Psci 104-Understanding the Self & Others SG

Term: "I" vs. "Me"

• "I": The self as the thinker and active processor of information (self-awareness).

• "Me": The known self; our thoughts and beliefs about ourselves (self-concept).

Self-Concept

The sum total of an individual's beliefs about their personal attributes; made up of self-schemas and linked to all other knowledge in the mind.

Three Functions of Self-Concept

• Managerial – Organizes behavior and future planning.

• Organizational – Helps interpret and recall self-related info.

• Emotional – Influences emotional responses.

Red-Dot Study

Study in which chimps with a red dot on their face looked in a mirror. Those raised socially touched the dot, suggesting self-recognition.

Independent Self

A view of the self as separate from others; more common in individualistic cultures.

Introspection

The process of looking inward and examining one's own thoughts and feelings as a source of self-knowledge.

Self-Perception

Gaining self-knowledge by observing our own behavior, especially when internal cues are weak or ambiguous.

Social Comparison Theory

Learning about ourselves by comparing to others, especially when unsure about our traits or abilities.

Counterfactual Thinking

Imagining alternative outcomes that didn’t happen.

• Upward: Imagining better outcomes ("if only...").

• Downward: Imagining worse outcomes ("at least...").

Self-Esteem

One's evaluation of the self, involving both positive and negative judgments; a continuous variable often discussed as high or low.

Self-Serving Cognitions

Cognitive strategies used to boost self-esteem, including:

• Rationalizing

• Self-serving attributions

• False consensus effect

• Better-than-average effect

• Implicit egotism

Self-Handicapping

A strategy where people create obstacles to their own performance to protect self-esteem in case of failure.

Person Perception

The study of how people form beliefs and make judgments about others, including inferences and reciprocal evaluations.

Accuracy in Person Perception

Definition: Judged by agreement between:

1. Self-judgments

2. Consensus (others' ratings)

3. Observable behavior

Self-Judgments (Accuracy)

A person's own rating of their traits or behavior (e.g., how outgoing they are).

Consensus (Accuracy)

The general agreement among others about a person’s traits; judged by combining ratings from friends, family, etc.

Behavioral Accuracy

The extent to which perceptions align with actual observable behavior (e.g., talkativeness, aggression).

Zero-Acquaintance Paradigm

Judgments made about people without any interaction or prior knowledge; used to assess perception accuracy.

Extroversion Study (Levesque & Kenny, 1993)

Found consensus in stranger ratings of extroversion and predictive accuracy for future behavior (e.g., talkativeness).

Passini & Goldberg Study

• Consensus among raters

• Agreement with target’s self-ratings

Thin Slices

Judgments based on brief or degraded information (e.g., filtered audio or low-detail images); still often accurate.

Attribution Theory

The theory that people are motivated to understand the causes of others' behavior (dispositional vs. situational).

Fundamental Attribution Error

The tendency to overestimate personal traits and underestimate situational factors when explaining others' behavior.

Castro Study

• Participants read pro-/anti-Castro essays.

• Even when told the author had no choice, they still inferred the author’s true beliefs aligned with the essay.

• Shows Fundamental Attribution Error.

Actor-Observer Effect

The tendency to explain our own behavior using situational factors but others' behavior using internal traits.

Bias Blind Spot

Believing others are biased while viewing ourselves as objective.

Naïve Realism

The belief that we see the world exactly as it is, and others who disagree are uninformed, irrational, or biased.

Schemas

Mental structures used to organize knowledge about the world; influence what we notice, think about, and remember.