Midterm 2 - use this other is weird Flashcards
what is the self
no consistent def in the literature
anything beginning with self
inherently subjective
ABCs of the self
affect - self esteem, evaluation
behaviour - self regulation, control
cognitive - self concept, presentation
how do we know the self
some concepts are intrinsic while others are socially defined
-ie peer group, religion, stuff inherently important to you
information about the self comes from
ourselves
social environment
social comparisons
what is reflected self perceptions
what others think of us
linked to ToM
what is self awareness
cognitive - the act of thinking about ourselves
may be a continuum, non-western kids don’t all fully pass red dot test
self awareness study
rouge dot IV - socialized vs not socialized mirror vs no mirror DV - touches of face only the socialized group increased in touching when given a mirror
what does development of the self depend on
species (genes)
environment (culture)
theories as to how we know ourself
self perception theory
social comparison theory
motivation
explain social perception theory
when our attitudes / feelings are ambiguous, we infer them from our behaviour
we don’t always know how we feel, but we can observe how we act
ie what attitude would cause me to act this way
social comparison theory
we learn about our own abilities by comparing ourselves to other peoples (festinger 1954
choice of comparison (upwards or downwards, one is not necessarily better than another)
overjustification effect
occurs when an exteral incentive decreases a persons intrinsic motivation to perform a behaviour or participate in an activity
why does the overjustification effect occur
people fixate too much on external insentives and not on the fun or enjoyment
motivations are not always clear cut
name and explain the four sources of self-motivation
self-improvement - desire to make oneself better
self-enhancement - desire to feel good about oneself
self-assessment - desire to seek info about oneself
self-verification - desire to have consistent info about oneself
define self-esteem
affective component of the self
consisting of a persons positive and negative self evaluations
how self esteem is measured
rosenberg self-esteem scale
explicit measure
not always diagnostic (most scores are pretty high)
instead look at the pattern of scores (4 lines on graph, always high, always low, then high an low, both with big variablity)
unstable self esteem = different approach needed, counselling etc
name the three self esteem theories we talked about in class
contingencies of self worth
sociometer theory
terror management (this one is a bit silly)
explain contingencies of self worth
self-esteem can be based on different factors
domain = sources of self-worth (support of family, academic competence etc)
multiple contingencies protect self-esteem
explain sociometer theory
self-esteem is an internal monitor of whether we are socially valued
-helps us achieve a need to belong
terror management theory of self esteem
acknowledging our own mortality causes anxiety
-self-esteem reduces this anxiety
is high self-esteem a good thing?
not always
probably high better than bad
californian school intervention to increase it -we need reliable ways to measure it
self control and challenging the self
behavioural component of the self
fixed vs growth mindset
what are attitudes
evaluations of people, objects and ideas
summary evaluations
explain the tripartie model of attitudes
3 components
affect - how i feel about something
behaviour - how i behave towards something
cognitive - based on thoughts, strong reasoning for your attitudes
the model is about the basis of attitudes
ie affect basis, behavioural basis and cognitive basis
is a summary evaluation ie can have negative cognitive basis but positive affect
what are the properties is attitudes (THESE AREN’T BASIS)
valence - liked or disliked
extremity - how far from the middle
strength
strong attitudes have what 3 consequences
more likely to be stable over time
they are resistant to change
they are predictive of behaviour
construct validity and attitudes
big problem
question wording leads answers
ie how you ask about abortion (do you like killing babies vs saving babies vs womens rights etc)
also truthfulness can be an issue in measurement (ie people are racist but know they can’t admit it in polite society)
implicit measure
find an indirect way to measure -involuntary -uncontrollable (ie reaction time) -sometimes unconscious -measured indirectly eg physiological measures (facial EMG), nonverbal behaviour, IAT
explicit measure
ask attitude directly
(we often combine measures so use both implicit and explicit)
-consciously endorsed
-easily reported
-measured directly
eg likert scale, rosenberg, semantic differentials
to what extent does attitudes predict behaviour
attitude helps, doesn’t tell us everything about behaviour though, but its a good go
historical ideas on how attitude predicts behaviour
wicker = pointless (killed research for a decade)
contemporary understanding of the relationship between behaviour and attitudes
it is a two way street (cyclic)
but we have to measure right (ask how we measure the behaviour - ie as specific, time frame etc)
specificty principle
we should measure the attitude the same way we measure the behaviour (think of birth control pills example)
how should we measure spontaneous behaviours
use an implicit measure
as they aren’t necessarily thinking about it
theory of planned behaviours
CAN I Behave Control (subjective) Attitude Norms Intentions
delibertaive behaviours use..
an explicit measure
where CAN I Behave pneumoic works
what is persuation
attitude change
a method of changing a persons cognitions, feelings, behaviours or general evaluations (attitudes) towards some object issue or person
history of persuasive research
WWII - propoganda (money thrown at social psych by gov)
developed over time
yale = centre, all moved to ohio state
who says what to whom and in what context
(source, content, audience, how message received ie radio etc)
cognitive response approach
how does the recipient think about the message
elaboration likelihood model - name and explain the two routes
peripheral
-not thinking carefully
-low thought
-no crticial thinking
-focus on superficial characteristics = CUES
end result = weaker attitudes
central
-careful / high thought
-influenced by strength and quality of messages arguments
-stronger attitudes, more resistant to subsequent change
so what is the ELM theory
a theory of when and how attitude change is liekly to occur
critical claim = continuum of elaboratuce (how hard you are thinking) motivation and ability
5 things in ELM
cues amount of thinking arguments bias thoughts confidence
what is the multiple roles hypothesis in ELM
one thing can have many roles ie a cue can also be an argument
what affects how much we elaborate
ability -time pressure -distraction -knowledge -fatigue motivatio -personal relevance -accountability -need for cognition (high = central, low = peripheral) go watch youtube video now please
what is cognitive dissonance
theory suggesting when we say one thing but do another thing we feel bad and are motivated to change it
festinger
cognitive dissonance itself is the inconsistency between any two cognitions (produces discomfort and people are motivated to reduce this discomfort)
festinger classic study
boring task - rotate peg
paid 1 or 20 dollars to lie to next participant and tell them how fun it was
=cognitive dissonance formed
then asked how fun they really found it
IV - payment so how much dissonance is placed
DV - how fun did you really find the study
20 dollar condition of peg study
no dissonance negative study (still said it was boring)
1 dollar condition of peg study
dissonance!
positive attitudes about study
how we reduce disonance
change the attitude
change the behaviour
justify the behaviour
minimise relevance of the behaviour
requirements for cognitive dissonance reduction
- activities must be perceived as inconsistent
- individual must take responsibility for action
- individual must experience uncomfortable arousal
- individual must attribute the arousal to the inconsistency
interaction of the message and the perceiver in ELM
different aspects of message have different effects depending on the perceiver
what is social influence
the ways in which people are affected by the real or imagined presence of others -continuum biggest yield obedience complicance conformity independence assertiveness defiance biggest resistance to influence
What is obedience
Command from an authority figure
Feel like you cannot say no
What is compliance
Direct request
Say yes to something because someone asked you
Felt like you could have said no but you didn’t / never will..
What is conformity
Implicit
Not told what to do but it is inferred
Ie no one stands at the front to take the lecture
Milgram study
You know this don’t need to write again
Fact to remember 65% in the original study went all the way
