SOC PSYCH Midterm: CH 2 - The Self

Chapter 2 - The Self: Self-Perception and Self-Presentation

Self-Concept

An individual’s overall beliefs about his or her own attributes; Made up of distinct beliefs that we hold about ourselves and that influence what we notice about the world and how we process self-relevent information

Self-esteem

An individual’s evaluation of his or her own words; sense of personal worth

Introspection

One way of developing self-knowledge; process of looking inward and examining our thoughts and feelings (meditating)

Hazards of Introspection

Not a very effective way of gaining insight into our true attitudes

Affecting Forecasting

Process of predicting the impact of both positive and negative events on mood

Self-awareness

Refers to the state in which one’s attention is focused on oneself and one is comparing self with a set of standards (The knower or the I)

Self-knowledge

Obtained from others but it is heavily filtered through biases from others

Self-discrepancy theory (focusing on self-awareness)

The theory that our self-concept is influenced by the gap between how we actually see ourselves and how we want to see ourselves

Self-awareness theory (focusing on self-awareness)

When people focus on their own behaviour, they are motivated to either change their behaviour or escape from self-awareness

Self-perception theory

We look to our own behaviour to determine our attitudes and beliefs;  if you take a bunch of psych classes, you look to your behaviour and assume that you really like psychology

Over justification

The phenomenon in which receiving external rewards for a given behaviour can undermine the intrinsic motivation for engaging in this behaviour

giving an external reward (like money, prizes, or grades) for an activity someone already enjoys decreases their internal (intrinsic) drive to do it

Social Comparison Theory

The theory that people evaluate their own abilities and attributes by comparing themselves to other people

False consensus effect

The tendency to overestimate the extent to which other people share our opinions, attributes and behaviours

Their views and behaviours are shared by most other people

EX: watch child getting bullied, we think it’s okay, maybe child did something, an assumption of people agreeing with each other

False uniqueness effect

The tendency to underestimate the extent to which other people are likely to share our positive attitudes and behaviours

Self-Handicapping (Self-serving behaviour)

A strategy in which people create obstacles to success so that potential failure can be blamed on these external factors

Impression management

Strategies that people use to create a positive impressions of themselves

Independent Self-Construal

Conception of the self as autonomous and independent from others, and behaving primarily to express its own internal attributes

Interdependent Self-Construal

A conception of the self as connected to others, with its behaviour contingent on the values, thoughts, and preferences of others

Culture differences in Self-Enhancement

North Americans perceive situations as relatively conducive to self-enhancement, whereas Japanese situations are relatively conducive to self-criticism

Ecological fallacy

The error of assuming that relationships between variables at the group level are the same as relationships at the individual level