Chapter 3 Flashcards
self concept
refers to an individuals self-beliefs and self evaluation; The Who am I, and, How do I feel about myself
what levels are our self concept defined at
individual, relational, collective
individual
in terms of our personal traits
relational self
connections to friends and coworkers
Collective self
membership in teams, organization, social groups, other entities
what can an individual’s self-concept be described by
complexity, consistency, clarity
complexity
refers to the number of distinct and important roles or identities that people perceive about themselves; more than one because different roles at different times
consistency
high consistency exists when the individual identities are compatible with each other and with the person’s actual personality and values; low consistency occurs when some self views require personal characteristics that conflict with attributes required for other self views
clarity
the degree to which a person’s self concept is clear, confidently defined, and stable; confident about who we are
self enhancement
when individuals rate themselves above average; better than average probability of success, attribute their success to personal motivation or ability while blaming situation for their mistakes
positive of self enhancement
tend to experience better mental and physical health and have more of a “can do” attitude
negatives of self enhancement
overestimate future returns in investment, engage in unsafe behavior; repeating poor decisions
self verification
confirm and maintain their existing self concept; stabilizes an individuals self view, which in turn provides an important anchor that guides his or her thoughts and actions; different because it seeks feedback
pieces of self verification
more likely to remember information that is consistent with their self-concept, high self concept will dismiss feedback that contradicts that, prefer interacting with those who affirm their self views
self evaluation
defined by three elements; self esteem, self efficacy, locus of control
self esteem
the extent to which people like, respect, and a re satisfied with themselves; high self esteem are less influenced by others
self efficacy
refers to a persons belief about successfully completing a task; high has a “can do” attitude
locus of control
defined by a persons general beliefs about the amount of control he or she has over personal life events; internal means caused by personal characteristics, eternal means fate, luck, conditions, etc.
The social self
two opposing human motives; be distinctive and different from other people, inclusion and assimilation with other people
social identity theory
says that people define themselves by the groups to which they belong or have an emotional attachment
categorical thinking
the mostly non conscious process of organizing people and objects into preconceived categories that are store in our long term memory
how are people normally grouped together
observable similarity (gender, age, race, clothing style, so forth, proximity to each other, filling in missing information about people or places
mental models
road maps of the environments in which we live; knowledge structures that we develop to describe, explain, and predict the world around us; visual or relational images in our mind; partly rely on perceptual grouping
stereotyping
the perceptual process in which we assign characteristics to an identifiable group and then automatically transfer those features to anyone we believe is a member of that group