personality psychology chapter 14
self-complexity
a failure in any one aspect of the self (such as a relationship falling apart) is buffered because there are many other aspects of the self that are unaffected by the event; when it comes to self-esteem, people who are HIGH in this react this way to negative events
self-complexity
a failure in any one aspect of the self (such as a relationship falling apart) might be seen as devastating because the person defines him or herself mainly in terms of this one aspect and makes up a huge part of their self-concept; when it comes to self-esteem, people who are LOW in this react this way to negative events
perspective taking
a final unfolding of the self-concept, occurring during the teen years, involves this: the ability to take the perspectives of others, or to see oneself as others do, to step outside of oneself and imagine how one appears to other people; this is why teenagers go through periods of self-consciousness
self-esteem
a person with high levels of this, following failure in one area of life, will focus on other areas of life in which things are going well; this strategy is one of the most effective but least used for overcoming feelings of failure
self-handicapping
a process in which a person deliberately does the things that increase the probability that he or she will fail; ex: having a pessimistic attitude toward an exam, use this as an excuse for not studying, providing a handicap or an excuse to fail, and when you fail you can say you were simply unprepared
cortisol, shy
according to a study, most children show elevated ___ responses, a hormone associated with stress, on the first day of school, and ___ children show an elevated and extended response of this even on the 5th day of school
experimenting, accepting, adopting, parents
according to erikson, identity can be achieved by: -___ with various identities -___ and ___ a ready-made social role, typically one that is practiced and provided by their ___ or significant others
self-esteem variability
an individual difference characteristic; the magnitude of short-term fluctuations in ongoing self-esteem; related to the extent to which one's self-evaluation is changeable, where some people's self-esteem is pushed and pulled by the events of life much more than others; this is different from LEVELS of self-esteem, they are independent of each other
2, 3
around ages ___-___, children are able to recognize their own gender and age and their self-concept expands to include their family
2
around what age are children able to pick his or her picture out of a crowd? around this time, they begin to grasp the idea that people have expectations of them and can follow rules set up by parents
5 to 6
at what age do children learn social comparison and a private self-concept?
shy
being ___ is not the same as being an introvert
personal pronouns
children do not begin to use ___ ___ until they gain self-recognition abilities in the mirror test
self-guides
compromised of the ideal self and the ought self; standards that one uses to organize information and motivate appropriate behavior; these get their motivating properties from emotions; they also influence our motivation by changing what we pay attention to
role confusion
erik erikson believed that achieving an identity took effort and work and that there was always a risk that an identity achieved could come undone, resulting in what he called this; he taught that people need to continually work on achieving and maintaining their identity
identity crisis
erik erikson coined this phrase, meaning the feelings of anxiety that accompany efforts to define or re-define one's own individuality and social reputation; for most people, the process of going through this is an important and memorable phase of life
private self-concept
from ages 5 to 6, children also develop this: they learn that they can lie and keep secrets, based on the realization that there is a hidden side to the self; may start out as an imaginary friend
social comparison
from ages 5 to 6, or the start of school years, there is the beginning of this: children increasingly begin to compare their skills and abilities with those of others; they are now either better or worse than other children
3, 4
from ages ___ to ___, self-concept is based on developing abilities, so what the child believes he or she can or cannot do
succeeding, failure
high self-esteem persons fear not ___ while low self-esteem persons fear ___
self-esteem
how you feel about who you are; "am i good or bad?"
approach approach
identity conflicts are known as "___-___" conflicts, in that the person wants to reach 2 mutually contradictory goals
ideal, ought
if one's real self does not fit one's ___ self, they will feel sad, despondent, and disappointed if one' real self does not fit one's ___ self, they will feel guilty, distressed, and anxious
high
if someone with high/low self-esteem has their self-esteem threatened, they may respond with violence and hostility
pretend play
in a study of children 15 to 21 months, only the children who exhibit self-recognition to a mirror are capable of ___ ___, requiring the child to distinguish "this is what i pretend to be doing" and "this is what I am actually doing"
18, 15, 24
in normal children, self-recognition with mirrors occurs on average at an age of ___ months, with ___ months being the earliest age and ___ months being the point at which all or almost all children demonstrate self-recognition
good
in one study, the low self-esteem participants asked for more feedback only when they knew it would be ___ news, when they were sure they were already doing above average; when they thought they were below average, they did not want any more feedback
did not
in one study, while the low self-esteem individuals did not want more feedback after knowing they did below average, high self-esteem individuals did/did not avoid more feedback after learning they were below average
identities
most people go through a period, usually during high school or college, where they experiment with various ___
evaluation
much of the research on self-esteem concerns how people respond to what?
continuity
one of the 2 important features of identity: this means that people can count on you to be the same person tomorrow as you are today; things that remain stable such as gender, surname, language, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status; other aspects can change but do so gradually, and other aspects refer to behavior patterns that are public such as being known as an athlete
contrast
one of the 2 important features of identity: this means that your social identity differentiates you from other people; an identity is what makes you unique in the eyes of others; the combinations of characteristics that make up your identity differentiates you from everyone else
deficit
one of the 2 types of identity crises, an identity ___ can occur when a person discards old values or goals, such as when college students reject old opinions in favor of new ideas and values in which they are exposed to in college; however, this creates a void that can be accompanied by feelings of emptiness and uncertainty; people whoa re trying to fill this void may try new belief systems, explore new relationships, and investigate new ideas and values
identity deficit
one of the 2 types of identity crises: this arises when a person has not formed an adequate identity and thus has trouble making major decisions such as "should i go to college?"; they have trouble making these decisions because they have no inner foundation
identity conflict
one of the 2 types of identity crises: this involves an incompatibility between 2 or more aspects of identity; this often occurs when a person is forced to make an important and difficult life decision; often involve feelings or guilt or remorse over perceived unfaithfulness to an important aspect of one's identity; ex: working persons who also want to have a family
motivate
one of the positive outlook son defensive pessimism is that these people use their worry and pessimism in a constructive way to ___ themselves to work on the things they are pessimistic about
ought self
one of the possible selves: persons' understanding of what others want them to be; built on what people take as their responsibilities and commitments to others (what they ought to do)
ideal self
one of the possible selves: what persons themselves want to be; built on one's own desires and goals and what they want to become
self-esteem variability
one study suggested that while self-esteem levels were related to depression, this relation was much stronger for persons higher in this; depression is therefore thought to be a result of a person's vulnerability to the self-deprecating events of everyday life
changing
our sense of self is ___ all the time
propaganda
people who are experiencing an identity deficit are very vulnerable to the ___ of various groups; they are often very curious about other belief systems, so they are vulnerable to influence from other people
amygdala, fear
psychologists studying the brain have suggested that shy people have MORE reactivity in which area of the brain? this is the area of the brain most responsible for ___, especially when shown new faces
low, high
research suggests that, following failure, high/low self-esteem persons are more likely to perform poorly and give up earlier on subsequent tasks, and for high/low self-esteem persons, failure feedback tends to spur them into action on subsequent tasks, and they are less likely to give up and more likely to work just as hard on the second task as they did on the first
self-concept
researchers believe that people readily accept feedback that is consistent with their ___ ___; so low self-esteem people accept failure feedback because it confirms their views, and high self -esteem people do not accept failure feedback because it is not consistent with their views, and sometimes even discount the feedback
sensitivity, concern, social, evaluation
researchers has suggested that self-esteem variability is high in some people because they: -have an enhanced ___ to social evaluation events -have an increased ___ about their self-view -over-rely on ___ sources of evaluation -react to ___ with anger and hostility
sociometer hypothesis
researches have argued self-esteem is like a gauge because it tells us how we are doing socially; this motivates us to avoid behaviors that lead to rejection
does not, heritable
self-esteem: -does/does not relate to socially-valued traits -is moderately ___
strongly, questionnaires
self-reports of shyness correlate strongly/weakly with peer reports of shyness, suggesting that this characteristic can be well measured with ___
negatively, ruminating
shy individuals interpret social interactions ___ by ___ on comments or behaviors in an interaction
continuity
social identity has an element of ___ because many of its aspects, like gender and ethnicity, are constant; people are recognized as being the same from day to day, week to week, and year to year
identity
some challenges to this can include events that change one's reputation, change one's family life, or change one's economic status
social anxiety
some psychologists who study shyness prefer this term: discomfort related to social interactions or even to the anticipation of social interactions; feeling nervous, worried, or awkward when talking to others, especially unfamiliar people, so they cut interactions short; these people often think people will dislike them and think they are less competent
self-reflection
the "self" is a broad term that encompasses the parts of human behavior that require or are altered by what?
self-complexity
the extent to which self-schemas are differentiated and compartmentalized; whether one' self-concept is made up of many roles; the idea that we have many roles and aspects to our self-concepts, but for some of us this is rather simple and only focuses on a few things
infancy
the first glimmer of a self-concept occurs in ___; a child simply learns that some things are always there, like its own body, and some things are only there sometimes, like a mother's breast; the child simply makes a distinction between its own body and everything else
positive, school, job, likeable, drug, alcohol, sexual, aggressive
the six myths of self esteem include: 1. high self-esteem is correlated with all manner of ___ characteristics, like physical attractiveness and intelligence 2. high self-esteem promotes success in ___ 3. high self-esteem promotes success on the ___ 4. high self-esteem makes a person ___ 5. low self-esteem puts a person at risk for ___ and ___ abuse and premature ___ activity 6. only low self-esteem people are ___
self-esteem
the sum of your positive and negative reactions to all the aspects of your self-concept; researchers like to think of this as a person's global or average evaluation of their whole self-concept
performance, appearance, social
there is a scale for measuring what 3 main aspects or types of self-esteem?
shy
these types of people desire friendships and social interactions but are held back by their insecurities and fears of being negatively evaluated by others
self-schemata
these usually refer to past and current aspects of the self
defensive pessimism
this is one of the strategies used by people with low self-esteem: a person facing a challenge, such as an upcoming test, expects to do poorly; motivated by their fear of failure, they take this gloomy outlook because the impact of failure can be lessened if it is expected in advance; expect failure, then, when it happens, it is nothing new
prevention focus
this is one of the way self-guides influence our motivation by changing what we pay attention to; motivated by the ought self-guide, shifting our attention to avoiding harm and seeking safety (guiding behavior on what they do not want to happen); achieving these goals is associated with relief
promotion focus
this is one of the way self-guides influence our motivation by changing what we pay attention to; the ideal self guides us to focus our attention on achievement and goal accomplishment; achieving these goals results in pleasure
social identity
this is who you are as you present yourself to others; sometimes this does not match our self-concept, and the selves we present to others are not the selves we know our selves to be, leading some of us to feel false or phony in our relationships; this is the relatively enduring part of ourselves
objective self-awareness
this occurs in the teen years when self-concept is still developing: seeing yourself as an object of others' attention; this is often experienced as shyness, and for some is a chronic problem
evaluation apprehension
this occurs when shy people put too much stock in other people's judgements of them; the idea that shy persons are apprehensive about being evaluated by others
erik erikson
this person, who popularized the term "identity", believed that it resulted from efforts to separate oneself from one's parents, to stop relying on one's parents to make decisions about what values to hold and what goals to pursue in life
possible selves
this term describes the many ideas people have about who they might become, who they hope to become, or who they fear they will become; they are not based on past experiences but are still a part of the self-concept
self-schema
this term refers to the specific and abstract knowledge structure, or cognitive representation, of the self-concept; networks of associated building blocks of the self-concept; ex: a person has this of what it means to be masculine, and might include attributes like assertiveness, strength, and independence; these are built on past experiences that guide the processing of info about the self, particularly in social interaction
self-discrepancy theory
this theory is composed of the actual self, ideal self, and ought self; people compare themselves to internalized standards called "self-guides"
true
true or false: bullies are often very self-confident and less socially anxious than the average
true
true or false: identity crises, both deficit and conflict, commonly occur during adolescence and middle age
true
true or false: people who undergo midlife crises often act as adolescents again, meaning an identity crisis often looks the same whether it occurs at adolescence or at midlife
true
true or false: self-esteem is lowest in adolescence and increases over most of adulthood
self esteem
two people can have the same self-concept, such as bring thrifty and hoarding money, but can differ in how they evaluate those characteristics in their ___ ___
weakly, significantly
under conditions of objective and identifiable stress, higher self-complexity is weakly/strongly but significantly/unsignificantly associated with superior well-being; suggesting that other factors in addition to self-complexity influence how people react to these negative life events
theory of mind
understanding that others may have different perspectives and want different things than you do
continuity and contrast
what are the 2 important features of identity?
self-concept, self-esteem, social identity
what are the 3 main components of the self?
arranged marriages
when achieving an identity, this is an example of an identity adoption
identity deficit
when experiencing a mid-life crisis, which of the 2 types of identity crises do people mostly experience?
values, desires, behaviors
when it comes to identity crises, those who do not find a resolution involves 2 steps: 1. they decide which ___ are most important to them 2. they transform these abstract values into ___ and actual ___
high
when it comes to the 3 main types of self esteem, people who tend to have high self-esteem in one area tend to have ___ self esteem in other areas
identity
when it comes to the development of this, people have some latitude to choose what they want to be known for; people also differ from each other in the strength of this, where one person may feel a strong sense of reputation while another feels adrift in their social relations, not knowing who they are expected to be
self-concept
your understanding of yourself; "who am I?"; the basis for self-understanding; this determines how we relate to and evaluate events in the world
