribute
ie “I’m not good at math, but that’s ok, who actually uses that in real life!?”
External attributions
-Attributing failures to external factors rather than internal factors
ie I failed this test because the world is going bad, not because I studied.
Cross Cultural Research reveals that self-enhancement is more pronounced in ___?
Generally, self-enhancement seems to be associated with having an _____ sense of self.
-West and WEIRD samples
-Independent sense of self
What 2 factors do researchers propose is the reason for cultural variation in self enhancement?
- Proximal (Parental) effects
- Distal (Societal) effects
How do American and Taiwanese mothers differ on the importance of self-esteem?
American Mothers: Consider self-esteem central to child-rearing; it must be cultivated
vs
Taiwanese Mothers: believe that high self esteem may be detrimental
What schools are more likely to promote self-enhancement?
American schools opposed to East Asian schools
What distal factors resulted in a culture of self-enhancement?
1) Effects of Societal Norms (The protestant reformation)
-“Uncertainty in heaven/hell=need to feel good”
2) Individualistic cultures tend to self-enhance more
-As we became more individualistic, people self enhanced more
3) Self reliance becomes difficult to achieve without high self esteem
What do interdependent/collectivistic cultures tend to place focus on instead of Self-Enhancement for motivation?
-Self Improvement (opposed to self-enhancement)
-Much more focus placed on “saving face”
