Chapter 2

• Self-concept


  A person's answers to the question "who am I?"
• Self-schema


  Beliefs about self that organize and guide the processing of self-relevant information
• Self-reference effect


  The tendency to process efficiently and remember well information related to oneself
• Possible selves


  Images of what we dream of or dread becoming in the future
• Development of social self

  • The roles we play
  • The comparisons we make with others
  • Our success and failures
  • How other people judge us
  • The surrounding culture
• Self-esteem


  A person's overall self-evaluation or sense of self-worth
• Self-efficacy


  A sense that one is competent and effective, distinguished from self-esteem, one's sense of self-worth
• Locus of control


  The extent people view outcomes as being controllable internally by their own efforts and actions, or as being influenced externally by chance or outside factors
• Learned helplessness


  The hopelessness and resignation learned when a human or an animal perceives no control over repeated bad events
• Self-serving bias


  The tendency to perceive oneself favorably
• Self-serving attributions


  The inclination to attribute positive results to oneself and negative results to other factors
• Unrealistic optimism


  A person with unrealistic optimism perceives themselves as far more likely to experience negative events
• Defensive pessimism


  The adaptive value of anticipating problems and harnessing one's anxiety to motivate
• False consensus effect


  The tendency to overestimate the commonality of one's opinions and one's undesirable or unsuccessful behaviors
• Group-serving bias


  Explaining away out-group member's positive behavior; also contributing negative behaviors; also attributing negative behaviors to their dispositions (while excusing such behavior's by one's own group
• Self-presentation


  The act of expressing oneself and behaving in ways designed to create a favorable impressions or an impression that corresponds to one's ideals
• False modesty


  People sometimes present a different self than they feel
• Self-handicapping


  Protecting one's self-image with behaviors that create a handy excuse for later failure
• Self-monitoring


  Being attuned to the way one presents oneself in social situations and adjusting one's performance to create the desired impression