Deck 27: The Psychology of the Self

Question 1

What is 'self'?

A) It is the person's mental representation of information pertaining to him or her.
B) It is the biological underpinning of our identity.
C) It is how others perceive and describe us.
D) None of the above.

Answer 1

It is the person's mental representation of information pertaining to him or her.

Question 2

Erving Goffman (1959) suggested that self-presentation is a tool that we use to:

A) survive and climb in social status.
B) maintain our ego and our self-esteem.
C) deceive other people.
D) None of the above.

Answer 2

maintain our ego and our self-esteem.

Question 3

What is reflected appraisal?

A) The inability for some individuals to accept compliments from others.
B) The inability for some individuals to accept negative feedback and criticism.
C) The technique for shy people to deflect attention away from themselves.
D) None of the above.

Answer 3

None of the above.

Question 4

According to Tajfel and Turner (1986), what is social identity theory?

A) The way people come to identify with social groups and then tend to define themselves as having the characteristics of those groups to which they belong.
B) The tendency for some individuals to act like social chameleons in an attempt to blend in with whatever company they are in.
C) The way people see our personality through the social interests and hobbies we have.
D) None of the above.

Question 5

What is the 'Barnum effect'?

A) We have a tendency to endorse those descriptions of our personalities that reflect a non-nonsense go-getter in life.
B) We have a tendency only to listen to feedback we get from those people we like.
C) Though the descriptions we read or are given to us could apply equally well to other people, some individuals are gullible enough to believe that these characteristics are unique to themselves.
D) None of the above.

Question 6

Reflected appraisal is:

A) a process where we imagine how other people see us.
B) a process where we gain feedback from how others treat us.
C) A and B
D) None of the above.

Question 7

The greater the discrepancy between the actual self, the ideal self and the ought self, the:

A) higher our self-esteem will be.
B) lower our self-esteem will be.
C) the more invulnerable we feel ourselves to be.
D) None of the above.

Question 8

What is self-serving bias?

A) An ego defence mechanism that makes some individuals think everyone around them is there to serve them.
B) An ego defence mechanism that makes us think we always have to help ourselves in life.
C) The tendency to take personal credit for success but to blame failure on external causes.
D) None of the above.

Question 9

What are social norms?

A) Ways in which all cultures have very similar social activities.
B) How popular we are by counting how many people consider us their friend.
C) A technique to work out how popular you are based on the social average.
D) None of the above.

Question 10

What is understood by the phrase 'self-enhancement strategies'?

A) These are techniques aimed at seeking positive information about ourselves or interpreting ambiguous information in the most favourable light to maintain our self-esteem.
B) These are techniques to persuade and encourage others around us to see us in as favourable a light as possible.
C) These are techniques to improve our physical appearance, thus making us more attractive and likeable to everybody who sees us.
D) None of the above.

Question 11

What name is given to the way each individual organizes memories about themselves and controls the processing of self-relevant information?

A) Self-awareness
B) Self-memory
C) Self-schema
D) None of the above

Question 12

At about the age of 18 months we gain the knowledge that we:

A) are unique.
B) are separate from the general environment but not yet from our parents
C) exist as individuals separate from anyone else.
D) None of the above.

Question 13

Social comparison is when we:

A) evaluate our own accomplishments by comparing them with those around us.
B) evaluate our status in society by comparing it with the status of those around us.
C) evaluate our self-worth by comparing how many offspring we have successfully produced in comparison with others around us.
D) None of the above.

Question 14

What is the social self?

A) The idea that the self is purely a construct to force us to socialise with others.
B) The idea that the self is produced through interaction with two or more people.
C) The idea that the self is more positively viewed the more friends we have.
D) None of the above.

Question 15

What is meant by positivity bias?

A) It is the tendency for people to evaluate their personalities more positively than others around them would.
B) It is the tendency for people to evaluate individual human beings more positively than groups or impersonal objects.
C) It is the tendency for people to be optimistic about the good in humans.
D) None of the above.

Question 16

Egocentricity is:

A) self-centred behaviour/actions/thoughts.
B) losing our identity to that of the main group we belong to.
C) boosting our own self-image at the expense of those around us.
D) None of the above.

Question 17

How is the 'self' manifested between the ages of three and four years?

A) Children at this age tend to describe who they are in terms of their age, name, what they like and dislike.
B) Children describe themselves in terms of their favourite activity or behaviours they often engage in.
C) Children describe themselves in terms of their relationships with others.
D) None of the above.

Question 18

We start to develop a sense of who we are from an early age. Infants as young as 15 months:

A) appear to recognize themselves in a mirror - studies have shown that they become startled when a red line has been placed on their noses and they look back into the mirror.
B) start to point at themselves - studies have shown that they know 'me' and 'you' through pointing.
C) A and B
D) None of the above.