Self Perception
•Self-concept:
who
you think you are
•Our
characteristics of ourselves (“I am…”)
•How
is
our self-concept shaped?
–looking
glass self: you
see the image of yourself that others reveal to you
•We
are more likely to believe someone if they say something we’ve heard
repeatedly.
•We
value others statements if we perceive them to be credible.
•Social
comparison: a
way of developing the self-concept by comparing yourself to peers
•Self Esteem: our
evaluation of our self-concept
–How
we view the characteristics of ourselves
–self
esteem influences who we approach, how we act and react in communication and
relationships.
•Face:
Person’s positive perception of himself or herself in interactions with others.
•An
image of self we present to others that we want others to accept and confirm.
•Impression
Management:
self-presentation techniques individuals use to manipulate the impressions
formed by others (face).
–Can
be conscious or unconscious
–Strategies:
•Ingratiation: do
favors, give compliments, find commonalities
–All
in order to get someone to think positively about you
•Managing
appearances: physical
and emotional
•Exemplification: express dedication, commitment, or sacrifice
•Supplication
– appearing
inept or infirm to elicit help and nurturance from others.
•Aligning
actions: attempts
to define apparently questionable conduct as actually in line with cultural
norms
• Self perception effects:
–How
we talk to ourselves and what we say to ourselves
–How
we talk about our selves with others
–How
we talk about others with ourselves
–How
we communicate with others
•Interpersonal perception: a
series of processes whereby you select, organize, and interpret others.
–Select: the
choosing of different information
•Based
off of your needs, interests, and expectations
–Organize:
arrange the info accordingly
–Interpret:
using all that you have selected and organized, you then apply meaning to it
•Uncertainty reduction theory:
When we are uncertain about things, it makes us uneasy. Because of this, we
apply our own ideas on why people behave the way they do in order to make it
familiar for us.
•Reducing uncertainty is particularly
important in relationship development, so it’s typical to find more uncertainty
reduction behavior among people when they expect or want to develop a
relationship.
•Impression
formation theory:
how we expand our perception of others through how they look, what they
disclose, and what we hear from others.
–We
form a judgment of someone without even knowing much about them.
•Physical
attractiveness
–primacy
effect:
using what we hear/see first.
•Ex.
First impressions
–recency
effect: what
we hear/see last is more important.
•Ex.
What have you done for me lately?
•Implicit
Personality Theory: beliefs
and assumptions that we have about how certain traits are linked to other
characteristics and behaviors.
–you
bring what you’ve learned and applied them to central traits (characteristics)
–make
unobservable traits out of observable ones
–you
are exposed to one trait, then you assume others (what goes together)
–Halo
effect:
When only exposed to a few positive qualities, then you’re likely to assume they
have others
of the same kind. Rapid decision-making.
•Physical
attractiveness: deem someone who is good looking in a positive light.
–Horn
effect:
When only exposed to a few negative qualities, then you’re likely to assume
they have many
others.
•If
you dislike a quality about someone, you’ll have a negative predisposition
toward other things about them.
Attribution:
Assigning reasoning for others behavior. It helps us understand why people do
what they do.
We
can emphasize influences that are:
–Stable
and
lasting, or
unstable and temporary.
–Controllable,
so
that we can manage them, or
uncontrollable, so there’s nothing we can do about them.
–Internal attribute (dispositional):
reason for behavior is because of the person’s character
•it’s
controllable and stable
–External attribute (situational):
reason for behavior is outside of the self. It’s because of the situation or
circumstance
•it’s
uncontrollable and unstable
–Fundamental Attribution
Error: put
more emphasis on the internal.
•applying too much emphasis on their
character instead of the situation.
•Self-fulfilling
prophecy:
prediction that comes true because you act on it as if it were true.
•Self
serving bias:
take responsibility for positive things in their relationships, deny
responsibility for negative
