(TB Lecture 5) The Social Self and Cognitive Dissonance Flashcards
Social Comparison Theory
Social comparison theory refers to the idea that we learn about our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves to other people
Upward Social Comparison
Comparing ourselves to people who are better than we are with regard to a particular trait or ability
If the goal is to know what excellence is, the top level to which you can aspire, one is likely to engage in upward social comparison.
Downward Social Comparison
Comparing ourselves to people who are worse than we are with regard to a particular trait or ability
If goal is to feel good about ourselves and boost our ego, then we are better off engaging in downward social comparison
Social Tuning
The process whereby people adopt another person’s attitudes. This can happen even when we meet someone for the first time, if we want to get along with that person and social tuning can happen unconsciously
Basking in Reflected Glory
The tendency to associate oneself with successful people to boost one’s own self-esteem
Self Evaluation Maintenance Theory
People will experience dissonance in relationships when three conditions are met:
1) We feel close to another person
2) He or she is outperforming us in a particular ara
3) And that area is central to our self-esteem
Tesser & Cornell (1991) Word Game Study
Word game in which one person gives clues to help another guess a word.
The theory predicts that if the task is not self-relevant to people, they should want their friends to do especially well.
Results
When the researchers made the task low in importance, by stating that it was just a game, people gave easier clues to their friends than to strangers.
When the game was said to be highly correlated with intelligence and leadership skills, participants gave harder clues to their friends than strangers
It was threatening to people’s self-esteem to have their friends outperform them so they made sure they did not
Intrinsic Motivation
The desire to engage in an activity because we enjoy it or find it interesting, not because of external rewards or pressures. Their reasons for engaging in the activity have to do with themselves.
Intrinsic Motivation
The desire to engage in an activity because we enjoy it or find it interesting, not because of external rewards or pressures. Their reasons for engaging in the activity have to do with themselves.
Extrinsic Motivation
The desire to engage in an activity because of external rewards or pressures, not because we enjoy the task or find it interesting
Overjustification Effect
When people view their behaviour as caused by compelling extrinsic reasons, such as a reward, making them underestimate the extent to which their behaviour was caused by intrinsic reasons
Task-contingent Reward
Rewards are given for performing a task, regardless of how well the task is done.
E.g., Children given reward for how many books they read, not how well they read them
Performance-contingent tasks
Rewards that are based on how well we perform a task.
E.g., giving students cash prizes for doing well in a test.
This type of reward is less likely to decrease interest in a task and may even increase interest because the earned reward conveys the message that you are good at the task.
Self-perception Theory
The theory that when our attitudes and feelings are uncertain or ambiguous, we infer these states by observing our behaviour and the situation in which it occurs.
We observe our behaviour and explain it to ourselves; we make an attribution about why we behaved in that way.
It is not only attitudes and preferences that we infer from our behaviour - we also infer our emotions
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
The discomfort that people feel when they behave in ways that threaten their self-esteem. This discomfort is caused when two cognitions conflict, or when our behaviour conflicts with our attitudes
