Self Control Flashcards
What are the three kinds of forces that give rise to acts of aggression?
Nature of the situation
Construal Process
Self-construals
Nature of situation
racial dynamics, parking lot, economic conditions, dynamics between police officers and citizens, appearance of the neighbourhood etc…
Construal Processes
How people perceive the context, threatening or not, how they perceive other people can influence their decision making process as well.
Self-Construals
Perception of one’s own role within the unfolding interaction, when officers wear body cameras their self-awareness is heightened, this shift leads them to use weapons less often.
General aggression model
Broad approach to understanding the causes of aggression through a focus on situational factors, construal factors and biological and cultural contributions
Situational Determinants of Aggression
It is striking how quickly things become violent. Explanations of aggression vary according to whether the behaviour is hostile or instrumental.
Hostile aggression
Refers to behaviour motivated by feelings of anger and hostility, primary aim is to harm the person, physically or physiologically. Murder of George Floyd emerged out of hostility, Chauvin had long history of aggression against citizens.
Instrumental aggression
Refers to intention to harm another person in the service of motives rather than pure hostility. To gain status, attract attention, acquire wealth, advance political and ideological causes.
What does hot weather do to behaviour?
Hot weather makes people angry - that is where the terms “boiling over”, “steamed” etc.
Does violence portrayed in the media make people more aggressive?
Yes. Especially influential, when the viewer relates oneself to the perpetrator or see the act as justified against ‘bad people’ when they identify with the offensor.
Five ways playing violent video games makes more violence likely.
- Increase aggressive behaviour, giving more intense punishments
- Reduce prosocial behaviour
- Increase aggressive thoughts, world is a hostile place or some are deserving of aggression
- Increase in aggressive emotions, especially anger
- Increase blood pressure and heart rate.
Reactions to Social Rejection and Aggression
Prosocial behaviour
Seeking out allies
Social isolation, withdrawal or aggression
What is the MacDonald and Leary hypothesis?
Because people depended on one another for primary needs, food shelter, etc. Any rejection from someone of the same species triggers one’s fight or flight response. The body treats it as if it were life or death.
What is the social comparison theory?
the idea that people compare themselves to other people to obtain an accurate assessment of their own opinions, abilities and internal states
What are Self-schemas?
a cognitive structure derived from past experience, that represents a person’s beliefs and feelings about the self, in both general and specific situations
What is Working self-concept?
a subset of self-knowledge that is brought to mind in a particular context
What are Social identities?
the parts of a persons sense of self that are derived from group memberships
People choose which social group they see as part of their sense of self
What is Self-stereotyping?
the phenomenon whereby people come to define themselves in terms of traits, norms, and values that they associate with a social group when their identity as a member of that group is salient
What are the contingencies of self worth?
the thesis that peoples self-esteem is contingent on their successes and failures in domains they deem important to their self-worth
What is the sociometer hypothesis?
the idea that self-esteem is an internal, subjective index or marker of the extent to which a person in included or looked on favorably by others
How likely we are to be included or excluded by others
What is Self-Enhancement?
the desire to maintain, increase, or protect one‘s positive self-views
What is the Better-than-average effect?
the finding that most people think they’re above average on various personality trait and ability dimensions
What is the Self-affirmation theory?
the idea that people can maintain an overall sense of self-worth after being exposed to psychologically threatening information by affirming a valued aspect of themselves unrelated to the threat
What is the Self-verification theory?
The theory that people strive for others to view them as they view themselves; such verification of one’s views of the self helps people maintain a sense of coherence and predictability
What is Self regulation?
processes by which people initiate and control their behaviour in the pursuit of goals, including the ability to resist short term rewards that thwart the attainment of long-term goals
What is the self-discrepancy effect?
theory that behaviour is motivated by standards reflecting ideal and ought selfs; falling short of these standards elicits specific emotions and may lead to efforts to get closer to them
What are the actual self, ideal self, and the ought self?
Actual self: the self that people believe they are
Ideal self: the self that embodies peoples wishes and aspirations
Ought self: the self that is concerned with the duties, obligations and external demands people feel that are compelled to honour
According to this theory your ideal and ought self serve as self-guides, motivating you to regulate their behaviour in order to close the gap between their actual self and their ideal or ought self
What is promotion focus?
self-regulation of behaviour with respect to ideal self standards; a focus on attaining positive outcomes through approach-related behaviours
What is Prevention focus?
self-regulation of behaviour with respect to ought-self standards: a focus on avoiding negative outcomes through avoidance-related behaviours
What are Automatic Self-Control Strategies?
Implementable intention: an “if then” plan to engage in a goal-directed behaviour (then) whenever a particular cue (if) is encountered
Research shows that forming multiple smaller implementation intntions related to this goal increases likelihood of attaining it
Forming these can reduce anxiety in anxiety invoking events
What is Self-presentation?
presenting the person we would like others to believe we are
What is self-monitoring?
the tendency to monitor ones behaviour to fit the current situation
