Part 1: The Self in the SocialWorld Flashcards
The belief that others are paying
more attention to our appearance and behavior than they really are.
spotlight effect
The illusion that our
concealed emotions leak out and can be easily read by
others
illusion of transparency
we notice how we differ and how others are reacting to our difference
Social surroundings affect our self-awareness
When problems arise in a close relationship, we usually blame our
partners instead of ourselves.
Self-interest colors our social judgment.
In hopes of making a positive impression, we agonize about our
appearance. We also monitor others’ behavior and expectations and
adjust our behavior accordingly
Self-concern motivates our social behavior
In our varied relationships, we have varying selves,
Social relationships help define our sense of self.
organizes our thoughts, feelings, and actions and enables us to remember our past, assess our present, and project our future — and thus to behave adaptively.
Self
What we know and believe about ourselves.
self-concept
a neuron path located in the
cleft between your brain hemispheres just behind your eyes,
seemingly helps stitch together your sense of self.
medial prefrontal cortex
specific beliefs by which you define yourself
self-schemas
Evaluating one’s opinions and abilities by comparing oneself with others.
Social comparison
was how sociologist Charles H. Cooley (1902) described our use of how we think others perceive us as a mirror for perceiving ourselves.
looking-glass self
refined this concept, noting that what matters for our self-concepts is not how others actually see us but the way we imagine they see us.
Herbert Mead (1934)
The concept of giving priority to one’s own goals over group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications.
Individualism
Constructing one’s identity as an
autonomous self.
independent self
Giving priority to the goals of one’s group (often one’s extended family or work group) and defining one’s
identity accordingly
collectivism
The idea of one is more common in individualistic cultures than in collectivistic ones
“true self”
acknowledges relationships with others.
independent self
more deeply embedded in others.
interdependent self
They persist more on tasks when they are failing, people in individualistic countries persist more when succeeding because success elevates self-esteem
Japanese
individualists like to make comparisons with others that boost their self-esteem
Western
collectivists make comparisons (often upward, with those doing better) in ways that facilitate self-improvement
Asian
admonished an ancient Greek oracle. We certainly try. We readily form beliefs about ourselves, and we in Western cultures don’t hesitate to explain why we feel and act as we do
Know Thyself
One of the most common errors in behavior
prediction is underestimating how long it will take to complete a
task
Planning fallacy
reveal that people have the greatest difficulty predicting the intensity and the duration of their future emotions
affective forecasting
Overestimating the enduring impact of emotion-causing
events.
Impact bias
Differing implicit (automatic) and explicit (consciously controlled) attitudes toward the same object.
dual attitude system
unconscious attitudes regarding someone or something
often differ from our consciously controlled, explicit attitudes
Implicit
Self-reports are often untrustworthy. Errors in self-understanding limit the scientific usefulness of subjective personal reports.
psychological inquiry
Even if people report and interpret their experiences with complete honesty, that does not mean their reports are true
our everyday lives
A person overall
self-evaluation or
sense of self-
worth.
Self-esteem
Most people are extremely motivated
to maintain their self-esteem. college
students prefer a boost to their self-
esteem to
eating their favorite food
engaging in their favorite sexual activity
seeing a best friend
receiving a paycheck
Proposes that people exhibit
self-protective emotional and
cognitive responses (including adhering more strongly to their
cultural worldviews and
prejudices) when confronted
with reminders of their
mortality.
Terror management
theory
High self-esteem becomes
especially problematic if it
crosses over into, or having an
inflated sense of self.
Narcissism
A sense that one is competent and effective, distinguished from self- esteem, which is one’s sense-worth.
Self-Efficacy
The tendency to
perceive oneself
favorably.
Self-serving bias
A form of self-serving bias; the tendency to attribute positive
outcomes to oneself and negative outcomes to other factors.
Self-serving Attributions
Optimism predisposes a
positive approach to life
Unrealistic optimism
We have a curious tendency to enhance our self-images by overestimating or underestimating how much others think and act as we do
FALSE CONSENSUS AND UNIQUENESS
we find support for our positions by overestimating how much others agree
FALSE CONSENSUS EFFECT
We serve our self-image by seeing our talents and moral behaviors as relatively unusual.
FALSE UNIQUENESS EFFECT
occurs because of errors
in how we process and remember
information about ourselves.
Self-serving bias
Sometimes people sabotage their
chances for success by creating
impediments that make success less
likely
SELF-HANDICAPPING
Self-serving bias, false modesty, and self-
handicapping reveal the depthof our concern for self-
image.
IMPRESSION
MANAGEMENT
The act of expressing oneself and behaving in ways designed to create a favorable impression or an impression that corresponds to one’s ideals.
SELF-PRESENTATION
Being attuned to the way one presents oneself in social situations and adjusting one’s performance to create the desired impression.
SELF-MONITORING
The ability to not show feelings or not
do the things that feelings make us
want to do.
SELF CONTROL
encourages us not to resign ourselves
to bad situations.
The truth concerning self-
efficacy
