The Self

What is a self-schema?

Network of cognitive representations about the self, derived from past experiences, that organizes and guides processing of self-related information.

Another term is self-concept.

What is the self-reference effect and what does it demonstrate about the importance of our self-concepts?

We attend more to, and have better memory for words that are considered in the context of self-schemas.

It’s powerful for one for helping us make sense of the world.

How can having a complex sense of self be protective? In what conditions could it be harmful? 

Protection from threat (less extreme self-esteem shifts based on individual events, greater tolerance for frustration, and better coping for threats to one area of self).

Negative self complexity can be harmful (many different negative concepts across circumstances, more predictive of depression).

What is the spotlight effect?

People tend to overestimate how much other people are thinking about them (egocentrism bias).

What is self-verification theory and how does it relate to self-fulfilling prophecies? 

People prefer information that confirms what they believe about themselves, even if it’s negative. It’s related because we make judgements about ourselves and interpret behaviors, and confirm it!

Under what circumstances are social comparisons likely to make us feel better or worse about ourselves? 

Upward social comparisons: comparing ourselves to people who are better than us (often used as incentive to improve, can provide a benchmark or goal).

Downward social comparisons: comparing ourselves to people who are worse on a particular attribute (often done to make us feel better about ourselves, particularly following poor performance).

In what ways can other people play a role in our development of our self-concepts? What is the looking-glass self?

We form our self-concept based on assumptions we make about how are perceived by others.

Reference-group can impact out self-concept, and cultural experiences can influence how we view ourselves.

Know independent vs. interdependent self-construal and how they are affected by culture. 

Independent self construal: inherent distinctness

Interdependent self construal: inherent connectedness

Individual cultures emphasize the needs of the individual, and individuals have more independent SC.

Collectivistic cultures emphasize the needs of the group, and the group tend to have more people with an interdependent SC.

What is the self-serving bias? 

Guides attribution for ourselves.

When good things happen to us, we tend to take credit.

When bad things happen to us, it’s not our fault.

What is the process of self-handicapping and how is it related to self-esteem?

Actions that allow you to give external attributions for failure and internal attributions for success. We take credit for doing well, but have an external excuse if we do poorly.

What is psychological distancing from failure?

People tend to psychologically distance themselves from past failure

How are our perceptions of others and groups influenced by the self-enhancement effect?

The self enhancement motive impacts how we think about and relate to important other people and groups!

What is self-monitoring? How does it influence people’s behavior across situations?

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

A trait that predicts how likely your personality would be to predict your behavior.

What are strong and weak situations and how do they influence people’s behaviors across situations?

Strong situations: where pressure to act a certain way is high. It might trump personality, and there is usually some social consequence for not following the behavior.

Weak situations: where the pressure to act a certain way is low, and personality is the stronger influence.