Psychology Chapter 2 Notes

Chapter 2 Notes Spotlight effect - The belief that others are paying more attention to our appearance and behavior than they really are. The spotlight effect means seeing ourselves at center stage, thus intuitively overestimating the extent to which others’ attention is aimed at us. Illusion of T...

Chapter 2 Notes Spotlight effect - The belief that others are paying more attention to our appearance and behavior than they really are. The spotlight effect means seeing ourselves at center stage, thus intuitively overestimating the extent to which others’ attention is aimed at us. Illusion of Transparency - The illusion that our concealed emotions leak out and can be easily read by others. The spotlight effect and the related illusion of transparency are just two examples of the interplay between our sense of self and our social worlds. More examples are: Social surroundings affect our self-awareness. ○ When we are the only member of our race, gender, or nationality in a group, we notice how we differ and how others are reacting to our differences. Self-interest colors our social judgment. ○ When problems arise in a close relationship, we usually blame our partners instead of ourselves. When things go well at home or work or play, we see ourselves as more responsible. Self-concern motivates our social behavior. ○ In hopes of making a positive impression, we agonize about our appearance. We also monitor others’ behavior and expectations and adjust our behavior accordingly Social relationships help define our sense of self. ○ In our varied relationships, we have varying selves. We may be one self with Mom, another with friends, and another with teachers. How we think of ourselves is linked to the person we’re with at the moment. And when relationships change, our self-concepts can change as well. College students who recently broke up with a romantic partner shifted their self-perceptions and felt less certain about who they were — one reason breakups can be so emotionally distressing. Our sense of self organizes our thoughts, feelings, and actions and enables us to remember our past, assess our present, and project our future — and thus to behave adaptively. Our behavior is not consciously controlled but, rather, automatic and unself-conscious. However, the self does enable long-term planning, goal setting, and restraint. It imagines alternatives, compares itself with others, and manages its reputation and relationships. Self-concept - What we know and believe about ourselves. Answer the question: who am I? The “medial prefrontal cortex,” a neuron path located in the cleft between your brain hemispheres just behind your eyes, seemingly helps stitch together your sense of self. It becomes more active when you think about yourself. Self-schema - Beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant information. Schemas are mental templates by which we organize our worlds. Social Comparison - Evaluating one’s opinions and abilities by comparing oneself with others. In social comparison we compare ourselves with others and consider how we differ. Example: We feel handsome when others seem homely, smart when others seem dull, caring when others seem callous. Sometimes the social comparison is based on incomplete information. Have you ever been on Instagram and thought, “All of my friends are having a lot more fun than I am”? If so, you’re not alone. College students who spent more time on social media were more likely to believe that other people were happier and had better lives than they did. Of course, it can’t be true that everyone is having more fun than everyone else; it’s just that social media users feature the more exciting and positive aspects of their lives. The looking-glass self theory of Charles H. Cooley (1902) described our use of how we think others perceive us as a mirror for perceiving ourselves. Fellow sociologist George Herbert Mead (1934) refined this concept, noting that what matters for our self-concepts is not how others actually see us but the way we imagine they see us. Individualism - The concept of giving priority to one’s own goals over group goals and defining one’s identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications. Individualism flourishes when people experience affluence, mobility, urbanism, economic prosperity, and mass media, and when economies shift away from manufacturing and toward information and service industries. Such changes are occurring worldwide and, as we might therefore expect, individualism is increasing globally. Cultures can also change over time, and many seem to be growing more individualistic. Independent self - Construing one’s identity as an autonomous self. Collectivism - Giving priority to the goals of one’s group (often one’s extended family or work group) and defining one’s identity accordingly. Collectivistic cultures promote a greater sense of belonging and more integration between the self and others. In individualistic cultures, being different and standing out is seen as an asset. In collectivistic cultures, it is seen as a detriment. In collectivistic cultures, harmony comes from sameness and agreement. The rich are more individualistic than the poor, males more than females, whites more than non-whites. In collectivist cultures, self-esteem tends to be malleable (context-specific) rather than stable (enduring across situations). The independent self acknowledges relationships with others. But the interdependent self is more deeply embedded in others. Interdependent selves have not one self but many selves: self-with-parents, self-at-work, self-with-friends The interdependent self is embedded in social memberships. Conversation is less direct and more polite and people focus more on gaining social approval. Culture can shape self-views even in short periods of time. Planning fallacy - The tendency to underestimate how long it will take to complete a task. Example: The Big Dig freeway construction project in Boston was supposed to take 10 years and actually took 20 years. How can you improve your self-predictions? The best way is to be more realistic about how long tasks took in the past. Another useful strategy: Estimate how long each step in the project will take. Impact bias - Overestimating the enduring impact of emotion-causing events (can be positive emotions or negative emotions). We are especially prone to impact bias after negative events. People neglect the speed and the power of their coping mechanisms, which include rationalizing, discounting, forgiving, and limiting emotional trauma. Because we are unaware of the speed and strength of our coping, we adapt to disabilities, romantic breakups, exam failures, layoffs, and personal and team defeats more readily than we would expect. Example: Imagine a person anticipating the end of a long-term relationship. They might think that the emotional pain from the breakup will last for months or even years, and that it will profoundly affect their overall happiness. However, once the breakup occurs, they may find that while the initial sadness is intense, it gradually lessens over time, and they start to adapt and find joy in life again sooner than they expected. Dual attitude system - Differing implicit (automatic/unconscious) and explicit (consciously controlled) attitudes toward the same object. These two types of attitudes can sometimes conflict, leading to inconsistencies in behavior and self-perception. Implicit attitudes are automatic and often formed through experiences and associations, influencing behavior without conscious awareness. ○ Example: a person may have an implicit bias against a certain group based on societal stereotypes. Explicit attitudes are consciously held beliefs that individuals can articulate. ○ Example: Someone might verbally express support for diversity and inclusion, even if their implicit biases suggest otherwise. Although explicit attitudes may change with relative ease, “implicit attitudes, like old habits, change more slowly.” With repeated practice, however, new habitual attitudes can replace old ones. This research on the limits of our self-knowledge has two practical implications. The first is for psychological inquiry. Self-reports are often untrustworthy. Errors in self-understanding limit the scientific usefulness of subjective personal reports. The second implication is for our everyday lives. Even if people report and interpret their experiences with complete honesty, that does not mean their reports are true. Personal testimonies are powerfully persuasive. But they may also be wrong. Self-esteem - A person’s overall self evaluation or sense of self-worth. Dutch university students who experienced negative self-esteem feedback felt more “Schadenfreude” (joy at another’s misfortune). Self-esteem level also makes a difference. People with high self-esteem usually react to a self-esteem threat by compensating for it (blaming someone else or trying harder next time). These reactions help them preserve their positive feelings about themselves. People with low self-esteem, however, are more likely to blame themselves or give up. People low in self-esteem are more vulnerable to anxiety, loneliness, depression, eating disorders, and intentional self-harm such as cutting. They make less money and are more likely to abuse drugs. When feeling bad or threatened, those low in self-esteem often take a negative view of everything. They notice and remember others’ worst behaviors and think their partners don’t love them. They also sulk or complain to get support from relationship partners, a strategy that often leads partners to react negatively. Although people with low self-esteem do not choose less-desirable partners, they are quicker to believe that their partners are criticizing or rejecting them. Perhaps, as a result, those low in self-esteem are less satisfied with their relationships Terror management theory - Proposes that people exhibit self-protective emotional and cognitive responses (including adhering more strongly to their cultural worldviews and prejudices) when confronted with reminders of their mortality. Example: Health issues bring thoughts of death to the forefront, and it makes people realize their own mortality. It also makes subconscious thoughts about death more conscious. Longitudinal study - Research in which the same people are studied over an extended period of time. Narcissism - an inflated sense of self. Narcissism, Self Esteem, and Aggression - Narcissism and self-esteem interact to influence aggression. In an experiment by Brad Bushman and colleagues (2009), the recipe for retaliation against a critical classmate required both narcissism and high self-esteem. Self-efficacy - is how competent we feel on a task. It is different from self-esteem as self-esteem is one’s sense of self-worth. A sharpshooter in the military might feel high self-efficacy and low self-esteem. Someone who thinks, “If I work hard, I can swim fast” has high self-efficacy. Someone who thinks, “I am a great swimmer” has high self-esteem. When you were a child, your parents may have encouraged you by saying things such as, “You’re special!” (intended to build self-esteem) or “I know you can do it!” (intended to build self-efficacy). Self-serving bias - The tendency to perceive oneself favorably. Self-serving bias is usually stronger for traits that are more subjective or difficult to measure. Self-serving attributions - A form of self-serving bias; the tendency to attribute positive outcomes to oneself and negative outcomes to other factors. Defensive pessimism - The adaptive value of anticipating problems and harnessing one’s anxiety to motivate effective action. Example: Sarah starts by thinking about all the things that could go wrong in the interview. She worries about not answering questions well, not being a good fit for the company, or making a poor impression. By considering these negative scenarios, she mentally prepares for various outcomes. Success in school and beyond requires enough optimism to sustain hope and enough pessimism to motivate concern. False consensus effect - The tendency to overestimate the commonality of one’s opinions and one’s undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors. Example: If you think that everyone loves a particular TV show, you might believe that this opinion is more common than it actually is. In reality, there may be a significant number of people who don’t share your enthusiasm for the show. False uniqueness effect - The tendency to underestimate the commonality of one’s abilities and one’s desirable or successful behaviors. Example: If you consider yourself to be exceptionally kind and caring, you might believe that such qualities are rare and that you possess them to an extraordinary degree, even though many others also have these traits. Self-handicapping - Protecting one’s self-image with behaviors that create a handy excuse for later failure. Example: Alex tells friends and classmates that they didn’t have time to study because they were too busy with other commitments or just didn’t feel like it. By doing so, Alex is creating a situation where if they perform poorly on the exam, they can attribute the failure to their lack of preparation rather than their actual ability or intelligence. Why would people handicap themselves with self-defeating behaviors? Recall that we eagerly protect our self-images by attributing failures to external factors. Thus, fearing failure, people might handicap themselves by partying half the night before a job interview or playing video games instead of studying before a big exam. When self-image is tied up with performance, it can be more self-deflating to try hard and fail than to procrastinate and have a ready excuse. If we fail while handicapped in some way, we can cling to a sense of competence; if we succeed under such conditions, it can only boost our self-image. Handicaps protect both self-esteem and public image by allowing us to attribute failures to something temporary or external (“I was feeling sick”; “I was out too late the night before”) rather than to lack of talent or ability. Self-presentation - The act of expressing oneself and behaving in ways designed to create a favorable impression or an impression that corresponds to one’s ideals. Examples: How you present yourself as always happy in social media or how you always portray yourself in job interviews or social gatherings. Self-monitoring - Being attuned to the way one presents oneself in social situations and adjusting one’s performance to create the desired impression. Example: Sarah has a busy day ahead that includes a corporate meeting in the morning and a casual dinner with friends in the evening. Her self-monitoring skills come into play as she adjusts her behavior to fit each context. Those who score high on a scale of self-monitoring (who, for example, agree that “I tend to be what people expect me to be”) act like social chameleons: They use self-presentation to adjust their behavior in response to external situations. Those low in self-monitoring care less about what others think. They are more internally guided and thus more likely to talk and act as they feel and believe. Self reference effect - when we process information with reference to ourselves, we remember it well. Possible selves - images of what we dream of or dread becoming. Elements of self concept 1. self schema 2. possible selves Immune neglect - the human tendency to underestimate the speed and the strength of the psychological immune system, which enables emotional recovery and resilience after bad things happen. Example: Jane feels a deep sense of despair and anxiety. She fears that losing her job will lead to long-term financial instability, a diminished sense of self-worth, and ongoing stress.After a few months, he has adapted to the situation and ultimately adjusts to her new reality. Locus of control - the extent to which people perceive outcomes as internally controllable by their own efforts or as externally controlled by chance or outside forces. Self-efficacy + Internal locus of control = better coping Learned helplessness - the sense of helplessness and resignation learned when a human and animal perceives no control over repeated bad events. Uncontrollable event ——> perceived lack of control ——> learned helplessness Self determination is bolstered by experiences of successfully exercising control and improving one’s situation False modesty - displaying lower self-esteem than we privately feel.