PSY 221 - The Self

Anxious Attachment & Caregiving

associated with intrusive & controlling caregiving

Avoidant Attachment & Caregiving

associated with cold, unsupportive, and insensitive caregiving

Factors that shape Self-Definition

• Abuse

• Neglect

• Household Dysfunction

Categories of Trauma-Informed Caregiving

• Scapegoating

• Parentification

• Emotionally Unavailable

• Enmeshment

• Competition

Enmeshment

refers to relationships that have become so intertwined that boundaries are nonexistent or identical

Implicit Theory of The Nature of Human Attributes (Dweck & Molden, 2005)

• Entity Theorists

• Incremental Theorists

Entity Theorists (“Fixed” Mindset)

attributes are fixed, concrete, internal entities

Incremental Theorists (“Growth” Mindset)

human attributes are dynamic qualities that can be changed or developed

Narrative Identity

an individual’s internalized, evolving, and integrated story of the self

Self-Concept

the collection of self-representations one has of himself

Personal Identity

aspects of one’s self-concept unique to the individual person

Relational Identity

aspects of one’s self-concept rooted in one’s roles vis-a-vie other people

Social Identity

aspects of one’s self-concept connected to group memberships or social categories

Working Self-Concept

aspects of the self-concept brought to mind by the situation or by personal needs

Symbolic Inheritance (European/American Cultures)

received ideas and understandings about people and society

Behavioral Inheritance (Non-Western Cultures)

routines or institutionalized family practices

Self-Affirmation Theory (Steele, 1988)

the overall goal of the self-system to protect an image of self-integrity and adequacy

Self-Serving Bias

the tendency to perceive oneself favorably

False Consensus

the tendency to overestimate the commonality of one’s opinions and one’s undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors

False Uniqueness

occurs when we underestimate the commonality of our abilities

Self-Handicapping

creating obstacles (or excuses) before performance

Unrealistic Optimism

many of us have unrealistically positive views of things that will happen to us

Actor-Observer Bias

for negative events, we make dispositional (personality) attributions for others’ behavior, but situational attributions for our own behavior

Self-Presentation

strategies people use to shape what others think of them

Social Comparison Theory

the process through which people come to know themselves by observing

Downward Social Comparison

comparing to those that are less well off

Upward Social Comparison

comparing to those who are better off

Temporal Distance & Past Selves (Ross & Wilson, 2006)

people report feeling ‘farther’ away from former selves/experiences that have negative implications for the self-concept, but ‘closer’ to former selves/experiences that have positive implications for self-concept

Unrealistically Positive Self-Evaluations

people often see themselves as better than the average person

Exaggerated Perceptions of Control

people often overestimate their degree of control over heavily chance-determined events

Naive Realism

the belief that our perspective of the way things are is the way the world truly is (we are without bias/error)

Egocentric Bias

tendency to use ourselves as a standard and a basis for judging others

Cognitive Dissonance

aversive mental state of discomfort people want to alleviate resulting from conflicting attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors

Moral Disengagement

re-labeling inconsistent or questionable behavior as permissible for a larger moral purpose

Moral Hypocrisy

we often apply strict moral standards on other people, but do not live up to those same standards

Justification of Effort

the tendency for individuals to increase their liking for something they have worked hard to attain