The Self

Question 1

How did Baumeister (1999) define the term ‘Self- Concept’?

Answer 1

= The individual belief about one’s self, including personal attributes and who/what the self is.
= Guides social behaviour.

Question 2

What departments does The Self include?

Answer 2

= The roles you play
= The comparisons you make
= Social identities you form
= The culture you are surrounded by
= How other people judge you
= Your success and your failures

Question 3

What is a ‘Self-Schema’?

Answer 3

= The ingredients within the Self-Concept

Question 4

What did Markus and Wurf (1987) state about Self-Schemas?

Answer 4

= Constructs that help us store and retrieve information about ourselves.

Question 5

What did Cantor et al., (1984) state about Self-Schemas?

Answer 5

= They strongly affect how you perceive, evaluate, and remember other people and yourself.

Question 6

Give an example of how social Self-Schemas work?

Answer 6

= Knowing how to act in a restaurant
(knowing how to behave in a specific environment)

Question 7

How do Self-Schemas work?

Answer 7

= CONTAIN knowledge about the self.
= GENERATE knowledge through past generations.
= STORE knowledge through cognitive generalisations.
= PURPOSE is to help organise self-related information.

Question 8

What is congruent information (Clarence., 2014)

Answer 8

= When an individuals sense of self is consistent with actions they take and the situations they encounter.
= Information is therefore processed quicker.

Question 9

What is incongruent information? (Hoyland., 2015)

Answer 9

= Creates cognitive dissonance, with the uncomfortable feeling of holding conflicting beliefs or attitudes.
= Information is therefore likely to be rejected.

Question 10

(Self-Schemas as motivators and self-regulators)

What did Markus and Nurius (1986) state about ‘possible selves’?

Answer 10

= POSITIVE possible self is the belief that you can make it, reinforcing positive behaviours
= NEGATIVE possible self is having no faith in your ability, reinforcing negative behaviours.

Question 11

What did Chi-Hung Ng (2005) state about behavioural implications of Self-Schemas?

Answer 11

= POSITIVE Self-Schema for maths (more engaged, determined, better outcomes).
= NEGATIVE Self-Schema for maths (less engaged, fearful for tasks, anxious, embarrassed, low achievement)

Question 12

What is the Self-Reference effect (T.B Rogers and Colleagues (1977))

Answer 12

= The tendency to process information related to oneself efficiently and quickly.

> the self affects memory > information relevant to the self gets stored faster and is remembered well.

Question 13

How did Swallow and Kuiper., (1987) criticise the Self-Reference effect?

Answer 13

= People with depression focus on self-referent negative attributes more than people.

Question 14

What did Dunning and Hayes (1987) state?

Answer 14

= When judging others behaviour or performance, we instantly compare it to ourselves.

Question 15

What did Savitsky (2001) state?

Answer 15

= Tend to see ourselves as key players in tasks we had a small role in.
= Overestimate how much others notice behaviour, appearance etc.

Question 16

(The Cocktail Party Effect) What did Cherry (1959) state?

Answer 16

= Even when in deep conversation, we immediately shift attention elsewhere at the mere mention of our name.

Question 17

How did Higgins (1987) split the Self-Discrepancy theory?

Answer 17

1. THE ACTUAL SELF (attributes you possess e.g., physical characteristics)
2. THE OUGHT SELF (attributes you should possess e.g., social norms and values)
3. THE IDEAL SELF (attributes you ideally would want to possess e.g., achievements and accomplishments).

Question 18

What is the Social Comparison Theory (Festinger., 1954)?

Answer 18

= The evaluation of abilities and opinions through comparison with others
= We tend to compare very quickly.

Question 19

According to Mussweiler et al., (2004), who do we tend to compare with?

Answer 19

= Anyone who is around at the time.
= Initial comparison is quick and automatic.
= We then consider the appropriateness of the comparison and how informative/useful it is.

Question 20

(Practical application) How are individualism and collectivism involved with the concept of The-Self?

Answer 20

= Through independence (individual traits and goals) or interdependence (social, connections with others)
e.g., personal traits = individualism
e.g., social identity traits = collectivism

Question 21

(Culture study)

What did Kim and Markus., (1999) study?

Answer 21

= Individualist and collectivist cultures, measuring levels of independence and interdependence.
= Survey included questions about characteristics, goals, and relationships.
= Individuals from the United States had a higher level of independent self-construal,
= Individuals from Japan had a higher level of interdependent self-construal.

Question 22

(Gender)

What did Gabriel and Gardner., (1999) study?

Answer 22

= Relational Interdependence
= When asked to recall a positive/negative emotional event, most women described their engagement day or the death of a relative, whereas men described their initiation to a sports team, or the day they won a trophy.

= Women have higher individual interdependence than men.
= Men have more collective interdependence.

Question 23

What is ‘Self-Esteem’?

Answer 23

= Overall positive or negative self-evaluation or sense of worth.
= Self-esteem fluctuates, with each individual being able to build it up again.

Question 24

What do Crocker and Wolfe (2001) state is the ‘Bottom-up’ process?

Answer 24

= A person who has a sense of self-esteem which is dependent on doing well in school and looking attractive will feel high self-esteem when made to feel clever or beautiful.

Question 25

What do Brown and Dutton (1994) state is the ‘Top-down’ process?

Answer 25

= People who value themselves in a general way (those with high self-esteem) are more likely to value their looks, abilities, and skills.

Question 26

What is Self-Efficacy?

Answer 26

= Belief in ones capabilities to organise and execute the sources or action required to manage prospective situations.

Question 27

What is the locus of control? (Rotter., 1954)

What are the two main aspects of locus of control?

Answer 27

= An individual’s belief about who/what is responsible for things that happen.

=EXTERNAL factors control life e.g., down to luck.
= INTERNAL factors control life and behaviour e.g., down to one’s own beliefs.

Question 28

What is ‘Learnt Helplessness’?

Answer 28

= The hopelessness and resignation learned when a human/animal perceives no control over repeated bad events.
= Linked to depressive feelings.
= However, can protect you from depressive feelings through self-determination, and self-control.

Question 29

What did Oaten and Cheng., (2006) state?

Answer 29

= Students who engaged in daily self-control behaviours (e.g., daily exercise, time management) became more capable of self-control in other settings (e.g., exams, job interviews)