Chapter 6 - The Self Flashcards
1
Q
What is the self-concept?
A
An organized collection of beliefs about the self
2
Q
What are these beliefs also called?
A
Self-schemas
3
Q
What do self-schemas include?
A
Personality traits, abilities, physical features, values, goals and social roles
4
Q
What does possible selves refer to?
A
One’s conceptions about the kind of person one might become in the future
5
Q
What three self perceptions do individuals have?
A
An actual self, an ideal self and an ought self
6
Q
What is the actual self?
A
Qualities people think they actually possess
7
Q
What is the ideal self?
A
Qualities people would like to have
8
Q
What is the ought self?
A
Qualities people think they should possess
9
Q
What are self-discrepancies?
A
Mismatches between the actual, ideal, and or/ought selves
10
Q
What happens when the actual self falls short of the ideal self?
A
We feel dejected and sad (depression)
11
Q
What happens when the actual self falls short of the ought self?
A
We feel irritable and guilty (anxiety related disorders)
12
Q
What two ways do people cope with self-discrepancies (1)?
A
By changing their behaviour to bring it more in line with the ideal, or ought self
13
Q
(2)
A
Blunting self-awareness by avoiding situations that increase self awareness or by using alcohol
14
Q
What does Festinger’s (1954) social comparison theory state?
A
That we compare ourselves with others in order to assess and/ or improve our abilities
15
Q
What is a reference group?
A
A set of people who are used as a gauge in making social comparisons
16
Q
When do we choose inferior or superior reference groups?
A
We choose inferior reference groups if we want to bolster self esteem and superior reference groups if we want to improve
17
Q
In what direction (positive or negative) are observations of our own behaviour subjective and distorted in?
A
A positive direction
18
Q
What “effect” can social comparisons be affected by
A
The N-effect
19
Q
What is the N-effect?
A
The smaller the comparison group, the greater our tendency to be competitive and inflate our self-concept
20
Q
What happens in distortion of self images?
A
People see themselves differently than how others see them, and self images tend to be distorted in a positive direction
21
Q
What is important in balancing our own observations?
A
Feedback from others
22
Q
What feedback do we get early in life?
A
Parents and family members are the primary influences
23
Q
What feedback is presented as children age?
A
Teachers, coaches and peers become progressively more important
24
Q
What feedback is important later in life?
A
Close friends and marriage partners play dominant roles
25
How does social context affect our self-concept?
We may view ourselves more, or less critically, depending on the situation
26
What is individualism?
Putting personal goals ahead of group goals
27
What happens in cultures that value individualism?
Identity is defined more in terms of personal attributes
28
What is collectivism?
Putting group goals ahead of personal goals
29
What happens in cultures that value collectivism?
Identity is defined more in terms of the groups that one belongs to
30
What are the views of people raised in individualistic cultures?
Have an independent view of the self, view themselves as unique, self contained and distinct from others
31
What are the views of people raised in collectivist cultures?
Have an interdependent view of the self, view themselves as more connected to others
32
What does self-esteem refer to?
One's overall assessment of one's worth as a person, a global evaluation of many aspects of the self
33
What two ways can self-esteem can be construed?
Trait self-esteem and state self-esteem
34
What is trait self-esteem?
An enduring sense of confidence in a person
35
What is state self-esteem?
Dynamic feelings about the self that change with the situation
36
What is a popular measure of self-esteem?
The Rosenberg self-esteem scale
37
What is self-esteem strongly and consistently connected to?
Happiness
38
What is characteristic of people with high self-esteem?
They feel more likeable and attractive, have better relationships, and make better impressions on others, persist longer in the face of failure and cope better with setbacks
39
What has self-esteem not been linked to?
Achievement
40
What is narcissism?
The tendency to regard oneself as grandiosely self-important, is pathological and different for high self-esteem, a healthy trait
41
What are some characteristics about narcissistic individuals?
They are preoccupied with fantasies of success, they believe they deserve special treatment, and they react aggressively when their view of themselves (ego) is threatened
42
What is included in the path from narcissism to aggression?
Individuals with high narcissism perceive negative evaluations by others to be threatening and so will react more aggressively in response than those with low narcissism
43
What two dimensions play important roles in shaping self-esteem early in life?
Parental acceptance and parental control
44
What are the four parenting styles taking into consideration parental acceptance and parental control?
Authoritarian (low acceptance, high control), Authoritative (high acceptance, high control), Neglectful (low acceptance, low control), and Permissive (high acceptance, low control)
45
Which of these four parenting styles is associated with the highest self-esteem scores?
Authoritative style
46
How do ethnicity and gender interact with regards to self-esteem?
White males have higher self-esteem than white females, but minority males have lower self esteem than minority females
47
What is the overall trend of self-esteem regarding ethnicity and gender?
Overall, males score slightly higher on self-esteem than females, and white females have lower self esteem than minority females, especially with regard to body image
48
How are cognitive processes related to the self?
They affect the ability to maintain a view of the self
49
What two types of cognitive processes are at work?
Automatic processing and controlled processing
50
What is automatic processing?
Default mode in which we handle information without much deliberate decision making (e.g. going through our morning routine)
51
What is controlled processing?
Active thinking required for important decision making and analysis
52
What are self-attributions?
Inferences that people draw about the causes of their own behaviour
53
What are three key dimensions of attributions?
Whether they are internal or external, whether they are stable or unstable, and whether they are controllable or uncontrollable
54
What internal attributions do?
Ascribe the causes of behaviour to personal dispositions, traits, abilities and feelings
55
What do external attributions do?
Ascribe behaviour to situational demands
56
What are stable attributions?
The cause of behaviour is unlikely to change over time
57
What are unstable attributions?
The cause of behaviour is variable or subject to change
58
How does stable/unstable attributions interact with internal/external attributions?
The dimensions interact to create stable external, stable internal, unstable internal, and unstable external
59
What are examples of stable internal causes of behaviour?
A sense of humour and intelligence
60
What are examples of stable external causes of behaviour?
Laws and rules
61
What are examples of unstable internal causes of behaviour?
Mood and motivation
62
What are examples of unstable external causes of behaviour?
Weather and presence or absence of other people
63
What does the controllable/uncontrollable dimension consider?
Whether or not the individual has any control over the behaviour
64
What does the explanatory style refer to?
The tendency to use similar causal attributions for a wide variety of events in one's life
65
What do people who use optimistic explanatory style attribute setbacks to?
External, unstable, and specific factors
66
What do people who use pessimistic explanatory style attribute setbacks to?
Internal, stable and global factors
67
What three motives guide self-understanding (1)?
Self-assessment - desire for truthful information about oneself
68
(2)
Self-verification - preference for feedback that matches our self-view
69
(3)
Self-enhancement - desire to maintain positive feelings about oneself
70
What are the four methods of self assessment?
Downward social comparison, self-serving bias, basking in reflected glory, and self-handicapping
71
What is downward social comparison?
A defensive tendency to compare oneself with someone whose troubles are more serious than one's own
72
What is self-serving bias?
A tendency to attribute one's successes to personal factors and one's failures to situational factors
73
What is basking in reflected glory?
A tendency to enhance one's image by publicly announcing one's association with those who are successful
74
What is self-handicapping?
A tendency to sabotage one's performance to provide an excuse for possible failure
75
What is self-regulation?
The process of directing and controlling one's behaviour
76
What does the ego depletion model of self-regulation believe?
That people have a limited amount of self control
77
What is an example of this limited amount of self control?
If you successfully resist the temptation to indulge yourself with sweets today, it is more difficult to do so tomorrow
78
What is self-efficacy?
One's belief about one's ability to perform behaviours that should lead to expected outcomes
79
What is self-efficacy important for?
Healthy adjustment
80
Why is it important to adjustment that self-efficacy can be learned and changed?
Because increasing one's self-efficacy is beneficial to one's physical and mental health
81
What four sources does self-efficacy usually come from?
Mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, persuasion and encouragement, and interpretation of emotional arousal
82
How are mastery experiences a source for self efficacy?
Learning new skills increases self-efficacy and it is especially important to persist in the face of mistakes or failure
83
What are vicarious experiences?
Watching others learn a new skill
84
What is interpretation of emotional arousal?
When we try new things we may become nervous and it is important to attribute this to normal arousal needed to do well rather than fear
85
What are self-defeating behaviours?
Seemingly intentional actions that thwart a person's self-interest
86
What three categories are there for self-defeating behaviours?
Deliberate self-destruction, trade-offs, and counterproductive strategies
87
What are trade-offs in this context?
Engaging in short term, potentially harmful behaviours in order to pursue healthy long term goals
88
What does it mean to exhibit counterproductive strategies?
Persisting in ineffective strategies to achieve a goal
89
What is a public self?
An image presented to others in social interactions
90
How can public selves vary?
According to the situation or role that people are in - so we have multiple public selves
91
When is adjustment best, in terms of public selves?
When there is considerable overlap, or integration in the various public selves
92
What does impression management refer to?
Usually conscious efforts by people to influence how others think of them
93
What 6 impression management strategies are there?
Ingratiation, self-promotion, exemplification, intimidation, supplication, and negative acknowledgement
94
What is ingratiation?
Behaving in ways to make oneself likeable to others
95
What is self-promotion?
Accenting your strong points in order to earn respect
96
What is exemplification?
Demonstrating exemplary behaviour in order to boost your integrity or character
97
What is intimidation?
Using physical or emotional threats to get what you want from others
98
What is supplication?
Acting weak or dependent in order to get favors from others
99
What is negative acknowledgement?
Admitting your flaws
100
What patterns of behaviour has research on impression management identified?
People try to make positive impressions when interacting with strangers, and we shift toward modesty with those who know us well
101
What is self-monitoring?
The degree to which people attend to and control the impressions they make on others
102
What do high self-monitors do?
They are more concerned about making favourable impressions and are good at interpreting what others see
103
What do low self-monitors do?
They are more likely to express their true feelings or attitudes
104
Why is building self-esteem important?
Because individuals with low self esteem are less happy, more prone to depression, more demoralized after failure, and more anxious in relationships
105
What are the seven guidelines for building self esteem (1)?
Recognize that you control your self-image - you can change it to be more positive
106
(2)
Learn more about yourself - people with low self-esteem don't know as much about themselves as do those with high self-esteem
107
(3)
Don't let others set your goals
108
(4)
Recognize unrealistic goals
109
(5)
Modify negative self-talk - remember to use an optimistic explanatory style when confronting successes and failures
110
(6)
Emphasize your strengths
111
(7)
Approach others with a positive outlook
