TOPIC 3

Question 1

What is Self-concept?

Answer 1

The sum total of beliefs we have about ourselves.

Question 2

What is self-concept made up of?

Answer 2

Self-concept is made up of self-schemas.

Question 3

What are self-schemas?

Answer 3

• 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

Question 4

Where Does Our

Self-Concept Come From?

Answer 4

1. Introspection
2. Influence of Social Context
3. Influence of Other People
4. Perceptions of Our Own Behaviour
5. Cultural Influences

Question 5

What is introspection?

Answer 5

Self-knowledge through looking inward at one’s own thoughts and feelings.

Question 6

What are some downsides to introspection?

Answer 6

1.Limited in what it tells us about our thoughts and feeling

2. 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)

Question 7

What is Affective Forecasting?

Answer 7

Refers to predictions of how we will feel about future emotional events.

Question 8

Why are we so bad at Affective Forecasting?

Answer 8

• 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.

Question 9

What is the influence of social context?

Answer 9

• The self concept changes in response to personal and situational factors.
• We identify with what makes us unique in a given situation

Question 10

What is Social Comparison Theory? (Influence of Other People)

Answer 10

Process of evaluating ourselves through comparisons with other people

Question 11

When do we use Social Comparison Theory?

Answer 11

Most often when uncertain about our self-evaluation

Question 12

Who do we compare ourselves to in Social Comparison Theory?

Answer 12

We compare ourselves with similar others

Question 13

What is the Two-Factor Theory of Emotion?

Answer 13

When we turn to others to determine our emotions

When unclear about our emotional state, we sometimes interpret how we feel by watching others

Question 14

When is two factors necessary?

Answer 14

To feel a specific emotion:

• We must experience physiological arousal.
• We must make a cognitive interpretation that explains the source of the arousal.

Question 15

For others to influence our emotions:

Answer 15

• Physiological arousal cannot be too intense.

- Other people must be present as possible explanation for arousal before its onset

Question 16

What is Self-Perception Theory?

Answer 16

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.

Question 17

Intrinsic Motivation..

Answer 17

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.

Question 18

Extrinsic Motivation..

Answer 18

Originates in factors outside the person

Question 19

Overjustification effect is:

Answer 19

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)

Question 20

Due to the overjustification effect should rewards not be offered?

Answer 20

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

Question 21

What is Individualism

Answer 21

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”.

Question 22

What is Collectivism

Answer 22

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”.

Question 23

What is Self Esteem?

Answer 23

Affective evaluation of our self-concept.

• success and failure impact our self-esteem

Question 24

What is self complexity and it’s benefit?

Answer 24

Self-complexity or tendency to define the self in terms of many domains and attributes found to be most beneficial for well-being

Question 25

Illusions and Biases about the Self:

Answer 25

• 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.

Question 26

What is a potential cause for this unrealistic optimism?

Answer 26

One reason for the unrealistic optimism maybe because we have an exaggerated sense of control

Question 27

What is Self-Handicapping and why do we do it?

Answer 27

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

Question 28

What is sandbagging?

Answer 28

Downplaying own ability, lowering expectations, or openly predicting failure.

Ingenious way to protect the self, but comes with its costs

Question 29

What are the downside to sandbagging?

Answer 29

 Negatively impacts performance.

 But also others tend to show less liking toward those engaging in it

Question 30

What is Basking in the Glory of Others

Answer 30

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.

Question 31

What is cutting off reflected failure?

Answer 31

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

Question 32

What is Downward Social Comparison?

Answer 32

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

Question 33

Do people in collectivist societies feel worse about themselves or do cultural norms influence their expression of positive self regard?

Answer 33

• 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

Question 34

How may Individualists respond to failure differently compared to collectivists?

Answer 34

Individualists more likely to try doing a task they succeeded at before, while collectivists more interested in trying a task they failed at before.

Question 35

Should We All Strive For High Self-Esteem?

Answer 35

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

Question 36

Is the self unchangable or not?

Answer 36

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.