The Social Self Flashcards
What is the accuracy of self-knowledge?
People often lack much self-insight. Sometimes this is self-protective. There are things we would rather not know about ourselves
Most of the time this comes from our lack of access to certain mental processes (nonconscious) Study shows that the reports of close others are as accurate at our own anticipating our actual behaviour. Others can judge our external traits and we can judge our own internal traits
What is a Self-schema?
A cognitive structure derived from past experience, that represents a person’s beliefs and feelings about the self, in both general and specific situations
Everyone has this stored in memory. Organizing function to helping us navigate daily living
How do we learn our attitudes and behaviour?
We learn attitude and behaviour norms from socialization agents (parents, siblings, peers)
Reflected self-appraisal: a belief of what others think of one’s self
The way we view ourselves often affects the perceptions of other people, who then reflect those views back to us in kind of an echo chamber
Gender and the Social Self
Parents raise girls and boys differently
Gender roles are portrayed in the media
What is the social comparison theory?
the idea that people compare themselves to other people to obtain an accurate assessment of their own opinions, abilities and internal states
We want to feel superior so we search for targets that are similar to us but slightly inferior
What are social identities?
the parts of a person’s sense of self that are derived from group memberships
People choose which social group they see as part of their sense of self
What is self-stereotyping?
the phenomenon whereby people come to define themselves in terms of traits, norms, and values that they associate with a social group when their identity as a member of that group is salient
What is self-esteem?
the overall positive or negative evaluation people have of themselves
What is trait self-esteem?
persons enduring level of self-esteem across time
What is state self-esteem?
dynamic, changeable self-evaluations a person experiences as momentary feelings about the self
What are Contingencies of self-worth?
the thesis that peoples self-esteem is contingent on their successes and failures in domains they deem important to their self-worth
What is the Sociometer hypothesis?
the idea that self-esteem is an internal, subjective index or marker of the extent to which a person in included or looked on favorably by others
How likely we are to be included or excluded by others
What is Self-Enhancement?
the desire to maintain, increase, or protect one‘s positive self-views
What is the better-than-average effect?
the finding that most people think they’re above average on various personality trait and ability dimensions
What is the Self-affirmation theory?
the idea that people can maintain an overall sense of self-worth after being exposed to psychologically threatening information by affirming a valued aspect of themselves unrelated to the threat
What is the difference between high and low self-enhancers?
People that hold positive illusions about themselves: high self-enhancers
People that are less likely to hold these: low self-enhancers
High self-enhancers cope with stress more effectively
What is the Self-verification theory?
the theory that people strive for others to view them as they view themselves; such verification of one’s views of the self helps people maintain a sense of coherence and predictability
What is Self-regulation process?
processes by which people initiate and control their behaviour in the pursuit of goals, including the ability to resist short term rewards that thwart the attainment of long-term goals
What is the Self-discrepancy theory?
a theory that behaviour is motivated by standards reflecting ideal and ought selfs; falling short of these standards elicits specific emotions and may lead to efforts to get closer to them
According to this theory your ideal and ought self-serve as self-guides, motivating you to regulate their behaviour in order to close the gap between their actual self and their ideal or ought self
What is the actual self, the ideal self and the ought self in the self-discrepancy theory?
Actual self: the self that people believe they are
Ideal self: the self that embodies peoples wishes and aspirations
Ought self: the self that is concerned with the duties, obligations and external demands people feel that are compelled to honour
What is the difference between the promotion and prevention focus?
Promotion focus: self-regulation of behaviour with respect to ideal self-standards; a focus on attaining positive outcomes through approach-related behaviours
Prevention focus: self-regulation of behaviour with respect to ought-self standards: a focus on avoiding negative outcomes through avoidance-related behaviours
When people pursue a goal, this goal is construed in one of two ways. What are those two ways?
Obtaining a positive outcome
Avoiding a negative one
Have a fun night now? Or do good on your exam tomorrow?
Smaller reward now or bigger later
What is self-presentation?
presenting the person we would like others to believe we are
Another term for this is impression management
What is a face when talking about social psychology?
the public image of ourselves that we want others to believe
What is self-monitoring?
the tendency to monitor ones behaviour to fit the current situation
Scrutinize situations
Shift the self-presentation
What is self-handicapping?
the tendency to engage in self-defeating behaviour in order to have an excuse ready should one perform poorly or fail
Presenting the self online.
Online, people tend to present their offline selves fairly accurately
Personality and attributes
Less likely to do so for physical attributes
