Social psychology Flashcards
What is the significance of ‘self’?
The capacity of thinking reflectively about our self distinguishes humans from all other animals
What can self/selves be viewed as?
Can be viewed as outcomes or consequences of social interactions or as antecedents that shape and guide subsequent social interacts
How do we study ‘the self’ in social psychology?
We use 5 questions :
who am I? how do I know who I am? how do I evaluate myself? why does the self matter? how do you know who I am?
Kuhn and McPartland carried out the first study of ‘the self’ what did they use? and what did they find?
They used TST (twenty statements test) and showed that students reflected on self in different ways :
1) consensual statements (e.g. student, girl, husband)
2) sub-consensual statements (e.g. happy, bored)
What do consensual statements involve?
It includes groups whose limits and conditions of membership are a matter of common law knowledge
What do sub-consensual statements include?
It includes groups, attributes, race or any other matter that would require interpretation by the respondents
What does self concept refer to?
It refers to the knowledge, idea or set of ideas, attributes, beliefs about who I am
What does self concept include?
1) individual (or personal) self-descriptions : traits, temporary states, experiences and actions, beliefs/ideas about self
2) collective (or social) self-descriptions : identities relating to group memberships
3) relational self-descriptions: connections with others and role relationships
What do social identity theorists distinguish between?
Distinguish between the personal and collective/group self
What did Yuki and Triandis discover about collective and relational selves?
Collective and relational selves are important in some cultures (collectivist cultures) than others (individualistic cultures)
What is the self-schemata?
Self-schemata are cognitive representations about the self (or self conceptions), derived from past experiences
i.e. represent the way the self has been differentiated or articulated in memory
Self concept changes in different situations and over time but most of us have a sense of ‘being the same me’. Baumeister 1989 describes that this is done in three steps, what are they?
a) restricting our lives to a limited set of contexts
b) revising and integrating our autobiographies
c) attributing change to the circumstance
What are the four sources of self-knowledge?
Introspection, self-perception, feedback from others and social comparisons
What is introspection?
We get info about our self by examining our thoughts, feelings, and reasons for behaving a particular way
What is self-perception?
When we make inferences about ourselves from our behaviours or imagined behaviour
What is feedback from others?
This can become a self-fulfilling prophecy
What is social comparisons?
Comparing one’s self to others especially with similar other or those who are slightly ‘inferior’ in some way
What does social comparisons provide?
It provides a positive evaluation of the self-concept
According to Sedikides why do we seek self-knowledge?
1) self-assessment motive : seeking accurate/valid info to find out what kind of person we really are
2) self verification motive: seeking info that verifies or confirms our prior beliefs about what we are like
3) self-enhancement motive: seeking/wanting favourable info about self
What are self-evaluations?
They refer to how we evaluate specific dimensions of self (e.g., appearance, intelligence, social skills)
How do we measure our overall sense of self-worth?
Measured by The Rosenberg Self- esteem scale
How do we maintain or enhance our self-esteem?
1 - Self-serving attributes
2- above average effect
3-false consensus and uniqueness
What are self-serving attributes?
They refer to how we evaluate specific dimensions of self
What is the above average effect?
We view ourselves as better than average on a range of different valued attributes
What is false consensus + uniqueness?
We tend to enhance our self-image by thinking that others will act the same as I do
What is the self categorisation theory?
This is where knowledge of the self is derived from group membership, which produces a sense of social identity
What are the three threats to self-worth?
Failures, inconsistencies and stressors
What do we develop in order to cope with threats?
We develop coping mechanisms
What are the coping mechanisms that we develop in order to cope with threats?
- escape physically or through denial
- downplay the threat by re-evaluating or affirming other aspects of self
- attack the threat by discredit it, denying responsibility or through self-handicapping
What is self handicapping?
Self handicapping involves avoiding behaviours that may increase our chances of success and also engaging in self destructive behaviour that may inhibit our success
What is self-efficacy?
It is your sense of competence and effectiveness
What is locus of control?
Some people feel that what happens to them depends on external factors, others that it depends on their own efforts and skills
What does the regulatory focus theory propose?
It proposes that our self-schemata can influence our behaviours and emotions
What can lead to different kind of emotions and behaviours?
Perceived discrepancies between actual and ideal selves and actual and ought selves can lead to different kind of emotions and behaviours
According to Higgins, discrepancies between actual and ideal selves will lead to what?
It will motivate us to attain our ideals (hopes, aspirations) which generates sensitivity to presence and absence of positive events, and people adopt an approach strategy to attain our own goals
PROMOTION
According to Higgins, discrepancies between actual and ought selves will lead to what?
It will motivate us to fulfil our duties and obligations which generates sensitivity to presence or absence of negative events and people adapt an avoidance strategy
PREVENTION
How do others know who you are?
We need to present self or express who we are to others through what we do and say
How can we present self or express who we are to others?
This can be done by:
- authentic self-presentation so projecting an image consistent with our private self concept
- impression management so trying to shape the way in which others perceive us
How can impression management be done?
It can be achieved by either claiming desired identities or self monitoring
What do self presentation strategies do?
It can manipulate other’s view of self through self promotion, ingratiation, exemplification, supplication and intimidation
What is ingratiation?
Motivated by a concern to get along with others and be liked
What is exemplification?
Motivated by a concern to get others to regard one self as a morally respectable individual
What is supplication?
Attempt to get others to take pity on one’s self as helpless and needy
What is intimidation?
Attempt to get other to think that we are dangerous
What is social cognition concerned with?
Concerned with social thinking
What is social cognition about?
It is about how we think or view the social world and those around us
What does research on social cognition make a distinction between?
Makes a distinction between controlled vs automatic thinking
What is automatic thinking?
Our judgements and decisions are often more automatic, involving low-level thinking (without intention or awareness)
What is controlled thinking?
To put a lot of thinking effort into the judgements and decisions we make. It’s intentional and conscious
What are the two types of automatic thinking?
1) automatic thinking using schemata
2) biases in thinking
Schemata are cognitive structures. What do they represent?
Represent knowledge about a ‘concept or type of stimulus including its attributes and the relations among those attributes’
What do we have different types of schemata for?
We have different types of schemata for specific people, groups of people, self, roles and events
What is the function of schemata?
Helps organise our world, guide our perception, allow us to make sense quickly of people, events, situations on the basis of limited information, make our world predictable, help us interpret new and ambiguous information
How do schemata work?
Schemata facilitate an overall impression based on preconceptions and prior knowledge
How does schemata guide what we notice?
By filtering out information that is inconsistent with our preconceptions
For many situations, there are several relevant schemata that could be applied, how do we know what schemata to use?
This depends on:
- accessibility which in turn determined by frequency or recency
- priming which refers to the activation of certain associations
Why do schemata persist?
Schemata persists even when discredited by contradictory evidence, this is partly due to a confirmation bias
What is confirmation bias?
It is looking for evidence that confirms our beliefs
What is a self fulfilling propechy?
People act on their schemata and in this way make them come true
i.e. expectations about a person influence your behaviour towards him/her which causes him/her to behave in ways consistent with your expectations
What can biases in thinking include?
Overconfidence in judgements, false consensus, illusion of control, illusory correlation