Chapter 2: The Social Self

Personality

The traits, behaviors, and characteristics that make up who someone is

Trait self-esteem

Your long-term opinion of your own worth

State self-esteem

Your opinion of yourself that can change depending on the situation

Individual difference factors

Characteristics that make one person different from another

Spotlight effect

Thinking people notice you more than they actually do

Egocentric bias

Thinking about your own thoughts and experiences more easily than other people's

Illusion of transparency

Thinking other people can easily see your thoughts and feelings when they actually cannot

Self-efficacy

Belief that you can successfully achieve a specific goal

Self-affirmation

Recognizing your own worth, values, and abilities

Self-concept

How you see and think about yourself

Extroverted

Being outgoing, social, and energized by being around people

Mirror test

A test that checks if someone recognizes themselves in a mirror

Self-control

The ability to control your thoughts, feelings, and actions to reach a goal

Willpower

The ability to resist short-term temptations to reach a long-term goal

Delayed gratification

Giving up a reward now to get a better reward later

Socioeconomic status (SES)

A person's social and economic position, usually based on income, education, and job

Ego depletion

The idea that willpower is limited and gets weaker when you use it

Publication bias

When a study's results affect whether the study gets published

Statistically significant

A result that is unlikely to have happened just by chance

Null effect

A result showing no difference between groups or conditions

Pre-registered research study

A study where the researchers record their plan before collecting data

Self-control fatigue

When using self-control makes it harder to use self-control later

Effort avoidance theory

The idea that ego depletion happens because people become less willing to put in effort, not because they run out of willpower