psych quiz #4

what do you think of yourself

• sum total of a person's thoughts and feelings that defines the self as an object
• explains situational behaviors

• besides who we are, we hold self-concepts of possible selves
• a possible self is who we want to be (desired selves) and who we ought to be (ought selves)

• introspection
• self-perception theory
• social comparison

• often difficult and incorrect
• we don't know what to conclude when looking inward
• ex: why are you happy? would you give shocks in an experiment?

• we infer our own attitudes and feelings from attributions of our own behavior
• if i'm laughing, i must think it's funny

• we infer our own attitudes and feelings from attributions of our own behavior
• if i'm laughing, i must think it's funny

• control: canned laughter has no effect
• contagious: canned laughter is contagious
• inhibits: canned laughter inhibits laughing
• ALL LAUGHED

• introspection first then self-perception
•    - we notice an "arousal" (introspection)
•    - we seek an attribution for this arousal (self-      perception)
• causes you to infer your current emotion

• relative
• ex: upward comparison = other has higher test grade 
• downward comparison = other has lower grade

• Mr. Clean/Mr. Dirty
• job interview 
• interact w/ Mr. Clean - upward comparison
• interact w/ Mr. Dirty- downward comparison
• then fill out self-esteem questionnaire
• Results: Mr. Clean > low self esteem
• Mr. Dirty > high self esteem

• people often ignore objective factors during evaluation
• ex: Campus as a “fish pond”: better to be a big frog in a small pond than a small frog in a big pond

• people have selves to help them interact w/ other people
• having a self enables you to predict how others people will treat you

• we use others to perceive ourselves
• what we think other people think of us matters, not their actual thoughts

• we try to create a public self-image for others
• two main motives:
•    - appear as positive as realistically possible
•    - create an identity

to help make favorable impressions, people sometimes deliberatley put barriers in their way

how we feel about ourselves

people see themselves as better than than average on any dimension

all children are above average

• believe that good things are more likely to happen to you than most other people and that bad things are less likely
• depressed people lack this

overestimate or underestimate extent to which others think and act as we do

tendency to overestimate the commonality of one’s opinions and one’s undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors

tendency to underestimate the commonality of one’s abilities and one’s desirable or successful behaviors

• self's ability to make decision, initiate actions, and exert control over the environment
• people have need to feel like they have control over their lives
•    - locus of control
•    - meaning seeking
•    - intrinsic motivation

• the extent to which people perceive outcomes as internally controllable or due to chance or outside forces
• people with internal locus of control try harder, deal with setbacks better and are more successful

• people believe that they can control event which are truly random
• try to find meaning in accidents
• people who find meaning cope better than people who don't

when people feel like they have to do something they lose interest as soon as the reward is removed

• Test: Compare ideal with current state
• Operate: Perform an action to help reach ideal state
• Test: Effect of operation
• Exit: If at ideal, otherwise repeat cycle

after exerting self-control, people's level if strength is decreased

• reflexive self: who you are
• interpersonal self: how you related to others
• executive self: how we choose between alternatives

• attitudes towards groups and members of that group
•    - overgeneralized
•    - inaccurate
•    - resistant to change

• stereotypes: cognitive component
•    - beliefs 
• prejudice: affective component 
•    - emotional reactions + discomfort
• discrimination: behavioral component 
•    - actions

• fixed way of thinking about people that doesn't allow for individual variation
• "types" of people
• foundation for prejudice but NOT prejudice

• people listen to audio tape of basketball game and focus on player named Mark Flick
• people were told he was black to some, white to others
• people who thought he was black said he played a better game, more athletic
• people who thought he was white said he hustled more and was a smarter player

• hostile or negative attitudes towards others based on group membership
• emotional response

emotions may be a better predictor of behavior than thoughts

• hostile or negative acts towards others based on group membership
• behaviors do not always follow attitudes
• doesn't always come in negative attitude
• ex: real-estate agents may only show blacks to houses in black neighborhoods

• handling violent patients in an all-white psychiatric hospital
• black patients more likely to get drugs at beginning than white patients

• people were to respond if they saw a person with a gun
• people responded quicker to a black guy on screen
• weapon bias

• besides clear negative outcomes, effects may be more subtle-stereotype threat
• awareness that anything one does may confirm a stereotype
• ex: black and white people given difficult english test and told that it was either to test stereotype threat or had nothing to do with it
• black people did worse when they thought they were being tested of stereotype threat

• social cognition account
•    - thoughts
• self-esteem maintenance account (social dominance) 
•    - feelings
• realistic conflict account
•    - behaviors

• prejudice as the result of information processing
• the way we think and organize info can lead us to form negative stereotypes and apply them
• Many potential mechanisms:
•    - out-group homogeneity
•    - stereotype activation
•    - illusory correlation

• the perception that those in the out-group are more similar than they are
• "they" are all the same
• cognitive bias to see out-group members as alike 
• may form the cognitive foundation to prejudice

• the tendency for stereotypes to bias perceptions when they are "activated" by the situation
• everyone knows the stereotype and it may affect our behavior unconsciously when activated
• ex: when people overhear racist comment during debate b/t white and black person , they think the black person did a lot worse

• believe that two variables are related when in fact they are not
• remember info that is consistent w/ our beliefs or stereotypes and forget inconsistent info
• pay attention to selected info 
•    - think of someone and they call, you think your psychic

• read info about group A+B
• twice as much info on group A 
• equal percentage of pos and neg about each group
• people think A is more positive
• pre-existing beliefs can blind people

prejudice as a motivation to fel good about the self

way to test esteem motivation

• in minimal groups people selected to random groups
• people tend to favor people in their groups more

• I feel good when "we" are on top
• example of esteem motivation

• prejudice is not just something in our heads
• real conflicts exist in the world
• prejudice should rise and fall based on the amount of inter-group conflict present
• tough times (less resources) → more conflict
• Better times (more resources) → less conflict