Midterm 2

Question 1

spreading activation

Answer 1

when a node in the brain becomes activated when a person hears, sees, or thinks about information the node represents

Question 2

self schema

Answer 2

cognitive generalization about the self derived from past experiences that organize and guide processing of self related information, attributes that people regard as defining and they are highly certain

Question 3

self concept

Answer 3

our collection of self knowledge stored in memory thoughts, beliefs, and memory of self is organized and linked

Question 4

possible selves

Answer 4

are the building blocks for self-schemas and are alternate self schemas to the actual self

Question 5

elicit selves

Answer 5

serve as self regulatory function, the hoped for, expected and feared selves

Question 6

redemption sequence

Answer 6

transformation of personal suffering into positive-affective life scenes that serve to redeem and justify ones life

Question 7

contamination sequence

Answer 7

very good or positive life narrative scene/chapter is followed by very bad or negative outcome, the bad ruins the good that preceeded it n

Question 8

self refrence effect

Answer 8

tendency to process efficiently and remember info related to oneself better than other info

Question 9

egocentrism

Answer 9

tendency to perceive, understand and interprate the world in refrence to the self

Question 10

illusion of transparency

Answer 10

tendency to overestimate the degree to which their personal mental state is known by others, believing other people can “see right through us”

Question 11

spotlight effect

Answer 11

people think the spotlight (attention) shines more brightly on self than it acutally does

Question 12

false consensus

Answer 12

when peoples own choices, attitudes or beliefs bias their estimates of other people…making them think their own reactions are common (use self to generalize others)

Question 13

pluralistic ignorance

Answer 13

failure of most people to realize the others share their own private reactions

Question 14

magical thinking

Answer 14

belief that we have the ability to influence events at a distance with no known physical explination

Question 15

self serving attribute bias

Answer 15

tendency to attribute own positive behavior to dispositional qualitites but own negative behavior to situational

Question 16

self enhancing bias

Answer 16

taking responsibility for positive behavior

Question 17

self protective bias

Answer 17

denying responsibility for negative behavior

Question 18

social comparison theory

Answer 18

1) driven to evaluate our opinions/ abilities
2) in absence of objective assessments = evaluate abilities by comparing with others
3) comparison increases as similarity increases

Question 19

self affirmation theory

Answer 19

1) people motivated to maintain integrity of self
2) people are vigilant to events/ info that call self integrity into question
3) people try to reassert/ restore integrity of self

Question 20

how to cope with self integrity threat

Answer 20

1) accomodate - accept failure and instigate self change
2) ameliorate- direct psychological of dismissing/ denying threat
3) indirect psych. adaptation- of affirming alternative self resources unrelated to threat

Question 21

self complexity

Answer 21

the many different ways a person can think of themselves, the more different ways someone can think of themselves = more compled, less ways = complex

Question 22

self concept certainty

Answer 22

the certainty to which people have self knowledge about themselves, the more certain people are the better they feel about themselves

Question 23

schematic

Answer 23

are schematic to a certain trait and think of themselves as extremely high or extremely low on the scale, regard said trait as important

Question 24

aschematic

Answer 24

aschematic to a certain trait dont think of themselves on either end of the spectrum and don’t think of the trait as important

Question 25

contrast effects in self evaluation

Answer 25

because of social comparison process we evaluate certain characteristics in regard to our own self concept, occurs when people feel psychologically disconnected from social surroundings

Question 26

assimilation effects in self evaluation

Answer 26

people evaluate themselves more positively when they are in the company of others who are similar to them, when people feel connected to their surroundings

Question 27

self refrence effect

Answer 27

we are more likely to remeber information that relates to our self

Question 28

Lake Wobegon effect

Answer 28

tendency to belive we posess a host of socially desirable characteristics and are free of those that are socially undesirable, generally rating self as “above average”

Question 29

self enhancement motive

Answer 29

people are motivated to experience + emotional states and avoid -, people want to feel good about themselves and maximize self worth

Question 30

self accuracy motive

Answer 30

people want to know the truth about themselves whether it is good or bad (3 underlying motives: reduce uncertainty, moral obligation, acheive goals)

Question 31

consistency motive

Answer 31

leads people to seek and embrace information that is consistent with what they think they are like and avoid/ reject info that is inconsistent

Question 32

self verification theory

Answer 32

once people develop ideas about what they are like they strive to verify these views

Question 33

upward social comparison

Answer 33

comparing self with those slightly better off than you are

Question 34

downward social comparison

Answer 34

comparing self with those slightly worse off/disadvantaged

Question 35

reflected appraisal

Answer 35

people gain self knowledge but observing how others respond to them

Question 36

introspection

Answer 36

looking inward and DIRECTLY consulting our attitudes, feelings and motives

Question 37

self perception theory

Answer 37

concerned with how people explain their behavior, argues that people don’t always know why they do what they do, INDIRECTLY infer attitudes, feelings and motives by analyzing behavior

Question 38

causal attribution

Answer 38

answers to “why” questions, explanation is by attributing behavior to a cause

Question 39

positivity bias

Answer 39

people do not have accurate views of themselves and generally regard themselves as better than they actually are

Question 40

self handicapping strategies

Answer 40

situations in which people erect barriers to their own success

Question 41

tesser’s self evaluation maintinence model

Answer 41

• self enhancement model
• assumes people approach situations that make them feel good about themselves and avoid situations that make them feel bad
• people will pick friends who perform worse in domains of importance but better in domains of low importance
• people bask in the glory of own and others accomplishments

Question 42

illusion of control

Answer 42

general tendency for people to exaggerate their ability to produce desired outcomes

Question 43

self deception enhancement

Answer 43

when individuals unrealistically attribute + characteristics to themselves

Question 44

self deception denial

Answer 44

when individuals unrealistically deny - characteristics

Question 45

4 components to psychological health

Answer 45

1) subjective state of happiness/ well-being
2) capacity to form/ maintain satisfying interpersonal relationships
3) ability to engage in productive/ meaningful work
4) capacity to grow/mature successfully bt coping with life’s challenges

Question 46

problem focused coping

Answer 46

taking active steps to deal with the source of stress

Question 47

emotion focused coping

Answer 47

individuals attempt to eliminate or reduce the emotional distress a stressful even brings about

Question 48

three meanings of self esteem

Answer 48

1) global self esteem
2) self evaluations
3) feelings of self worth

Question 49

global self esteem

Answer 49

a personality variable that captures the way people generally feel about themselves (trait self esteem)

Question 50

self evaluations

Answer 50

the way people evaluate their own abilities and attributes

Question 51

feelings of self worth

Answer 51

monetary emotional states that arise from a positive (proud) or negative (humiliated) outcome (state self esteem)

Question 52

strange situation

Answer 52

study procedure where children are in a room with their mother and interesting things, the child is observed how they initially explore the room

Question 53

unstable high self esteem

Answer 53

pseudo/ defensive high self esteem, feel good only when things are going well

Question 54

secure attachment

Answer 54

has a healthy balance between closeness to mother and independence, will explore, initial distress when mom leaves, eager to share discoveries when she returns

Question 55

anxious/ ambivalent attachment

Answer 55

difficulty separating from mother, unwilling to explore, distressed when mom leaves, comforted with her return but continues to cling/ complain

Question 56

avoidant

Answer 56

avoid/ ignores mother, doesn’t care when mom leaves, avoids closeness/ intimacy with mom