Social Psychology Chapter 2

spotlight effect

the belief that others are paying more attention to our appearance and behavior than they really are

illusion of transparency

the illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and can be easily read by others

What motivates our social behavior?

self-concern

self-concept

what we know and believe about ourselves

self schema

beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant information

schema

mental templates by which we organize our worlds

social comparison

evaluating one’s opinions and abilities by comparing oneself with others

upward social comparison

comparing oneself unfavorably with others

the “looking-glass self”

term coined by sociologist Charles H. Cooper to describe our use of how we think others perceive us as a mirror for perceiving ourselves

individualism

the concept of giving priority to one’s own goals over group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identification

independent self

construing one’s identity as an autonomous self

collectivism

giving priority to the goals of one’s group (often one’s extended family or work group) and defining one’s identity accordingly; more self-critical culture with a lower focus on self-esteem and higher focus on self-efficacy

when shown an underwater scene, what are Asians more likely to reference?

the background

the interdependent self

social, defined by connection with others

independent self

personal, defined by individual traits and goals

when will people in individualistic cultures persist more?

when they are succeeding; success elevates self-esteem

planning fallacy

the tendency to underestimate how long it will take to complete a task

impact bias

overestimating the enduring impact of emotion-causing events; more prone to this after negative events

dual attitude system

differing implicit and explicit attitudes toward the same object. Verbalized explicit attitudes may change with education and persuasion; implicit attitudes change slowly, with practice that forms new habits

self-esteem

a person’s overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth

How does one with high self-esteem react to a self-esteem threat?

compensating for it by blaming someone else or trying harder next time

longitudinal study

research in which the same people are studied over an extended period of time

narcissism

an inflated sense of self

What is the relationship between narcissism, self-esteem, and aggression?

Those high in narcissism and self-esteem tend to be more aggressive

self-efficacy

a sense that one is competent and effective

self-serving bias

the tendency to perceive oneself favorably

self-serving attributions

a form of self-serving bias; the tendency to attribute positive outcomes to oneself and negative outcomes to other factors

illusory/unrealistic optimism

a cognitive bias where individuals falsely believe their future outcomes will be much more favorable than objective facts or statistics suggest

defensive pessimism

the adaptive value of anticipating problems and harnessing one’s anxiety to motivate effective action

false consensus effect

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

false uniqueness effect

the tendency to underestimate the commonality of one’s abilities and one’s desirable or successful behaviors

self-handicapping

protecting one’s self-image with behaviors that create a handy excuse for later failure

self-presentation

the act of expressing oneself and behaving in ways designed to create a favorable impression or an impression that corresponds to one’s ideals

“humblebrag”

an attempt to disguise bragging behind complaints or false humility

self-monitoring

being attuned to the way one presents oneself in social situations and adjusting one’s performance to create the desired impression