Ch. 3 - The Social Self Flashcards
(41 cards)
Self Concept -
Total sum of beliefs that people have about themselves
Self schemas
- belief units that guide information related to the self
Introspection:
Self reflection
- Not necessarily representative of the self
Affective forecasting
predicting one’s own emotions in the future
- we’re really bad at this
- Study of how people would feel in a year if they had just won the lottery or lost a limb compared to actual people in these situations
Self perception theory -
when internal emotions are difficult to infer, people often tell their emotions based off of their behaviour
Facial feedback hypothesis
changes in facial perception can trigger corresponding changes in the corresponding emotion
- we tend to view some faces as more trustworthy and others as more competent
Overjustification effect
rewards for doing things diminish intrinsic joy gotten from doing activities
- e.g. children who received a reward for drawing were less likely to draw for fun without a reward later
Social Comparison theory -
The theory that people evaluate their own abilities by comparing themselves to others
Two factor theory of Emotion
- Physiological arousal
- Cognitive interpretation of arousal
upward social comparison
Role models and people you look up to
Downward social comparison
Usually to make us feel better
- works well short term but has negative effects in the long run
Autobiographical memories
How we remember significant events that touched our lives
- we generally remember recent experiences better
- often “firsts”
Flashbulb memories
A type of autobiographical memory
- Detailed and vivid, but can be inaccurate
Dialecticism
System of thought that believes opposites can exist within the same person
- more common in collectivist societies
Sociometer Theory
Humans have a primitive need to be accepted by others for survival, and use Self Esteem as a gauge for how accepted they are by others
Terror management Theory
Humans cope with the thought of death by creating worldviews that help preserve self esteem
Self Discrepency theory
Self esteem is defined by how much we compare with our
- Actual Self
- Ought Self
- Ideal Self
- the more different our self-concept is from our Self-guides, the worse our self esteem is
Males outperform women on most measures of self esteem
Self Concept
Our own perception of ourselves
Self-Guides
The Ought Self
- how we should be
The Ideal Self
- how we want to be
Self Awareness theory
People compare themselves to higher standards, resulting in negative discrepancy
* Halloween experiment - kids took less candy when there was a mirror behind the bowl
Private Self Consciousness
The tendency to introspect about inner thoughts and feelings
Public self Consciousness
The tendency to focus on an outer public image
- publicly self conscious people were more likely to draw an E on their forehead in such a way that others could see it the right way
Self Regulation
How people control their thoughts, feelings, and behaviour to achieve a social or personal goal
- Depends on the cognitive resource of Willpower
* putting dieters next to snacks during a boring documentary; they were more likely to give in later when told they could eat as much ice cream as they wanted
