Chapter 4

Question 1

What is the self?

Answer 1

Our sense of personal identity and of who we are as individuals

Question 2

What is the rouge test?

Answer 2

paint a red dot on an animal’s forehead and place them in front of the mirror
• Touched dot on themselves - self aware (chimps, dolphins, orangutans)
• Touched the mirror - not self aware (gibbons, dogs, cats, monkeys)

Question 3

What is the self-concept?

Answer 3

knowledge representation that contains knowledge about us, including our beliefs about our personality traits, physical characteristics, abilities, values and goals, and roles as well as the knowledge that we exist as individuals

Question 4

What are self-schemas?

Answer 4

develop during childhood/adolescence (different aspects of one’s self-concept, organize what we know about ourselves, the information we notice, our thoughts and what we remember)

Question 5

What is the self-concept clarity? What does it underlies?

Answer 5

• High: stable sense of self, positive self schemas, higher self esteem, buffer for depression
• Low: negative self schemas, lower self esteem, increased neuroticism, prone to rumination and depression

Question 6

What is self-complexity? What is high self-complexity associated with?

Answer 6

The extent to which individuals have many different and relatively independent ways of thinking about themselves
• Influenced by our past experiences and futures expectations
• Higher self complexity associated with less stress, more positivity

Question 7

Give 2 techniques used to study the self-concept

Answer 7

Ø Self-report measures (questionnaires)

Ø Neuroimaging - prefrontal cortex

Question 8

What is the self-reference effect?

Answer 8

information processed in relationship to the self is particularly well remembered

Question 9

Explain one experiment made in relation with the self-reference effect

Answer 9

Experiment: people asked to recall info
• Cue question + 1 of 40 adjectives (either structure of the word, phonemics, semantic, self-reference)
• Recall as much as possible
• Self-reference were the most recalled

Question 10

What were the results in the study with the pen gift in collectivistic vs individualistic cultures? What do these imply?

Answer 10

• Collectivistic cultures: More oriented towards others (took the most common pen color when given the choice)
• Individualistic cultures: more oriented inwards (took the less common pen color when given the choice)

Question 11

What are the gender differences that can be observed regarding defining the self in social contexts?

Answer 11

Individualistic cultures
• Men: independent view of the self, collective interdependence
• Women: more relational interdependent view of the self (define themselves by their relationships with others)
Collectivistic cultures
• Women same as in individualistic cultures

Question 12

What is self-awareness

Answer 12

The extent to which we are currently fixing our attention on our own self-concept. When the self-concept becomes highly accessible because of our concerns about being observed and potentially judged by others, we experience self-consciousness

Question 13

How can self-concepts be made available? Name 2 ways

Answer 13

1. Through priming

2. The most accessible parts of our self-concept are those that define us the most as a person

Question 14

What is deindividuation? What can it lead to in terms of behaviour?

Answer 14

loss of self-awareness and individual accountability in groups
Losing self-awareness makes people more likely to violate social norms (ex: social media)

Question 15

What is private self-consciousness?

Answer 15

tendency to introspect about our inner thoughts and feelings (self-concern)
• Likely to base behaviours on thoughts/feelings/beliefs
• Linked to individualistic cultures
• Higher self concept clarity

Question 16

What is public self-consciousness?

Answer 16

tendency to focus on our outer public image and to be particularly aware of the extent to which we are meeting the standards set by others (other-concern)
• Likely to base behaviours on opinions of others
• Collectivistic cultures have higher public self-consciousness
• Lower self concept clarity **

Question 17

What is the difference between self-consciousness and self-awareness?

Answer 17

Self consciousness is a trait and self awareness is a state

Question 18

What is the spotlight effect? What is its effect on teens?

Answer 18

We think that people give us more attention than what they actually do - leads us to be more self-conscious

Question 19

What is the illusion of transparency? Give an example of situation where this might happen

Answer 19

Tendency to overestimate the extent to which our inner states are noticed/evaluated by others
ex: during public speaking - we think everyone sees that we are stressed

Question 20

What is self-esteem?

Answer 20

the positive (high) or negative (low) feelings that we have about ourselves
• Relatively stable over time but fluctuates depending on our actions, state of self-consciousness, appearance, inclusion in social groups, relationships, etc

Question 21

What is the problem with the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale? How is this problem called?

Answer 21

people try to make believe that they have higher self-esteem than they actually do (social desirability bias)

Question 22

What is the implicit association test?

Answer 22

• Need to categorize words as self or others, or as pleasant or unpleasant
• Participants faster at categorizing positive words - higher self esteem

Question 23

What is implicit egoism?

Answer 23

• People are + likely to prefer people/brands sharing their initials or names
• We prefer things that are similar to us

Question 24

How do we maintain or improve our self-esteem?

Answer 24

We have higher self-esteem when we are successful, therefore we try to take pathways making our success more likely
Ø We don’t set too high expectations either
Ø Self esteem = Success/Expectation

Question 25

What was the experiment that compared introversion with extroversion? What are the conclusions/implications of this?

Answer 25

• Students read fake articles about introverts or extroverts being more successful, and were asked to list the reasons why according to them
• Then they were asked to list some of their behaviours linked to introverted or extroverted characteristics
• Read about introvert success = listed introvert behaviour 1st
• Vice-versa

Question 26

What is social status?

Answer 26

extent to which we are viewed positively and are esteemed by others

Question 27

What is self-presentation?

Answer 27

tendency to present a positive self-image to others, with the goal of increasing our social status
Ø Our individual self-esteem is largely influenced by what others think of us

Question 28

Name 3 elements of self-presentation

Answer 28

• Physical attributes (hair dye, teeth whiteners, etc)
• Possessions (nice cars, homes, etc)
• Domination/intimidation in social contacts

Question 29

How does self-presentation differ in men vs women? Where do these differences come from?

Answer 29

• Men: more assertive, present in the conversation (leaning in, eye contact)
• Women: more modest, smiling/laughing, agreeing with others
Ø Comes from stereotypes associated with each gender

Question 30

What are the 5 popular self-presentation strategies?

Answer 30

1. Ingratiation: create liking by using flattery/charm
2. Intimidation: create fear by being aggressive
3. Exemplification: create guilt by showing that you are a better person
4. Supplication: create pity by showing you are helpless/needy
5. Self-promotion: create respect by persuading others that you are competent

Question 31

What is self-monitoring?

Answer 31

tendency to be both motivated and capable of regulating our behaviour to meet the demands of social situations

Question 32

What are the differences between high and low self-monitoring people?

Answer 32

Ø High self-monitor: better at reading other’s emotions in order to adapt
Ø Low self-monitor: act on their own attitudes, do not easily fit in

Question 33

What was the experiment’s conclusions about self-monitoring and leadership positions?

Answer 33

students with high self-monitoring were + likely to mimic the behaviour of another when the other was presented as a leader (adapting to the situation)

Question 34

What is narcissism?

Answer 34

personality trait characterized by overly high self-esteem, self-admiration, and self-centeredness

Question 35

What is the social comparison theory?

Answer 35

occurs when we learn about our abilities and skills, about the appropriateness and validity of our opinions, and about our relative social status by comparing our own attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours with those of others

Question 36

What is downward social comparison?

Answer 36

occurs when we attempt to create a positive image of ourselves through favorable comparisons with others who are worse off than we are

Question 37

What is upward social comparison

Answer 37

occurs when we compare ourselves with others who are better off than we are

Question 38

What is the looking glass effect?

Answer 38

people’s conceptualization of their own views of self, based on how they perceive that others view them

Question 39

What is the self-discrepancy theory?

Answer 39

we become distressed when our sense of who we truly are (actual self) is different than our ideal self, and when our actual self is different than our ought self (who the world wants us to be, who we believe we should be)

Question 40

What is social identity?

Answer 40

positive emotions that we experience as a member of an important social group
Different memberships will be more accessible in our self-concept depending on the situation we are in

Question 41

What is BIRGing? What is the downside of it?

Answer 41

Basking In Reflected Glory of our ingroups or people that we know

Sometimes this is harder when it creates upward social comparison: may bring negative feelings