Self-concept
organized collection of beliefs about self
Self-Schema
beliefs that shape social perception
Possible selves
one's conceptions about the kind of person one might become in the future (Hazel Markus)
Once self-concept is established, an individual tries to
preserve and defend it
Self-Discrepancy:
a mismatch between the self-perceptions that make up that actual self, ideal self, and ought self
Actual-self
qualities you believe you ACTUALLY posess
Ideal Self
characteristics you would LIKE to have
Ought Self
traits you believe you SHOULD posess
High self-esteem
live up to personal standards (ideal/ought self)
Low self-esteem:
don't meet personal standards
Factors of influence
1. Amount of discrepancy experienced
2. Awareness of discrepancy
3. Importance of discrepancy to person
Factors Shaping self-concept
1. Personal Observations
2. Feedback from Others
3. Social Context
4. Cultural Values
Social Comparison Theory:
individuals compare themselves with others in order to assess their abilities and opinions (also to improve skills and maintain self-image)
Reference Group
set of people who are used as a gauge in making social comparisons
Upward Social Comparison
looking at those better than you as a goal to aspire to
Downward Social Comparison:
looking at those that are worse than you in order to feel better about yourself
Personal observations are not objective
Michelangelo phenomenon
partner's role in "sculpting" into reality the ideal self of a loved one
Individualism:
putting personal goals ahead of group goals and defining one's identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group memberships (North American and Western European)
Collectivism:
putting group goals ahead of personal goals and defining one's identity in terms of the groups one belongs to (Asian, African, and Latin American)
Automatic Processing (mindlessness):
default mode of handling information
Controlled Processing (mindfulness):
Spending precious cognitive resources thinking about different things
example: trying to understand why you didn't get that job you wanted
Selective Attention:
high priority is given to information pertaining to the self
Spotlight effect
we think people are paying attention to us more than they actually are
Self-attributions
inferences that people draw about the causes of their own behavior; help make sense of experiences
Fritz Heider (1958)
was the first to realize that people either locate the cause of their behavior inside themselves
Internal attributions:
ascribe the causes of behavior to personal dispositions, traits, abilities, and feelings
External attributions:
ascribe the causes of behavior to situational demands and environmental constraints
Stable:
a cause that is more or less permanent and unlikely to change over time
Internal: sense of humor or intelligence
External: laws and rules
Unstable:
variable and subject to change
Internal: mood (good or bad) and motivation (weak or strong)
External: weather and presence or absence of people
Explanatory Style:
refers to the tendency to use similar causal attributions for a wide variety of events in one's life
Optimistic Explanatory Style:
attribute setbacks to external, unstable and specific
Pessimistic Explanatory Style:
attribute setbacks to internal, stable, and global (vulnerable to learned helplessness and depression)
3 Major Motives
Self-Assessment
Self Verification
Self-Enhancement
Impact bias:
misjudge the intensity and duration of positive and negative feelings for future situations
Self-verification theory:
people prefer to receive feedback from others that is consistent with their own self-views
Self-Enhancement appears in 4 ways
1. An observed response or behavior
2. A process
3. A personality trait
4. An underlying motive
Better-than-average Effect:
think you are better than everyone at various things
Illusions of Control
people overestimate their degree of control over outcomes
Methods of Self-Enhancement
Downward Comparisons
Self Serving Bias
Basking in Reflected Glory
Cutting off Reflected Failure
Self-Handicapping
Self-Regulation:
process of directing and controlling one's behavior
Self-Efficacy:
refers to one's belief about one's ability to perform behaviors that should lead to expected outcomes
Self-Efficacy affects
1. commitments to goals
2. performance on tasks
3. one's persistence toward goals in the face of obstacles
Self-Efficacy is related to:
Health promotion
Academic performance
Career choice
Job performance
Worker productivity
Coping with unemployment
4 Sources of Self-Efficacy
1. Mastery Experiences: mastering new skills & persisting through failure
2. Vicarious Experiences: watching others perform a skill you want to learn
3. Persuasion and Encouragement: encouraging others to do what you want to become good at
4. Interpretati
Self-defeating Behavior:
seemingly intentional actions that thwart a person's self-interest
Deliberate Self-Destruction
people want to harm themselves and choose courses of action that will foreseeably lead to that result
Tradeoffs:
people foresee the possibility of harming themselves but accept it as a necessary accompaniment to achieving a desirable goal
Counterproductive strategies:
a person pursues a desirable outcome but misguidedly uses an approach that is bound to fail
Person Perception:
the process of forming impressions of others
five key sources of information when forming impressions:
Appearance
Verbal Behavior
Actions
Nonverbal messages
Situations
Snap Judgments:
those that are made quickly and based on only a few bits of information and preconceived notions
Attributions:
inferences that people draw about the causes of their own behavior, others' behavior, and events
Confirmation Bias:
the tendency to seek information that supports one's beliefs while not pursuing dis-confirming information
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:
occurs when expectations about a person cause him or her to behave in ways that confirm the expectations
Stereotypes:
widely held beliefs that people have certain characteristics because of their membership in a particular group
Fundamental Attribution Error:
refers to the tendency to explain other people's behavior as the result of personal, rather than situational factors.
Defensive Attribution:
tendency to blame victims for their misfortune, so that one feels less likely to be victimized in a similar way
primary effect
The idea that initial information carries more weight than subsequent information
Persuasion:
the communication of argument and information intended to change another person's attitudes
Attitude:
beliefs and feelings about people, objects, and ideas
Source:
the person who sends a communication
Credibility-
belief that communicator will deliver on promise
Expertise
degrees, training, experience
Trustworthiness
whom are you more likely to believe
Likability- depends on factors such as
Physical Attractiveness- pleasing to the eye
Similar- alike in ways that are relevant to the issue at hand
Message:
the information transmitted by the source
Channel:
medium through which a message is sent
Receiver:
the person to whom the message is sent
Need for Cognition:
tendency to seek out and enjoy effortful thought, problem-solving activities, and in-depth analysis
Elaboration Likelihood Model:
an individual's thoughts about a persuasive message
Conformity:
occurs when people yield to real or imagined social pressure
Compliance:
occurs when people yield to social pressures in their public behavior, even though their private beliefs have not changed
Normative Influence:
operates when people conform to social norms for fear of negative social consequences
Informational Influence
operates when people look to others for how to behave in ambiguous situations
Bystander Effect
the tendency for individuals to be less likely to provide help when others are present than when they are alone
Obedience:
form of compliance that occurs when people follow direct commands. Usually from someone in a position of authority
Prejudice:
a negative attitude toward members of a group
Discrimination:
behaving differently, usually unfairly, toward the members of a group
Authoritarian personality
A personality type characterized by prejudice toward any group perceived to be different from oneself.
right-wing authoritarianism is characterized by the following:
1. Authoritarian submission: exaggerated deference to those in power
2. Authoritarian aggression: hostility toward targets sanctioned by authorities
3. Conventionalism: strong adherence to values endorsed by authorities
Social Categorization:
categorizing others based on their nationality, race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, and sexual orientation
Stereotyping:
holding beliefs that people have certain characteristics because of their membership in a particular group
Defensive Attributions:
blaming victims for their misfortune, so that one feels less likely to be victimized in a similar way
Social Identity Theory
self-esteem is partly determined by one's collective self, which is tied to one's group membership
Cognitive Strategies:
You can reduce your personal prejudice if you are motivated to pay careful attention to what and how you think
Intergroup Contact
Research supports the argument that contact can reduce prejudiced feeling between members of different groups
Physical distance
Face-to-Face: people are at the same place at the same time
Internet: people can develop a relationship with those thousands of miles away
Anonymity
Face-to-Face: Cannot be anonymous
Internet: People take greater risk in disclosing personal information than otherwise. Thus, feelings of intimacy can develop more quickly
Proxemics
is the study of people's use of interpersonal space.
Personal space
zone of space surrounding a person that is felt to "belong" to that person
Polygraph:
a device that records fluctuations in physiological arousal as a person answers
Nonverbal sensitivity
the ability to accurately encode (express) and decode (understand) nonverbal cues
Self-disclosure:
act of sharing information about yourself with another person
4 responses to communication apprehension
avoidance
withdrawal
disruption
over communication
STEPS IN ASSERTIVENESS TRAINING
Understand what assertive communication is
Monitor your assertive communication
Observe a model's assertive communication
Practice assertive communication
Adopt an assertive attitude
Submissive communication
deferential, it involves giving in to others on points of possible contention (pushovers)
Aggressive communication
focuses on saying and getting what one wants at the expense of others' feelings and rights
Self-Preoccupation:
pseudo listening, or pretending to listen while their minds are occupied with other topics that have captured their attention.
Motivational Distortion:
people hear what they want to hear instead of what is actually being said (selective attention)
Ambushing:
listener is really just looking for the opportunity to attack the presenter
Self-concept
organized collection of beliefs about self
Self-Schema
beliefs that shape social perception
Possible selves
one's conceptions about the kind of person one might become in the future (Hazel Markus)
Once self-concept is established, an individual tries to
preserve and defend it
Self-Discrepancy:
a mismatch between the self-perceptions that make up that actual self, ideal self, and ought self
Actual-self
qualities you believe you ACTUALLY posess
Ideal Self
characteristics you would LIKE to have
Ought Self
traits you believe you SHOULD posess
High self-esteem
live up to personal standards (ideal/ought self)
Low self-esteem:
don't meet personal standards
Factors of influence
1. Amount of discrepancy experienced
2. Awareness of discrepancy
3. Importance of discrepancy to person
Factors Shaping self-concept
1. Personal Observations
2. Feedback from Others
3. Social Context
4. Cultural Values
Social Comparison Theory:
individuals compare themselves with others in order to assess their abilities and opinions (also to improve skills and maintain self-image)
Reference Group
set of people who are used as a gauge in making social comparisons
Upward Social Comparison
looking at those better than you as a goal to aspire to
Downward Social Comparison:
looking at those that are worse than you in order to feel better about yourself
Personal observations are not objective
Michelangelo phenomenon
partner's role in "sculpting" into reality the ideal self of a loved one
Individualism:
putting personal goals ahead of group goals and defining one's identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group memberships (North American and Western European)
Collectivism:
putting group goals ahead of personal goals and defining one's identity in terms of the groups one belongs to (Asian, African, and Latin American)
Automatic Processing (mindlessness):
default mode of handling information
Controlled Processing (mindfulness):
Spending precious cognitive resources thinking about different things
example: trying to understand why you didn't get that job you wanted
Selective Attention:
high priority is given to information pertaining to the self
Spotlight effect
we think people are paying attention to us more than they actually are
Self-attributions
inferences that people draw about the causes of their own behavior; help make sense of experiences
Fritz Heider (1958)
was the first to realize that people either locate the cause of their behavior inside themselves
Internal attributions:
ascribe the causes of behavior to personal dispositions, traits, abilities, and feelings
External attributions:
ascribe the causes of behavior to situational demands and environmental constraints
Stable:
a cause that is more or less permanent and unlikely to change over time
Internal: sense of humor or intelligence
External: laws and rules
Unstable:
variable and subject to change
Internal: mood (good or bad) and motivation (weak or strong)
External: weather and presence or absence of people
Explanatory Style:
refers to the tendency to use similar causal attributions for a wide variety of events in one's life
Optimistic Explanatory Style:
attribute setbacks to external, unstable and specific
Pessimistic Explanatory Style:
attribute setbacks to internal, stable, and global (vulnerable to learned helplessness and depression)
3 Major Motives
Self-Assessment
Self Verification
Self-Enhancement
Impact bias:
misjudge the intensity and duration of positive and negative feelings for future situations
Self-verification theory:
people prefer to receive feedback from others that is consistent with their own self-views
Self-Enhancement appears in 4 ways
1. An observed response or behavior
2. A process
3. A personality trait
4. An underlying motive
Better-than-average Effect:
think you are better than everyone at various things
Illusions of Control
people overestimate their degree of control over outcomes
Methods of Self-Enhancement
Downward Comparisons
Self Serving Bias
Basking in Reflected Glory
Cutting off Reflected Failure
Self-Handicapping
Self-Regulation:
process of directing and controlling one's behavior
Self-Efficacy:
refers to one's belief about one's ability to perform behaviors that should lead to expected outcomes
Self-Efficacy affects
1. commitments to goals
2. performance on tasks
3. one's persistence toward goals in the face of obstacles
Self-Efficacy is related to:
Health promotion
Academic performance
Career choice
Job performance
Worker productivity
Coping with unemployment
4 Sources of Self-Efficacy
1. Mastery Experiences: mastering new skills & persisting through failure
2. Vicarious Experiences: watching others perform a skill you want to learn
3. Persuasion and Encouragement: encouraging others to do what you want to become good at
4. Interpretati
Self-defeating Behavior:
seemingly intentional actions that thwart a person's self-interest
Deliberate Self-Destruction
people want to harm themselves and choose courses of action that will foreseeably lead to that result
Tradeoffs:
people foresee the possibility of harming themselves but accept it as a necessary accompaniment to achieving a desirable goal
Counterproductive strategies:
a person pursues a desirable outcome but misguidedly uses an approach that is bound to fail
Person Perception:
the process of forming impressions of others
five key sources of information when forming impressions:
Appearance
Verbal Behavior
Actions
Nonverbal messages
Situations
Snap Judgments:
those that are made quickly and based on only a few bits of information and preconceived notions
Attributions:
inferences that people draw about the causes of their own behavior, others' behavior, and events
Confirmation Bias:
the tendency to seek information that supports one's beliefs while not pursuing dis-confirming information
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:
occurs when expectations about a person cause him or her to behave in ways that confirm the expectations
Stereotypes:
widely held beliefs that people have certain characteristics because of their membership in a particular group
Fundamental Attribution Error:
refers to the tendency to explain other people's behavior as the result of personal, rather than situational factors.
Defensive Attribution:
tendency to blame victims for their misfortune, so that one feels less likely to be victimized in a similar way
primary effect
The idea that initial information carries more weight than subsequent information
Persuasion:
the communication of argument and information intended to change another person's attitudes
Attitude:
beliefs and feelings about people, objects, and ideas
Source:
the person who sends a communication
Credibility-
belief that communicator will deliver on promise
Expertise
degrees, training, experience
Trustworthiness
whom are you more likely to believe
Likability- depends on factors such as
Physical Attractiveness- pleasing to the eye
Similar- alike in ways that are relevant to the issue at hand
Message:
the information transmitted by the source
Channel:
medium through which a message is sent
Receiver:
the person to whom the message is sent
Need for Cognition:
tendency to seek out and enjoy effortful thought, problem-solving activities, and in-depth analysis
Elaboration Likelihood Model:
an individual's thoughts about a persuasive message
Conformity:
occurs when people yield to real or imagined social pressure
Compliance:
occurs when people yield to social pressures in their public behavior, even though their private beliefs have not changed
Normative Influence:
operates when people conform to social norms for fear of negative social consequences
Informational Influence
operates when people look to others for how to behave in ambiguous situations
Bystander Effect
the tendency for individuals to be less likely to provide help when others are present than when they are alone
Obedience:
form of compliance that occurs when people follow direct commands. Usually from someone in a position of authority
Prejudice:
a negative attitude toward members of a group
Discrimination:
behaving differently, usually unfairly, toward the members of a group
Authoritarian personality
A personality type characterized by prejudice toward any group perceived to be different from oneself.
right-wing authoritarianism is characterized by the following:
1. Authoritarian submission: exaggerated deference to those in power
2. Authoritarian aggression: hostility toward targets sanctioned by authorities
3. Conventionalism: strong adherence to values endorsed by authorities
Social Categorization:
categorizing others based on their nationality, race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, and sexual orientation
Stereotyping:
holding beliefs that people have certain characteristics because of their membership in a particular group
Defensive Attributions:
blaming victims for their misfortune, so that one feels less likely to be victimized in a similar way
Social Identity Theory
self-esteem is partly determined by one's collective self, which is tied to one's group membership
Cognitive Strategies:
You can reduce your personal prejudice if you are motivated to pay careful attention to what and how you think
Intergroup Contact
Research supports the argument that contact can reduce prejudiced feeling between members of different groups
Physical distance
Face-to-Face: people are at the same place at the same time
Internet: people can develop a relationship with those thousands of miles away
Anonymity
Face-to-Face: Cannot be anonymous
Internet: People take greater risk in disclosing personal information than otherwise. Thus, feelings of intimacy can develop more quickly
Proxemics
is the study of people's use of interpersonal space.
Personal space
zone of space surrounding a person that is felt to "belong" to that person
Polygraph:
a device that records fluctuations in physiological arousal as a person answers
Nonverbal sensitivity
the ability to accurately encode (express) and decode (understand) nonverbal cues
Self-disclosure:
act of sharing information about yourself with another person
4 responses to communication apprehension
avoidance
withdrawal
disruption
over communication
STEPS IN ASSERTIVENESS TRAINING
Understand what assertive communication is
Monitor your assertive communication
Observe a model's assertive communication
Practice assertive communication
Adopt an assertive attitude
Submissive communication
deferential, it involves giving in to others on points of possible contention (pushovers)
Aggressive communication
focuses on saying and getting what one wants at the expense of others' feelings and rights
Self-Preoccupation:
pseudo listening, or pretending to listen while their minds are occupied with other topics that have captured their attention.
Motivational Distortion:
people hear what they want to hear instead of what is actually being said (selective attention)
Ambushing:
listener is really just looking for the opportunity to attack the presenter