The Self in a Social World

Question 1

Why is our self-concept inherently social?

Answer 1

The way that others behave towards us influences our beliefs and feelings towards ourselves AND our beliefs and feelings about ourselves influence the way we perceive, judge, and behave towards others.

Question 2

Self-schemas

Answer 2

Beliefs about the self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant information.
Ex; if being an athlete is one of your self-schemas, you will tend to notice others’ bodies and skills, quickly recall sport-related experiences, and welcome information consistent with this self-schema

Question 3

Possible selves (Markus and Nurius)

Answer 3

Images of what we dream of or dread of becoming in the future. Motivate us.

Question 4

Self-discrepancy theory (Higgins)

Answer 4

Actual self, ideal self, and ought self.

We are sensitive to contradictions among these different representations of self. We feel discomfort when they contradict.

Question 5

The looking-glass self (Cooley)

Answer 5

How we think others perceive us as a mirror for perceiving ourselves

Question 6

Independent (individualistic) cultures

Answer 6

Value individuality, autonomy, and self-reliance

Question 7

Interdependent (collectivist) cultures

Answer 7

Value fitting in, cooperation, and social harmony

Question 8

In regard to cognition, individuals from independent cultures tend to focus on the ________

Answer 8

foreground

Question 9

In regard to cognition, individuals from interdependent cultures tend to focus on the ______

Answer 9

context

Question 10

In regard to self-esteem, individuals from independent cultures make __________ comparisons to boost self-esteem

Answer 10

downward

Question 11

In regard to self-esteem, individuals from interdependent cultures make _______ comparisons to facilitate self-improvement

Answer 11

upward

Question 12

Mark Leary believed that our self-esteem feelings are like a fuel gauge. Why?

Answer 12

Self-esteem gauge alerts us to threatened social rejection that motivates us to survive and thrive by holding onto relationships, act accordingly to others’ expectations, and find approval.

Question 13

High self-esteem can cross over into ______

Answer 13

narcissism

Question 14

Christian Jordon found that people who have conscious views of themselves that are positive but have low implicit self-esteem are likely to have _______

Answer 14

fragile self-views

Question 15

People with fragile self-esteem are…

Answer 15

more defensive and rationalize their decisions more

Question 16

Perceived self-control

Answer 16

After an initial act of self-control, people feel justified in slacking off.

Ex; people who controlled their emotions during an upsetting film, later became more aggressive with their partners

Question 17

Uncontrollable bad events lead to…

Answer 17

perceived lack of control which in turn leads to learned helplessness

Question 18

Berry Schwartz says that individualistic cultures have an excess of freedom. Why is this bad?

Answer 18

Decrease in life satisfaction, increased rates of clinical depression, and making choices becomes tiring

Question 19

4 ways in which we maintain our self-esteem

Answer 19

1. Self-serving biases
2. Self-handicapping
3. Self-affirmation
4. BIRGing & CORFing

Question 20

Self-serving biases

Answer 20

Tendency to perceive yourself favourably

Question 21

Self-serving attributions

Answer 21

Form of self-serving bias; tendency to attribute positive outcomes to yourself and negative outcomes to other factors

Question 22

Illusory optimism

Answer 22

Form of self-serving bias; believe ourselves to be immune to misfortune

Question 23

False consensus

Answer 23

Form of self-serving bias; tendency to overestimate the commonality of one’s negative behaviours.

“I lie, but doesn’t everyone?”

Question 24

False uniqueness

Answer 24

Form of self-serving bias; tendency to underestimate the commonality of one’s positive behaviours.

“My ability to play sports is unique”

Question 25

Self-handicapping

Answer 25

Protecting one’s self-image with behaviours that create a handy excuse for later failure

Question 26

Self-affirmation

Answer 26

Thinking about success or competence in another domain

Question 27

BIRGing

Answer 27

AKA “basking in reflected glory”

Individuals associate themselves with successful others, such that another’s success becomes their own

Question 28

CORFing

Answer 28

AKA “cutting off reflected failure”

Individuals disassociate themselves from the failures of others

Question 29

Temporal comparison

Answer 29

Comparing past and present selves. “From chump to champ”

Question 30

Temporal comparison (Wilson and Ross) - Distance can be subjective experiment

Answer 30

Participants were told to think of the beginning of the term. The question was framed differently for both half of the participants.

Participants then rated their standing on a number of traits.

Finding: participants who perceived the start of the semester as more distant in time rated their past and present self attributes more differently.

Question 31

Temporal comparison (Conway and Ross) - Past selves can be subjective

Answer 31

People generate support for their perceptions that they are improving by misremembering the past

Question 32

Planning fallacy

Answer 32

Tendency to underestimate how long it will take to complete a task

Question 33

Affective forecasting

Answer 33

Tendency to incorrectly predict the intensity and duration of future emotions

Question 34

Spotlight phenomenon

Answer 34

Tendency to overestimate how much you are being noticed by others