Lecture 7 – The Social Self

self-knowledge

One's awareness and understanding of one's own traits, abilities, and behaviors; the foundation of how we define ourselves.

Appraisals from Others (Looking Glass Self)

The process by which we learn about ourselves through others' reactions and feedback—essentially, we see ourselves as we imagine others see us.

Reflected Self-Appraisals

Beliefs about what others think of us; these perceptions, whether accurate or not, shape our self-concept.

Social Comparisons

The act of evaluating oneself by comparing to others; includes upward comparisons (with those better off) and downward comparisons (with those worse off).

Self-Serving Bias

A tendency to attribute our successes to internal factors (like talent) and our failures to external circumstances, thereby maintaining a favorable self-view.

Better Than Average Effect

The common bias where individuals rate themselves higher than the average person on desirable traits, despite statistical improbability.

Dunning-Kruger Effect

A cognitive bias in which people with limited ability in a domain overestimate their competence because they lack the metacognitive insight to recognize their deficiencies.

Self-Perception Theory

The idea that people infer their own attitudes and traits by observing their behavior and the context in which it occurs, especially in unfamiliar situations.

Self-Concept

The overall organization of our knowledge about ourselves, comprising various self-schemas that represent different attributes and roles.

Self-Schemas

Cognitive structures that organize and guide the processing of self-related information; they are the building blocks of one's self-concept.

Integrated Self-Concept

A self-concept in which the various self-schemas contain a mix of both positive and negative attributes, leading to more balanced and stable self-esteem.

Compartmentalized Self-Concept

A self-concept where self-schemas are segregated into largely positive or largely negative categories, potentially resulting in fluctuating moods and self-esteem based on which schema is activated.