Problem 2 The Self/Identity Flashcards
What are cognitive constructs?
Abstract of theoretical concepts that are not observable and are used to explain or clarify a phenomenon
The self is an individual phenomenon
What is symbolic interactionism?
Theory of how the self emerges from human interaction, involves people trading symbols (through language and gesture).
Three basic points of symbolic interactionism
- Society influences individuals through the way they think about themselves
- Self conception is modified through interaction
- We are socially constituted : we construct a self concept that reflects the society we live in
What is the looking glass self?
The self derived from seeing ourselves as others see us.
People see themselves as they think people see them
What is the self enhancing triad?
We enhance our self image
What is self awareness?
Comes and goes, generated by anything that focuses your attention on yourself as an object.(e.g in front of a mirror or public)
Three types of self you can find in self awareness?
Private self: Private thoughts, feelings and attitudes
Public self: How other people see you, your public image
Deindividuation: people loose their sense of socialized individual identity and engaged in unsocialized /antisocial behaviors
What is self knowledge?
People use it to know about themselves and make sense about the world
What are all the types of self knowledge?
Self schema
Self discrepancy theory
Self regulation
Regulatory focus theory
Self perception theory
Overjustification effect
Social comparison theory
Self evaluation maintenance model
BIRGING:
What are self schemas?
Cognitive structures that represent knowledge about ourselves
- people have many discrete self schemas
- self schemas that are rigidly compartmentalized have disadvantages —> create mood swings
What is the self discrepancy theory?
Theory about consequences of making self-ideal and self-ought comparisons that reveal self discrepancies
How many types of self schemas are there?
Actual self—>how we currently are
Ideal self —>Hiw we would like to be
Ought self —> How we think we should be
What is self regulation?
-Strategies that we use to match our Behaviour to an ideal or “ought” standard
Feel dejected(sad) : when we fail to resolve an ideal discrepancy
Feel agitated (fear, anxiety): when we fail to resolve ought discrepancy
What is a regulatory focus theory?
Theory that believes that people have two regulatory systems :
- Promotion system
- Prevention system
How does the promotion system work?
Attainment of ones hopes and aspirations aka ones idea
—>Adopt approach strategic means to attain their goals (e.g: promotion-focused students seek for a way to improve their grades
How does the prevention system work?
Fulfillment of ones duties and obligations - ones oughts
—> people in a preventive focus use avoidance strategic means to attain their goals (e.g prevention focused people will avoid new situations or new people and concentrate more on avoiding failure
Where does the differences between the promoti n and the preventive systems happen?
Childhood
What is self perception theory?
We gain knowledge of ourselves only by making self attributions
What is the overjustifucation effect ?
In the absence of obvious external determinants of our Behaviour we assume that we fully choose the Behaviour because we enjoy it
—> introducing external awards may reduce motivation and enjoyment of a task
What is the social comparison theory?
Comparing our Behaviour and opinions with those of others in order to establish the correct or socially approved way of thinking g and behaving
What is the self evaluation maintenance model?
People who are constrained to make esteem-damaging upward comparisons can underplay or deny similarity to the target or they can withdraw from the relationship with the target
(Eg if the group is positive attribute punted to self is positive)
What is BIRGING ?
Lining yourself with desirable people or groups improve other people’s impressions of you
What are 2 classes of identities that define different types of self?
Social identity and personal identity
What is a social identity?
Identity that defines self in terms of group membership
What is personal identity?
Identity that defines self in terms of idiosyncratic(mode of Behaviour or way of thought peculiar to an individual) traits and close personal relationships
What are 3 types of identities?
Person based social identities
Group based social identities
Collective identities
What are person based social identities?
The way that group properties are internalized by individual group members as part of their self concept
What are group based social identities?
Equivalent to social identity
What are collective identities?
Group members don’t only share self defining attributes but also engage in social action in a way that they forge an image of what the group stands for and how it is represented and viewed by others
There are three forms of self
Individual self
Relational self
Collective self
What is the individual self?
Self based on personal traits l.’c which. Differentiate from others, attributes that make on unique, relative to others
What is the relational self?
Self based on connections with others m, defined in terms of relationship that one has with others
What is the collective self
Based on group membership l, attributes shared with ingroup members and distinct from outgroup members
What is the difference between identity and self?
Identity : the fact of being who or what a person or thing is —> who we believe we are
Self: a persons essential being that differentiates him from others, specially considered as the object of introspective or reflexive action
Influence of self and identity?
- what people are motivated to do
- how they think
- how they make sense of themselves and others
- the actions they make
- their feelings
- their ability to regulate themselves
What is a narrative identity/conceptualized self?( a constructivist perspective on identity)
- we formulate our own life history
- we define our own attributes(by comparing them to others)
- we evaluate these attributes
- we construct cause and effect relations between a events and attributes
- we construct our self defining life story
—> a persons reality reflects personal interpretations of objects and events (filter)
Identification how do we construct our self?
- means making the same
- identify to something = making sure it is the same as me
It is composed of for elements:
Categorization
Identification
Comparison
Psychological distinctiveness
What is categorization?
We put others and ourselves into categories
What is identification?
We associate certain groups which serve to boost our self esteem
What is comparison?
We compare our groups with other groups seeing favorable bias towards the group we belong to
What is psychological distinctiveness?
We desire our identity to be both distinct from and positively compared with other group
What is the self influenced by?
Culture
Media
Parenting
School
Job
Religion
Therapist
Biology
What is social identity theory
Theory if group membership based on self categorization self comparison and the construction of a shared self in terms of in group defining properties
What is a prototyoe?
Cognitive representation of the typical/ideal characteristics of a score
What is the metacontrast principle?
Accentuate similarities within a group and accentuate differences with outgroups
What is the process of social identity salience?
Governed by the princess of social categorization
Any consequence with social categorization?
When a categorization becomes salient, people’s perception of themselves and others become depersonalized
What are two self motives?
- 3 motives that influence self construction/knowledge
- self affirmation theory
What are three motives that influence self construction/knowledge?
Self assessment: motivates pursuit of info about self
Self verification : motivates pursuit of information that is consistent with our own self image
Self enhancement: motivates pursuit of information that makes us look good
What is the self affirmation theory?
People reduce the impact of a threat to their self concept by focusing on and affirming their competence in some other area
What is self esteem?
Evaluations and feeling of our self
What is automatic egotism?
Widely favorable self image displayed when we are threatened or distracted
What is self handicapping?
Publicly making advance external distributions for our anticipated failure or poor performance in a forthcoming event
What is the above average effect?
Tendency to overestimate our good points = self affirmation bias
Positive illusions avoid depression
What is narcissism?
High self esteem
Personality trait compromising self love and an inflated or grandiose view on oneself
What is terror management theory?
The most fundamental human motivation is to reduce the terror of death
What do we mean when we say self steem as a sociometer?
Self esteem is a good monitor of social acceptance and belonging
High self esteem conquer the threat of loneliness and social rejection
Social exclusion from a group for personal reasons causes a depressed self esteem
What is impression management?
People’s use of various strategies to get other people to view them in a positive way
People behave differently in public than in private
What is self monitoring?
Carefully controlling how we present ourselves
WhT is self presentation?
Deliberate effort to act in ways that create a particular impression on
—> manipulate others perception of you
In an staratwgic self presentation what 5 motives do you focus on manipulating other people’s perception of you?
- Self promotion
- Ingratiation
- Intimidation
- Exemplification
- Supplication
What is self promotion?
Persuading others that you are competent
What is ingratiation?
Get others to like you
What is Intimidation?
Get others to think you’re dangerous
What is exemplification?
Get others to regard you as a morally respectable individual
What is supplication,
To get others to take pity on you
What is an expressive self presentation?
Focuses more on one self than in others , involves demonstrating and validating our self concept through our actions
Identity requires if social validation for it to persist and serve as an usual function (e.g it is if little use to me to think I am a genius when nobody else’s does)
What is authenticity?
The unhindered operation of ones true self in ones daily enterprise
The 4 components of authenticity
Awareness
Unbiased processing
Behaviour
Relational orientation
What is awareness?
Being aware of ones feelings, motives and desires, strengths and weaknesses and self relevant cognitions
-Many identify with the conceptualized self/ narrative identity
-strong need to defend the self and keep self esteem stable
What is mindfulness?
Aware that the self is a set of constructs and beliefs.
Requires attention onwards
What is unbiased processing,
Being objective and processing information related to ones positive and negative attributes and qualities
What is Behaviour?
The free and natural expression of ones feelings l, motives and inclinations, and sensitivity to the fit between ones self and dictates if the environment
What is a relational orientation?
Valuing and engaging is openness and truthfulness of ones close relationships
