Question 1

Generally, Ivan feels pretty good about himself and believes that he has a lot to be proud of. Just recently, his girlfriend broke up with him, so he's been feeling a little less worthy than usual. If we assume that Ivan will recover from his breakup and start feeling good about himself again, then it can be said that Ivan generally has ________self-esteem but right after his breakup had ________self-esteem.

Accepted Answer

Trait self-esteem refers to a person's overall, consistent sense of self-worth, while state self-esteem refers to a person's current, momentary feelings of self-worth. Ivan's belief that he generally has a lot to be proud of suggests that he generally has high trait self-esteem. However, his recent breakup has caused him to feel less worthy, indicating that he has low state self-esteem at the moment. It is likely that Ivan will eventually recover from his breakup and return to feeling good about himself, restoring his high trait self-esteem.

Question 2

Jackie and Sara just tried out for the school play and only Jackie was cast in the play. According to Tesser's (1988) model of self-image maintenance, in which scenario will Sara feel worse about not getting a part in the play?

Accepted Answer

Tesser's model suggests that self-evaluation is more negatively affected when a close other (e.g., a sibling) outperforms us in a domain that is personally relevant or important to our self-definition. In this case, both being sisters and sharing a career aspiration in acting makes the scenario most threatening to Sara's self-image.

Question 3

According to the study of Olympic medal winners conducted by Medvec, Madey and Gilovich (1995), who appeared to be the most upset during the medal ceremony and why?

Accepted Answer

According to the study, the silver medal winners were the most upset because they were so close to getting the gold.

Question 4

After waking up late and rushing to get ready for work, Nina started her car and found that she had a flat tire. This discovery led Nina to feel angry and frustrated. Across town, Jeremiah knew that one of his front tires was getting low on air, but he decided to put off fixing it. When he tried to drive his daughter to school and found that his tire was flat, he felt guilty for not getting it repaired sooner. In this example, the different emotional reactions by Nina and Jeremiah are most likel

Accepted Answer

Nina and Jeremiah had different emotional reactions because they appraised the situation differently. Nina felt angry and frustrated because she felt like the flat tire was an inconvenience that was preventing her from getting to work on time. Jeremiah, on the other hand, felt guilty because he knew that he should have fixed his tire earlier and prevented the inconvenience of having a flat tire when he needed to take his daughter to school. Their emotional reactions were based on their individual appraisals of the situation.

Question 5

According to your text, who should be most likely to understand and experience a negative emotion?

Accepted Answer

Jim is likely to experience negative emotion due to the anxiety of giving a speech, and the subliminal noise may not effectively relax him, potentially increasing his anxiety.

Question 6

When people engage in ________ they are attempting to reveal their self-concept through their actions. In contrast, when people engage in ________ they are attempting to manipulate other's impression of them in order to gain power, influence, or approval.

Accepted Answer

Self-expression is about revealing one's self-concept through actions, while self-presentation involves manipulating others' impressions to gain power, influence, or approval.

Question 7

Donald acts the same around everyone. With Donald, what you see is what you get. Donald would clearly be classified as:

Accepted Answer

Donald's consistent behavior regardless of the situation or people around him indicates that he is a low self-monitor, meaning he is less attuned to social cues and less likely to adjust his behavior to fit in with different social situations.

Question 8

Yumi is from Japan. Yumi is most likely to endorse which of the following statements?

Accepted Answer

In Japan, it's common for individuals to identify with familial roles (such as being a sister), participate in group activities (like being part of a dance team), and Buddhism is one of the major religions in Japan. Therefore, all of the provided statements could likely apply to someone from Japan.

Question 9

An advertisement in a magazine shows a family hugging their son who has brought home food from a certain fast food restaurant. Across the top of the advertisement are the words: ""Make your family proud!"" Who should be most persuaded by this advertisement?

Accepted Answer

The answer of An advertisement in a magazine shows a...

Question 10

Mannie, a 4th grader, is a book worm and can often be found with his nose buried in the latest science fiction novel. The library at Mannie's school has started to offer students increasingly impressive prizes based on the number of books they read during the semester. According the self-perception theory, how are these prizes expected to influence Mannie's love of reading?

Accepted Answer

Self-perception theory suggests that when people are given external rewards (extrinsic motivation) for doing something they already enjoy (intrinsic motivation), their internal motivation can decrease because they start to attribute their actions to the external rewards rather than their own interest.

Question 11

Lucas has repeatedly been told that he is good-for-nothing and will never amount to anything in his life. Because he has heard this for so long, Lucas actually starts to believe what he has been told. Lucas's experience provides an example of:

Accepted Answer

Lucas's experience is an example of the looking-glass self, which is the concept that individuals develop their self-concept based on the perceptions and evaluations of others. Lucas has internalized the negative messages he has received from others and it has become a part of his self-concept. Self-perception theory pertains to how individuals infer their attitudes and beliefs from their behavior, social comparison theory pertains to how individuals evaluate themselves based on others, and the assimilation effect is the phenomenon where individuals interpret and perceive information in a way that is consistent with their pre-existing beliefs and attitudes.

Question 12

Roxanne likes to swim, but she has no idea how good of a swimmer she is. According to social comparison theory, with whom should Roxanne compare herself if she wants the most accurate self-view?

Accepted Answer

Social comparison theory states that people compare themselves to others who are similar to them in order to evaluate their own abilities and attitudes. In this case, Roxanne should compare herself to Tina, who has been swimming about the same amount of time as she has, in order to get the most accurate self-view.

Question 13

The ________ effect occurs when people see themselves as being a little bit better after comparing themselves with others who are slightly more skilled than them.

Accepted Answer

The assimilation effect occurs when individuals perceive themselves as more similar to or slightly better than those they compare themselves with, especially if those others are slightly more skilled. This can lead to an increase in self-esteem or self-perception due to the comparison.

Question 14

Why do perceivers often make more extreme and inflexible judgments about others, as opposed to themselves?

Accepted Answer

We tend to make more extreme and inflexible judgments about others because we are more aware of the situational factors and complexities affecting our own behavior than we are of those affecting others. This awareness allows us to justify or explain our own actions in a nuanced way that we often don't apply to others, leading to harsher judgments of them.

Question 15

According to the actor-observer effect, when something negative occurs perceivers are more likely to attribute their behavior to _________ factors and others' behavior to _________ factors.

Accepted Answer

The actor-observer effect refers to the tendency for people to attribute their own behavior to situational or external factors, but to attribute others' behavior to personal or internal factors. Therefore, when something negative occurs, perceivers are more likely to attribute their own behavior to situational or external factors, and others' behavior to personal or internal factors. Choice C reflects this pattern of attribution.

Question 16

The study by Wilson, Laser and Stone (1982) in which participants kept track of their moods over the course of 5 weeks showed that:

Accepted Answer

The study found that participants were not very accurate at determining what caused their moods, which suggests that our introspective abilities may not be as reliable as we would like to think.

Question 17

Although Mackenzie is generally loud and obnoxious around her friends, she tends to be more reserved and polite around her friends' parents. Overall, Mackenzie sees herself as an outgoing person. Although Mackenzie's behavior varies across situations, her __________, or core characteristic, doesn't change.

Accepted Answer

Mackenzie's behavior may vary across situations, but her core characteristic or self-concept remains constant. This is a characteristic of a self-schema, which is a cognitive structure that organizes information about the self and influences how we perceive and remember information relevant to the self. Self-perception, self-presentation, and self-monitoring involve different aspects of how individuals manage their self-representations, but they do not refer to a stable core characteristic like a self-schema.

Question 18

Most people tend to believe that they are above average on a number of desirable characteristics.

Accepted Answer

This phenomenon is known as the "above average effect" or "illusory superiority," where people tend to overestimate their abilities or qualities in comparison to others. This has been observed across a range of characteristics, including intelligence, skills, and positive personality traits.

Quiz 4: The Self