Midterm 1: chapter 2 Flashcards
Social Cognition
How people think about themselves and the social world, particularly how they select, interpret, remember, and use social information to make judgments and decisions.
Self-reflection
We think about who we are, who we want to be, how we should act, and what our actions mean for our future.
Other-Person Reflection:
We analyze who other people are, why they behave in certain ways, and how they might respond to us.
The Three Components of the Self
- Self-Knowledge (Self Concept): Knowledge about who we are, includes self-schemas, self-esteem, self-awareness, and self-deception.
Self-Schemas: Mental structures that organize information about ourselves based on past experiences. - Agent Self (Executive Function):
Responsible for decision-making, self-control, and active responses in various situations.
Governs our ability to plan, execute decisions, and respond to situations in a controlled manner. - Interpersonal Self (Public Self):
Involves self-presentation, social roles, reputation, group membership, and relationships.
Dictates how we present ourselves to others and how we engage in social relationships
Self-Concept
The individual’s knowledge about who they are as a person. It answers the question, “Who am I?”
Functions of Self-Concept
Provides a sense of continuity over time.
Helps us understand the past, present, and plan for the future.
Guides how we process self-related information.
Self-Concept: Multiple Components
Our self-concept is made up of different roles (e.g., student, friend), identities (e.g., gender, race), relationships, and goals.
Working Self-Concept
Only a small part of our total self-concept is relevant or active in any given situation (e.g., the “student” aspect might be active in class, but the “friend” aspect might be active when socializing).
Self-Schemas
Definition: Organized cognitive structures or frameworks that help us understand and process information about ourselves.
Origin: Derived from past experiences and shape both our cognition and actions.
Types of Self-Schemas
Possible Selves: These include desired selves (who we want to be) and undesired selves (who we fear becoming).
Actual Self: Who we are right now.
Ideal Self: Who we aspire to be.
Ought Self: Who we think we should be based on social expectations.
Self-schemas: Self-Esteem Link
The discrepancy between our ideal self and our actual self can influence our self-esteem.
Independent Self-Construal
Emphasizes what makes us unique, different from others.
Common in individualistic cultures (Western nations like the U.S., Canada, U.K.), where people define themselves by their personal traits and accomplishments.
Interdependent Self-Construal
Emphasizes connections with others, relationships, and group memberships.
Common in collectivistic cultures (East Asia, Latin America), where people define themselves by their relationships with others and social roles.
Cultural Differences: Individualistic vs Collectivistic
Individualistic Cultures: More emphasis on independent self.
Collectivistic Cultures: More emphasis on interdependent self, focusing on family, group, or societal roles.
Social Comparison Theory (Festinger, 1954)
Definition: We evaluate our traits, abilities, and opinions by comparing ourselves to others, especially when objective measures are unavailable (e.g., how smart or conscientious we are).
Types of Social Comparisons
Downward Social Comparison: Comparing ourselves to those worse off, boosting self-esteem (e.g., after a recent setback).
Upward Social Comparison: Comparing ourselves to those better off, which can either motivate self-improvement or damage self-esteem.
Motivations for Social Comparison
Accuracy Motivation: Comparing ourselves to similar others when we seek an accurate assessment.
Self-Enhancement: Engaging in downward comparisons to protect or enhance our self-esteem, especially after a failure.
Attribution Theory
Founders: Fritz Heider (1958), Julian Rotter (1954), Bernie Weiner (1980s).
Definition: The process by which people explain the causes of behavior and events. These explanations shape attitudes, emotions, and social behavior.
Attribution Theory: key components
Causal Attribution: Connecting a person’s behavior or an event to a cause.
Attributional Process:
1. Outcome: The event that begins the attribution process (e.g., someone receiving a promotion).
2. Causal Search: The observer asks, “Why did this happen?”
3. Causal Ascription: The explanation for the event (e.g., the promotion occurred because the person worked hard).
Locus of Causality
Internal vs. External Attribution:
- Internal: Cause is within the actor (e.g., “I got the promotion because I’m competent”).
- External: Cause is outside the actor (e.g., “I got the promotion because my boss is generous”).
Attribution Dimensions (Weiner, 1985)
- Locus of Causality: Is the cause internal or external to the actor?
- Stability: Is the cause stable (likely to recur) or unstable (unique to this situation)?
- Controllability: Is the cause under the actor’s control, or uncontrollable?
- Globality: Does the cause affect many areas of the actor’s life, or is it specific to one domain?
- Intentionality: Was the action intentional or unintentional?
Self-Serving Attributions
Definition: The tendency to take credit for positive events by attributing them to internal factors (e.g., “I succeeded because I am talented”) and to blame negative events on external factors (e.g., “I failed because the test was unfair”).
Purpose: To protect and enhance our self-esteem by avoiding blame for failures and taking credit for successes.
Seidel et al. (2010) Study
Found that engaging in self-serving attributions activates brain regions associated with reward processing (dorsal striatum) and decision-making (dACC).
Self-Esteem
Definition: A person’s overall evaluation of their self-concept on a positive-negative dimension (good-bad, like-dislike).
Fluctuations: While self-esteem can fluctuate from day to day or hour to hour, it tends to fluctuate around an average level.
People Can Evaluate Themselves Differently: People may have high self-esteem in one domain (e.g., work) and low self-esteem in another (e.g., personal relationships).
Sociometer Theory (Leary, 1999, 2005)
Definition: Self-esteem functions as a gauge or meter that monitors the quality of our relationships with others.
Basic Assumption: Humans have a strong drive to maintain significant interpersonal relationships because belonging to a social group has historically been important for survival.
Relational Value: Self-esteem is tied to the degree to which a person feels valued and accepted by others. The higher the perceived relational value, the higher the self-esteem.
Self-Esteem and Reactions to Criticism/Failure
High Self-Esteem: People with high self-esteem tend to focus on projecting a successful, prosperous image. After failure, they focus on other successes to maintain their self-esteem.
Low Self-Esteem: People with low self-esteem tend to avoid failure. After experiencing a failure, they are more likely to generalize it to other areas of their life, which further lowers their self-esteem.
Failure Feedback
- High Self-Esteem: Failure spurs them to try harder in future tasks.
- Low Self-Esteem: More likely to give up after receiving failure feedback.
Explicit vs. Implicit Self-Esteem
- Explicit: Conscious, deliberate evaluation of oneself.
- Implicit: Unconscious, automatic evaluation of oneself.
People with high explicit but low implicit self-esteem are more likely to be defensive and aggressive toward others, especially when their positive self-views are threatened.
Jordan, Spencer, & Zanna (2005) Study
Measured participants’ self-esteem, then gave them negative performance feedback.
Participants with high explicit but low implicit self-esteem showed greater hostility toward an out-group target (First Nations vs. White).
Self-Esteem and Self-Acceptance Training (Baldwin et al., 2010)
Definition: People with low self-esteem often focus on social rejection. Baldwin and colleagues developed training to shift focus toward socially accepting information.
Training: Participants engaged in games that paired self-relevant cues (e.g., their name) with positive feedback (e.g., smiling faces).
Results: The training reduced participants’ tendency to respond aggressively after social rejection, particularly among those with low self-esteem.
Cultural Differences in Self-Enhancement
Individualistic Cultures (Western): People tend to enhance their self-image by focusing on positive traits and minimizing negative traits.
Collectivistic Cultures (Eastern): People tend to focus on self-criticism, identifying and correcting flaws to improve social relationships and group membership.
Kitayama et al. (1997) Findings
Western participants: Self-enhancement correlated with higher self-esteem.
Eastern participants: Tended toward self-criticism, which bolstered their sense of belonging and improved social standing within their group.
Spotlight effect
concerned with the impression we make on others, we tend to believe that others are paying more attention to us than they are
Illusion of transparency
we tend to believe that our emotions are more obvious than they are
Self-efficacy
a sense that one is competent and effective, distinguished from self-esteem, which is one’s sense of self-worth. a sharpshooter in the military might feel high self-efficacy and low self-esteem.
defensive pessimism
the adaptive value of anticipating problems and harnessing one’s anxiety to motivate effective action
