Lecture 7 - Perceiving the Self and Others

Question 1

How does Social Psychology define the Self?

Answer 1

The self is the object of self reflection. Considered to have two parts; self-concept (knowledge and understanding of ourselves), and self-esteem (how we feel about that knowledge and understanding of ourselves).

Question 2

Define Self-Concept.

Answer 2

The mental representation we have of ourselves, consisting of thoughts, beliefs, memories etc.

Question 3

Define Self-Esteem.

Answer 3

self-esteem is how we FEEL about ourselves.

Question 4

What are self-aspects?

Answer 4

Set of a person’s beliefs about the self in specific domains, roles or activities. Self-aspects can be considered the be the different selves that we embody in different contexts, roles or activities. e.g. concientious at work, but not in home life.

Question 5

What are Self-Schemas?

Answer 5

Self-Schems reflect the structure of one’s knowledge and beliefs about themselves - i.e. self-schemas guide the way if which we weigh different aspects of beliefs about ourselves and direct the way in which perceive and behave in different contexts.
As situations change/vary different aspects of the self-schema activate and these activations are influential in both the description of who we are and also how we behave and feel about who we are.

Question 6

What is the self-narrative?

Answer 6

Self-narratives refer to the meaning and story we have constructed around our experiences and view of ourselves and our world.

Question 7

What is the Working Self-Concept?

Answer 7

The “now” self, that guides feeling, thinking and acting in the present moment.

Question 8

What was the finding of McGuire et al. (1978) in regards to self-concept/identity and gender in the context of majority/minority same-sex family members?

Answer 8

Gender was a much more salient aspect of self-concept for those that were in the minority gender in family.

Question 9

What are some of the ways we organise knowledge about ourselves/structure self-concept?

Answer 9

• Personality Traits
• Self-aspects
• Life Narrative
• Self-Schemas

Question 10

Construction of a sense of self is influenced by both self-reflection and social influence.

Answer 10

YEs.

Question 11

What is Social Comparison Theory?

Answer 11

Social Comparison Theory states that we develop a sense of self based on comparing ourselves to others.

Question 12

What happens when the target we are comparing to is much different to who we are?

Answer 12

We compare in CONTRAST - away from the target.

Question 13

What happens when the target of comparison is similar to us?

Answer 13

We compare toward/assimilate to the target.

Question 14

Define Self-Esteem and the roles it plays.

Answer 14

We have both trait and state self-esteem. Self-esteem serves both a regulatory and protective function.

Question 15

How does Self-Esteem aid in self-protection?

Answer 15

Self-defensive attributions, Self-affirmation, self-defensive social comparisons, self-enhancement

Question 16

What are some differences between how people engage in self-enhancement processes between individualistic and collectivist cultures?

Answer 16

Self-enhancement is universal and seen across communities and cultures, however, what is actually enhanced is different between individualistic and collectivist cultures.

Individualistic cultures value unigueness for example and collectivist cultures value contributing to the collective.

Question 17

What was one of the findings from Swann et al. (1992) about the types of relationship partners we tend to prefer?

Answer 17

People tend to prefer relationships where their partner agrees with their own-self image, even the negative views of self we have.

Question 18

What is cue salience?

Answer 18

The ability of a cue to attract attention.

Question 19

Who said, “People are naiive psychologists.”?

Answer 19

Fritz Heider.

Question 20

What is the Fundamental Attribution Error?

Question 21

What were some of the findings of Jones and Harris’ (1967) study?

Answer 21

Even when participants knew that someone was given direction to write a pro-Castro essay they still assumed that the writer was pro-Castro. This is an example of Correspondence Bias.

Question 22

What were the key findings from Gilbert et al. (1988)?

Answer 22

Participants who were engaged in an extra task were more likely to attribute trait anxiety to the woman speaking about “sensitive” topics, while they saw the woman as having less trait anxiety when discussing “innocuous” topics, compared to when they did not have an extra cognitive load.

Question 23

What is Covariation Theory (Kelley, 1967)?

Answer 23

Consensus.
Distinctiveness.
Consistency.

Question 24

What are some criticisms of attribution theories?

Answer 24

There is more to explaining behaviour than assigning cause to situations or persons - e.g. cultures.

Question 25

What are the negativity and positivity bias?

Answer 25

Negative characteristics are weighted more than positive characterisitcs when assessing someone’s disposition.

Question 26

What is the difference between SELF-CONCEPT and SELF-ESTEEM?

Answer 26

Self-concept is the set of beliefs, understandings, memories, roles and memberships that we ascribe to being ours and of ourselves.

Self-esteem is how a person feels about themselves and can be seen as a function of self-concept.

Question 27

What are self-aspects?

Answer 27

Self-aspects refer to summaries or mental states and behaviours that pertain to us in different situations and domains, such as at work or in your romantic relationship.

Question 28

What is the SELF-SCHEMA?

Answer 28

The self-schema refers to how we prioritise and weight the different components on self-concept (self-aspects).
Under certain domains different self-aspects are activated.

More important self-aspects - e.g. mother - are closer to our SELVES.

Question 29

What are SELF-NARRATIVES?

Answer 29

Self-narratives refer to the stories that we tell ourselves about our lives and experiences.

Question 30

In study by McGuire et al. (1978), that looked at how salient one’s gender was to one’s self-concept, what did they find between those who were in the minority gender and those who were in balanced gendered families?

Answer 30

They found that when people were in the minority gender of the household then gender was much more a part of their self-concept.
This is example of how different aspects of ourselves become more salient in different situations and this salience contributes to our WORKING SELF-CONCEPT.

Question 31

In a study by Faizo et al. (1981), what did they find about people’s behaviour when situational cues encouraged extravertovreed behaviour or introverted behaviour?

Answer 31

Regardless of one’s normal tendency, they found that people were more likely to exhibit extroverted behaviour when this was encouraged and introverted behaviour when this was encouraged.
This is an example of how situations and others can influence the way we behave.

Question 32

In contrast to introspection, what does self-perception refer to?

Answer 32

Self-perception refers to looking at our own behaviours and inferring something about ourselves.
Self-perceotion is likely to be more relied upon if people do not have enough self-knowledge or situational explanations for their behaviour.

Question 33

Self-comparison theory says…?

Answer 33

That we construct our sense of self through comparing ourselves to others.

Question 34

If compared to a strong target, do we contrast away or toward them?

Answer 34

We contrast AWAY.

Question 35

If compared to a similar target, do we contrast toward/assimilate or contrast toward?

Answer 35

We contrast toward, or assimilate.

Question 36

What role does the Self serve us?

Answer 36

Regulating, guiding, and protecting the self.

Question 37

Do people with low self-esteem tend to attribute negative outcomes to themselves as opposed to the environment?

What do people with high self-esteem do?

Answer 37

Yes.

People with high self-esteem tend to attribute negative behaviour to the environment and positive behaviour to themselves.

Question 38

What does self-defensive comparison mean?

Answer 38

Comparing down to others to make oneself feel good.

Question 39

Why do looks play such a key role in forming first impressions?

Answer 39

They are sometimes the only information we have to go off.

Question 40

What are CORRESPONDENCE INFERENCES?

Answer 40

The attributing of other peoples’ behaviour to their disposition as opposed to the situation.

Question 41

In an experiment that asked participants to rate whether they thought the author of an essay was pro-Castro, even when they knew that the author had been instructed to write a pro-castro essay, the participants still assumed that the author was pro-castro.
What is this an example of?

Answer 41

This is an example of the correspondence bias, where we attribute behaviour to disposition, even when we know the environment requires that behaviour.

Question 41

In a study done by Gilbert et al. (1988) that looked at whether people would assume a woman was anxious (only visual, no audio), were people more likely to assume the woman was anxious when they were told she was talking about sensitive topics or innocuous topics?
What happened when they were given another task to do?

Answer 41

They rated the woman as more anxious when they were told she was discussing innocuous topics. They assumed she was anxious when discussing sensitive content due to the content and not due to her disposition.

When they were given a task they rated the woman the same level of anxious, indicating that when our cognitive capacity is lowered we are worse at evaluating situations accurately.

Question 41

What is Covariation Theory (Kelley, 1967) and what are the three domains of this theory that can be used to evaluate someone’s behaviour as being due to their disposition or the environment or the stimuli.

Answer 41

Consensus.
Distinctiveness.
Consistency.

Question 41

When it comes to weighing people’s traits when we are forming global impressions, are positive or negative characteristics weighted more/

Answer 41

Negative characteristics.

Question 42

Are people more likely to try and make accurate impressions of others when they know they will be held acccountable for these impressions?

Answer 42

Yes.

Question 43

According to Jones and Pittman (1982), what are the strategies of self-presentation that allows us to meet our core psychological needs of mastery and belonging.

Answer 43

Ingratiation.
Self-promotion.
Intimidation.
Exemplification.
Supplication.