Lecture 4 Flashcards
What is a self schema?
Cognitive generalisations about the self, derived from past experience which organise and guide the processing of self related information
Describe the self associated network
We are theorised to have an associative network model the self, with the self centralised and we connect other nodes to this
What does the associative network represent?
The relationships between concepts
In an associative network, which node would get more activation and when when?
The node most closely related to a primed idea will get more activation than distant ideas
What are the four mind states?
- Flow
- Mindfulness
- Mindlessness
- Mindwandering
Describe flow state
Full absorption in a task, at optimal balance of skill and challenge
Describe mindfulness
Attending to present experiences in objective and nonjudgemental way
Describe mindlessness
Operating on ‘autopilot’
Describe mindwandering
Thoughts drifting off the task
What is objective self awareness?
Thinking about ourselves. Can be negative therefore is often avoided
What is the Self-discrepancy theory?
Contains the
- Actual self
- Self guides
What are the two self-guides?
- The ought self = who you should be
2. The ideal self = who you could be
What state of person are people motivated to reach?
Where actual self = self guides
What effect to discrepancies give?
A negative effect
Describe the self-complexity theory
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
How is complexity related to number and independence of the selves?
Is it positively related
The extent to which different selves overlap is a measure of what?
Is a measure of a person’s self concept
What does a more complex self concept act as?
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
What is self esteem the average of?
Average of all component selves. Complexity buffers against threats to self esteem
What is the social identity theory?
That self esteem is a function of the positivity of our group memberships
-Belonging to various groups has the same buffering effect
Describe Implicit Egocentrism
Unconsciously gravitating towards things that resemble the self
Describe Social Comparison
Comparing ourselves to someone better (upward), than us of worse (downward)
Who would we be comparing ourselves to in Upward comparison?
Someone who is better at something than us
Who would we be comparing ourselves to in Downward comparison?
Someone who is worse at something than us
What is the self-evaluation maintenance theory?
In some domains we are happing being ‘bad’ at something e.g. singing
In the self-evaluation maintenance theory, what does our reaction to negative feedback depend on?
- Relative performance = how well we did relative to someone else
- Closeness = how physically/psychologically close we are to someone
- Importance of the domain = whether it’s important to us to be good at the activity
How did Weiner describe self-presentation?
People use attributions as strategies for managing others’ reactions
What is self handicapping?
Protecting self esteem by creating attributions for poor performance in advance
Can be actual or claimed
