social me
self-knowledge from social relationships -- not distinguishable from the social world
introspection
observation and knowing one's self
usual responses to describe who you are
ascribe identity, social roles and group membership, interests and activities, personality, external references (people aren't good at this)
self-concept
a schema for the self -- all the information that is known about yourself (helps guide thought and behaviour)
- develops around the time we are two
active self-concept
a subset of self-knowledge most important and/ or relevant to the current situation -- we have more information about ourselves than any other object (not all of it can be active at once)
self-schema
a cognitive structure, derived from past experience, that represents a person's beliefs and feelings about the self (helps make sense of information)
chronic accessibility
the most important self-aspects or core traits
temporary accessibility
- situationally specific self-aspects
- different "types" of the self
reflected self-appraisals
a belief about what others think of one's self (suggest we have little say in how we see ourselves)
- approvals and disapprovals of others and comments about us
situationism
the notion that the social self-changes across different contexts
working self-concept
a subset of knowledge that is brought to mind in a particular context (things relevant to the appropriate or current situation)
Red-dot studies
chimps were raised alone or in social groups and at some point, a red dot is painted on their ear or brow and the animal is placed in front of a mirror those that were socialized were more likely to touch the dot when seeing themselves than the unsocializ
autism
provides deficits in both sociality and self-consciousness
independent self-construal
self is an autonomous entity that is distinct and separate and separate from others (western culture)
- be true to the self and behave consistently across situations
interdependent self-construal
the self is fundamentally connected to other people (eastern culture)
-maintain group harmony over being true to the self and consistency
social comparison theory
the hypothesis that people compare themselves to other people in order to obtain an accurate assessment of their own opinions, abilities, and internal states
downward social comparison
biased and causes us to lose opportunities by comparing ourselves to others who are lesser
upward social comparison
helps to improve a skill or component of our personality by looking to those better than us at something
self-esteem
overall positive or negative evaluation an individual has on himself or herself -- controlled by active self (measured using self-report questions of the rosenburg self-esteem scale)
trait self esteem
refers to the dynamic, changeable self-evaluations a person experiences as momentary feelings about the self
contingencies of self-worth
a perspective maintaining that self-esteem is contingent on successes and failures in domains on which a person has based his or her self-worth
sociometer hypothesis
the idea that self-esteem is an internal, subjective index or marker of the extent to which a person is included or looked on favorably by others
high self-esteem
thriving in our relationships
low self esteem
suggests we are having interpersonal difficulties - provides useful info of how to attend to and share up social bonds
self enhancement
desire to maintain, increase, or protect positive views of the self
better than average effect
the finding that most people think they are above average on various personality trait and ability dimensions (829,000 high school seniors rated on how skilled they are at getting along with people)
self-affirmation theory
the idea that people can maintain an overall sense of self-worth following psychologically threatening information by affirming a valued aspect of themselves unrelated to the threat
self-serving attributional bias
the tendency to attribute responsibility to themselves when they succeed, but to deny responsibility when they fail
self-evaluation maintenance model
the idea that people are motivated to view themselves favorably, and that they do so through two processes: reflection and social comparison
superiority
downward comparison; maintains good self views
self-verification theory
the theory that people strive for stable, subjectively accurate beliefs about the self because such self-views give a sense of coherence (makes us more predictable to ourselves and others)
self-regulation
processes by which people initiate, alter, and control their behavior in the pursuit of goals, including the ability to resist short-term rewards that thwart the attainment of long-term goals
self-discrepancy theory
A theory that behavior is motivated by standards reflecting ideal and ought selves. Falling short of these standards produces specific emotions: dejection-related emotions for actual-ideal discrepancies, and agitation-related emotions for actual-ought dis
actual self
the self that people believe they are
ideal self
one's perception of whom one should be or would like to be (embodies people's wishes and aspirations)
ought self
the self that is concerned with the duties, obligations, and external demands people feel they are compelled to honor
promotion focus
self-regulation of behavior with respect to ideal self-standards, or a focus on attaining positive outcomes and approach-related behaviors (ideal self standard relation and prominent in westerners)
prevention focus
self-regulation of behavior with respect to ought self standards, or a focus on avoiding negative outcomes and avoidance-related behaviors (east asians)
ego depletion
a state, produced by acts of self-control, in which people lack the energy or resources to engage in further acts of self-control
public self
often a dramatic performance in which we try to project a public self consistent with our hopes and aspirations
self presentation
presenting the person we would like others to believe we are
impression management
the attempt by people to get others to see them as they want to be seen
dramaturgic perspective
drama of self-presentation
face
the public image of ourself that we want others to believe
self-monitoring
the tendency to monitor one's behavior to fit the current situation
self-handicapping
the tendency to engage in self-defeating behavior in order to have an excuse ready should one perform poorly or fail
implications
social animals learn who we are from others
self-knowledge comes from
introspection, self-perception, and social comparison
why people aren't good at introspection
1) people don't introspect much (lack of self-thought due to other distractions) 2)introspection is easily biased (researchers called on sunny vs. rainy days and asked how satisfied they are with their life)
3)introspection can impair self-knowledge (post
self-perception
examine your own behaviours to determine what you think or feel -- occurs via the same attributional processed used to judge others
attitudinal self-perception
nonverbal feedback- behavior cues to infer preferences (using head nods during a persuasive message to agree or disagree)
emotional self-perception
facial feedback - we use facial expressions to infer emotional states (way you hold a pencil in your mouth)
motivational self-perception
bodily feedback - we use internal states to infer motivation (an attractive female approaches males at a park and see who cares in relation to psychological arousal crossing a rickety bridge)
manipulating schemas
priming can change when schemas are accessible and when a schema's associates come to mind
schemas
filter information: determine what to pay attention to (and what to ignore)
fill in gaps in our knowledge: reduce ambiguity, allows judgement with incomplete information
guide decision making: organize and make sense of the world, and improve behavior pre
impacting biology
participants played "cyberball" (inclusion vs. exclusion) psychologists report distress and pain stimulus in fMRI
social learning theory
behavior is learned through the observation of others and we constantly mimic other's behaviors throughout life