Self-Esteem: The Affective Component of the Self

Flashcards covering vocabulary related to self-esteem, self-discrepancy theory, and mechanisms of self-enhancement.

Self-esteem

Also known as self-worth, it refers to an individual's positive and negative evaluations of themselves or their attitude towards the self.

Affective

In social psychology, this refers to the emotional or feeling aspects of an individual’s experiences, behaviours, and interactions, encompassing emotions, moods, attitudes, and values.

Moods

Prolonged emotional states, such as irritability, that are part of the affective component of experiences.

Empathy

The ability to understand and share the feelings of others.

Self-Discrepancy Theory

Proposed by Higgins (1989), it suggests that self-esteem is defined by the match or mismatch between the actual self and self-guides (ought and ideal selves).

Actual self

The traits and characteristics that describe the kind of person an individual thinks they actually are.

Ought self

Characteristics that an individual believes they should possess to meet their sense of duty, obligation, and responsibility.

Ideal self

An individual's personal standards that embody their hopes, wishes, and dreams.

Self-guides

The personal standards, consisting of the ought self and the ideal self, which individuals use to compare against their actual self.

Dejection-related emotions

A cluster of negative affects such as dissatisfaction, disappointment, and sadness associated with a mismatch between the actual self and the ideal self.

Agitation-related emotions

A cluster of hyper-aroused mental states, such as frustration, irritability, and anxious tension, associated with a mismatch between the actual self and the ought self.

Better-Than-Average Effect

The tendency for people to believe they are better than others across a range of characteristics, particularly on personal traits they consider important.

Implicit Egotism

A nonconscious form of self-enhancement where individuals show an unconscious preference for things, places, or people that resemble or are associated with themselves.

Name-letter effect

An example of implicit egotism where people evaluate the letters contained within their own names more favourably than other letters of the alphabet.

Positive illusions

Unrealistically favourable attitudes individuals hold about themselves, the world, or their future.

Self-serving beliefs

A self-enhancement method where individuals take internal credit for success and blame external factors for failure to protect self-esteem.

Unrealistic optimism

An optimistic bias where people believe negative events are less likely to happen to them than to the average person, while positive events are more likely.

Self-handicapping

Actions individuals take to handicap their own performance in order to create an excuse for anticipated failure and shield their sense of ability.

Sandbagging

A tactic used to reduce performance pressure by downplaying one's own ability, lowering expectations, and publicly predicting failure.

Procrastination

A form of excuse-making involving the purposive delay of a task to provide a potential excuse for failure.

Basking in Reflected Glory (BIRG)

The tendency to boost self-esteem by showing off connections to successful others or groups, such as wearing a winning team's jersey.

Cutting Off Reflected Failure (CORF)

The act of distancing oneself from others who fail or are of low status in order to protect one's self-esteem.

Social comparison theory

Proposed by Festinger (1954), it suggests that people evaluate themselves by comparison with similar others.

Downward social comparisons

The defensive tendency to compare ourselves with others who are worse off as a way of enhancing self-esteem and mood.

Upward social comparisons

Comparing oneself to others who are better off, often used to seek information, coping strategies, or motivation.

Temporal comparisons

Comparisons made between one's past self and present self, often used downwardly (e.g., 'I am better today than in the past') for self-enhancement.