Social Psychology: The Self Flashcards
How do people form a self concept?
Similarly to how you form impressions of others,
What is noted by self perception theory?
People infer their own characteristics from their own observed behaviour when internal cues are weak or ambiguous, especially when we make these choices of our own free will
Apart from behaviour what else do people use to construct the self concept?
Thoughts and feelings (more important than behaviour), other peoples reactions (largest effect on people whose self-concepts are uncertain or still developing) and social comparison
What is meant by social comparison theory?
People compare themselves to others to see what characteristics make them unique
Explain the effects that can result from social comparison
Contrast effects have you believing you are the opposite to the person you are comparing yourself to (Master- Useless, Beginner - Best ever.) The assimilation effects claim when comparing yourself to someone a little worse than you then you will see yourself as a bit worse but if playing against someone a bit better you will see yourself a bit better.
What are the actor-observer differences in attribution
Attributing other’s behaviour to their personality while your own to the situation. This changes depending on if the valence is positive or negative.
What is meant by the self concept?
All of an individual’s knowledge about his or her personal qualities
Who is best to make comparisons to in the social comparison theory
those of the same skill level
What is meant by the over-justification effect
The over-justification effect states that we lose a part of our intrinsic motivation when we receive extrinsic motivation.
Why do we see others as different?
Differences in cues and knowledge (e.g: we don’t have access to inner thoughts) and differences in inferences.
What is meant by self-aspects?
Summaries of a person’s beliefs about the self in SPECIFIC domains, roles or activities. The way we see ourselves changes over situations and roles and depends on the self-aspect.
What is meant by self schema?
Core characteristics that a person believes characterizes him or her across situations.
Why do people look for self schema?
People believe that they have a coherent and stable self. Looking for confirmation of self-schemas help with this.
Why do people tend to not notice the contradiction between their different selves?
Because there is only one self there at the time. People also tend to remember the memories that are coherent with the idea they have about their self
How does culture affect the construction of the self?
Individualistic cultures view their self as more stable while collectivist view it as changing. People in collectivistic cultures also construct their self bases more on the situation and the relations.
What is meant by self esteem?
Self-esteem is an individual’s positive or negative evaluation of himself.
What is meant by self enhancing bias and what effect does it have on self evaluation?
Self-enhancing bias is the tendency to gather or interpret information concerning the self in a way that leads to overly positive evaluations. People generally rate themselves higher than average on traits. People have a desire to view themselves in a positive light
What is meant by self complexity?
Self-complexity is the extent to which a person possesses many and diverse self-aspects.
Describe the model of self-evaluation maintenance
The model of self-evaluation maintenance is a theory outlining the conditions under which people’s self-esteem will be maintained or will suffer based on social comparisons to close or distant others. The closer someone is to us, the greater the chance for social comparison.
How can social comparison raise our self esteem
Comparing your appearance to someone doing an orange walk. But actually by comparing ourselves to someone who performed worse.
What is meant by self regulation?
Efforts to control one’s behaviour in line with internal or external standards.
How does culture affect how we receive information on ourselves?
People in individualistic cultures are more susceptible to positive information and people in collectivistic cultures are more susceptible to negative information.
How does gender influence the factors which impact our self esteem?
Men’s self-esteem is more influences by successes or failures and women’s self-esteem is more influenced by connectedness.
What do emotions depend on in an event?
The perceivers interpretation of events
What are emotions caused by?
Emotions are caused by appraisals of a self-relevant object or event; emotions are caused by an individual’s interpretation of a self-relevant object or event.
What is meant by appraisals?
Appraisal is an individual’s interpretation of a self-relevant event or situation that directs emotional response and behaviour.
How may people have different reactions to events in respect too appraisals?
Different appraisals can have different emotional results in the same situation.
What are our appraisals often based on?
Salient cues
Which emotions are most common and intense?
Those that fit culturally valued types of relationships.
Are physiological responses to emotion innate?
Some physiological responses following emotions are biologically determined and some are learned.
How do emotions affect thinking?
By focusing us on the content of our appraisals
What are appraisals frequently activated with and what causal effect does this have?
They are frequently activated alongside bodily reaction, emotion driven behaviour and subjective feelings. This results in them being associated and any one being activated can cause the rest to become activated.
What is the relationship between emotions and bodily responses?
Emotions follow bodily responses and bodily responses follow emotions.
What is meant by self-expression?
A motive for choosing behaviours that are intended to reflect and express the self- concept.
What is meant by self-presentation?
A motive for choosing behaviours that are intended to to create in observers an impression of the desired self.
What is meant by self-monitoring?
Whether someone prefers self expression or presentation; The degree to which people will bend to the demands of social situations and shape their behaviour accordingly.
Name a function of self knowledge
Self-knowledge motivates our behaviour toward important goals or standards.
What are self guides?
Conceptions that show us how life currently is but also where we would like to be
What are the two forms of self guides?
Ideal self - the person we aspire to be. This includes the traits that help people match their aspirations.
Ought self - Th person we feel we are. This includes the traits that match our obligations.
What does the regulatory focus theory claim?
The regulatory focus theory states that people typically have either a promotion or prevention focus, shaping the ways they self-regulate to attain positive outcomes versus avoiding negative outcomes.
What strategies may we employ in order to avoid falling to short term temptations which may derail self regulation?
We can use rewards or think of acts that help us in the long-term in positive ways. It is also possible to view temptations in more abstract ways.
Is there any downside to self regulation?
It can deplete some inner resource
What can make people more prone to behaviour which is damaging in the long run? Give an example of this behaviour
People that are fatigued, stressed or low in self regulation resources; eg binge eating
Why are people more prone to this damaging behaviour?
This is because some cognitive resources are required to recognize the tempting nature of such stimuli
What can restore the depletion of self regulation that self control uses?
Self-affirmation refers to any action or event that enhances or highlights one’s own sense of personal integrity
What is meant by self awareness?
A state of heightened awareness of the self, including our internal standards.
When events cause dissonance between our self concept and our actual self how may we react?
When events set off defence systems of the self, we can attempt to deal with what set off the alarm or try to change the way it makes us feel.
What is the relationship between self esteem and events which contradict our self?
People with high esteem are partially protected from the negative consequences of this event however if the esteem is unrealistic and too inflated it may have the opposite effect
Describe how these problems with our self can harm our physical self including mentioning a moderator
The effects of positive emotions endure across major portions of a lifetime. Positive emotion is strongly associated with better health across many years. Feeling that events are beyond one’s control increases the likelihood of many kinds of negative outcomes. The anxiety and frustration that accompany a lack of control take their toll on physical well-being.
What can come about as a result of repeated experiences of lack of control?
Learned helplessness
Name five ways people can cope with threatening events
Emotion-focused coping: Avoiding the threatening situation or distracting oneself to deal with the negative emotions associated.
Escaping from threat: Trying to escape after a negative event. Either by physically leaving or doing another activity
Focusing on positive aspects of self: for example a failed student might downplay the importance of studying and focus on other aspects of life
Writing- Writing down the emotions felt during an event can help
Tend and befriend- Nurturing oneself and others and building and maintaining social networks with close others can help
What are the effects of writing
Can have a negative impact in the short term but a positive effect in the long term as it can prevent the surpassing of negative and painful thoughts.
What does the terror management theory state?
reminders of one’s mortality lead individuals to reaffirm basic cultural world views (e.g: religious belief)
What can have a helping effect on a threatening effect?
A good excuse, especially if the excuse is lined up before the performance
What is meant by self-handicapping?
Self-handicapping is seeking to avoid blame for expected poor performance, either by claiming an excuse in advance or by actively sabotaging one’s own performance.
What effect can self-sabotaging have on actual performance?
Negative effect
What abilities can improve as people feel more in control?
Self regulatory abilities
What can help us feel like we have more control in our lives
Confidence in the ability to deal with a particular area
What is the impact of ‘If only’ thoughts?
They can make us feel more negative but help us improve in future
What can self esteem be a resource for?
Defending against threats to the self
How can high self esteem restore high self esteem?
High self-esteem leads to self- enhancement and successful coping, which restores high self-esteem.
What is the best way to cope?
This can depend on the characteristic of the threat as well as that of the threatened person
