Lecture 4

Question 1

What is a self schema?

Answer 1

Cognitive generalisations about the self, derived from past experience which organise and guide the processing of self related information

Question 2

Describe the self associated network

Answer 2

We are theorised to have an associative network model the self, with the self centralised and we connect other nodes to this

Question 3

What does the associative network represent?

Answer 3

The relationships between concepts

Question 4

In an associative network, which node would get more activation and when when?

Answer 4

The node most closely related to a primed idea will get more activation than distant ideas

Question 5

What are the four mind states?

Answer 5

1. Flow
2. Mindfulness
3. Mindlessness
4. Mindwandering

Question 6

Describe flow state

Answer 6

Full absorption in a task, at optimal balance of skill and challenge

Question 7

Describe mindfulness

Answer 7

Attending to present experiences in objective and nonjudgemental way

Question 8

Describe mindlessness

Answer 8

Operating on ‘autopilot’

Question 9

Describe mindwandering

Answer 9

Thoughts drifting off the task

Question 10

What is objective self awareness?

Answer 10

Thinking about ourselves. Can be negative therefore is often avoided

Question 11

What is the Self-discrepancy theory?

Answer 11

Contains the

• Actual self
• Self guides

Question 12

What are the two self-guides?

Answer 12

1. The ought self = who you should be

2. The ideal self = who you could be

Question 13

What state of person are people motivated to reach?

Answer 13

Where actual self = self guides

Question 14

What effect to discrepancies give?

Answer 14

A negative effect

Question 15

Describe the self-complexity theory

Answer 15

People have multiple, distinct domains
They way they consider themselves associated with different scenarios or interactions e.g. as a teacher, as a student, as a girlfriend

Question 16

How is complexity related to number and independence of the selves?

Answer 16

Is it positively related

Question 17

The extent to which different selves overlap is a measure of what?

Answer 17

Is a measure of a person’s self concept

Question 18

What does a more complex self concept act as?

Answer 18

Acts as a buffer to positive and negative feedback

They act less extremely to events as have more ‘things’ in their life to offset changes in one self concept

Question 19

What is self esteem the average of?

Answer 19

Average of all component selves. Complexity buffers against threats to self esteem

Question 20

What is the social identity theory?

Answer 20

That self esteem is a function of the positivity of our group memberships
-Belonging to various groups has the same buffering effect

Question 21

Describe Implicit Egocentrism

Answer 21

Unconsciously gravitating towards things that resemble the self

Question 22

Describe Social Comparison

Answer 22

Comparing ourselves to someone better (upward), than us of worse (downward)

Question 23

Who would we be comparing ourselves to in Upward comparison?

Answer 23

Someone who is better at something than us

Question 24

Who would we be comparing ourselves to in Downward comparison?

Answer 24

Someone who is worse at something than us

Question 25

What is the self-evaluation maintenance theory?

Answer 25

In some domains we are happing being ‘bad’ at something e.g. singing

Question 26

In the self-evaluation maintenance theory, what does our reaction to negative feedback depend on?

Answer 26

1. Relative performance = how well we did relative to someone else
2. Closeness = how physically/psychologically close we are to someone
3. Importance of the domain = whether it’s important to us to be good at the activity

Question 27

How did Weiner describe self-presentation?

Answer 27

People use attributions as strategies for managing others’ reactions

Question 28

What is self handicapping?

Answer 28

Protecting self esteem by creating attributions for poor performance in advance
Can be actual or claimed