PSY-P 304Exam # 1 Study Guide Modules 1&2Module 1 - explain what social cognition is, and appreciate, in historical analogies, the different motives for people engaging in social cognition.o Social cognition- the process by which we perceive, interpret, explain, and remember information about peopleo Motives for engaging in social cognition consistency thinker-people have established beliefs about people and whenthey encounter something new, they look for something that is consistent to reinforce their prior beliefs Naïve scientist- we want to be accurate and don’t care about consistency, so we analyze everything  Cognitive miser- thinking about people is important to us but we are only going to give the minimal amount of effort to understand others  motivated tactician- a mixture of the above three that depends on the social situation and the person- explain what self-concept is in general and at a more basic level what a schema, specifically a self-schema, is (L, T). Further, explain the concepts of social identity, possible selves, self-complexity, and working self-concept (L). Finally, recognize the difference between being schematic and aschematic on a particular dimension (L)o Self-Concept-The totality of beliefs that an individual holds about themselves  Also known as self-knowledgeo Schemas or scripts Events, Persons, Group members Self-schemas- the individual building blocks that when combined create our self-concept- Usually based on personality traits, social identitieso Social identity- a person’s sense of who they are based on their group membership(s)o Possible selves- self schemas that are not based on experience but are based on our hopes and our fearso self-complexity- we frequently feel that we ourselves have complex self-schemas but when it comes to others we don’t believe that they are as complexo Working-self concept- whichever self schema is the most dominant at a given point in time o Self-Schematic vs. Self-Ashematic Self-schematic schemas- those that are most important to us or those that we have the most experience with  Self-aschematic- those that are not as important to us or that we do not have experience with - Aka the possible selves - thoroughly discuss the role of others’ perceptions, self-perception, social comparison, autobiographical memories (L, T), and physical reality (L) in the development of self-concept o Other's perceptions "looking glass self" by Cooley(1909) We use other people to gain info about ourselves  But it isn't really important what other people are actually thinking about us- It is what we think other people think about us that is important hereo Self-perception theory(Bem 1972) We gain info about ourselves when internal cues are weak or ambiguous Aka by observing our behaviors and inferring things from those observationso Social comparison- We learn about ourselves and evaluate our abilities by comparing ourselves to better people we compare ourselves to others when there is uncertainty or there is no objective way to decide without comparisono Autobiographical memories- Our ability to know who we are is dependent on our ability to remember what it feels like to be us o Physical reality- only takes meaning when we compare ourselves to other people - explain how the self-reference effect, egocentric bias and revisionism (L) can influence one’s autobiographical memories and self-concepto self-reference effect- we are more likely to remember things that are relevant to ourselves better than things that are not relevant to ourselveso Egocentric bias- our tendency to overestimate our contributions and our significance in past events o Revisionists- when we think of the past, we tend to update it over time- explain what is meant by self-esteem (L, T). Thoroughly explain self-discrepancy theory and how it affects your self-esteem (L, T). Thoroughly explain self-awareness theory, and describe situations that increase self-focus. Finally, explain thedifference between private self-consciousness and public self-consciousness, and theirrelation to self-awareness and the reduction of self-discrepancy (L, T)o self-esteem-an overall self-evaluation; the generalized feeling of self-worth, self-acceptance, self-goodness, and self-respect if self-evaluation is negative, we tend to be unhealthy, pessimistic, non-productive- We will act the opposite if we have a positive self-evaluationo self-discrepancy theory-The differences between how you see yourself and how you want to be seen large discrepancies will have a big impact on self-esteem, but small discrepancies won’t have that much of an effect  Responses to self-discrepancies- Lower expectations/lower your ideality- Raise the reality part of your discrepancy/raise the behavior- Escape  More likely to notice self-discrepancies when you are more self-conscious(the degree to which you habitually focus attention on yourself) o self-awareness theory-there are certain social situations which temporarily will make you more self-aware this will especially happen in transitory situations(or situational “firsts” i.e.first kiss, first broken bone, etc. o private self-consciousness vs. public self-consciousness Private self-consciousness- Constantly thinking about your own opinions, values, etc. and you spend a lot of time habitually reflecting inward Public self-consciousness- More concerned with what other people think about you, how they judge you, and how they perceive you- describe and be able to recognize examples of the following self-enhancement strategies employed to increase or maintain one’s self-esteem; self-serving cognitions,self-handicapping, basking in reflected glory, downward social comparison (L, T), false consensus effect, and false uniqueness effect (L)o self-enhancement-making yourself feel better about ourselves  self-serving cognitions-to think better about ourselves and feel good about ourselves; to credit ourselves for our successes and blame something external for our failures self-handicapping- to engage in behaviors that will generate an explanationfor possible future failures - Engage in this most often when you are unsure of your abilityo For example if you decide to go out to the bars instead of studying, and get a bad grade on a test, you will say that you got the bad grade because you didn’t study enough. On the other hand, you decide