Personality Flashcards
According to a survey conducted by the Pew Foundation, nearly __________ of
Americans know someone who has used an online dating site, and _______ adults
knows someone who has been in a long-term relationship with someone she
or he met online (Madden & Lenhart, 2006).
one third; 1 in 6
Personality is a combination of people’s…
genetics, forces in their environments, and the life choices they make
For psychologists, personality is defined as/consists of
A person’s characteristic thoughts, emotional responses, and behaviors.
Define personality trait.
A pattern of thought, emotion, and
behavior that is relatively consistent over time and across situations; dispositions to think, act, or feel in predictable ways in certain situations.
Gordon Allport, one of the founders of the field, gave
a classic scientific definition of personality:
“the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine [the individual’s] characteristic behavior and thought”
The notion of organization indicates that personality
is
a coherent whole
Personality is dynamic in that it is…
goal seeking, sensitive to particular contexts, and adaptive to the person’s environment
Emphasizing “psychophysical systems” brings together what ideas about personality:
it highlights the psychological nature of personality; recognizes that personality arises from basic biological process; stresses that personality causes people to have characteristic behaviors & thoughts & feelings (i,e. people do/think/feel things relatively consistently over time)
Psychodynamic theorists believed
unconscious forces determined personality
Humanists emphasized what aspect of personality?
personal growth and self-understanding
Behaviorists believed that personality resulted from
histories of reinforcement
Cognitively oriented psychologists focused on how ______ affected personality
thought processes
Contemporary psychologists are primarily interested in
trait approaches and the biological basis of personality traits
Freud developed his _______ of personality
psychodynamic theory
What are Freud’s levels of consciousness?
CONSCIOUS - thoughts we are aware of
PRECONSCIOUS - contents that’s not currently in awareness but could be brought to awareness
UNCONSCIOUS - material that the mind cannot easily retrieve (often in conflict)
We may accidentally reveal a hidden motive when uttering a…
Freudian slip
What structures are in Freud’s structural model of personality? Explain what these structures are.
the id - first structure; at the most basic level: completely submerged in the unconscious; operates according to the pleasure principle (seek pleasure, avoid pain); like an infant, crying to be fed whenever hungry, held whenever anxious
The superego - second structure; acts as a brake to the id; largely unconscious; develops in childhood; is the internalization of parental and societal standards of conduct; is a rigid structure of morality, or conscience
The ego - third structure; mediates between the id and the superego (i.e. tries to satisfy the wishes of the id while being responsive to the dictates of the
superego); operates according to the reality principle, which involves rational thought and problem solving; some aspects of its operations are open to conscious awareness (e.g. allows the person to delay gratification so that the wishes of the id can be realized while accommodating the rules of the superego)
Freud called the force that drives the pleasure principle the…
libido, which is the energy that promotes pleasure seeking (i.e. acts on impulses and desires)
According to psychodynamic theory, what produces individual differences in personality?
unique interactions of the id, ego, and superego
Conflicts between the id and superego lead to
anxiety
How does the ego cope with anxiety?
through various DEFENSE MECHANISMS, which are unconscious mental strategies that the mind uses to protect itself from distress
According to contemporary researchers, defense mechanisms do not relieve unconscious conflict over libidinal desires. Instead, they…
protect self-esteem
An important component of Freudian thinking is the idea that __________ have a major impact on the development of personality.
early childhood experiences
Freud believed that children unconsciously aim to…
satisfy libidinal urges to experience pleasure.
What are psychosexual stages (as a term)?
(According to Freud) developmental stages that correspond to distinct libidinal urges; progression through these stages profoundly affects personality.
In each psychosexual stage, libido is focused on one of the
erogenous zones: the mouth, the anus, or the genitals.
Explain the oral psychosexual stage.
-lasts from birth to approximately 18 months. -infants seek pleasure through the mouth. -hungry infants associate pleasure with sucking.
Explain the anal psychosexual stage.
- When children are 2 to 3 years old
- toilet training—learning to control the bowels—leads them to focus on the anus
Explain the phallic psychosexual stage.
- From age 3 to 5
- direct libidinal energies toward the genitals.
- Children often discover the pleasure of rubbing their genitals during this time
Explain the latency psychosexual stage.
- relatively brief
- children suppress libidinal urges
- children may channel libidinal urges into doing schoolwork or building friendships.
Explain the genital psychosexual stage.
- adolescents and adults attain mature attitudes about sexuality and adulthood
- center their libidinal urges on the capacities to reproduce and to contribute to society.
One of the most controversial Freudian theories applies to children in the phallic stage. According to Freud, children desire…
an exclusive relationship with the opposite-sex parent.
The Freudian idea that male children consider the same-sex parent a rival and develop hostility towards that parent is
the Oedipus complex
The conflict that results from the Oedipus complex is resolve by
repressing their desires for the opposite-sex parent and identifying with the same-sex parent.
neo-Freudian Alfred Adler viewed the primary conflict as based on fears of inadequacy, which he called
the inferiority complex
neo-Freudian Karen Horney focused on_________. In her view, this fear resulted from the child’s relationship with the mother.
a fear of abandonment (i.e., basic insecurity)
Contemporary neo-Freudians focus on social interactions, especially children’s emotional attachments to their parents or primary caregivers. This focus is embodied in ___________.
object relations theory
According to object relations theory…
a person’s mind and sense of self develop in relation to others in the particular environment.
Julian Rotter (1954) introduced the idea that behavior is a function of two things:
the person’s expectancies for reinforcement and the values the person ascribes to particular reinforcers.
Over time, psychologists became dissatisfied with strict models of learning theory. They began to incorporate ________ into the understanding of personality.
cognition
Rotter proposed that people differ in how much they believe their efforts will lead to positive outcomes. People with an _________ believe they bring about their own rewards. People with an __________ believe rewards— and therefore their personal fates—result from forces beyond their control. These generalized beliefs affect individuals’ psychological adjustment.
internal locus of control; external locus of control
The cognitive theorist George Kelly (1955) emphasized how individuals ___________. He referred to such views and understandings as ________________.
view and understand their circumstances; personal constructs: personal theories of how the world works
Kelly believed that people view the world as if they are _________—constantly testing their theories by observing ongoing events, then revising those theories based on what they observe.
scientists
According to Kelly, how do personal constructs develop and what do they represent?
They develop through experiences and represent each individual’s interpretations and explanations for events in his or her social worlds.
The incorporation of cognition into learning theories led to the development of __________.
cognitive-social theories of personality
What do cognitive-social theories of personality emphasize?
They emphasize how personal beliefs, expectancies, and interpretations of social situations shape behavior and personality.
Albert Bandura (1977) argued that people’s beliefs, thoughts, and expectations ____________.
interact with their environments to influence their behavior
For Bandura, one important determinant of behavior is __________. This term refers to how much people believe they can achieve specific outcomes.
self-efficacy
Moreover, Bandura proposed that people may develop expectancies partly through ____________.
observational learning
One of the most influential cognitive-social theorists has been Walter Mischel. According to Mischel’s cognitive-affective personality system (CAPS)…
people’s personalities often fail to predict their behavior across different circumstances (Mischel & Shoda, 1995).
What does Mischel’s cognitive-affective personality system (CAPS) suggest about what people’s responses are influenced by?
They are influenced by:
- how they perceive a given situation,
- their affective (emotional) responses to the situation,
- their skills in dealing with challenges,
- their anticipation of the outcomes of their behavior.
The CAPS model and other cognitive-social theories of personality also emphasize ___________. This term refers to individuals’ relative ability to set personal goals, evaluate their progress, and adjust their behavior accordingly.
self-regulatory capacities
What do humanistic approaches emphasize and propose?
This view of personality emphasizes personal experience, belief systems, the uniqueness of the human condition, and the inherent goodness of each person. They propose that people seek to fulfill their potential for personal growth through greater self-understanding.
What is the process through which people seek to fulfill their potential for personal growth through greater self-understanding?
self-actualization
Maslow believed that the desire to become self-actualized is _________.
the ultimate human motive
The most prominent humanistic psychologist was Carl Rogers. Rogers introduced a ___________ to understanding personality and human relationships.
person-centered approach (i.e. emphasized people’s subjective understandings of their lives)
In the therapeutic technique Rogers advocated, the therapist would create a ________ environment. The therapist and the client would deal with the client’s problems and concerns as the client understood them.
supportive and accepting
Rogers’s theory highlights the importance of how _______________.
parents show affection for their children and how parental treatment affects personality development
Rogers speculated that most parents provide love and support that is __________: The parents love their children as long as the children do what the parents want them to do.
conditional
Rogers encouraged parents to raise their children with _____________.
unconditional positive regard; the child would develop a healthy sense of self-esteem and would become a fully functioning person.
Traits exist on a continuum, so that
most people fall toward the middle and relatively few people fall at the extremes.
What does the trait approach to personality focus on?
It focuses on how individuals differ in personality dispositions, such as sociability, cheerfulness, and aggressiveness.
Gordon Allport, along with his colleague Henry Odbert, counted the dictionary words that could be used as personality traits. They found nearly _______.
18,000
Through factor analysis, Raymond Cattell (1965) ultimately identified __ basic dimensions of personality.
16
What is the five-factor theory?
The idea that personality can be described using five factors: openness to experience, conscientiousness,
extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
According to Eysenck’s biological trait theory, personality is composed of traits that occur in three dimensions:
extraversion/introversion, emotionally stable/neurotic, and high constraint/low constraint (originally called psychoticism).
Which approaches to assessment of personality are person-centered?
Idiographic approaches are person-centered. They focus on individual lives and how various characteristics are integrated into unique persons.
Which approaches to assessment of personality focus on characteristics that are common among all people but that vary from person to person?
Nomothetic approaches
In other words, idiographic approaches use a different ______ for each person. Nomothetic approaches use the same ______ to compare all people.
metric
_______ traits are especially important for how individuals define themselves and are in general more predictive of behavior. In contrast, people consider ________ traits less personally descriptive or not applicable; these traits are less predictive of behavior.
central; secondary
From the nomothetic perspective, individuals are unique because of their…
unique combinations of common traits.
Projective measures are meant to provide insight into a particular person’s personality by….
allowing the person to project unconscious thoughts onto ambiguous images
A classic projective measure used by personality psychologists is the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). In the 1930s, Henry Murray and Christiana Morgan developed the TAT to study various types of motivation. What happens in the TAT?
In this test, a person is shown an ambiguous picture and is asked to tell a story about it. Scoring of the story is based on the motivational schemes that emerge, because the schemes are assumed to reflect the storyteller’s personal motives.
Indeed, the TAT has been useful for measuring ___________ and therefore it continues to be used in contemporary research.
motivational traits—especially those related to achievement, power, and affiliation—
If used properly, the TAT reliably predicts how ____________ people are.
interpersonally dependent
What are objective measures of personality?
They are relatively direct assessments of personality, usually based on information gathered through self-report questionnaires or observer ratings
More often, questionnaires will include a large inventory of traits. For example, the NEO Personality Inventory consists of 240 items, which are designed to…
assess the Big Five personality factors
Describe the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI).
- A widely used questionnaire for personality assessment
- The latest full version (MMPI-2) consists of 567 true/false items that assess emotions, thoughts, and behaviors
- The scale was originally designed to assess psychopathology but has also been widely used to assess personality more generally.
- has 10 scales that measure psychological problems (e.g., paranoia, depression, mania, hysteria). Using these scales, the assessor generates a profile that indicates whether a person is likely to have a psychological disorder.
A common problem is shared by all self-report assessments, including the MMPI. Describe this problem.
To make favorable impressions, respondents sometimes distort the truth or lie outright. To avoid detection of psychological disorders, they may be evasive or defensive. People might also try to present themselves too positively by agreeing with a large number of items. Fabrications of this kind are known as faking good. By contrast, to look especially troubled, called faking bad, respondents may untruthfully lean toward negative items.
Because the participant must pile most of the cards in the moderately descriptive categories, the __________ has a built-in procedure for identifying those traits that people view as most central.
California Q-Sort
Researchers who use __________ often examine case studies of individuals through interviews or biographical information.
idiographic approaches
Henry Murray’s personality analysis of Adolf Hitler emphasizes the idea that…
personality unfolds over the life course as people react to their particular circumstances
Another idiographic approach considers a human life as a narrative. To study personality, narrative psychologists pay attention to
the stories people tell about themselves.
According to Dan McAdams (1999, 2001), each person weaves a ___________, which integrates self-knowledge into a coherent whole. In other words, the individual creates __________ that bind together past events and future possibilities into one life story. These __________, whether true or not, help the individual make sense of the world and find meaning in life.
life story; personal myths
Matthias Mehl and James Pennebaker created the electronically activated record (EAR). What does this device do?
This device unobtrusively tracks a person’s real-world moment-to-moment interactions. As the wearer goes about her or his daily life, the EAR picks up snippets of conversations and other auditory information. People quickly get used to wearing the EAR and have no idea when it is recording.
Through a study using the EAR, researchers found that the stereotype that women talk more than men is _______
true
According to another study using the EAR, the happiest people have the most ___________, and they also have more ______________ in their daily interactions.
social interactions; substantive conversations (as opposed to small talk)
The EAR has also been used to show that self-reports on the Big Five traits predict ____________
real-world behavior
How well do observers’ personality judgments predict others’ behavior?
An important study by David Funder (1995) found that a person’s close acquaintances show a surprising degree of accuracy for trait judgments, at least in some circumstances. In other studies, friends predicted assertiveness and other behaviors better than the person’s own ratings did.
We are more accurate in predicting a ___________ than in predicting the behavior of a ___________.
close friend’s behavior; mere acquaintance
Simine Vazire has compared the accuracy of people’s self-judgments with the accuracy of how their friends describe them. The comparative accuracy depends on whether ___________ and whether _____________.
the traits are observable; the people being rated are motivated to view themselves positively on the traits
Vazire argues that people have blind spots about aspects of their personalities because they want to feel good about themselves. This tendency is particularly true for ____________.
highly evaluative traits, such as creativity. On highly evaluative traits—traits that people care about—people are biased when judging themselves
People are more accurate in rating themselves for traits that are…
hard to observe and less prone to bias because they are neutral
Vazire’s key insight is that…
a trait easy to observe but also highly meaningful to people is more likely to be judged accurately by friends than by the person with the trait.
In 1968, Walter Mischel dropped a bombshell on the field of personality by proposing that behaviors are determined more by __________ than by ____________. This idea has come to be called ___________.
situations; personality traits; situationism
The most basic definition of personality holds that it is relatively stable across situations and circumstances. If Mischel was correct and there is relatively little stability, the whole concept of personality seems empty. There was a vigorous response to Mischel’s theory. The discussion has come to be called the _________________.
person/situation debate
Personality researchers argued that how much a trait predicts behavior depends on three factors:
the centrality of the trait, the aggregation of behaviors over time, and the type of trait being evaluated.
Consider the trait of ___________, which involves being sensitive to cues of situational appropriateness. People high in _________ alter their behavior to match the situation, so they exhibit low levels of consistency. By contrast, people low in ___________ are less able to alter their self-presentations to match situational demands, so they tend to be much more consistent across situations.
self-monitoring
Situations differ in how much they _________ the expression of personality.
constrain
Strong situations (e.g., elevators, religious services, job interviews) tend to…
mask differences in personality because of the power of the social environment.
Weak situations (e.g., parks, bars, one’s house) tend to…
reveal differences in personality
Most trait theorists are interactionists. What does this mean?
They believe that behavior is determined jointly by situations and underlying dispositions.
In their research on potential change in personality, Robert McCrae and Paul Costa (1999) emphasize an important distinction, separating _____________ of personality from ____________.
basic tendencies; characteristic adaptations
What are basic tendencies of personality?
dispositional traits determined largely by biological processes. They are very stable.
What are characteristic adaptations of personality?
Characteristic adaptations are adjustments to situational demands. Such adaptations tend to be somewhat consistent because they are based on skills, habits, roles, and so on. But changes in behavior produced by them do not indicate changes in basic tendencies.
What happens to peoples’ personalities as they age?
People generally develop increased self-control and emotional stability as they age. They become less neurotic, less extraverted, and less open to new experiences as they get older. They also tend to become more agreeable and more conscientious.
Personality changes more in _____________ than in any other part of the life course, including childhood
young adulthood (ages 20-40)
The pattern of personality changes across age holds in different cultures. These findings suggest that age-related changes in personality occur independently of…
environmental influences and therefore that personality change itself may be based in human physiology.
The extent of personality change is more similar in monozygotic twins than in dizygotic twins, and this finding indicates that…
personality change has a genetic component
greater job satisfaction can decrease ________ over time
neuroticism
Becoming involved in a committed relationship is associated with decreased __________
neuroticism
Cross-cultural research can be difficult when
language is a central component of what is being studied.
One research team conducted a careful investigation of personality differences across 56 nations. They found that the ___________ are valid across all the countries.
Big Five personality traits
People from East Asia (e.g., Japan, China, Korea) rated themselves comparatively lower than other respondents on _________________, and they rated themselves comparatively higher on ___________.
extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness; neuroticism
Respondents from countries in Africa rated themselves as more ______________ and less ________ than people from most other countries rated themselves
agreeable and conscientious; neurotic
Research findings have made clear that self-reports often ________ match cultural stereotypes about the respondents
DO NOT
Steven Heine and colleagues (2008) have argued that ___________ may be accurate and that ____________ might be biased by individuals’ comparisons of themselves with their national reputations.
national reputations; self-reports
Women and men are much more ____________ in terms of personality, but the differences between them largely _________ common stereotypes.
similar than different; support
sex differences in personality are ________ in societies in North America and Europe, which provide more equal opportunities and treatment than many other societies, and ________ in Asian and African communities
largest; smallest
According to the social psychologist Serge Guimond (2008), people in individualist cultures—such as within Western Europe and North America—tend to compare themselves _________ other groups. From this perspective, the apparent cultural differences in the gender gap result from cultural differences in how people compare themselves rather than from any genuine cultural differences.
against
Further evidence for the genetic basis of personality comes from adoption studies. Say that two children who are not biologically related are raised in the same household as adopted siblings. Those two children tend to be no more alike in personality than any two strangers randomly plucked off the street (Plomin & Caspi, 1999). Moreover, the personalities of adopted children bear no significant rela- tionship to those of the adoptive parents. Together these findings suggest that
parentng style may have relatively little impact on personality.
Genes _________ us to have certain personality traits. Those personality traits are associated with behavioral, cognitive, or emotional tendencies, referred to as _____________.
predispose; dispositions
Genes help produce biological differences in personality. These differences are called ___________: general tendencies to feel or act in certain ways. They are broader than personality traits. They represent the innate biological structures of personality and are more stable.
temperaments
Arnold Buss and Robert Plomin (1984) have argued that three basic characteristics can be considered temperaments. What are they? Explain what each characteristic is.
Activity level is the overall amount of energy and of behavior a person exhibits. Emotionality describes the intensity of emotional reactions. Finally, sociability refers to the general tendency to affiliate with others.
A study of migration patterns in Finland found that people who scored ______ on sociability were more likely to migrate to urban areas and were more likely to migrate to places that were quite distant from their hometowns. Those people who had _____ activity levels were more likely, in general, to migrate to a new location, regardless of that location. Finally, those who were _____ in emotionality were likely to migrate to places that were close to their hometowns
high
Do temperament differences exist between girls and boys?
A meta-analysis found robust gender differences in temperament in early childhood. Girls demonstrated stronger abilities to control their attention and resist their impulses. Boys were more physically active and experienced more high-intensity pleasure, such as in rough-and-tumble play. However, there were no temperamental differences in negative emotions, such as being angry or neurotic, during childhood.
The classification at age 3 predicted personality structure and various behaviors in early adulthood. For instance, socially inhibited children were much more likely, as adults, to be anxious, to become depressed, to be unemployed, to have less social support, and to attempt suicide. These findings suggest that
early childhood temperaments may be good predictors of later behaviors.
Approximately 15–20 percent of newborns react
to new situations or strange objects by becoming startled and distressed, crying, and vigorously moving their arms and legs. The developmental psychologist Jerome Kagan refers to these children as __________, and he views this characteristic as biologically determined. Showing signs of this characteristic at 2 months of age predicts later parental reports that the children are shy at 4 years of age, and such children are likely to be shy well into their teenage years.
inhibited
The biological evidence suggests that the ___________ is involved in shyness.
amygdala
Approximately one-quarter of behaviorally inhibited children are not shy later in childhood. This development typically occurs when parents create…
supportive and calm environments in which children can deal with stress and novelty at their own paces.
Groups whose members possess _______ skills have a selective advantage over groups whose members have a _______________ skills
diverse; limited number of
Eysenck proposed that the resting levels of the RAS (reticular activating system) are ______ for introverts than for extraverts. Extraverts typically are below their optimal levels. In other words, extraverts are chronically underaroused. To operate efficiently, they have to find arousal, so they impulsively seek out new situations and new emotional experiences. Introverts typically are above their optimal levels of arousal. Because they do not want any additional arousal, they prefer quiet solitude with few stimuli.
higher
If introverts are chronically more aroused than extraverts, they ought to be ____________ to stimuli at all levels of intensity.Evidence for baseline differences in arousal has been more difficult to produce. That is, the visible biological difference between introverts and extraverts appears to be their level of __________. As you might have guessed, introverts are more ____________.
more sensitive; arousability, or how much they react to stimuli; arousable
Jeffrey Gray (1982) incorporated a distinction between ________________________ in his approach/inhibition model of the relationships between learning and personality. Gray proposed that personality is rooted in two motivational functions:___________________________. These functions have evolved to help organisms respond efficiently to reinforcement and punishment.
approach learning and avoidance learning; the behavioral approach system and the behavioral inhibition system
Which system in Gray’s model consists of the brain structures that lead organisms to approach stimuli in pursuit of rewards?
The behavioral approach system (BAS), informally known as the “go” system
Which system in Gray’s model is sensitive to punishment and inhibits behavior that may lead to danger or pain?
The behavioral inhibition system (BIS), informally known as the “stop” system. It is related more to anxiety than fear.
Which system in Gray’s model is linked to extraversion?
BAS
Which system in Gray’s model is linked to neuroticism?
BIS
Your answers to the question “Who am I?” contain information that is part of your ___________
self-concept, which is everything you know or believe about yourself
The cocktail party phenomenon occurs because each person processes information about himself or herself deeply, thoroughly, and automatically. The information becomes part of the person’s ____________.
self-schema
According to Hazel Markus (1977), what does the self-schema consist of?
The self-schema consists of an integrated set of memories, beliefs, and generalizations about the self. The set can be viewed as a network of interconnected knowledge about the self
The self-schema helps us do what?
- quickly perceive, organize, interpret, and use information about the self.
- filter information so that we are likely to notice things that are self-relevant, such as our own names.
Researchers typically find that when people process information about themselves, there is activity in the _______________________.
middle of the frontal lobes
Psychologists refer to the immediate experience of the self as the ______________.
working self-concept
Many theories assume that people’s self-esteem is based on how they believe others perceive them. This view is known as ______________. It suggests that when people internalize the values and beliefs expressed by important people in their lives, they adopt those attitudes (and related behaviors) as their own.
reflected appraisal
What is the evaluative aspect of the self-concept in which people feel worthy or unworthy.?
self-esteem
In a novel and important account of self-esteem, Mark Leary and colleagues (1995) have proposed that self-esteem is a mechanism for monitoring the ________________.
likelihood of social exclusion
What does it mean if self-esteem is a sociometer?
Self-esteem is an internal monitor of social acceptance or rejection
What does the terror management theory claim?
Self-esteem gives meaning to people’s lives. In this way, self-esteem protects people from the horror associated with knowing they eventually will die. People counter their fears of mortality by creating a sense of symbolic immortality through contributing to their culture and upholding its values.
Research has demonstrated that reminding people of their mortality leads them to act in ways that _____________. Encountering information that threatens people’s self-esteem and their cultural values leads people to think __________.
enhance their self-esteem; about death more
After reviewing several hundred studies, Roy Baumeister and colleagues found that although people with high self-esteem report being much happier…
self-esteem is weakly related to objective life outcomes
What is one personality trait associated with inflated self-esteem?
Narcissism
Even though we might encourage children to have high self-esteem, there is a tendency for self-esteem to fall during ____________ and be at its lowest for people, especially young women, ____________.
adolescence; ages 18-22
What is the phenomenon psychologists refer to as the better-than-average effect?
Most people describe themselves as above average in nearly every way. (People with high self-esteem are especially likely to exhibit this effect.)
According to Shelley Taylor and Jonathan Brown (1988), most people have positive illusions—overly favorable and unrealistic beliefs—in at least three domains. What are these domains?
First, most people continually experience the better-than-average effect. Second, they unrealistically perceive their personal control over events. Third, most people are unrealistically optimistic about their personal futures.
Positive illusions can be ________ when they promote optimism in meeting life’s challenges. They can lead to _________ when people overestimate their skills and underestimate their vulnerabilities.
adaptive; trouble
Life is filled with failure, rejection, and disappointment, yet most people feel pretty good about themselves. How do people maintain such positive views?
Psychologists have cataloged a number of unconscious strategies that help people maintain a positive sense of self. Among the most common are social comparisons and self-serving biases.
When does social comparison occur?
It occurs when people evaluate their own actions, abilities, and beliefs by contrasting them with other people’s.
People with ____________ tend to take credit for success but blame failure on external factors. This tendency is known as the _____________.
high self-esteem; self-serving bias
According to a theory proposed by Jennifer Crocker and Brenda Major (1989), members of these groups maintain positive self-esteem by:
taking credit for success and blaming negative feedback on prejudice.
James and Mead each differentiated between the self as _____________ and the self as ________________
the knower {“I”}, the object that is known (“me”)
As the knower, the self is….
the subject doing the thinking, feeling, and axting
Psychologists now call the self that is known the ______________.
objectified self, which is the knowledge the subject holds about itself
The sense of self as the object of attention is the psychological state known as
self-awareness (through self-awareness, “I” thinks about the “me”)
What is the consequence of the theory of objective self-awareness?
It leads people to act in accordance with the values and beliefs they hold
According to Higgin’s self-discrepancy theory…
an individual’s awareness of differences between personal standards and goals leads to strong emotions.
Hazel Markus and Shinobu Kitayama (1991) have noted that people in collectivist cultures have _______________. In other words, these people’s
self-concepts are determined to a large extent by their social roles and personal relationships. As children, they are raised to follow group norms and to be obedient to parents, teachers, and other people in authority. They are expected to find their proper place in society and not to challenge or complain about their status
interdependent self-construals
People in individualist cultures have _______________. Parents and teachers encourage children to be self-reliant and to pursue personal success, even at the expense of interpersonal relationships. Thus, a child’s sense of self is based on her or his feelings of being distinct from others.
independent self-construals
