Week 2 - how we see ourselves and others

Question 1

What three possible causes do people generally explain behavior in?

Answer 1

Person - something about the person in question
Entity - something outside the person may have caused the behavior
Time - something about the particular occasion

Question 2

What are psychologists Hal Kelley’s three casual attributions based on?

Answer 2

Consensus: do other people respond similarly in the same situation?
Distinctiveness: do other situations elicit the same behavior?
Consistency: does the same thing happen time after time?

Question 3

What does salience mean?

Answer 3

Something that grabs your attention in some way.

Question 4

What is linked to how we think of ourselves?

Answer 4

The person we’re with at the moment. We may be one self with mom, another with friends, and another with teachers.

Question 5

What is Self-concept?

Answer 5

What we know and believe about ourselves.

Question 6

What is the spotlight effect?

Answer 6

The belief that others are paying more attention to our behavior and appearance than they really are.

Question 7

What is the illusion of transparency?

Answer 7

The illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and can be easily read by others.

Question 8

What is self-schema?

Answer 8

Beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevent information.

Question 9

What is meant by possible selves?

Answer 9

Images of what we dream of or dread becoming in the future.

Question 10

How do we evaluate our abilities and opinions?

Answer 10

By comparing ourselves to others through social comparison.

Question 11

What is the difference between independent self and interdependent self?

Answer 11

Independent self means construing one’s identity as an autonomous self, while interdependent self means construing it in relation to others.

Question 12

What is collectivism?

Answer 12

Giving priority to the goals
of one’s group (often one’s
extended family or work
group) and defining one’s
identity accordingly.

Question 13

What might be one example of collectivism?

Answer 13

Placing less value on expressing one’s uniqueness and more value on tradition and shared practices.

Question 14

Why do people underestimate how long a task will take?

Answer 14

Because they misremember previous tasks as taking less time than they actually did.

Question 15

What is impact bias?

Answer 15

Overestimating the enduring impact of emotion-causing events.1

Question 16

What is immune neglect?

Answer 16

The human tendency to underestimate the speed and strength of the “psychology immune system” which enables emotional recovery and resilience after bad things happen.

Question 17

What does self-control operate similar to?

Answer 17

Muscular strength in that it can be weakened after exertion, replenished with rest, and strengthened with exercise.

Question 18

How is self-efficacy different from self-esteem?

Answer 18

Self-efficacy is how one perceives how competent they are, while self-esteem is how one perceives their one sense of self-worth.

Question 19

How might an abundance of different choices of gratification affect the outcome?

Answer 19

It might make the choosers less satisfied with their choices.

Question 20

What is the meaning of the proverb: “We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are.”

Answer 20

False consensus, which is the tendency to overestimate the commonality of one’s opinions, and undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors.

Question 21

What is the “fundamental attribution error?”

Answer 21

The tendency to underestimate the impact of situational factors and overestimate the role of dispositional factors

Question 22

What are four parts of self-serving bias?

Answer 22

Attributing one’s success to
ability and effort, failure to
luck and things external

Comparing oneself favorably to others.

Unrealistic optimism

False consensus and uniqueness

Question 23

Under what conditions are attitudes and behaviors likely to be related to one another?

Answer 23

They closely match each other.
The attitude is strong or potent.
The attitude is easy to recall and has been stable over time
People have been made aware of themselves and their attitudes.
When outside influences are kept to a minimum.