PSY 240 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Social Comparison Theory, Motivation, Ingroups And Outgroups

• School: Stony Brook University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 240
• Professor: Sirena Ibrahim

Document Summary

Self-concept: total views of self, based on attitudes. Made of self-schemas (set of traits summarizing a person"s beliefs) Info about this can be obtained from: social roles, social identities, social comparisons, successes & failures, how other people judge us, culture. Self-recognition: process of being aware/ able to recognize oneself (can test using a mirror) Self-knowledge by looking at own thoughts & feelings. Brickman: lottery winners vs. paraplegics (who"s happier?, results, lottery winners no happier before they won, paraplegics no less happy before accident. Bem"s self-perception theory: people learn about themselves by paying attention to own behavior, use behavior to understand yourself, use internal cues to demonstrate why we carried out an action. Vazire: know ourselves better than others in terms of internal traits. Emotions: changes in facial expression can change emotion, laird, participants told to smile/ frown, results: those smiling found cartoon funnier. Zajonc: facial movements lead to psychological changes that produce emotional experiences.