Psychology Self-Esteem Concepts Quiz

The Self in a Social World

• This chapter explores the concept of self in a social context.
• Benjamin Franklin's quote highlights the difficulty of knowing oneself.
• The chapter outline reveals topics like spotlights & illusions, self-concept, self-esteem, perceived self-control, self-serving bias, and self-presentation.

Spotlights & Illusions

• Spotlight effect: Individuals believe others pay more attention to their appearance and behavior than actually is the case.
• Illusion of transparency: The belief that concealed emotions are easily read by others.

Self-Concept: Who Am I?

• Self-concept: A person's answers to the question "Who am I?".
• Self-concept includes an idea of oneself, is multidimensional and multifaceted, and is constantly changing based on moment-to-moment thoughts and social contexts.
• Schemas are mental templates people use to organize their understandings of the world, influencing how they define themselves.
• Self-schemas are specific beliefs that shape how people see themselves.
• Possible selves are thoughts of what individuals hope to become or fear becoming in the future

Development of the Social Self

• Roles influence self-perception, whether as a student, parent, or salesperson.
• Social comparisons: Evaluating abilities and opinions through comparisons with others.
• Success and failure influence social self.
• Other people's perceptions can greatly affect one's self-perception.
• Looking-glass self is the theory that individuals use others as mirrors to shape self-perception.

Culture and Self

• Individualism prioritizes individual goals over group goals, defining identity through personal attributes.
• Collectivism prioritizes group goals and defines identity through group membership.
• Twenty Statements Test (Cousins, 1989): Reveals that Americans use more trait descriptions when describing themselves, while Japanese descriptions focus more on roles and situations.
• In Bali, identity isn't primarily by name but by relation to family members.
• Filipinos, and the concept of "kapwa" emphasize the importance of connection to others

Self-Esteem

• Self-esteem: Individuals' overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth.
• Self-esteem can vary based on circumstances.
• Self-perceptions can greatly influence self-evaluation.
• Self-esteem correlates with behaviour.
• High versus low self-esteem can affect different outcomes.
• Narcissistic tendencies can be a consequence of high self-esteem.
• Self-esteem fluctuates in response to successes and failures, as well as other social interactions

Perceived Self-Control

• Self-efficacy is a sense of competence and effectiveness. Competence perception is connected to challenging tasks. People who expect success tend to outperform those with negative self-images.
• Locus of control: Individuals beliefs about the extent to which their outcomes are internal (own efforts) vs external (random luck).
• Learned helplessness is a condition marked by hopelessness and resignation perceived when a human or animal believes there's no control over bad events.

Self-Serving Bias

• Self-serving bias: The tendency to present oneself positively.
• Group-serving bias: The tendency to perceive one's group favorably.
• Most individuals view themselves in a positive light and tend to think they are better than average
• Positive events are often attributed to internal qualities, while negative events are blamed on external factors.

Unrealistic Optimism

• Unrealistic optimism: The tendency to perceive oneself as less vulnerable to negative events than others.
• In high risk situations, perceived immunity can result in more risk taking behaviour.

False Consensus and Uniqueness

• False consensus effect: Overestimating the commonality of one’s opinions and undesirable behaviors.
• False uniqueness effect: Underestimating the commonality of one’s abilities and desirable behaviors.

Self-Presentation

• Self-presentation: The act of expressing oneself and behaving to create a favorable impression.
• Impression management: Presenting a desired image to both external audiences and internal selves.
• Self-monitoring: Being attuned to the way one presents oneself and adjusting behaviours to create desired impressions in social settings.
• Social desirability is relevant to Filipinos in survey responses and questionnaires, leading to potential biases in results due to a concern with the impression one leaves to others.