Understanding Ourselves and Others Flashcards
summarise how the oxford english dictionary summarises the self
- looks at self as an object that you reflect upon
- self is essential being
- unique
what did William James think of the self? which categories did he break it into?
that it is multifaceted and multidimensional
- material self
- spiritual self
- social self - roles in society and our group belonging
- pure consciousness
what is the difference of I or Me according to James
I = subject, agent, knower who is acting, doing and perceiving me = object, what is being reflected on
what makes up the me that psychologists are interested in?
the beliefs, attitudes, and content of the self as a person reflecting on that object (themselves)
what is self concept that has been influenced by James … give examples
mental representation/collection of knowledge about one’s attributes eg beliefs, thoughts, memories, roles, relationships, groups
what is the big 2 for social psych?
a superordinate category of the big 5 which is broken up into communion and agency
as apart of the big 2, what is communion?
focused on how we relate to other people… describes our warmth, relationships, whether or not we are friendly or fair etc
as apart of the big 2, what is agency?
how you go about pursuing goals…. one’s competency and whether or not they are ambitious and capable
what are the 3 distinctions that people often think of when describing themselves…
- personal aspects - features that distinguish (often traits)
- social aspects - social selves, social identities
- domains - at work, at home, with friends etc
what are the 2 distinctions of social aspects that people use to describe themselves? give example
- roles (relational) eg, boss, sibling, friend, parent
- group category membership (collective) eg, features we possess as we belong to a group… man, Australian…
what is a self schema? what dictates how closely concepts will ‘overlap’?
a knowledge structure that links, organises and weights self concept components
how related the concepts are in ones memory space
of the two themes (agency and communion) that tend to come out in life narrative retelling, give some examples of each
agency: self mastery, status/victory, achievement/responsibility, empowerment
communion: love/friendship, dialogue, caring/help, unity/togetherness
what are ‘self guides’ and what are the two major types?
they are future selves that we hope to obtain which can guide our behaviour
two types are ought self (who should I be) and the ideal self (who do I want to be)
summarise the self discrepancy theory…
perceived discrepancies between our actual selves (who I am) and the ought/ideal self can drive behaviour
what can broadly influence the way in which people view the self?
cultural background, coming from an individualist or a collectivist culture
what is the working self concept? what is the theory behind it?
it is the “now” self, that guides acting, thinking and feeling in the moment… the idea behind this is that components of the social situation that the subject finds itself in may make some aspects of the self more accessible
what did McGuire et al comment on regarding working self concept theory?
the found that boys or girls in the minority of their gender within their family were more likely to make comments about gender identity
what did Fazio et al in 1981 study and find?
interviewer asked questions to prime the participant in an introverted or extraverted way, and then were placed in a room with a stranger and the researcher assessed their interaction with the stranger… found that people who received introverted priming acted in a more extraverted way, demonstrating that the social context of the interaction with the interviewer influence behaviour in subsequent interaction, more so than personality
what are the two main ways that we construct and know ourselves?
- social construction (interpersonal)
- personal construction (intra-personal)
how do we commonly socially construct ourselves? 2 ways….
through social comparison and through social feedback
which two things can social comparison lead to? what are they?
assimilation - viewing ourselves as more similar to who we are comparing ourselves to
contrast - differentiating ourselves from who we are comparing ourselves to
fill the gaps regarding social comparison
if compare to extreme target, more likely to _____
if compare to moderate target, more likely to _____
contrast away from; assimilate towards
what is social feedback in regards to social construction of the self ?
you having an understanding of what you think others think of you, where others act as mirrors into our own self concepts
what did miller et al (1975) do and posit?
study of “tidy” students in a classroom…
they argue that the label someones receives influences what you think about yourself and in turn how you behave
what is introspection in regards to personal construction of the self? what is it good for but what does it lack?
looking inward at the contents of consciousness
- good for knowing what one is feeling, but less reliable as informing why
in what ways can introspection be functional at getting to know the self?
- can improve accuracy of self knowledge
- can feel positive feelings of the self when we introspect about our values
- more likely to act in accordance with our values if we have been introspecting on them
what is it called when we infer self knowledge by observing their own behaviours? who posited this theory?
self perception theory - a way in which we personally construct the self… Bem (1972)
when is self perception most likely to personally construct the self?
- when knowledge is weak or ambiguous
- when we act out behaviours that are freely chosen
what is the over-justification effect?
give example
when your intrinsic motivation is overwhelmed by an extrinsic motivation, you then need to keep getting that reward to continue that behaviour.
- if you enjoy baking, but then start to get paid for baking, you are unlikely to continue baking if you stop getting paid for it
what are the 3 reasons the self exists?
- to guide behaviour (mastery of goals)
- feel sense of belonging
- and for self enhancement
in what ways do we seek accurate self knowledge ?
self verification - asking other people - getting people to tell us what we already know about ourselves
T or F? We prefer to receive positive self verification about our personality even if it is in accurate
False
what are the two aspects of mastery regarding the self?
accuracy and control
why do we like to have sense of control in our worlds ?
it helps us move toward rewards and avoid punishment
what are upward social comparisons?
comparing ourselves to people that are better than us
how can upward social comparisons improve performance?
- provides info on how the task is done
- changes expectations about what s possible to achieve
- increases motivation
why do we seek out information about the self?
- accuracy, control, self enhancement (thinking positive about the self)
what are the 3 ways we look at evaluating ones self esteem?
- trait self esteem (across times and situations)
- state self esteem (temporary, situation specific)
- global self esteem (across situations, time, domains… holistic appraisal)
what is another name for the lake Wobegon effect?
the better than average effect
complete these sentences in regards to self enhancement across individualist and collectivist societies…
- _____ self esteem is recorded in the US compared to Japan
- ____ tolerance of self criticism in Japan than in the US
higher; more
what are the 3 ways in which someone might protect their self esteem from criticism? explain them
- self defensive attributes - explain negative behaviours as stemming from the situation
- self defensive social comparisons - making downward social comparisons (someone else is worse)
- self affirmation - affirming the importance of another domain that IS going well compared to the one that is not
what is impression management?
presenting ourselves in certain ways to other people in order to fit in with others
in what ways do Jones and pittman believe we present different versions of ourselves to get close to others or to form belonging relationships?
- ingratiation: seek affection
- self promotion: seek respect
- intimidation: seek fear in others
- exemplification: seek emulation
- supplication: seek compassion
what drives self construction?
mastery (accuracy and control), valuing me and mine (self enhancement and protection), and belonging
what two distinctions of attribution of behaviours did Heider posit?
internal, dispositional causes
external, situational causes
what does attribution do/involve?
attributing behaviours to specific causes
what things feed into our first impressions of someone?
- physical characteristics
- social category characteristics (stereotypes)
- context - environment in which we see them
- behaviours (verbal/non verbal - intentional/unintentional)
in what ways might knowledge become more accessible in our interpretation of others?
- concurrent activation
- frequent activation
- recent activation
what is concurrent activation?
- what else is happening in that moment can impact how you perceive others, eg if you are in a positive mood, you may perceive positive aspects of that person more readily
what is frequent activation?
things that are commonly activated in your mind influence how you perceive others, if you’re generally happy and often think in a happy way, may give positive bias towards others
what is recent activation?
what has happened recently and what is sitting in your mind can bias your impressions of others
what study looked at recent activation?
Higgins, Rholes and Jones (1977)… memorise words relating to recklessness or adventurous and how this influence perception of rock climber
what is cue salience?
example?
the theory that some cues are more or less salient depending on the context/environment that you find them in…
man with pram in boardroom or at park
what is a type of dispositional explanation of behaviour? how does it work and when do we do this?
correspondent inference…. we assume that the behaviours we are viewing reflect something about the person rather than the situation
we do this when we do not have much information about the person (first impressions)
when MIGHT correspondent inferences be correct? why?
- when the person has free choice of what they are doing (as this is likely to reflect who they are)
- when it is bringing about a wanted outcome (may reflect who they are as they are in pursuit of a goal)
- when someone is doing something that is socially undesirable (they are not doing it to appease a crowd so can assume they want to do it)
what is correspondence bias? what is another name for it?
even when we know someone is doing something because they were told to do it, we still attribute this to a dispositional trait as opposed to a situational one
- fundamental attribution error
what is the most famous demonstration of the fundamental attribution error (correspondence bias)?
- pro and anti castro essays
jones and harris 1967
what does the WEIRD acronym stand for?
western, educated, industrialised, rich and democratic
what did miller 1984 find in regard to FAE?
FAE is more common in western cultures
what two factors need to be present for deeper processing of impressions to take place, and for first impressions to be overcome?
motivation and time
what is covariation theorised by Kelley?
when we process more deeply we go beyond assumptions and look at more complex information about the situation
what are the 3 conditions of covariation theory ?
- consensus - does everyone perform same behaviour to same stimulus?
- distinctiveness - does the person perform same behaviour to other stimuli?
- consistency - does the person ALWAYS perform this behaviour to this stimulus
how do we integrate trait inferences into global impressions?
- simple addition then averaging?
- weighted averaging?
- inner trait relationships?
