Working self-concept
It is the idea that only a subset of a person’s vast pool of knowledge is being brought to mind
in any given context. And usually, it is the most relevant subset that is being brought to mind.
For example, when you are hanging out with your romantic partner, the notion of the self that
is about relationship is more likely to be the main focus in your mind.
Malleability and stability
We have core aspects of ourselves that we first think of when thinking about ourselves. The
social self has malleability, shifting from one context to another, but it also has stability as
there are core aspects persist across contexts.
For example, you may be confident around your friends while insecure around your critical
mother. It is not that you are confident around you friends one day while insecure the next
day; you are being confident whenever you are around your friends. There is malleability
there, but there also shows stability.
Independent self-construals
It is the idea that people define themselves as distinct and separate entities from other people.
People assert uniqueness and distinctiveness. For example, in the textbook example when
people of independent self-construals were asked to recall an event, they consider
themselves as the first person and have an inward focus where they look at other aspects
starting from the self.
Interdependent self-construals
It is the idea that people define themselves as members of groups. The self-construal is
embedded within social relationships and responsibilities. For example in the textbook
example when people of interdependent self-construals were asked to recall an event, they
consider themselves as the third person and have an outward focus where they look back on
themselves, starting from the outside, as the object of attention.
Social comparison theory
It is the theory that we tend to compare ourselves to other people for an accurate assessment
of our opinions and beliefs. Generally, we perform social comparison when there is no
objective standard of evaluations of oneself.
For example, students usually compare their grades with other students to see whether they
are good or bad in a class.
Contingencies of self-worth
Contingencies of self-worth, proposed by Crocker, is the idea that people’s self-esteem is
contingent on the successes and failures in domain that they have based self-worth.
For example, you are a psychology major and you are doing well in all of your psychology
classes, you are more likely to have an increase in your self-esteem, comparing to doing bad
in a math class because you did not place much self-worth in that domain.
Self-enhancement
Self-enhancement refers to our tendency to maintain, increase, or protect our positive selfimage.
For example, when I find out that my crush does not like me back, I may try to maintain my
positive self-image by telling myself, “I am too good for him.”
Better-than-average effect
It is the idea that people tend to think of themselves as above average in different areas
including personality traits and ability dimensions. We have a tendency to believe that we are
significantly above average in ambiguous traits such as being artistic, but not in physical
traits, such as being tall.
Self-affirmation theory
Self-affirmation theory is another self-enhancement technique in which people think of
positive aspects of themselves when their self-image is being threatened.
For example, when you were told that you have a very serious illness, the way you perform
self-enhancement is to think of some positive traits of yourselves, such as thinking that you
are a very good swimmer.
Self-verification theory
Self-verification theory is the idea that people strive for stable and subjectively accurate
beliefs of themselves because such views promote a sense of coherence and predictability.
For example, if you believe that you are shy, you are more likely to seek others to confirm
the belief that you are shy. In addition, people are more likely to engage in relationships that
hold consistent views of oneself.
Self-regulation
Self-regulation refers to the process of initiating, altering, or controlling our behavior in
pursuit of a goal. It involves resisting short term rewards in order to achieve long term goals.
For example, your friends ask you to hang out with her during weekends but you have a goal
to maintain a 4.0 gpa. You may resist the short term temptation (hanging out with your
friend) in order to achieve your long term goal (maintaining a 4.0 gpa).
Self-discrepancy theory
Self-discrepancy theory refers to the idea that our behaviors are not only motivated by the
actual self, but also by the ideal and ought self. Discrepanies between actual and ideal self
can produce dejection-related emotions such as depression and shame, while discrepancies
between actual and ought self can produce agitation-related emotions such as guilt and panic.
Prevention and Promotion focus
When an individual is motivated by the ideal self, s/he is engaging in a prevention focus,
meaning to focus on promoting positive outcomes. When an individual is motivated by the
ought self, s/he is engaging a promotion focus, meaning to focus on avoiding negative
outcomes.
For example, when you are going out for a first date with your crush, a promotion focus is to
think about ways to make your crush happy, while a prevention focus is to think about ways
to not embarrass yourself.
Implementation intentions
It is an example of automatic self-control strategies, in which is an if-then plan to engage in a
goal-directed behavior (“then”) whenever a particular cue (“if”) comes up.
For example, you have a plan, “If she comes in, I am going to stand up.” ¥our goal is the
stand up while the cue is when she comes it. This process becomes automated as this if-then
plan is being thought in your head.
Goal-temptation mental associations
It is an example of automatic self-control strategies, in which the temptation is linked in
memory with your goal. Whenever temptation comes up, your thoughts about your goal also
comes up, and eventually puts the temptation out of your mind.
For example, the temptation to eat fried chicken wings is linked to your goal to lose weight.
Whenever you see fried chicken wings, the thought of losing weight also appears in your
mind, helping you to resist the temptation to eat fried chicken wings.
Self-presentation
Self-presentation is about presenting the person that we want others to believe we are.
For example, Hogue presenting himself as Santana is an example of self-presentation. He
presented himself as someone who grew up in Utah, where in fact he was actually a frequent
law-breaker and who created a fraudulent application to get into Princeton.
Self-handicapping
Self-handicapping is about engaging in self-defeating behaviors to protect yourself in public
and to prevent others from making unwanted inferences based on poor performance.
For example, students may put little effort in studying for an exam so that they have an
excuse afterwards if they fail the exam by saying, “I just did not study.”
Implicit attitude measures
Implicit attitude measures are indirect measures of attitudes that do not involve self-reports.
For example, the IAT test is an example of implicit attitude measure that allows researchers
to get into the nonconscious attitudes of the participants.
Cognitive dissonance theory
Cognitive dissonance theory, proposed by Festinger, is a theory that says we have an effort to
restore consistency by changing out cognition to make it consistent with our behavior,
because such inconsistency troubles us and arouses the dissonance.
For example, when you’ve made a decision to move to California and this decision cannot be
undone, you try to reduce dissonance by telling all your friends how much you love the
weather in California.
Effort justification
Effort justification refers to our tendency to reduce dissonance by justifying the time and
effort devoted to something that turns out to be unpleasant or disappointing.
For example, when you’ve worked so hard to get into the fraternity in your university that
you’ve hoped for many years, but then you found out that the members weren’t nice, you
may try to reduce dissonance by justifying the time and effort you devoted to get into this
fraternity, and say to yourself that your members weren’t really that unfriendly.
Foreseeability
When a behavior is foreseeable and it results in negative consequences, dissonance is
aroused.
For example, when you use peanut oil to cook for your guests and you are not aware that one
of your guests is allergic to peanut. That guest was sent to hospital afterwards, but you should
not feel much dissonance because this event is not foreseeable as you did not have prior
knowledge about it.
Self-affirmation in dissonance
We may reduce dissonance by seeing ourselves positively.
For example, in a study where participants failed to confront a bully even though they
believed it was a wrong thing to do, their dissonance was reduced when they were asked to
write some positive traits about themselves.
Self-perception theory
Self-perception theory, by Bem and in Chaiken’s study, is the theory that we come up with
our attitudes by looking at our behavior and the context where it occurred, and from that we
infer what our attitudes must be.
For example, when you finish your plate so quickly that your friends are still half-way
through, you may look at your plate and think to yourself, “I must be really hungry.”
Overjustification effect
Overjustification effect is the idea that people devalue activities, even pleasing ones, in order
to get something else.
For example, in the textbook’s example, the student loses interests in math game when they
later find out that doing the math game is a way to get rewards. Even though they used to
enjoy playing the math game, they devalue this activity because they realized that they could
get rewards afterwards and so they only focus on getting rewards.
System justification theory
System justification theory is the belief that the sociopolitical system is fair and legitimate.
According to this theory, it is easier to reduce dissonance by accepting the current
sociopolitical system, rather than to challenge it.
For example in one study, some women thought that they deserve lower pay even though
their work was the same as the men. Although they might have some arguments against these
thoughts, it is difficult to come up with some couterarguments to support their position and
therefore they reduced dissonance by accepting to the prevailing norm.
Terror management theory
It is the process by which people deal with anxiety regarding to the knowledge of death by
creating symbolic mortality through connecting themselves to a broader context or a cultural
group.
Elaboration Likelihood Model
Elaboration Likelihood Model, proposed by Petty and Cacioppo, is the idea that there are two
routes to persuasion – central route and peripheral route. People sometimes process
persuasive messages mindlessly and effortlessly, using the peripheral route. While
sometimes, people process persuasive messages carefully and deliberately, using the central
route.
Sleeper effect
Sleeper effect is the phenomenon that persuasive messages from an unreliable source that
exerts little effects initially can cause shifts in your attitudes at a later time.
For example, you first disregard a message from the radio made by someone with no
expertise who says that humans are not responsible for global warming. At a later time, the
content of the message still stays in your head but the credibility to the speaker fades away.
There is dissociation of the source from credibility, making you to remember the content
instead, and eventually may alter your attitude about global warming.
Identifiable victim effect
Identifiable victim effect is the idea that people are more likely to be persuaded to act on
behalf of a course if being shown images of victims that are clearly identifiable.
For example, UNICEF often times includes images of poor and innocent kids in their
advertisements so to influence people to help them.
Meta-cognition
Meta-cognition is about the thoughts we have for our primary thoughts. It refers to those
secondary thoughts in which would also have persuasive impacts on us.
For example, if we are thinking our attitude about carbon emission, our primary thought
would be about the impact of carbon emission has on our environment, while our secondary
thought may include how much do we know about carbon emission.
Self-validation hypothesis
Self-validation hypothesis refers to the phenomenon that feeling confident in our thoughts
validates those thoughts, making us more likely to be swayed toward that direction.
For example in Petty’s study where he asked seniors’ thoughts about a policy at school and
led them to feel either confident or doubt by asking them to recall an event in the past, those
who recalled an event of confidence and showed favorability toward the policy are more
persuaded, while those who recalled an event of doubt did not rely on their thoughts to come
up with an attitude. This study is an example that supports the self-validation hypothesis
because it shows that the favorability or unfavorability of seniors’ attitudes toward the policy
affects persuasion only when confidence is present.
Embodiment in confidence
Attitudes are partly embodied, meaning that confidence we have in our thoughts in response
to persuasive messages can come from nonverbal cues such as tone of voice or posture.
For example, nodding or shaking the head is shown to affect people’s attitudes, because these
actions are peripheral cues of agreement and disagreement.
Agenda control
Agenda control refers to the efforts of media to select certain events to emphasize and
thereby shaping the audience’s thoughts of which events are important.
For example in Cappola’s film, there was a lack of diversity in actors, but the book included
characters of African Americans. Such biased portrayals may mislead audience’s view of the
world.
Attentional biases
Attentional biases refer to the tendency for us to selectively attend to information that is
consistent with our initial thoughts.
For example, many smokers are aware of the disadvantages of smoking but they still continue
to smoking. This is because they a re selectively attending to information that is consistent
with their initial thoughts about smoking, and not attending to information that says bad
things about smoking.
Thought polarization hypothesis
Thought polarization hypothesis is the idea that more extended thoughts can lead to more
extreme attitudes. In other words, the attitudes become polarized.
For example, in Tesser’s study where he asked participants’ attitudes on a specific issue, the
participants showed a stronger attitude the second time being asked. There shows that a
repeated expression can lead to extreme attitudes in different domains.
Attitude Inoculation
Attitude inoculation refers to small attacks on people’s attitudes that engage their preexisting
attitudes, prior knowledge and commitments so that they become more able to counteract
subsequent larger persuasive messages and resist persuasive attempts.
For example in many smoke prevention programs, participants are exposed to some prosmoking arguments to prepare them for counterarguing persuasive messages in the future,
and therefore helping them to resist pro-smoking persuasive messages in the real world.
Conformity
Conformity is about changing one’s behavior in response to an explicit or implicit pressure.
An example of conformity in response to an explicit pressure is when you friend encourages
you to drink alcohol. An example of conformity in response to an implicit pressure is when
you buy the newest model of iPhone because all your friends are doing so.
Compliance
Compliance is about responding favorably to an explicit request made by another person.
For example, you respond favorably to your friend’s request of accompanying her for grocery
shopping.
Obedience
Obedience is when a more powerful figure or authority issues a demand and those with lower
power have to submit.
For example, a police stops you on the street and demands you to show your ID.
Automatic mimicry
Automatic mimicry is a subtle form of compliance in which people mindlessly copy what the
other person is behaving.
For example in Chatrand’s study where he invited participants for a 10 minutes discussion
with a confederate of the experimenter, participants tend to copy the action of the confederate
without knowing in, such as shaking feet and rubbing face.
Ideomotor action
Ideomotor action, proposed by William James, is the idea that simply thinking about a
thought can make that thought more likely to happen.
For example, if I think about eating ice-cream, I am more likely to open the freezer and get
my Ben & Jerry’s out.
Informational social influence
Informational social influence is about looking for what other people are behaving in order to
find out what is the proper way to behave.
Sherif’s study of autokinetic effect is an example. Participants’ answer about how many
inches did the speck of light move varied a lot when they were answering individually.
During the discussion section, their answers converged, showing the effect of informational
social influence where they sought for the correct answer from one another.
Normative social influence
Normative social influence refers to the influence of other people that comes from the desire
to avoid disapproval or criticism.
Asch’s line study is an example. The participant is more likely to call out the incorrect
answer, the answer that the confederates of the experimenter chooses, even though there is
obviously a correct answer because the question is so easy. This illustrates the effect of
normative social influence as the participant is avoiding to look strange in the group.
Norm of reciprocity
Norm of reciprocity refers to the norm that people should benefit those who benefit them.
For example in a restaurant, when the waitress offers a piece of candy to the guest when they
are paying the bill, the guest usually pay larger bill because we are affected by this norm of
reciprocity.
Door-in-the-face (Reciprocal concession)
Door-in-the-face, also called reciprocal concession, is to first make a large request and then
shift to a smaller, normally your real interest, request. The drop in the request can be seen as
a concession, and the target is more likely to comply with that seem-to-be smaller request.
For example, if my intention is to go to the Bart station, I may ask my friend, “Can you drive
me home?” And then I will shift to my smaller, real request, which is, “Can you at least drop
me off at the Bart station?”
Foot-in-the-door
Foot-in-the-door is a compliance technique in which you first introduce a smaller request and
upon compliance, you make your larger request of your real interest.
For example, your son’s school first asks you to post on social media about donation for the
school’s new building. Then, upon submitting to this initial request, the school asks you to
join them this Saturday for a fundraising event. You will be more likely to comply with this
larger request because you have a sense that this is just what you are/should be doing.
Mood in compliance
Positive mood usually makes compliance more likely. This is because we like to make good
things last.
For example, if you want to ask your father for money to buy the new PS5 model, it is better
to ask him when he is in a good mood.
Negative-state relief hypothesis
Negative-state relief hypothesis is the idea that we tend to engage in certain actions if we feel
a need to get rid of negative feelings.
For example, if you see your boyfriend flirting with another girl and you point out directly at
him, he will be more likely to comply with any requests you make at that moment because he
wants to get rid of that guilty feeling.
Reactance theory
Reactance theory is the idea that people tend to reassert their right as a way to reduce
discomfort caused by the belief that their free will is threatened when they are experiencing
an unpleasant state of arousal.
For example, when your mom insists that you cannot get your ears pierced, your desire to get
your ears pierced may actually go up because you are feeling that your right is being taken
away.