Reading Terms Flashcards
spotlight effect
the belief that others are paying more attention to our appearance and behavior than they really are
illusion of transparency
the illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and can be easily read by others
interplay between our sense of self and our social worlds
social surroundings affect our self-awareness
self-interest colors our social judgment
self-concern motivates our social behavior
social relationships help define our sense of self
self-concept
what we know and believe about ourselves
self-schema
beliefs about self the organize and guide the processing of self-relevant information
possible selves
images of what we dream of or dread of becoming in the future
studies of twins point genetic influences on personality and self-concept but social experience also plays a part in the following ways
the roles we play, the social identities we form, the comparisons we make with others, how other people judge us, the surrounding culture
social comparison
evaluating one’s abilities and opinions by comparing oneself with others
individualism
the concept of giving priority to one’s own goal over group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributions rather than group identifications
independent self
construing one’s identity as the autonomous self
collectivism
giving priority to the goals of one’s group (often one’s extended family or work group) and defining one’s identity accordingly
interdependent self
construing one’s identity in relation to others
planning fallacy
the tendency to underestimate how long it will take to complete a task
impact bias
overestimating the enduring impact of emotion-causing events
dual attitude system
differing implicit (automatic) and explicit (consciously controlled) attitudes toward the same object. verbalized explicit attitudes may change with education and persuasion; implicit attitudes change slowly, with practice that forms new habit
self-esteem
a person’s overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth
high self-esteem people usually react to self-esteem threat by
compensating for it
low self-esteem people usually react to self-esteem threat by
“breaking” by blaming themselves or giving up
terror management theory
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
self-efficacy
a sense that one is competent and effective, distinguished from self-esteem, which is one’s sense of self-worth. a sharpshooter in the military might feel high self-efficacy and low self-esteem
locus of control
the extent to which people perceive outcomes as internally controllable by their own efforts or as externally controlled by change or outside forces
learned helplessness
the sense of hopelessness and resignation learned when a human or animal perceives no control over repeated bad events
self-serving bias
the tendency to perceive oneself favorably
self-serving attributions
a form of self-serving bias; the tendency to attribute positive outcomes to oneself and negative outcomes to other factors
defensive pessimism
the adaptive value of anticipating problems and harnessing one’s anxiety to motivate effective action
false uniqueness effect
the tendency to underestimate the commonality of one’s abilities and one’s desirable or successful behavior
