WEEK 2: The Social Self

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts from the 'The Social Self' lecture, including self-concept, self-perception, motivation, social comparison, cultural influences, self-esteem, self-awareness, self-enhancement, self-regulation, and self-presentation.

Self-Concept

Your understanding of who you are; made up of schemas.

Self-schema

Specific beliefs about yourself that guide perception, memory, and behaviour, acting as a lens to view the world.

Affective forecasting

Predicting how you would feel in response to future events.

Impact bias

Overestimating the strength and duration of emotional reactions to future events, often by focusing on one thing and forgetting other supports/hardships.

Behavioural forecasting

Predicting how you would act in a given situation.

Nisbett & Wilson (1977)

Research suggesting people don't truly know the reasons for their own behaviour or thoughts, even when providing detailed explanations.

Self-perception theory (Bem, 1972)

Learning about yourself by watching your own behaviour, especially when internal cues are hard to see or interpret.

Intrinsic motivation

Engaging in an activity because you enjoy it.

Extrinsic motivation

Engaging in an activity because of a reward or punishment.

Overjustification effect

The phenomenon where intrinsic motivation decreases when an external reward is provided for an activity.

Social comparison theory

People evaluate their abilities and opinions by comparing themselves to others.

Upward social comparison

Comparing yourself to someone more successful.

Downward social comparison

Comparing yourself to someone less successful.

Autobiographical memory

Memory of your own personal history, subject to distortions like self-continuity, mood states, and self-enhancement.

Individualistic culture

A culture that values personal achievements, uniqueness, desires, and following one's own dreams, leading to an independent self-concept.

Collectivistic culture

A culture that values group cohesion, modesty, relationships, responsibilities to others, and humility, leading to an interdependent self-concept.

Self-esteem

An affective component of the self, made up of positive and negative self-evaluations, mostly stable over life and spanning 8 different domains.

Sociometer theory

Theory that self-esteem is related to how much we are accepted by others, as people are inherently social and desire approval.

Self-Discrepancy Theory (Higgins, 1989)

Proposes three self-aspects: actual self (who you are), ought self (who you think you ought to be), and ideal self (who you would like to be ideally).

Self-awareness theory (Duval & Wicklund 1972)

When made aware of yourself, you compare yourself to your own internal standards; falling short can lead to guilt, shame, and anxiety, prompting either behaviour change or withdrawal from self-awareness.

Better than average effect

The tendency to believe that you are better than most people at various abilities.

Self-serving beliefs/bias

The tendency to take credit for success and make excuses for failures.

Self handicapping

Engaging in actions that will sabotage your performance, providing an excuse for potential failure.

Self-regulation

The process by which people control their thoughts, feelings, and behaviour to achieve a goal.

Ego depletion

A questionable theory suggesting that using self-control to regulate one thing will reduce self-control for other subsequent tasks.

Self-presentation

The process by which you try to shape what other people think of you, often through impression management strategies like ingratiation, self-promotion, and intimidation.

Self-verification

The desire to have others see us as we truly perceive ourselves to be, leading to acceptance of consistent feedback and preference for relationships that affirm self-views.

Self-monitoring

The tendency to regulate behavior to meet the demands of the social situation.

High self-monitors

Individuals who have many 'selves' to choose from and see regulating behaviour as pragmatic and flexible.

Low self-monitors

Individuals who are less concerned about what others think of their behavior, seeing themselves as principled and honest.