Exam 2 - Cultural Psychology

What nations score highest on subjective well-being?

the nations that score highest on this measure are Scandinavian and Nordic countries, much of Latin America, various English-speaking countries, and Western Europe. On the low end are the former Soviet republics and some impoverished countries in Africa and South Asia

what is the independent view of self

the self derives its identity from inner attributes. Many of the statements made by Americans in that study represent this self-concept. The attributes are assumed to reflect a person's inner essence; they are the basis of the individual's identity, and they are stable across situations and throughout the lifespan. - self is stable, bound entity

What are ritualized displays, what is an example of this

A facial expression that is expressed in some cultures but not in others - embarrassment in india vs america

Cultural differences in attention and artistic preferences: painting horizons

A higher horizon calls attention to the depth of the setting and allows for all the various elements and places within a scene to be seen in relation to each other, whereas a lower horizon reduces the range of the scene that is visible. The East Asian paintings thus naturally direct a viewer's gaze to the relations among the component parts in a scene, whereas Western paintings direct attention to particular focal points. The same kinds of landscape scenes are represented quite differently by artists depending on their cultural background.

who receives As in the past compared to the present in US

A study revealed that in 1940, only 15% of American college students received an A in their class, but by 2009, about 43% of American college grades were A's—evidence of grade inflation

Cultures where expressing anger is problematic, how do they experience anger

perhaps in cultures where expressing anger is problematic, people tend to experience anger less intensely. - In other words, whereas the European Canadians felt much anger and tended to express it openly, the Chinese Canadians adopted strategies to minimize their anger response, and accordingly, felt less angry. - It's noteworthy that the Chinese Canadians' blood pressure returned to normal much more quickly than the European Canadians'

What is discounting

reducing the perceived importance of your poor performance

visual cues, relative size, object superimposition, vertical position, linear perspective, texture gradients

relative size, those that are farther away will be smaller object superimposition, those that block other objects are closer vertical position, objects that are higher are farther away linear perspective, when things are supposed to be parallel it looks like they are converging on a vanishing point at the horizon line texture gradient, if its blurry its father away, more detail is closer

Individualistic vs collectivistic cultures and reporting traits

The most frequent self-descriptions for the Americans were personal characteristics, such as their traits, attitudes, and abilities; these accounted for 48% of their statements. In contrast, similar statements made up less than 2% of the Masai and Samburu self-descriptions. Their responses generally reflected their social identity; their roles and memberships accounted for more than 60% of their statements. In stark contrast, such statements made up only 7% of American self-descriptions.

What is self-enhancement

The motivation to view oneself positively

What s naive dialectiscism?

This principle is at the heart of logical reasoning. Opposing this Aristotelian law, ancient Chinese thought, as captured in the I-Ching (The Book of Changes), includes a principle of contradiction. Because everything is perceived to be fundamentally connected with everything else and constantly in flux, real contradiction ceases to exist. If "A" is connected with "not A," and if "A" is always changing into "not A," then "A" is no longer in contradiction with "not A." With this orientation toward the world, contradiction is not something to be rejected but should be accepted. This acceptance of contradiction has been termed naive dialecticism (Peng & Nisbett, 1999). It reflects a profoundly different way of making sense of the world compared to Western logical reasoning.

What is the fundamental attribution error

This tendency to ignore situational information (such as the conditions under which the writer wrote) while focusing on dispositional information (the writer's assumed attitude) is known as the fundamental attribution error. It is termed "fundamental" because it's considered to be deeply ingrained in us. When we see people acting, we assume they are doing so because of their underlying dispositions, and we tend to ignore the situational factors that might be governing their behavior.

What are Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck's 4 value dimensions? Time

Time: - past (ancestor worship) - present (people with substance use problems not thinking about past or future) - future, (have more academic orientation)

What do asian canadians do after experiencing a failure

after experiencing a failure, Asian Canadians were three times more likely to seek upward social comparison models than downward ones, yet European Canadians sought about as many upward as downward comparison models

What is the foreshortening hypothesis

just because things end at the horizon the line still exists, higher susceptibility for people who reside in more open enviornemtns, horizontal line is shorter than the vertical line

Self enhancement - overestimation and over precision in asian and Europeans and modesty norms

less cultural variability when examining overestimation, more cultural variability when examining over precision, spread behind to spread - modesty norms explain overestimation - modesty norms dont explain uncertainty

What is the entity theory of the self

one could instead embrace a theory that aspects of the self are resistant to change; this is known as an entity theory of self. People who endorse this theory view their abilities and traits as fixed, innate features of the self.

Cultural variability for facial expressions

people were about 9% more accurate in judging the facial expressions of people from their own culture than from another culture (about 58% accuracy overall). Therefore, there is a large universal component of recognizing facial expressions and a smaller culturally specific component.

Where do europeans vs Japanese people focus their attention on when it comes to facial expressions as well as brain activation

people were about 9% more accurate in judging the facial expressions of people from their own culture than from another culture (about 58% accuracy overall). Therefore, there is a large universal component of recognizing facial expressions and a smaller culturally specific component.

Who has a lot of self esteem

North Americans, East Asians are a lot less

Bandwidth and poverty

those who are not as well off tend to focus on lack of resources which captures their attention, impedes bandwidth, makes them do worse on tasks

Students drawings, asian vs european and elements

East Asian college students were asked to draw, in 5 minutes, a landscape scene containing at least a house, a tree, a river, a person, and a horizon. They could include anything else they wanted. Two examples are shown in Figure 9.6. The researchers analyzed horizon level and background complexity. As in the landscape paintings, East Asians drew a horizon that was much higher in the picture than in the American drawings. Also, the East Asians tended to provide a more complex background by including 75% more contextual elements than the Americans. Overall, East Asians were more likely than Americans to situate their objects in context.

Tagalog vs western and personality framework

Gregariousness - extraversion Self assurance - neuroticism concern for others - agreeableness contientiousness intellect - openness then also found temperamentalness, which is like emotional reactivity, hot headedness negative valence, sadistic, social deviance, crazy

What is hedonism vs eudaemonia

Hedonism - concerned with satisfaction, happiness, and subjective well-being eudaemonia - meaning In life, living a good life, rich in the sense of meaning, how much you feel your life has meaning, feeling like your life matters

What is self esteem

How positive your overall global evaluation is

where is there less income inequality

in countries that believe the government needs to be more accountable, like Japan, Denmark, France

How does acceptance of authoriatarnism change political inequality

increase in accepetance of authoritarnsim, increases fatalism about your situation, less political engagement, less political interest, discussion and electoral particiaption which leads to more political inequality

What is independent self construal vs interdependent

independent - maintaining high self esteem, self enhancement, motivated to boost self image, positive self interdependent - social roles, be more critical, motivated to fit in with others and self improve, thinking about negative of self

connection between authoritarianism and inequality

- obedience is important - authorities deserve respect - bosses should be obeyed - more income inequality, more power differential, more acceptance of this

Characteristics of face

- A first important characteristic of face is that it's more easily lost than gained. - face is lost by the failure to live up to the standards of social roles - If they have the desire for self-improvement—identifying potential weaknesses and working on correcting them—they'll minimize the chance of others seeing them as having lost face.- face is maintained only when a positive evaluation is made by others

How do East Asians experience happiness

- Interpersonally disengaging emotions feel especially good. - Subjective well-being is associated with positive feelings. - People operate under the implicit theory that opportunities for happiness should be maximized. - Positive emotions protect against depression. - High-arousal positive emotions are preferred.

How do westerners experience happiness

- Interpersonally disengaging emotions feel especially good. - Subjective well-being is associated with positive feelings. - People operate under the implicit theory that opportunities for happiness should be maximized. - Positive emotions protect against depression. - High-arousal positive emotions are preferred.

Why do people conform

- avoid being laughed at - People tend to take an active dislike to those who deliberately don't fit in

How do theories of the self impact tests

- entity, hard tests that are hard to pass and not many people do, acquired ability, Japanese culture - incremental theory, easy tests, innate ability, many people pass, American culture

Why do asians talk less

- holistic thinking, able to recall better if they dont explain what they have seen - able to think about multiple parts, euro americans cannot do this

What contributes to life satisfaction

- income level, basic needs must be met - human rights protection - equality - abide by the rule of law - less corruption - People in individualistic societies were far more likely than those in collectivist societies to base their life satisfaction on how many positive emotions they were experiencing. - people in collectivistic cultures showed a higher correlation between their life satisfaction scores and being respected by others for living up to cultural norms when compared with people from individualistic cultures. Living up to cultural norms seems to be viewed as the basis of a satisfying life in collectivistic cultures.

Why do the background people influence the East Asian participants more than the Western ones?

- japanese look more at the background, spend more time there, Furthermore, the East Asian participants made more rapid eye movements known as saccades than the Americans, indicating the shifting of the gaze from one fixation point to another - Compared to the Americans, the East Asians were scanning the entire scene more thoroughly. By systematically scanning what they're looking at, Asians are better able to detect changes in backgrounds than Westerners are

Self enhancement strategies - how is it highly beneficial;

- more ambition, ignore adversity, better physical health

Spatial perception and cultural differences

- some tribes use west and east to describe directions so they placed figures in different places rather than left and right, more relative positions - The Whorfian explanation is that because the spatial language of Guugu Yimithirr speakers is based solely on the cardinal directions, they conceive of the arrangement of their world only with respect to those directions. Dutch speakers, in contrast, describe locations and positions relative to their physical selves, so they don't have to focus on the cardinal directions in most situations.

Two ways we evaluate happiness and how this relates to pain

- sum of all the happy feelings that you have experienced vs how you retrospectively evaluate your happiness - less pain retrospectively if you have a better ending, if you finish something off better you remember it more positively

What is overconfidence

- unjustifiably positive belief in ones characteristics - overestimation, thinking you did better than you actually did - overplacement, putting yourself at a higher ranking than you actually did - overprecision, how persistent are you with your estimation of how well you did

Making choices in individualistic vs collectivistic cultures

- west, spend time thinking about free choice like what kind of job should I get - east, not made by individual but by parents - Given that Westerners generally believe the success of their lives, and their happiness, depends on certain major decisions, they assume that having someone else make those choices, such as their parents, would result in a life of misery. This is a reasonable assumption if you are solely focused on your personal goals. But in collectivistic societies, where parental decision-making is more common, individuals tend to identify with their group's goals

americans vs East Asians and uniqueness

. The Americans were much more likely to choose the minority-colored pen, regardless of what that color was. Somehow, it seemed that Americans viewed pens of a more unusual color—because of its minority status—as more desirable. In contrast, the East Asians were more likely to choose the majority-colored pen, considering the less unusual color more desirable. Apparently, Americans want to express their uniqueness by making what they think are unique choices, whereas East Asians want to express their sense of belonging, or conformity, by making what they think are common choices. Other analyses and studies confirmed that the participants made their choices because of distinct self-expressive motives, not because the East Asians were trying to avoid taking the experimenter's last red pen - Similarly, researchers have also found that working-class Americans, like the East Asians in these studies, are also less likely to prefer unique objects compared to middle-class Americans (

What are hofsteds 5 dimensions of value

1. power distance - distribution of power, how far high is from low (low, Western Europe, high Eastern Europe) 2. uncertainty avoidance - whether people in a group are comfortable with ambiguity and unstructured interactions (low to high, low is nordic, high is East Asian) 3. masculinity - how differentiated gender roles are (fem to masculinity, fem is Sweden, Eastern European is masc) 4. individualism - whether people are integrated into cohesive groups rather than a loose collection (scale, collectivism to indidivudlism) 5. indulgence - whether people in a group value or control gratification of ones desires and vale happiness (scale, of restrained, soviet to indulgent, nordic)

Differences between japanese and North Americans with regard to failures

After failing on a task, North Americans tend to discount the importance of the task, but Japanese value the task even more highly (Heine et al., 2001b). Much research reveals that North Americans tend to make more external attributions for their failures; Japanese often make more external attributions for their successes. And whereas Americans tend to bask in the reflected glory of their sports teams, Japanese sports fans are likely to be more critical of their own teams than of the opposition

What is a personality trait found in chinese people that's not in other places

An analysis of indigenous Chinese personality trait terms (Cheung et al., 1996) found four of the same factors as the Big Five (openness to experience did not correlate with any of the Chinese factors), and a new factor, interpersonal relatedness, which was uncorrelated with any of the Big Five. This suggests that interpersonal relatedness might be a sixth personality trait common in Chinese culture.

What other traits in other places did they find in people

An analysis of indigenous Chinese personality trait terms (Cheung et al., 1996) found four of the same factors as the Big Five (openness to experience did not correlate with any of the Chinese factors), and a new factor, interpersonal relatedness, which was uncorrelated with any of the Big Five. This suggests that interpersonal relatedness might be a sixth personality trait common in Chinese culture.

Entity theory of the self and studying

An entity theory, in contrast, suggests that aspects of the self reflect an essence of the individual—an essence that remains, regardless of the efforts a person makes. If a person's attributes are stable over the lifespan and reflect self-defining characteristics, she should be less inclined to view her attributes as the product of hard work. And if she strongly embraces an entity theory of self, continued attempts can suggest a problem. Perhaps her innate abilities are not adequate and she has to work hard to compensate.

What are situational attributions

And we'd expect East Asians, as well as people from other cultural backgrounds, to be more likely to make situational attributions, explaining behavior in terms of contextual factors. - Explaining people's behavior in terms of contextual factors. See also dispositional attribution, fundamental attribution error.

one way people reduce cognitive dissonance

Another strategy is to change our attitudes so we no longer appear to be so inconsistent. This is known as dissonance reduction. The premium society places on consistent behavior is evident in the effort people will sometimes make to convince themselves of self-consistency.

how do people preserve face

As discussed earlier, people can adopt a prevention orientation to identify any weaknesses that might jeopardize their face. Another approach would be to present oneself to others in a way that would enhance one's face, such as being seen with brand-name products (Figure 8.5). Purchasing recognizable, valued items indicates higher status (Wong & Ahuvia, 1998). East Asians are big consumers of brand-name luxury goods; in fact, more than half the business in Louis Vuitton luxury bags and Remy Martin cognac occurs in East Asia (Wilson, 1994). A key motivation for such buying habits is to achieve social recognition—thereby maintaining or increasing face

How did the New York Times and Japanese newspaper describe fraud in different ways

As shown in Figure 8.9, the New York Times was more likely to explore the scandals in terms of the problems with the individual trader. In stark contrast, however, the Asahi Shinbun focused its reporting on the problems inherent in the organizations that could allow this scandal to occur. This pattern of results was observed in the coverage of scandals that occurred in both the West and Japan. The same event can be understood quite differently depending on one's view of agency. Apparently, Japanese are more likely to see groups as responsible for events in the world, whereas Americans tend to understand events in terms of the individuals involved

When making decisions, how do canadians vs asians make decisions

Asian Canadians seem less interested than the European Canadians in the idea of doing things for the sake of anticipated positive feelings. For people from Asian cultures, pursuing happiness, as a reason for making decisions, is apparently less important than it is for Westerners.

Who is more likley to seek upward social comparison than downward ones?

Asian Canadians were three times more likely to seek upward social comparison models than downward ones, yet European Canadians sought about as many upward as downward comparison models

Which culture is more self enhancing?

Because Native Americans tend to have a less independent self-view than European Americans, these findings are again consistent with the argument that independence and self-enhancement are related. But there are exceptions to this pattern, as some collectivistic cultures have shown levels of self-enhancement comparable to those found in more individualistic settings. Examples are the Maori in New Zealand, African Americans in the United States, Israeli Druze, and Indians making predictions about their future

Downward social comparison

Comparing one's performance with the performance of someone who is doing worse. See alsoupward social comparison.

Upwards social comparison

Comparing your performance with someone who is doing better than you are is known as an upward social comparison. In many situations, upward social comparisons tend to be painful because the contrast can make your own performance look that much wors

What are North American cultural messages and how do they relate to self enhancement

Cultural messages common in individualistic cultures encourage people to be self-sufficient and not rely on others (e.g., Markus & Kitayama, 1991). It would be extremely difficult to achieve these goals if one did not have a strong, positive sense of self. This reasoning suggests that as cultures become more individualistic, people have to learn to take care of themselves and carve their own paths, and increased self-esteem is a logical part of that process. However, an alternative perspective is that the motivation for self-enhancement is stronger in some cultures not because of individualism but because of economic inequality: People want to think of themselves as better than others when there are pronounced differences in economic opportunities

What cultures are low context, what are high context

East Asian societies are good examples of high-context cultures, whereas North American, and English-speaking cultures in general, are good examples of low-context ones. Typically, information communicated in some East Asian languages is considerably less explicit than in English.

East vs west berlin and learned helplessness

East Berliners were far more likely to be showing overt signs of depression than West Berliners (Figure 8.12). A reasonable interpretation of their data is that East Germans felt greater learned helplessness because they had less direct control over the events in their lives.

How has the James Lange theory been expanded

Emotions are no longer seen as just the physiological responses; they also include appraisals, nonverbal expressions, neural patterns, and subjective feelings

basking in the reflected glory

Emphasizing our connection to successful other people makes us feel better about ourselves by sharing in their warm glow. For example, research reveals that in order to boost their mood, people sometimes refer to their university's football team with the pronoun we instead of they if the team has recently won a game

Americans vs nomadic hunter of Jahai and odor perception vs color perception

English does not have many descriptors for odor, The participants were presented with the smells and color chips and were asked to freely describe them. The researchers wanted to see the amount of agreement. The Americans did well on the color naming, with much agreement in the color words they used. But they did poorly in the odor naming, with very little agreement among them (Figure 9.17). In contrast, the Jahai did about as well in naming the odors as they did in naming the colors. They had less agreement than the Americans in naming the colors (reflecting their smaller color vocabulary) and had more agreement than the Americans in naming the odors. It's possible that if English speakers learned a larger set of olfaction words they might also become better at recognizing different odors.

Within culture differences between analytical thinking and holistic thinking

Even within cultures there are parallel differences; working-class Americans and Russians are more holistic than their middle-class compatriots (Grossman & Varnum, 2011). In addition, politically conservative Americans and Chinese are more holistic than liberals (Talhelm, 2018; Talhelm et al., 2015). The link between analytic thinking and political views is also supported by the fact that training in analytic thinking can lead people to become more politically liberal in some circumstances

What is happening to individualism in the US

For example, people are spending less time with their families, the divorce rate has increased, and people are less likely to get involved in community organizations (e.g., Putnam, 2000; Rosen, 1998; Twenge, Campbell, & Gentile, 2013). It follows that wherever individualism increases, there's a corresponding increase in self-esteem and self-enhancement, and research confirms this for the U.S. - Americans who have recently graduated from college had considerably higher self-esteem when they were in college than their parents' generation did when they were in college.

How does ideal affect change in americans and East Asians

For most Americans, ideal affect includes positive emotions that are high in arousal, whereas for most East Asians, ideal affect contains positive feelings that are low in arousal.

What are Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck's 4 value dimensions? Human Nature

Good: people are naturally good, made of special energy Evil: people are bad, original sin, catholicism Mixed: most modern society, think we are both bad and good

Evolutionary meaning behind emotions

If our early ancestors did not experience physiological fear signals, they would probably have been caught by the bear; they wouldn't have had the chance to pass their genes on to the next generation. Over millions of generations, such signals would have been adaptive for our ancestors, and they therefore became part of our genetic code.

Do people have precise awareness of their bodily sensations?

If the same bodily information can be interpreted as either euphoria or anger—two very distinct and opposite emotions—then despite the physical signals associated with different emotional states, people don't have a precise awareness of their bodily sensations

What is a high-context culture

In a high-context culture, people are deeply involved with one another, and they share information that guides their behavior. Appropriate behavior for every situation is understood, so there's no need for explicit communication. Because people in a high-context culture have a great deal of information in common they can rely on, they can be less explicit in what they say to each other

What is a low context culture

In contrast, in a low-context culture there is less involvement among individuals, and therefore less shared information to guide behavior. As a result, people in a low-context culture have to communicate in more explicit detail, as others are less able to fill in the gaps of what is not said.

Western cultures and control

In contrast, people from Western cultures tend to stress the malleability of the world relative to the individual (Su et al., 1999). In the Bible, for example, God told Adam he would have dominion over all the earth; the world was there for humans to change and use to their liking. This belief persists in the West and is manifest in the view that the individual has the potential to shape the world to meet his or her own needs and desires.

Collectivistic cultures and control

In hierarchical collectivistic cultures, such as East Asia, the social world remains somewhat resistant to efforts by a single individual to change things (e.g., Chiu, Dweck, Tong, & Fu, 1997). Power and agency tend to be concentrated in groups or in leaders of groups, or they are mandated by the role that one occupies; therefore, there are many domains in which the individual is unable to exert much influence.

socioeconomic status and first generation students in terms of independent vs interdependent messages

Interdependent messages are a better fit with American students from a working-class background than independent messages

Generalizability of non industralized places of OCEAN

It's possible that the weaker support for the five-factor model in nonindustrialized cultures is due to participants being unfamiliar with answering questions in an interview format, thereby distorting any underlying personality factors. More research with other subsistence societies, using different methods, is needed to draw firmer conclusions about the generalizability of the five-factor model outside of WEIRD societies.

Why do personality traits cluster in certain regions of the wold?

It's possible that the weaker support for the five-factor model in nonindustrialized cultures is due to participants being unfamiliar with answering questions in an interview format, thereby distorting any underlying personality factors. More research with other subsistence societies, using different methods, is needed to draw firmer conclusions about the generalizability of the five-factor model outside of WEIRD societies.

Who is less likley to hold an incremental theory of the self

North Americans

Who compensates for failures by doing what? Who shows the reverse?

North Americans often compensate for their failures by inflating their self-assessments in other unrelated areas, but Japanese show the reverse tendency

Color perception - how does language change how we see color

Much research has shown that we tend to perceive stimuli as belonging to separate and discrete categories, even though the stimuli may gradually differ from each other along a continuum. For example, a continuum of sounds exists between the phonemes "ba" and "pa"; however, any sound that exists along that continuum is perceived by English speakers as either "ba" or "pa," and not as something in between

What is dialecticism in terms of the law of identity

No tolerance for contradiction, whatever is, is

What is an explanation for high context and low context cultures, japanese vs English

One alternative explanation is that there is something about the Japanese language, more than English, that requires people to listen to tone. If this were the case, then the variation would simply reflect the linguistic skills the languages demand, rather than a cultural difference, which was shown to be true

How does making choices affect cognitive dissonance

One example of the desire to avoid cognitive dissonance is making choices. For instance, when there are two similar alternatives, such as different models of cars, the best choice is not always clear. But after a decision is made, dissonance might follow, because there are features of the alternatives that are inconsistent with that choice. To reduce the unpleasant feelings, people often rationalize, by starting to view the elements that are consistent with their making a good decision (i.e., the positive features of their chosen alternative, and the negative features of their rejected alternative) as more important, and the elements that are inconsistent with their decision (i.e., the negative features of their chosen alternative, and the positive features of their rejected alternative) as less important.

Immigration and display rules

One explanation involves immigration history. Some countries, such as the United States and Brazil, have highly heterogeneous populations of people who have immigrated from a broad range of different cultures. Other countries, such as South Korea and Greece, are more homogeneous; their populations mostly descended from distant ancestors from the same region. People living in more homogeneous societies share much accumulated knowledge. - high context cultures dont need as many facial expressions to show what's going on

Do East Asians really view themselves more self-critically than North Americans do? Can you think of any other alternative explanations for why East Asians appear to self-enhance less?

One possibility is that East Asians actually are just as driven as Westerners to evaluate themselves positively, but various Western biases in the research methods prevent us from seeing these motivations. For example, East Asians may be more motivated to enhance their group selves rather than their individual selves, and comparisons of individual self-enhancing tendencies don't capture group self-enhancing incentives. This hypothesis is intriguing; however, many studies find that Westerners show stronger motivations than East Asians to enhance their group selves as well

Why do asians feel less interested in positive emotional experiences compared to westerners?

One reason Asians might be less interested in positive emotional experiences compared to Westerners is that feeling good might have fewer benefits for them. Studies demonstrate that positive feelings do not seem to carry the same protection against depression in East Asia.

What is opens to experience, agreeableness, extraversion, conscientiousness, and neuroticism

Openness reflects a person's creativity and curiosity about the world. Conscientiousness indicates how responsible, dependable, and self-disciplined a person is. Extraversion indicates how outgoing, social, or dominant a person is. Agreeableness refers to a warm, pleasant, and considerate temperament. Neuroticism indicates emotional instability and unpredictability.

What is primary control

People achieve a sense of primary control by striving to shape existing realities to fit their perceptions, goals, or wishes. Primary control is an extensively researched topic in psychology, and it is also referred to as internal locus of control, influence, or agency. It's the kind of control you use when you decide you want a hamburger and then go right out and get one.

What is secondary control

People achieve a sense of secondary control by attempting to align themselves with existing realities, leaving the circumstances unchanged but exerting control over their psychological impact. In other words, secondary control involves accepting one's circumstances (Morling & Evered, 2006). Secondary control is also known as adjustment or external locus of control.

Independent self vs interdependent self and kinds of emotions

People with an interdependent self are concerned with maintaining a sense of interpersonal harmony, and thus should be aware of how events in the world affect others close to them as well as themselves. Those with an independent self, in contrast, focus on how events affect them, or how events might serve to differentiate them as individuals from others. This suggests that people with independent and interdependent self-concepts will interpret situations differently—as either providing opportunities to distinguish themselves, or influencing their relationships with others. - Similar findings have emerged from studies contrasting Mexicans and Americans: Mexicans are more likely to experience interpersonally engaging emotions than Americans - In other words, for Japanese, emotions are experienced more as interpersonal states that connect people to each other, whereas for Americans, emotions are experienced more as personal states within individuals. - Japanese feel especially good when they're focusing on how their emotional experiences enable them to connect with others, whereas Americans feel good when dwelling on emotional experiences that distinguish them from others.

What are trophotropic emotional responses

Physiological responses that reflect actions of the parasympathetic nervous system more about relaxing muscles

What is ergotropic emotions

Physiological responses that reflect actions of the sympathetic nervous system More about expending energy

Russians vs americans on brooding and depression

Russians were more likely than the Americans to identify with the subject who reflected on her feelings, corresponding to the stereotype of the Russian brooder. - These results suggest that dwelling on one's negative emotions, although common in Russia, does not lead Russians to feel more depressed, as it does for Americans. Wallowing in one's negativity does not have the same consequences across cultures.

Diversity among individuals and cultures

Saying a culture is individualistic means that, on average, people in that culture are exposed to more cultural messages that encourage them to think independently. But people respond to those cultural messages in various ways, with some accepting them more than others (Figure 6.9). The fit between a person's self-concept and the dominant surrounding culture predicts his or her behavior and sense of well-being

Who changes more with the presence of someone else americans or japanese

Second, the American responses look quite similar across the four conditions; the participants were relatively unaffected by the situation. In contrast, the Japanese responses varied considerably depending on the situation. They were much less self-critical when they were by themselves than when they were with others, especially when they were with a professor. The general positivity of Japanese individuals' attitudes toward themselves appears to vary depending on who is in the room with them.

Asian vs european paintings: subject

Similarly, Western portrait artists tend to paint larger figures than East Asians. A larger subject, particularly a large face, serves to focus the viewer's attention on the portrayed individual. The figure comes to dominate the scene and stands apart from the background. In contrast, in East Asian portraits, the subject remains firmly set within the surrounding context. Comparing the two portraits (see Figure 9.1c and d), you can easily tell which culture has cultivated more of a sense that individuals are distinct and independent people.

Do East Asian use promotion or prevention more often

Since East Asians are more concerned with face, we should expect to see greater evidence of prevention orientation among them, and much research has confirmed this pattern - A high prevention orientation has also been found among Indians

What is self consistency

Some people seem to act pretty much the same all the time—with their friends at a bar, with colleagues at work, or with their family at home. These people would score high on a measure of self-consistency. Other people seem to act quite differently depending on whom they are with. They might appear quiet and respectful with their professors, outspoken and opinionated with their friends, and caring and doting toward their grandparents. These people would have a low self-consistency score.

Holistic thinking - is it normal

Some research suggests that holistic thinking is widespread throughout the world and that analytic thinking is the relatively unusual reasoning style, because it is largely restricted to people who have had contact with Western society or education systems

Example of entity vs incremental theory of the world

Sometimes there are clear social constraints people must adjust to; at other times, social relationships and organizations will change to adjust to the nature of their individual members. In some cases we see ourselves as more flexible than our social environments. In other situations, our social world seems potentially more malleable than we are. The extent to which people hold these beliefs can vary in important ways cross-culturally.

What might be another explanation for this difference in self enhancement

Still another possibility is that these studies are not measuring people's "true" feelings, but are instead tapping into differences in cultural norms for describing oneself. In other words, East Asians could be faking modesty (and perhaps Westerners are faking their bravado; see Kurman, 2003). However, studies that investigate people in anonymous situations and use hidden behavioral measures (e.g., Heine et al., 2001b; Takata, 2003) or indirect measures (Falk & Heine, 2015) still find clear evidence for this cultural difference in how they evaluate themselves.

What are Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck's 4 value dimensions? Nature

Subjugation to nature: homeless, taken over by nature harmony: feel like they are an extension of nature mastery: feel like they have the right to fully exert force over nature (industrial revolution)

Choice, asian vs whites

The Asian Americans thus shared some similarities but some important differences with the European Americans in their attitudes about choices. Like the European Americans, they seemed to be motivated when they made their own choices and were not motivated when an undesirable other made their choices for them. However, in stark contrast with the European Americans, Asian American students seemed especially motivated when a trusted other made choices for them. (For similar findings among Chinese and Indians, see Rudy et al., 2015.) Apparently, Asian Americans viewed the situation of their ingroups making choices for them as an opportunity to promote harmony and a sense of belonging with their other group members (also see Bao & Lam, 2008). European Americans seemed to view the same situation as something that stripped them of their freedom to choose.

How is self improvement motivation a strong incentive in some cultures and not in others?

The Canadians persisted much longer after success than failure, a finding that replicates much work that has been done on persistence research in the West (e.g., Feather, 1966; Pyszczynski & Greenberg, 1983). In stark contrast, the Japanese persisted much longer after failure than success (for similar findings, also see Shu & Lam, 2016). Apparently, the Canadians, maintaining a promotion orientation, were more interested in working on things they did well, because these were more likely to provide opportunities to succeed. The Japanese, in contrast, maintaining a prevention orientation, were more interested in working on the things they did poorly, apparently so they could improve themselves and be less likely to fail in the future. This self-improvement motivation is a strong incentive in East Asian contexts (e.g., Kitayama et al., 1997).

Website differences in asian vs North American governments

The East Asian websites were much longer (as indicated by the scrollbar being smaller) than the North American sites and had many more links and words (Figure 9.7). Simply put, the East Asian websites were busier, with more information for people to navigate.

How is self esteem important

The European American parents viewed self-esteem as central to child rearing—a positive quality that enhanced children's development, and should be cultivated by the parents. The Taiwanese parents, in contrast, had little to say about the words that most closely approximated the concept of self-esteem

What is the James-Lange theory of emotions

The James-Lange theory maintains that our body responds to environmental stimuli by preparing us to react in order for survival (such as running away from the bear), and our emotions are the bodily cues that signal how we should behave. As James reasoned, what would happen to our feelings of joy, rage, love, or any emotion if we removed the heart palpitations, stomach queasiness, or muscle tension? - Embarrassment is the sensation of blood rushing to the face, love is the feeling of one's stomach churning, and fear is the sensation of a pounding heart. Emotions, according to this view, are all about physiological experiences.

How does language impact emotions

The Natyashastra identifies a list of eight basic emotions. That list overlaps somewhat with the six emotions from Ekman and Friesen (1971), with names corresponding to disgust, sadness, anger, and fear, but not happiness or surprise. And there's no overlap with other contenders such as pride, embarrassment, shame, interest, or contempt. In addition, the Natyashastra includes four that are not typically considered to be basic emotions: love, amusement, enthusiasm, and wonder (Masson & Patwardhan, 1970). There's clearly some cross-cultural disagreement about what could be considered a basic emotion.

What is the incremental theory of self

The belief that we can easily change, and are expected to change - This theory of self represents the belief that a person's abilities and traits are malleable and can be improved. The attributes someone possesses are not seen as staying constant throughout the lifespan; they are perceived as reflecting how hard one has worked on them.

What is cognitive dissonance?

The distressing feeling that accompanies the awareness that one is behaving inconsistently, or against one's sense of self-consistency. This distress is so disturbing that we feel the need to rid ourselves of it. One way is to start acting more consistently, but that can be hard to do.

What a problem of personality evaluations

The reference group effect is a problem, because people evaluate their conscientiousness by comparing themselves to local norms (e.g., I view myself as punctual if I think I'm more punctual than most people around me) rather than international norms. (However, the reference group effect shouldn't be a problem when comparing different regions of the U.S., where people would all be familiar with American norms.)

If people with an interdependent self-concept are usually considering themselves from the perspective of an audience, what would happen if they encountered stimuli that put them in a state of objective self-awareness, such as being placed in front of a mirror? It

The results, shown in Figure 6.14, indicate that Americans became significantly more self-critical in front of a mirror than they were when no mirror was present. This finding replicates previous findings with Americans (Ickes et al., 1973). In contrast, Japanese were unaffected by the mirror. Regardless of whether they were viewing their mirror image and seeing how they appear to the world, or just thinking about themselves the way they typically do, they self-evaluated the same way. Apparently, the habitual self-view of Japanese is very similar to the perspective they have in front of a mirror.

Happy nation vs happy person changes in language, what does this suggest

The same researchers looked at how often the phrases "happy nation" and "happy person" were used in a Google Ngram database of American books. They found that uses of "happy nation" have steadily dropped, whereas "happy person" has steadily risen. This suggests that happiness has been transformed gradually in American English to reflect more of an individual's state, as opposed to that of a collective.

How do people conform in collectivistic cultures

The social cost of dissenting must be considerably greater in collectivistic societies, where people feel a stronger obligation to their ingroup members, and therefore are more motivated to achieve harmony and a sense of belonging. - Koreans, for example, were more likely than Americans, in one study, to report devaluing and avoiding others who stood out from the group in some atypical way - Although Americans show a great deal of conformity in the Asch model, people from more collectivistic cultures conform even more, especially when they are conforming to their ingroups

What is the Whorfian hypothesis of linguistic relativity - weaker and stronger version

The strongest version is that language determines how we think—that is, we are unable to do much thinking on a topic if we don't have the relevant words available to us. This strong version of the hypothesis has been almost universally rejected. Much thought clearly occurs outside of language; for example, infants and toddlers show evidence for quite complex thinking before they're able to speak. A weaker version of the Whorfian hypothesis is that the language we speak influences how we think. There has been much debate, controversy, and research involving this version. - It's not that one language allows people to think about certain ideas, but rather that one language obliges people to think about certain ideas (Deutscher, 2010). In German, for example, inanimate objects are assigned a gender: a bridge is feminine. Therefore, when Germans think about bridges, they are obliged to think about gender in ways that English-speaking people are not

Are people from different cultures really seeing things differently or are they processing the same information differently?

The task for the participants was to identify the emotion the central figure was experiencing. The Japanese judgments of the central figure's emotional expression were influenced by the faces of the background people. In contrast, the expressions of the background people had no impact on the judgments of the faces for the Americans. This is another demonstration that East Asians pay more attention to the background context than Westerners do.

What is felt temperature in terms of emotions

The temperature that one feels in their bodies when they are experiencing emotions.

control and socioeconomic status

The working-class participants were almost as satisfied with the pen they got in the usurped choice condition as they were in the free choice condition. In contrast, however, the upper-middle-class participants were much less satisfied when their choice had been taken away from them. - The researchers in this study point out that upper-middle-class Americans are raised to favor freedom of choice and to express themselves through their own decisions (Snibbe & Markus, 2005). They learn to respond negatively when they believe they don't have any choice in a situation. In contrast, working-class Americans grow up learning that much of what people encounter in life is beyond their control, and that a good way to maintain independence is to emphasize one's integrity and resilience during tough times.

What is the two-factor theory of emotions

These scholars maintained that emotions are based on two factors: physiological responses and the interpretation of those responses. This view, the two-factor theory of emotions, redirected the focus of emotions away from the physical body and into the mind. - If the two-factor theory is correct—that emotions are interpretations of physiological signals—this suggests that in addition to a physiological basis, emotions are constructed from the belief systems that shape people's interpretations

Who finds successes more memorable and why?

Unless American life really does provide more winning experiences and Japanese life provides more losing ones, we can conclude that Americans find successes more memorable, probably because they think about them more, and Japanese find failures more memorable, because they think about these more.

Talking, East Asian vs western culture

Western, talking is important whereas in East Asian cultures, there has traditionally been little emphasis on talking, if not outright suspicion of the spoken word - for asians: rather than indicating a lack of engagement, silence in the classroom might indicate the presence of some good thinking.

Chinese vs western people and brain scan, self concepts

Westerners showed different regions of brain activation, suggesting that they represent themselves and their mothers in distinct ways (Figure 6.6). In contrast, when the Chinese were evaluating themselves or their mothers, they showed activation patterns in the same brain regions for the two tasks (in particular, the medial prefrontal cortex, an area that has previously been linked to self-representations; see Heatherton et al., 2006). This suggests Chinese representations for themselves and for their mothers are not that distinct, and both representations reflect on the self-concept. Significant ingroup relationships form a core part of the self-concept for those with an interdependent view.

What are dispositional attributions

Westerners to be more apt to make dispositional attributions, explaining behavior in terms of a person's underlying qualities. - Explaining people's behavior in terms of their inner qualities, such as personality traits. See also fundamental attribution error, situational attribution.

When do euro Canadians vs asian show depression vs self enhancement

When European Americans write about a past event from a self-enhancing perspective, they show less anxiety and depression over time than those who write from a self-improving perspective, and Asian Americans show the opposite pattern

How do personal theories on a satisfying life impact how a person should feel about happiness

When people reflect on their day, they recall the events that happened and rate their satisfaction accordingly. However, when they consider a longer period, their estimates of their feelings are more likely to reflect the theories they hold about what life should be like (e.g., Robinson & Clore, 2002). European Americans appear to be operating under an implicit theory that they should be happy, whereas Asian Americans seem to operate under the theory that emotional experience, like other aspects of life, should be balanced, not necessarily upbeat all the time (Rodgers, Peng, Wang, & Hou, 2004). Because of this cultural difference, Westerners are more likely than East Asians to say their ideal life would be dominated by happiness

Is OCEAN universal

Yes, . It appears to be part of human nature for personality traits to naturally fall into these five distinct clusters.

Are facial expressions a cultural universal?

Yes, If people had no idea and simply guessed, they would have identified about one out of six correctly, or 16.7%. Yet they identified the emotion correctly in 80-90% of the photos. In other words, people in the five different cultures showed a great deal of agreement about what feelings the facial poses were expressing

What is promotion orientation

a concern with advancing oneself and aspiring for gains - With a promotion orientation, people are trying to secure good things;

what is an etic measure

a measure is created from one culture and exported for use in another culture - more universality

What is an emic measure

a measure is created from within a culture and used to assess people form that culture - more variability

what is learned helplessness

a person feels powerless and unable to control or avoid unpleasant events, leading to stress and even depression (

What are display rules for emotions

amplification vs deamplification - neutralization (emotional expreson desire 0 real emotion) vs stimulation (no emotional experience but showing a lot of emotion) masking (no emotional expression for what you're actually feeling) vs qualification (emotional expression is your emotional experience plus something else)

What is the carpentered world hypothesis?

an attempt to explain the Muller-Lyer illusion in terms of the cultural experience of living in a carpentered, right-angled world like our own - optical illusions reflect the different aspects of physical environment

In group outgroup boundary and individual self

an independent person perceives himself or herself as functioning largely separately from the social environment, so the people in that environment are more tangential to the person's self-concept. New relationships can be formed and old ones dissolved without much impact on individual identity. People with independent selves, therefore, should be more willing to form new connections, maintain larger networks, and be less distressed when relationships fade over time. The ingroup-outgroup boundary is not as important to self-construction for independent people, and it should thus be experienced as fluid and permeable.

What are differences between americans and japanese in control strategies

both Japanese and Americans reported that influencing situations felt more powerful than adjusting ones, suggesting that primary control might be universally experienced as powerful (and thus a good candidate for a functional universal). Despite the apparent universality of the perceived power in primary control situations, Japanese reported feeling more powerful about their adjusting situations than the Americans did. This cultural difference was evident in the way participants described their adjusting experiences. For example, Americans were more likely than Japanese to report feeling that they were compelled to adjust, as though it was against their will. They often described such experiences as something they "had to do"—as in "I had to adjust last school year when my roommate's boyfriend moved into our house." In contrast, the Japanese situations rarely indicated that the individual felt compelled to adjust or that the adjustment experience was negative.

What is a prevention orientation

cautious approach to protect oneself from negative outcomes - with a prevention orientation, they are trying to avoid bad things. A loss of face is one of those bad things people are motivated to avoid.

What are Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck's 4 value dimensions? Relational

collateral: no hierarchy, decisions are made together lineal: power is at the top, decision made by top individualistic: making decisions for me by myself

Dialecticism and law of excluded middle

collectively exhaustive, only one right answer, everything must either be or not be

How is numerical cognition largely cultural not innate?

comes from looking at the numerical systems of subsistence societies. Several cultures have relatively impoverished number systems. For example, the Piraha, a tribe from the Lowland Amazon region of Brazil, has a number system that contains only 1, 2, and "many." They have no terms for any specific numbers greater than 2. The Whorfian question that begs to be asked here is whether people who do not have number terms in their language can understand the concepts of those numbers. - rough quantity estimation skills might be innate, whereas numerical skills beyond 2 are acquired through cultural experience. Parallel findings for the development of numerical cognition in children is also consistent with this notion - without cultural input, people do not have an innate linear sense of numbers

Individualistic cultures and life satisfaction vs collectivistic

individualistic, predicted by positive affect collectivistic, predicted by the extent to which people felt they were living up cultural norms

Who is more likley to make attribution error, catholics or protestants? Working class or middle americans?

eligious groups differ in their attributions as well. For example, American Protestants are more likely than American Catholics to make dispositional attributions, and this difference appears to be due to Protestants having a greater commitment to the idea that individuals have a soul (Li et al., 2012). If people believe God is judging them on the basis of what their soul has done, it follows that they are more likely to view the soul as being the cause of specific behaviors. In addition, socioeconomic status predicts the kinds of attributions people make. Working-class Americans make more situational attributions, and fewer dispositional attributions, than middle-class Americans (Kluegel & Smith, 1986; Kraus, Cote, & Keltner, 2010). The same kinds of social class differences in explaining behavior have also been found in France

What is the biocultural model of emotion

event happens, you appraise it in one way, then your facial expressions go along with it, subjective experience of whatever you are experiencing and have autonomic repossess

What are the six facial expressions that are a universal, what about a seventh?

happiness, surprise, sadness, anger, disgust, and fear. - Strong evidence for the universality of expressing pride exists. However, unlike the six basic emotions, the pride expression involves the whole body, including an erect posture, the head held high, a slight smile on the face, and arms extending away from the body or held akimbo

Differences between a happy life and a meaningful life

happy, focused on present, fun times with friends, basic needs are met, sufficient money meaningful - positive feelings, meaningful life, focus on past and future, time with family, religion, expressing self

What is face

has been defined as the amount of social value others give you if you live up to the standards associated with your position (e.g., Ho, 1976). The higher your social position, the greater the amount of face available to you. For instance, the president of a company has a lot of face, whereas an employee in the mailroom has very little. Face can also be shared by groups. In the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the overall success of the event was seen by many Chinese to boost the face of all of China.

Is the fundamental attribution error a universal?

he American university students—adults—showed clear evidence for the fundamental attribution error by explaining behavior as largely due to personality. In contrast, the Indian adults did not show any evidence of the fundamental attribution error; rather, they showed evidence of a reverse fundamental attribution error because they tended to focus more on the situation than on the disposition. The fundamental attribution error does not look so fundamental anymore.

What is the incremental theory of the world

holds that our environment is flexible and responsive to our efforts to change things

External attribution

interpreting the reason for your low grade as being caused by something outside yourself

What is analytic thinking

is characterized by a focus on objects and their attributes. Objects are perceived as existing independently from their contexts, and they are understood in terms of their component parts. Analytic thinking is evident in Plato's perspective that the world is a collection of discrete, unchanging objects that can be categorized by reference to a set of universal properties. The same type of reasoning occurs in Aristotle's view that a stone falls through the air because the stone possesses the property of "gravity," and that a log floats on water because the log possesses the property of "levity."

What is holistic thinking

is characterized by a focus on the context as a whole. It is an associative way of thinking or paying attention to the relationships among objects, as well as between the objects and their surroundings. - Holistic thinking is also evident in Chinese medical traditions and in the culture's emphasis on harmony between people and nature. According to Nisbett (2003), Western and non-Western cultural differences in ways of thinking persist to this day because ancient Greece and Confucian China provided the intellectual foundation from which modern Western and East Asian societies have evolved

What is internal attribution

is interpreting the reason as being caused by factors within yourself - So you can shift the blame for your poor grade elsewhere and think to yourself, "The professor was impossible to understand," or "I didn't have enough time to prepare for the exam because of my cousin's wedding."

What is self-esteem

is the positivity of your overall evaluation of yourself

How does emotional intensity differ in different cultures

n one study, Japanese and American participants were asked to report on occasions when they had experienced certain emotions. The Americans reported feeling those emotions longer and more intensely than the Japanese did. In another study, Japanese and American students completed a questionnaire several times per day over a week to indicate the emotions they had felt - Other research has found that East Asians are less attentive to their gut feelings when compared with Westerners

What is the interdependent view of the self

n which the individual is a relational entity who is fundamentally connected to, and sustained by, a number of significant relationships (Markus & Kitayama, 1991). Many of the statements from the Masai and Samburu represent this concept of the self, and it is a profoundly different orientation. Rather than identity coming from inner attributes, this model views the self as being defined by social relationships and roles, and behavior depends on the perceptions of others' thoughts, feelings, and actions. - self is malleable and fluid

dialecticsm in terms of the law of non contradiction

nothing can both be and not be, only one thing can be true, not both, mutually exclusive

how does SES impact your psychological tendencies

rich, more independent self-construal, dispositional attributions, sense of control, unethical behaviour poor, interdependent self-construal, situational attributions, more empathy and helping behaviour less engagement with the benefit from educational and occupational opportunities - more likely to engage in behaviours that make their situation worse, less future-oriented, more pessimistic, greater external morality risk, more impulsivity

Agency, Spanish vs English, intentional vs unintentional

spanish is more passive, se rompio el vaso, - The English and Spanish speakers were equally accurate when identifying those who had acted intentionally (the languages do not differ when describing intentional agency); however, the English speakers were more accurate than the Spanish speakers in recalling who had broken the vase unintentionally. Apparently, by not being obligated to describe unintentional behaviors in terms of agency, Spanish speakers paid less attention to who had actually broken the vase, and were less likely to recall that fact.

What is taxonomic categorization? What is thematic categorization?

taxonomic: the clustering of items according to their perceived similarities, westerns thematic categorization, the grouping of items based on their causal, temporal, or spatial associations. Thematic categorization is especially common among East Asians (

What is attention?

the act or state of applying the mind to something or directing cognitive activity a certain way.

What are display rules

the culturally specific rules that govern which facial expressions are appropriate in a given situation, and how intensely they should be exhibited. Some cultures encourage people to show their emotions clearly, in a somewhat exaggerated way. For example, in certain Arab populations, it is dishonorable if a man does not respond to an insult with a great demonstration of anger

What is subjective well-being

the feeling of being satisfied with one's life. Studies consistently reveal clear cultural variability in subjective well-being.

What is predestination

the idea that before a person is born, it was already determined whether he or she would be one of the fortunate "elect" who would spend eternity in blessed heaven after death, or one of the wretched many doomed to burn in hell forever

What is ideal affect

the kinds of feelings people desire, or emotions they want to have, so they structure their lives in order to maximize the opportunities for experiencing them.

self-serving bias

the tendency for people to exaggerate their positive characteristics - However, one thing that helps sustain unrealistically positive self-assessments is that people rarely encounter concrete information about such abstract characteristics, so there's no evidence to prove that one is not above average. In other areas of life in which a person's relative standing compared to others is more clearly observable, such as height, calculus ability, or free-throw shooting skills, an unrealistically positive self-view is less likely

What is field independence

the tendency to separate objects from their background fields.

What is field dependence?

the tendency to view objects as bound to their backgrounds. - Research shows that the ability to judge the rod's angle while ignoring the frame relates to one's general social orientation. People who pay attention to others develop more of an orientation toward the field. Those who are extraverted are more field-dependent than people who are more introverted (Witkin, 1969). Similarly, farmers who live in societies where they must coordinate their activities with others are more field-dependent than hunter-gatherers or animal herders

Incremental theory and intelligence

they probably feel how smart they are is due to how much they study (Figure 6.15). Studying hard is believed to make one more intelligent. The implication of embracing such an incremental theory about intelligence is that if people aren't satisfied with their achievement level, they must not have worked hard enough. People with an incremental view should therefore be strongly motivated to study diligently, especially when their grades aren't as strong as they would like. There is always room for improvement, according to an incremental theory of self.

What is the entity theory of the world

we see our environment as fixed, and making changes is beyond our control. People's theories about how individuals can, should, and do behave are guided by how fluid and malleable they perceive themselves and their worlds to be.

Failure and incremental theory of the self

when people with an entity theory about intelligence encounter a failure, they are more likely to blame their intellectual ability. People with an incremental theory, in contrast, respond to failure by focusing on their efforts and the strategies they used (Henderson & Dweck, 1990). Also, people who are having trouble in school are more likely to take remedial courses if they have an incremental theory of self, rather than an entity theory

What is the endowment effect

which is the tendency for people to value objects more once they own them, and have endowed them with their own positive qualities - An important component of the endowment effect is that people see a connection between their objects and their selves, and once an object is owned, the owner's self-view tends to color the object - The endowment effect is much stronger in Westerners than in East Asians, and in some situations East Asians even appear to show a reverse effect

Compensatory self-enhancement

you acknowledge the poor grade you got but then think about your excellent clarinet-playing skills