Social psych 1b - reading

What do scholars argue that separate us from animals?

reflexive thought- the ability to think about ourselves thinking

what are self and identity?

cognitive constructs that influence social interaction and perception

what are the 4 processes that lead to the development of self and self-change?

secularisation- you should pursue personal fulfilment in this life

industrialisation- people seen as units of production that had portable personal identities that weren’t locked into static social structures

enlightenment- people felt like they could change

psychoanalysis- Freud’s theory that the self is buried in our unconscious

what is the psychodynamic self?

the id, the superego, the ego

you can only discover your ‘self’ through procedures like hypnosis or psychotherapy

i

individual versus collective self

‘i am from edinburgh’= collective

individualism usually wins

what is symbolic interactionism?

theory of how the self emerges from human interaction, through people exchanging abstract properties usually rather than concrete objects

how we merge with others (think ‘core’)

what is the looking glass self?

our self-concept derives from seeing ourselves as others see us

or at least how we think people see us

what is the self-enhancing triad

people overstimate their good points, their control and are unrealistically optimistic

what is objective self awareness

a state in which you are aware of yourself as an object, much as you might be aware of a tree or another person

what is the private self

your private thoughts, feelings and attitudes

what is the public self

how other people see you, your public image

what is deindividuation?

where one has a reduced sense of self and therefore may act more impulsively and don’t think of themselves as indis

what is a self-schema

a cognitive belief about oneself

what could really positive and really negative schemas cause

big mood swings

what is Higgin’s self-discrepancy theory?

three types of self schema:

actual self- how we are

ideal self- how we want to be

ought- how we think we should be

what is self-regulation

strategies that we use to match our behaviour to an ideal or ought standard

what is Higgin’s regulatory focus theory?

that people have 2 separate self-regulatory systems: promotion and prevention

what is the promotion aspect of Higgin’s regulatory focus theory?

causes people to be approach-oriented in constructing a sense of self

eg students seek new ways to improve grades

what is the prevention aspect of Higgin’s regulatory focus theory?

causes people to be more cautious and avoidant in constructing a sense of self

eg students seek to prevent failing

What is Bem’s self perception theory?

idea that we gain knowledge of ourselves only by making self-attributions— for example, we infer our own attitudes from our own behaviour

what did Van Gyn find about self perception and imagery'?

those who imagined themselves sprint training did better than those who didn’t

what is the overjustification effect?

in the absence of obvious external determinants of our behaviour, we assume that we freely chose the behaviour because we enjoy it

does external motivation increase or decrease good outcomes?

it decreases it as we may work hard but have less task enjoyment and therefore are less efficient and have poorer performance

what is social comparison theory?

we compare our behaviours and opinions with those of similar others in order to establish the correct or socially approved way of thinking and behaving

When comparing ourselves with other people, what are the 2 possible outcomes?

we look downwards and get more of a positive self-concept

we look upwards and feel more dejected

what is the self evaluation maintenance model?

people who are constrained to make esteem-damaging upward comparisons can underplay or deny similarity to the target, or they can withdraw their relationship with the target (to make us feel better)

what is self-categorisation theory?

the process of categorising oneself as a group member produces social identity and group and intergroup behs

what is BIRGing?

name dropping to improve others’ impression of you

what is social identity?

the part of the self-concept that derives from our membership of social groups

what is personal identity?

the self defined in terms of unique personal attributes or unique interpersonal relationships

what is the individual self?

based on personal traits that differentiate the self from all othersw

what is the collective self?

based on group membership that differentiates us from them

what is the relational self?

based on connections and role relationships with significant others

what did Brewer retheorise as further 4 types of identities?

what is the actor-observer effect?

tendency to attribute our own behaviours externally and others’ behaviours internally

what is social identity theory?

theory of group membership and intergroup relations based on self-categorisation, social comparison and the construction of a shared self-definition in terms of ingroup-defining properties

what is a prototype?

cognitive representation of the typical/ideal defining features of a category

what is a metacontrast principle?

the prototype of a group is that position within the group that has the largest ratio of ‘differences to ingroup positions’ to ‘differences to outgroup positions’

page 130 of chapter 4