Social Psychology - Lecture 2

Question 1

Differing levels of self-awareness

Answer 1

• What can happen when self-awareness is raised?

- What can happen when self-awareness is reduced?

Question 2

What is self-concept?

Answer 2

Your knowledge of who you are, your personal characteristics

Question 3

What is self-esteem?

Answer 3

Your evaluation of yourself, the value you place on your characteristics individually and collectively

Question 4

Biographical information (objective)

Answer 4

name, age, job, nationality

Question 5

Personal characteristics (more subjective)

Answer 5

physical, psychological, preferences

Question 6

Autobiographical memory (entirely subjective)

Answer 6

first kiss, first day at school

Question 7

Self-perception theory (Bem, 1967)

Answer 7

Suggests that we receive feedback on our behaviour from different sources and this provides knowledge about our self

• self-perception
• emotional reactions
• the reaction of others

Question 8

What is cognitive dissonance?

Answer 8

is tension produced by holding two contradictory ideas (Festinger, 1957) e.g. knowing smoking kills, but continues to smoke daily; people are motivated to reduce dissonance

Question 9

What is buyer’s remorse?

Answer 9

is the sense of regret after making a purchase, frequently associates with expensive items, type of cognitive dissonance

Question 10

Self-discrepancy

Answer 10

we are constantly assessing the relationship between different aspects of self (Higgins, 1987)
Standpoints of self: Own, other
Domains of self: Actual (own/other representation of you)
Ideal (own/other ideal representation of what you ought to be like)
Increased discrepancies = increase dissonance

Question 11

Social comparison theory

Answer 11

Comparing oneself to external markers (often other people) to evaluate one’s opinions abilities and value (Festinger, 1954)

Upward social comparison: compare oneself to an individual/group of perceived higher standing in some respect, negative outcome = can lower self-esteem

Downward social comparison: compare oneself to an individual/group of perceived lower standing in some respect. positive outcome = can increase self-esteem

Question 12

Protecting self-esteem

Answer 12

• Escape/avoidance: easiest way to reduce threat is to escape or avoid the situation that produces it
• Self-serving bias: tendency to attribute failures to situational factors, but successes to disposition