Social Psychology Exam 2

what is the self-fulfilling prophecy?

a belief that leads to its own fulfillment

self efficacy

a sense that one is competent and effective... how competent we feel at a task

individualism: analytical thinking style definition

focus on objects without considering surrounding context= when looking at the world around us, the focus is on one focal point rather than the greater context

collectivism: holistic thinking style definition

focus on the overall context, relation between objects= greater emphasis on the wide context of a situation

collectivism

interdependent self - giving priority to the goals of one's group (often one's extended family or work group) and defining one's identity accordingly

self-serving attribution definition

taking credit for successes and blaming others or the situation for failures - overlooking the situation and praising yourself, if something good happens we praise ourselves, but when something bad happens the blame is on the situation/others

individualism is found mostly in ______ cultures

western - in the United States, individuals are more focused on the individual then a group

what are the problems with introspection?

- not always pleasant - not always accurate

what are the 3 motives for social comparison?

1. self evaluation 2. self enhancement 3. self improvement

what are the failures of introspection?

1. we are bad at predicting our behavior (planning fallacy) 2. we are bad at predicting our emotions (impact bias) 3. we are bad at explaining our behaviors and feelings

what is the behavioral confirmation series of events?

1. you have an expectancy or socal theory about the target person 2. you behave toward the target in a way that's consistent with your theory of expectancy 3. your target responds to your behavior in a similar manner 4. you see the targets behavior as proof that your expectancy was right, you don't realize the role you played in causing the targets response

(Textbook) The founding father of self-efficacy is ______.

Albert Bandura

collectivism is found mostly in _______ cultures

Asia, Africa, Central America, South American - more focus on others rather than the self

self-esteem definition

a person's overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth - exists on a continuum, stable, individual difference, malleable

confirmation bias definition

a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence

what are the two kinds of thinking?

automatic and controlled - duel systems, simultaneous

self-schemas definition:

beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant information - how we filter information

self-evaluation definition

compare with similar others

what is controlled thinking?

conscious, intentional, voluntary, and effortful - effortful process necessary to learn - once learned, controlled thinking leads to automatic thinking EX: first learning how to driving

you must engage in _______ thinking to activiate ______ thinking

controlled, automatic

duel attitude system definition

differing implicit (automatic) and explicit (consciously controlled) attitudes toward the same thing

self-enhancement definition

downward social comparison= to feel better about yourself: compare with worse-off others

thin slicing definition

drawing meaningful conclusions about another person's personality or skills based on an extremely brief sample of behavior

snap judgement definition

forming impressions based on the slightest of cues

imposture syndrom definition

high achieving individuals who, despite their objective successes, fail to internalize their accomplishments and have persistent self doubt and fear of being exposed as a fraud or imposture - Effects 70% of the general public - High achievers and perfectionists - Predictors of imposter syndrome: perfectionism- self esteem- imposter syndrome - Outcomes: anxiety and self doubt- receiving positive feedback- ignoring positive feedback- feeling like a fake, self doubt, depression, anxiety

social comparison theory

how we use others to form our understanding of ourselves - people compare themselves to others to learn about their own abilities and attitudes - theory that we seek to evaluate our abilities and beliefs by comparing them with those of others

(Textbook) In Wilson & Gilbert's study (2003) of predicting feelings, it appears that people have the greatest difficulty predicting what aspects of their future emotions?

intensity & duration

what is the Dunning-Kruger effect?

incompetence feeds overconfidence, often times individuals who are not skilled in a task/ability are not aware of their incompetence (illusory superiority)

individualism

independent self - giving priority to one's own goals over group goals and defining one's identity in terms of personal attributes rather than group identifications

(Textbook) Our immediate knowledge of something without reasoning or analysis is identified as ________ judgement

intuitive

(Textbook) Self-serving attributions can contribute toward _____.

marital discord, worker dissatisfaction, bargaining impasses

schemas definition

mental structures used to organize knowledge about the world and guide how we notice, think about, and remember the world (refers to objects, the self, or groups/ stereotypes) - functional, help us to engage in our world - shape how we think about the world

(Textbook) According to Mark Leary ((1998, 2004b, 2007), our self-esteem fuel gauge can ______

motivate greater sensitivity, alert us to social rejection, motivate us to self improvement

what is referred to as "self-esteems conceited sister"?

narcissism

what correlation is there between narcissism and social media?

narcissism positively correlated with updates about achievements and diet/exercise, the more narcissistic a person is the more their posts relate to achievements and diet/exercise

low self-esteem is related to...

negative outcomes - people with low self esteem are linked to anxiety, depression, eating disorders

self-concept definition:

our knowledge and beliefs about who we are - social identity, intelligence, generation, geographical location, personality traits, talents, preferences, attitudes - self concept changes over time

(Textbook) Research in 1999 by Kruger and Dunning found that incompetence feeds ________

overconfidence

false commonality definition

overestimate the commonality of ones undesirable or successful behaviors

impact-bias definition

overestimating the enduring impact of emotion-causing events - we overestimate our emotional reactions to an event, bad emotions don't last as long as we think it will

high self-esteem is related to...

positive outcomes (BUT does not guarantee success) - promotes initiation, resilience, motivation

(Textbook) Even when stimuli are presented unconsciously, their effects can become conscious due to ______

priming

terror-management theory

proposes that people exhibit self-protective emotional and cognitive responses when confronted with reminders of their mortality

schemas are...

self fulfilling

what makes self-shemas different from self-concept?

self schemas are functional, they guide how we think about, process, and notice in the world

(Textbook) Taking credit for success but avoiding blame for failures, having unrealistic optimism, and believing that we're better than average are all examples of ______.

self-serving bias

priming definition

stimulus in environment activities information and activated information influences subsequent judgements (immediate reaction to a stimulus) - immediate influences subsequent responses, temporary - shades ones impressions of something/someone

(Textbook) Daniel Kahneman (2011) has classified what we would call a "gut reaction" as what brain system?

system 1: automatic thinking

bias "blind spot" definition

tendency to believe other people more susceptible to attributional biases compared to self - Pronin, Lin, & Ross (2002): participants voted that the average American was more likely than themselves

false uniqueness definition

tendency to overestimate our positive qualities in comparison to others, meanwhile believing our bad characteristics are the same as others

what is behavioral confirmation?

the process by which an expectation about a personal eventually leads that person to behave in ways that confirm that expectation

what is the overconfidence phenomenon?

the tendency to be more confident than correct, to overestimate the accuracy of one's beliefs EX: test performance

self-serving bias definition

the tendency to perceive oneself favorably - when we question our sense of self worth we have a tendency to go out of our way to think about the world in a way that makes us feel good about yourself

better-than-average effect

the tendency to rank oneself higher than most people on positive attributes - EX: driving

planning-fallacy definition

the tendency to underestimate how long it will take to complete a task

introspection defintion

turning inward to explain why we feel, act, or do, examination of one's own thoughts and feelings

what is automatic thinking?

unconscious, unintentional, involuntary, and effortless - our immediate reaction, how we think, feel, behave - behaviors can become automatic, the behavior unfolds through automatic thinking EX: typing on keyboard, reading

self-improvement definition

upward social comparison= to strive to do better: compare to better-off others