Psychology of Adjustment Exam 2

Self Concept
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Terms in this set (102)
Self Concept
idea of yourself
Aspects of Self Concept
past, experiences, environmental influences, not always accurate and not always about physical features
What are the possible selves?
actual self, ideal self, ought self (who you should be)
Self Discrepancies
when your actual self does not match your ideal self
What Shapes Our Self-Concept?
our own observations, feedback from others, social context, cultural values, and Festinger's Social Comparison Theory
Festinger's Social Comparison Theory
upward social comparison and downward social comparison (above you vs below you)
Self-Esteem
how much you value, respect, and feel confident about yourself (high or low self-worth)
Why Self-Esteem Matters
constructive feedback, relationships, and coping
Where Does Self-Esteem Come From?
Parenting Styles (two dimensions - acceptance and control) and ethnicity and gender
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy (Pygmalion Effect)
our actions towards other (towards others) - other beliefs (about us) - others actions (towards us) - our beliefs (about ourselves) REPEAT
Authoritarian Parentinglow acceptance, high controlAuthoritative Parentinghigh acceptance, high controlNeglectful Parentinglow acceptance, low controlPermissive Parentinghigh acceptance, low controlSelf Perceptioncognitive process (cocktail effect, spotlight effect)Cognitive Processesautomatic vs controlled thinking (stereotypes), mindlessness vs mindfulness, selective attention (cocktail effect and spotlight effect)Cocktail Effectability to focus one's attention a particular stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli (hearing your name at a party)Spotlight Effectoverestimate how much others notice aspects of one's appearance or behaviorSelf-AttributionsHeider's attribution theory, Seligman ideas, you can switch your attribution style to improve yourselfAttributionhow individuals perceive the causes of everyday experience, as being either internal or externalHeider's Attribution Theoryinternal vs external (car cutting you off), stable vs unstable (this is how it is normally), controllable vs uncontrollableTheory In Actioninternal - forgetting birthday in an unhealthy relationship. external - buying flowers and asking why (internal = good, external = bad)SeligmanThis is the way we make attributions for our life: optimistic explanatory style and pessimistic explanatory styleSelf-understandingself assessment and self enhancementSelf-Assessmentaffective forecasting, impacts bias, our ability to predict our emotional state, and events are short lives and will recoverSelf-Enhancementdownward comparisons, self serving bias, BIRG (basking in reflective glory), self handicappingSelf-Serving Biasdon't see ourselves accurately, we improve ourselves. good person = good things will happen and vice versa, can cause victim blamingBIRG (basking in reflective glory)CORFing (cutting off reflective failure) "my team wins, that makes me better" "my team lost, don't associate me with them"Self-Handicappingsetting yourself up for failure, preparing an excuse before you even need itSelf Regulationego depletion model of self-regulation (Baumeister), delayed gratification (example is dieting)Self Regulation Experimentsradish vs cookie experiment and the marshmallow test with children (Walter Mischel)Self Deflecting Behaviorsdeliberate self destruction, tradeoffs (harmful to reach goal, immediate reward), counterproductive strategiesCounterproductive Strategiesthese people are usually mentally ill or have some type of mental illness, people who act on these usually don't realize the harm doneExamples of Counterproductive Strategiesdrugs, self-harm, eating disorders, lack of sleep, etcSelf-Presentationimpression management strategies: integration (come off as friendly), self promotion, supplication (pity me), negative acknowledgementSelf Monitoringhigh self monitors ("social chameleons", adapt to every situation) and low self monitors (less friends, but friends are closer/deeper, "this is me, this is what you will get")Persuasionthe nature and origin of attitudes (usually based on values and morals)Three Components of Attitudesaffection (emotional), cognitive (thinking), behavioral (actions; self-perception theory)Value Systemswhat you believe in, based in affective componentAffectivecan come from conditioning, classical conditioning (ex: tiger woods removal from ads because of association)Cognitivebased on reason and thinking, a good idea; tends to win out more than affectiveBehavioralif you really love or hate something you don't rely on self-perception theory; we use self-perception theory when we are unsureUsing Multiple Attitudes at Oncewhen buying a car, you take in what you like (color) and if it's a good value (gas mileage)Persuasive Communicationthe central and peripheral routes (elaboration likelihood model)Central Route (interested, motivated, logical)in debate you are focusing on what they are saying; length of debate isn't important; high need for cognition and understandingPeripheral Route (not motivated, not interested)attraction bias; in debate you are focused on what they are doing vs what its about; long speeches are more influential; "big words": use if you don't have timeHow to Achieve Long-Lasting Attitude Changeyou will want to use central route because it's a focused based perception; if you don't have a strong argument you want to try and force your audience into a peripheral route with big wordsConformitychanging our behavior to match someone else's; to fit in; authority figureInformational Social Influencethey have info I need to understand what is going on; if I have the correct answer you don't use thisSherif (1936) Autokinetic Studyin a dark room with a light that isn't moving but you think it is; in a room with other you based your answer based on others to not stick outPrivate Acceptance vs Public Compliancewhat I think (might just not know) vs what you tell others (accept what the group says and go along with it)When Informational Conformity Backfirescontagion, mass psychogenic illness, and mass mediaContagionemotion that spreads throughout a population or group; if other are scared, you tend to become scared too; "The Panic Broadcast"Mass Psychogenic IllnessPhysical illness that passes on when there isn't anything really there; people don't know so it spreads; Lycanthropy (turning into werewolves)Mass Mediapeople get scared so the symptoms can get worse, might think they have the illness when they don't (ex: Ebola or Covid-19)When Are People Going to Conform?the greater the uncertainty, the more reliance there is on others; when the situation is a crisis; usually greater expertise associated with better information/knowledgeNormative Social Influencethe need to be acceptedSocial Norms (implicit and explicit)if someone was different or new they tend to be ostracized more; might need to change to be accpetedAsch Conformity Experimentasking which line is the same as the original (very obvious) but don't want to be different so they deny what they see to be the same as the groupWhat Was The Results of Asch Conformity Experiment?Results show relying on normative social influence, public compliance; overall 76% conformedClassic Normative Reasons for Conformingdon't want to feel peculiar, don't want to feel like a fool, belief that what others think is important even if they are strangersSherif's and Asch's Studies of Conformity SummarySherif - ambiguous stimuli (informational) Asch - unambiguous (normative)Social Impact Theorystrength (importance of the relationship), immediacy (closeness, time), number of people in the group (4-5 people, more people the less likely to conform)The Group's Culture Mattersgreater conformity in collectivist culturesObedience to Authority (social norm)we teach obedience as soon as we possibly can; authority figures (parents, teachers, law enforcement); authority objects (stop signs, stop lights); we follow sometimes without questioning the morality (genocides)Milgram's Study of Obediancehow many people would continue to obey the experimenter and increase the levels of shock until they had delivered the max amount (450 volts, 15 volt increments)Results of the Milgram's Study2/3 followed authority; felt the need to follow through with what they started; interacted with two conflicting norms (following authority and moral code); one of most famous in social psychologyRole of Normative Social Influence (Milgram)don't want to disappoint experimenter; an insistent experimenter; conform to wrong norm; self-justification; loss of a personal responsibility; what variations on original study tell usHow Do We Form Impressions?appearance (book by its cover), verbal behavior, actions (actions speak louder than words), nonverbal messages (sarcasm), situational cuesSnap Judgementwe start to make assumptions in 1/10th of a second; could be wrong but generally it does work outSystematic Judgementcontrolled thinking; takes time to figure out who they arePerceiver Expectationsconfirmation bias and self-fulfilling propheciesConfirmation Biasseek out information to confirm it, rather than the truth; study of people went into psych ward without issues and workers looked for ways to confirm fake diagnosisCognitive Distortionssocial categorization, stereotypes, fundamental attribution error, defensive attributionSocial Categorizationin-group heterogeneity; out-group homogeneity ("they all look the same")Stereotypesdenies individuality, generalized, positive and negativeFundamental Attribution Errorseeing a child in the store screaming and how the parent reacts ("oh they must be a bad parent")Defensive Attributionvictim blaming; to protect myself I will look down on someone who is a victim (they must have done something to provoke it)Prejudicenegative attitude against a particular groupDiscrimiationthe negative action towards a group of peopleBehavioral Component of Discriminationmicroaggressions (happens a lot to minorities)Principles of Nonverbal Communicationconveys emotion, multi-channeled, ambiguous, encoding, decoding, verbal and nonverbal messages don't always match (sarcasm), can be culturally bound (emblems - ok signs, peace sign, emojis)Elements if Nonverbal CommunicationPersonal Space: Zone 1 - intimate distance (0-18") Zone 2 - personal distance (18" - 4') Zone 3 - social distance (4' - 12') Zone 4: public distance (12'+)Facial Expressionhappy, sad, scared, disgust, anger, shock are universal; Ekman and the Fore TribeEkman and the Fore Tribewent to a secluded community and asked to identify facial expressions and then their facial expressionsDisplay Rulesdisplay of emotion; culturally differs; females are more acceptable to show emotion than menEye Contactvisual-dominance ratio; gender differencesVisual-Dominance Ratiohigh = more time looking while speaking low = more time looking while listeningGender Differences with Eye Contactmen usually more high (look while speaking)Body Languagenonverbal communication through gestures, facial expressions, behaviors, and posture; higher status = more asymmetricalTouchstatus and gender differences (men more likely to touch)Paralanguage"I really enjoyed myself" has different meaning depending on word emphasis; cyberspace (emojis); baby talk (dogs, old people)Deceptionhow often do we lie, can we detect liarsTypes of Lieswhite lie (or little lies), benevolent lies (to protect), serious lies (didn't say you lost a job to partner)Can We Detect Liars?deceiver's trust (I lie all the time, so you must too); truth bias (you like someone so you don't expect them to lie)Lie Detective Teststhey work, but they cannot pick up on nervousnessEffective Communicationself-disclosure and effective listeningSelf-Disclosureintimacy, self-esteem, gender differences (women more likely)Effective Listeningactive listeningCommunication Issuescommunication apprehension; barriers to effective communicationBarriers to Effective Communicationdefensiveness (protecting yourself), ambushing (catch off-guard), self-preoccupationWays of Dealing With Conflictavoiding/withdrawing, accommodating, competing/forcing, compromising, collaborating (both willing to improve)