TOPIC 3 Flashcards
What is Self-concept?
The sum total of beliefs we have about ourselves.
What is self-concept made up of?
Self-concept is made up of self-schemas.
What are self-schemas?
- Self-Schemas: Beliefs about oneself that guide processing of self-relevant information.
- People self-schematic on important dimensions, especially when they
are extreme, and when opposite is untrue
Where Does Our
Self-Concept Come From?
- Introspection
- Influence of Social Context
- Influence of Other People
- Perceptions of Our Own Behaviour
- Cultural Influences
What is introspection?
Self-knowledge through looking inward at one’s own thoughts and feelings.
What are some downsides to introspection?
1.Limited in what it tells us about our thoughts and feeling
- We also have difficulty predicting responses to future events (difficulty with affective forcasting)
- e.g. We overestimate the strength and duration of emotional reactions. (lottery winners)
What is Affective Forecasting?
Refers to predictions of how we will feel about future emotional events.
Why are we so bad at Affective Forecasting?
- Lack of recognition for our psychological coping mechanisms.
- Focus only on the emotional impact of a single event, overlooking the effects of other life experiences.
What is the influence of social context?
- The self concept changes in response to personal and situational factors.
- We identify with what makes us unique in a given situation
What is Social Comparison Theory? (Influence of Other People)
Process of evaluating ourselves through comparisons with other people
When do we use Social Comparison Theory?
Most often when uncertain about our self-evaluation
Who do we compare ourselves to in Social Comparison Theory?
We compare ourselves with similar others
What is the Two-Factor Theory of Emotion?
When we turn to others to determine our emotions
When unclear about our emotional state, we sometimes interpret how we feel by watching others
When is two factors necessary?
To feel a specific emotion:
- We must experience physiological arousal.
- We must make a cognitive interpretation that explains the source of the arousal.
For others to influence our emotions:
- Physiological arousal cannot be too intense.
- Other people must be present as possible explanation for arousal before its onset
What is Self-Perception Theory?
When internal cues are difficult to interpret, people gain insight by observing their own behaviour
- But only in the absence of compelling situational pressures or strong pre-existing thoughts or feelings about something.
Intrinsic Motivation..
Originates in factors within a person.
- Enormous reward or fearsome penalty can decrease intrinsic motivation by leading to external attributions.
- but in absence of external explanations, behaviour
attributed internally.
Extrinsic Motivation..
Originates in factors outside the person
Overjustification effect is:
The tendency for intrinsic motivation to diminish for activities that have become associated with reward or other extrinsic factors. (if we expect reward –> decrease motivation)
Due to the overjustification effect should rewards not be offered?
No, rewards are good when they are unexpected and a bonus
Praise better when offered for effort (“you worked so hard”) rather than ability (“you’re so smart”; Mueller & Dweck, 1998)
Rewards better for good performance rather than conditional for fulfilling task alone
What is Individualism
One’s culture values the virtues of independence,
autonomy, and self-expression
People strive for personal achievement and promoting goals.
Emphasise differences with others.
Important to act true to internal beliefs and feelings.
Likely to believe “the only person you can count on is yourself” or “I enjoy being unique and different from others”.
What is Collectivism
One’s culture values the virtues of interdependence,
cooperation, and social harmony.
People derive more satisfaction from the status of the valued group.
Emphasise group harmony and group goals.
Important to act appropriately to roles and group norms.
Likely to believe “I’m partly to blame if one of my family members or coworkers fails” or “my happiness depends on others around me”.
What is Self Esteem?
Affective evaluation of our self-concept.
- success and failure impact our self-esteem
What is self complexity and it’s benefit?
Self-complexity or tendency to define the self in terms of many domains and attributes found to be most beneficial for well-being
Illusions and Biases about the Self:
- People tend to have positive illusions about themselves
- People also have unrealistic optimism about their own future compared to that of others
E.g., people tend to believe that positive personality traits describe
themselves better than negative traits.
People overestimate own contributions to a group, abilities, etc.
People take credit for success and blame others for failure.
What is a potential cause for this unrealistic optimism?
One reason for the unrealistic optimism maybe because we have an exaggerated sense of control
What is Self-Handicapping and why do we do it?
Behaviours designed to sabotage one’s own performance in order to provide a subsequent excuse for failure
- Way of protecting self from seeing failure as due to a lack of ability
What is sandbagging?
Downplaying own ability, lowering expectations, or openly predicting failure.
Ingenious way to protect the self, but comes with its costs
What are the downside to sandbagging?
Negatively impacts performance.
But also others tend to show less liking toward those engaging in it
What is Basking in the Glory of Others
We bask in reflected glory (“BIRG”) by associating with others who are successful or identifying with groups that are successful
E.g., people wore team clothing more after their social group’s team won a game.
People also more likely to BIRG after threatening their self-esteem.
What is cutting off reflected failure?
Form of Basking in the Glory of Others:
- To protect our self-esteem, we also “cut off reflected failure” (“CORF”) by distancing ourselves from others who fail or are of low status
What is Downward Social Comparison?
We tend to make comparisons with others who are worse off and feel better about ourselves
- We also make temporal comparisons between past and present selves
If experiencing a tragic life event, we tend to:
- Affiliate with others in same predicament who are adjusting well.
- Compare ourselves with others who are worse off
Do people in collectivist societies feel worse about themselves or do cultural norms influence their expression of positive self regard?
- Using implicit measures of self-esteem, people in both individualist and collectivist societies found to positively evaluate themselves.
- Need for positive self-regard universal, but expression of it may vary
How may Individualists respond to failure differently compared to collectivists?
Individualists more likely to try doing a task they succeeded at before, while collectivists more interested in trying a task they failed at before.
Should We All Strive For High Self-Esteem?
Common assumption that low self-esteem predictive of various negative outcomes.
However, much evidence that high self-esteem and narcissistic self-perceptions dangerous because more likely to lash out against threats to their ego
Is the self unchangable or not?
The self is The Multifaceted.
Part of the self is malleable.
Molded by culture and experiences.
Varies from one social context to the next.
Self is complex and multifaceted.
