propiul 2 Flashcards
What is self esteem?
Overall evaluation that people have of themselves.
Either positive or negative.
Are self-evaluations consistent?
Self-esteem can fluctuate depending on success/failure, acceptance/rejection by others.
What is implicit self esteem?
Feelings about the self of which we are not consciously aware.
What is contingencies of the self?
Base self-esteem on a domain (studies)
Much more damaging if failure in the important domain.
How are self-esteem levels rising in the Western world?
USA: several studies show that people rate themselves as above average:
* 90% claim to be above average drivers
* 70% students above average in leadership
* 2% below average
* No student admitted to being below average in ability to get along with others while 25% claimed to be top 1%
How is low self-esteem linked to depression?
Depressed people are often more accurate about things
How are happy people more likely to distort reality?
They are more likely to create positive illusions.
They overestimate good qualities and underestimate faults
Overestimate perceived control over events
Unrealistically optimistic about their future
How do happy people maintain positive illusions?
They engage in self-serving bias - attribute success to internal qualities and failures to external situations
Is high self esteem always beneficial?
Associated with aggression, bullying
Especially for unstable high self-esteem when threatened
Extreme self-esteem = narcissism
What is the self-construal?
How people define and make meaning of the self
What are the cultural differences in representation of the self?
Independent: the self is independent and unique, separate from others.
Collectivist: the self is interdependent, connected to others, and defined by relationships with others
What is the difference between Japanese and Americans in how they identify themselves?
General:
Americans used attributes (I’m friendly)
Japanese used context (I play tennis on the weekend)
Context:
Japanese used attributes more than Americans when specific context was used (I am sometimes lazy at home)
What does this suggest?
Independent cultures define self as separate from context.
Interdependent cultures define self in terms of social context.
What is the effect of cultural context on self esteem?
In interdependent cultures, association of self-esteem to well being is lower.
So wellbeing doesn’t depend on self-esteem levels as much.
Is there a difference between how you think about your close friendships vs people in your group?
2 types of interdependence:
Collective interdependence self construal: focus on memberships in large groups.
Relational self-construal: focus on close relationships
What are gender differences between the 2 types of interdependence?
When asked to report an emotional event, women more likely to report events to do with close relationships.
Men more likely to report events related to membership in larger group.
What is social identity theory?
Can perceive ourselves differently, depending on salience of personal or social identity.
What is personal identity: intragroup comparison?
How I am different from the in-group.
What is social identity: intergroup comparison?
How I am similar to the in-group.
What is identity dilemma?
How people are treated by others and how they believe they will be treated in the future affects self-concept.
May change or try to hind identities.
What is stereotype threat?
Believing that one will be judged by negative stereotype of
group or believing individuals will act like negative stereotype can have self-fulfilling effects and undermine performance.
Self-fulfilling prophecy - when others attribute negative characteristics to you, you take on those characteristics.
What is an example of stereotype threat.
Female Ps told that men perform better on math tests
performed worse than those not told this
How does stereotype threat manifest in dual identity?
Asian-American
women performed better on
maths test when their Asian
identity made salient than when
their female identity made salient
What is self presentation?
The attempt by people to get others to see
them as they want to be seen.
What is strategic self presentation?
To get praise, you can promote positive self-attributes, or flatter others.
What is active deception?
College students report average of 2 lies a day to advance own interests or to protect another.
Those who tell lies seem to be more popular.
Why is self presentation not always positive?
Self-handicapping - create obstacles and excuses, to be able to blame external circumstances for potential failure.
What is self-regulation?
Controlling actions
Foregoing short term
rewards to wait for long term
rewards
What is self-efficacy?
Belief that one can achieve a goal as a result of one’s own actions.
People high in self-efficacy devote more time and effort to tasks that can be solved
What is the self-regulatory resource model?
Self control is a limited resource.
Participants who had to control themselves in one task (e.g., suppress emotions) engaged in less self-control (e.g., ate more cookies, gave up on a
task quickly)
For which groups is self-regulatory strength stronger for?
Self-regulatory strengths stronger for people from
collectivistic cultures or with relational self-construal (close groups)
What is the evolutionary values of self regulation in collectivist cultures?
Maintain important social relationships
Preserve social order
Eventually benefits the self – ppl need groups to
survive and meet important needs, both physiological
and psychological
“Implicit bargain” – being a better group member allows one to remain part of a group that benefits the self
What does self regulation allow us to do?
Pursue self motive needs
Ppl have the need for accuracy, self improvement, consistency and self enhancement.
What is need for consistency?
Need to maintain consistent self-concept
What is self verification?
Seek out situations and information that are consistent with their existing self-views
* May actively try to make others agree about this self-view
What is self enhancement?
Need to feel good & maintain self-esteem, positive illusions
More likely in western cultures
What is self evaluation maintenance model?
May distance self from a close relationship, if close other performing better on a self-relevant task
* e.g., participants offered more help to a stranger than a friend on a task important to them
