The social self

Question 1

Traits of the self

Answer 1

• if both reflects onto itself and is itself (“I” and “me”)
• it differs across social situations
• it is highly influenced by culture

Question 2

What is the self?

Answer 2

• partially a product of genetics
• interactive
• has needs for positivity, control, meaning and security

Question 3

What is the self - William James

Answer 3

• the “I” - the self which reflects upon the self
• the “me” - the self which experiences
• we are both the “I” and the “me”

Question 4

The self and culture - Berger & Luckmann

Answer 4

• we are born into a culture, and this culture influences us on a implicit level
• this is accepted largely without explicit self-awareness

Question 5

Individualist vs. collectivist

Answer 5

• in eastern cultures, people tend to be more collectivist, the self concept more highly overlaps with relationships
• in western cultures, people tend to be more individualist. Groups matter, but we still are independent in our self.

Question 6

Self across situations

Answer 6

Who we are in one situation is not identical to who we are in another situation. Our active self-concepts can influence us one way or the other.

Question 7

Public self-awareness

Answer 7

worries about how the self will be judged by other people in a given situation

Question 8

Private self-awareness

Answer 8

Worries about the authentic and ‘true’ nature of the self. (Awareness of who you are independent of others, the ‘authentic’ self).

Question 9

Implicit and explicit self

Answer 9

• the self is influenced by processes outside of conscious awareness (implicit processes)
• the self is also represented (or exists) at an implicit level

Question 10

Genetic/culture interaction

Answer 10

• genetics often interact with culture uniquely
• if you are born in one culture vs. another, those genes get expressed in different ways.
• but if you are born into that culture and you have different genes, you will have different traits

Question 11

Self-discrepancy theory

Answer 11

• ideal self
• actual self
• ought self

Question 12

ideal self

Answer 12

This is the best possible self that you would want to be, if you could make yourself perfect in your own eyes

Question 13

actual self

Answer 13

this is your actual self-concept at this moment

Question 14

Ought self

Answer 14

• this is the self that you feel you should be

- (who you feel pressured to be)

Question 15

self-esteem

Answer 15

How positively we feel and think about ourselves.

Question 16

self-complexity

Answer 16

• the more ‘selves’ a person has on average, the better their physical and mental health.
• total number of social roles/self-identities
• the clarity of those social roles/self-identities

Question 17

Self-verification theory

Answer 17

• people have a need to believe that other people see them as they see themselves.
• that their true self is known
• people also have a need to view themselves positively

Question 18

psychological threat

Answer 18

When our self-concept, identity, emotional security, self-esteem, or sense of meaning is challenged

Question 19

Threat compensation

Answer 19

The attempt by the self to deal with threats to the self.

Question 20

Threat compensation: social comparison theory

Answer 20

• when our self esteem is threatened, we tend to focus more on people that have it worse than us, and we also tend to degrade other people.

Question 21

When people feel threats to their system of meaning they

Answer 21

• respond by seeing more patterns in random stimuli
• defend their worldwide more strongly
• respond by more quickly detecting accurate patterns

Question 22

Threat compensation: compensatory control

Answer 22

• when people feel a lack of control, they compensate by believing that external groups are in control.
• this alleviates anxiety not pulling the self in control, but by the self believing they are not in control, but that the world around them is.

Question 23

Self-affirmation theory

Answer 23

States that the premise that people want to maintain ‘self-integrity’.

Question 24

Tenet 1

Answer 24

people are motivated to view the self as good, virtuous, moral, competent and valued

Question 25

Tenet 2

Answer 25

a wide range of conditions exist in the world that can challenge these thoughts and feelings

Question 26

Tenet 3

Answer 26

the ‘self-system’ is flexible; people tend to switch up what they focus on/the self is complex. We have a diverse self portfolio.

Question 27

Tenet 4

Answer 27

when the self’s integrity is threatened or challenged: people can affirm an aspect of their self which will help to diffuse the threat.

Question 28

Self-affirmations have been found to

Answer 28

• improve receptiveness to threatening health news
• help people in different sides of an issue negotiate negative feedback
• help people respond less aggressively when receiving negative feedback
• reduce stereotype threat and help with school performance