Chapter 6- The Self in a Social World

Question 1

Schema

Answer 1

A set of beliefs and feelings about something. Examples include stereotypes, prejudices, and generalizations.

Question 2

Role schema

Answer 2

A schema about how people in certain roles (i.e. boss, wife, teacher) are expected to behave.

Question 3

Person schema

Answer 3

A schema about how a particular individual is expected to behave.

Question 4

Self-schemas

Answer 4

The set of beliefs, feelings, and generalizations we have about ourselves.

Question 5

Self

Answer 5

The totality of our impressions, thoughts, and feelings, such that we have a conscious, continuous sense of being in the world.

Question 6

Physical self

Answer 6

One’s psychological sense of one’s physical being- for example, one’s height, weight, hair color, race, and physical skills.

Question 7

Social self

Answer 7

The composite of the social roles one plays- suitor, student, worker, husband, wife, and so on. Roles and masks help one adjust to the requirements of one’s social situation.

Question 8

Personal self

Answer 8

One’s private, continuous sense of being oneself in the world.

Question 9

Ethics

Answer 9

Standards for behavior. A system of beliefs from which one derives standards for behavior.

Question 10

Self-concept

Answer 10

One’s perception of one-self, one’s traits and an evaluation of these traits. The self concept includes one’s self-esteem and one’s ideal self.

Question 11

Self-esteem

Answer 11

Self-approval. One’s self-respect or favorable opinion of oneself.

Question 12

Ideal self

Answer 12

One’s perception of what one ought to be and do. Also called the self- ideal.

Question 13

Identity crisis

Answer 13

A period of serious self-examination and self-questioning of one’s values and direction in life.

Question 14

Identity achievement

Answer 14

The identity status that describes individuals who have resolved and identity crisis and committed to a relatively stable set of beliefs or a course of action.

Question 15

Identity foreclosure

Answer 15

The identity status that describes individuals who have adopted a commitment to a set of beliefs or a course of action without undergoing an identity crisis.

Question 16

Identity moratorium

Answer 16

The identity status that describes individuals who are in the throes of an identity crisis- an intense examination of alternatives.

Question 17

Identity diffusion

Answer 17

The identity status that describes individuals who have neither arrived at a commitment as to who they are and what they stand for nor experienced a crisis.

Question 18

Social perception

Answer 18

The process by which we form understandings of others in our social environment, based on observations of how others act and information we receive.

Question 19

Primacy effect

Answer 19

The tendency to evaluate others in terms of first impressions.

Question 20

Recency effect

Answer 20

The tendency to evaluate others in terms of the most recent impression.

Question 21

Prejudice

Answer 21

The belief that a person or group, on the basis of assumed racial, ethnic, sexual, or other features, will possess negative characteristics or performs inadequately.

Question 22

Discrimination

Answer 22

The denial of privileges to a person or group on the basis of prejudice.

Question 23

Stereotypes

Answer 23

Fixed, conventional ideas about a group that can lead us to process information about members of the group in a biased fashion.

Question 24

Attribution

Answer 24

A belief concerning why people behave in a certain way.

Question 25

Attribution process

Answer 25

The process by which people draw inferences about the motives and traits of themselves and others.

Question 26

Dispositional attribution

Answer 26

An assumption that a person’s behavior is determined by internal causes, such as personal attitudes or goals.

Question 27

Situational attribution

Answer 27

An assumption that a person’s behavior is determined by external circumstances, such as the social pressure found in a situation.

Question 28

Fundamental attribution error

Answer 28

The tendency to assume that others act on the basis of choice or will, act on the evidence suggesting the importance of their situations.

Question 29

Actor-observer effect

Answer 29

The tendency to attribute our own behavior to external, situational factors but to attribute that behavior of others to internal, dispositional factors such as choice or will.

Question 30

Self-serving bias

Answer 30

The tendency to view one’s successess as stemming from internal factors and one’s failures as stemming from external factors.