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Self-enhancement
Self-enhancement is a type of motivation that works to make people feel good about themselves and to maintain self-esteem. This motive becomes especially prominent in situations of threat, failure or blows to one's self-esteem. Self-enhancement involves a preference for positive over negative self-views. It is one of the three self-evaluation motives along with self-assessment (the drive for an accurate self-concept) and self-verification (the drive for a self-concept congruent with one's identity). Self-evaluation motives drive the process of self-regulation, that is, how people control and direct their own actions. There are a variety of strategies that people can use to enhance their sense of personal worth. For example, they can downplay skills that they lack or they can criticise others to seem better by comparison. These strategies are successful, in that people tend to think of themselves as having more positive qualities and fewer negative qualities than others. Although ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Self-verification
Self-verification is a social psychological theory that asserts people want to be known and understood by others according to their firmly held beliefs and feelings about themselves, that is ''self-views'' (including self-concepts and self-esteem). It is one of the motives that drive self-evaluation, along with ''self-enhancement'' and self-assessment. Because chronic self-concepts and self-esteem play an important role in understanding the world, providing a sense of coherence, and guiding action, people become motivated to maintain them through self-verification. Such strivings provide stability to people’s lives, making their experiences more coherent, orderly, and comprehensible than they would be otherwise. Self-verification processes are also adaptive for groups, groups of diverse backgrounds, and the larger society, in that they make people predictable to one another thus serve to facilitate social interaction. To this end, people engage in a variety of activities th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Self-assessment
In social psychology, self-assessment is the process of looking at oneself in order to assess aspects that are important to one's identity. It is one of the motives that drive self-evaluation, along with self-verification and self-enhancement. Sedikides (1993) suggests that the self-assessment motive will prompt people to seek information to confirm their uncertain self-concept rather than their certain self-concept and at the same time people use self-assessment to enhance their certainty of their own self-knowledge. However, the self-assessment motive could be seen as quite different from the other two self-evaluation motives. Unlike the other two motives, through self-assessment people are interested in the accuracy of their current self view, rather than improving their self-view. This makes self-assessment the only self-evaluative motive that may cause a person's self-esteem to be damaged. Functions If through self-assessing there is a possibility that a person's self-conce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Raison Oblige Theory
Raison Oblige Theory offers an alternate explanation of exhibited behaviors widely accepted to be caused by the motive of self-verification (SVT)( William Swann, 1983). The theory addresses instances of apparent self-view confirmation strivings and details an economical description of why these behaviors occur. Focusing on the importance of the ''self-view'' and rational thought, (see self-esteem; self concept; self knowledge) Raison oblige theory (ROT) accounts for the evidence supporting SVT including the well documented seemingly mal-adaptive self verifying behaviors. * SVT states that a person is actively motivated to confirm their existing self view regardless of the objective accuracy or valence of that view. In other words, a person wants to confirm their currently held self views above and beyond wanting this information to be accurate or positive. (see self verification for details). * ROT challenges the existence of a motive and offers a plausible explanation which c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Self-knowledge (psychology)
Self-knowledge is a term used in psychology to describe the information that an individual draws upon when finding an answer to the question "What am I like?". While seeking to develop the answer to this question, self-knowledge requires ongoing self-awareness and self-consciousness (which is not to be confused with consciousness). Young infants and chimpanzees display some of the traits of self-awareness and agency/contingency, yet they are not considered as also having self-consciousness. At some greater level of cognition, however, a self-conscious component emerges in addition to an increased self-awareness component, and then it becomes possible to ask "What am I like?", and to answer with self-knowledge, though self-knowledge has limits, as introspection has been said to be limited and complex. Self-knowledge is a component of the self or, more accurately, the self-concept. It is the knowledge of oneself and one's properties and the ''desire'' to seek such knowledge that gu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Self-evaluation Motives
Self-evaluation is the process by which the self-concept is socially negotiated and modified. It is a scientific and cultural truism that self-evaluation is motivated. Motives influence the ways in which people select self-relevant information, gauge its veracity, draw inferences about themselves, and make plans for the future. Empirically-oriented psychologists have identified and investigated Three cardinal self-evaluation motives (or self-motives) relevant to the development, maintenance, and modification of self-views. These are self-enhancement, self-assessment and self-verification. Types Self-Enhancement The ''self-enhancement motive'' is the motive to improve the positivity of one's self-concept, and to protect the self from negative information (we search for positivity and avoid negativity). This motive influences people's self-evaluations. For instance, people process information important to the self in a selective manner, focusing on information that has favourable ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Illusory Superiority
In the field of social psychology, illusory superiority is a condition of cognitive bias wherein a person overestimates their own qualities and abilities, in relation to the same qualities and abilities of other people. Illusory superiority is one of many positive illusions, relating to the self, that are evident in the study of intelligence, the effective performance of tasks and tests, and the possession of desirable personal characteristics and personality traits. Overestimation of abilities compared to an objective measure is known as the overconfidence effect. The term ''illusory superiority'' was first used by the researchers Van Yperen and Buunk, in 1991. The phenomenon is also known as the above-average effect, the superiority bias, the leniency error, the sense of relative superiority, the ''primus inter pares'' effect, and the Lake Wobegon effect, named after the fictional town where all the children are above average. The Dunning-Kruger effect is a form of illusory ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mnemic Neglect
Mnemic neglect is a term used in social psychology to describe a pattern of selective forgetting in which certain autobiographical memories tend to be recalled more easily if they are consistent with positive self-concept. The mnemic neglect model stipulates that memory is self-protective if the information is negative, self-referent, and concerns central traits. Pinter, B., Green, J.D., Sedikides, C., & Gregg, A.P. (2011) Self-protective memory: Separation/integration as a mechanism for mnemic neglect. Social Cognition, 29 (5), 612-624. Mnemic neglect model Experiments have been conducted to test for the specific conditions under which mnemic neglect occurs. A standard procedure has been used across several experiments to test for these conditions. In this procedure, participants are presented with a list of 32 behavioral traits. They are asked to either encode each trait as if it applied to them (i.e. "consider people describing you with these traits") or as if it applied to a s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Motivation
Motivation is the reason for which humans and other animals initiate, continue, or terminate a behavior at a given time. Motivational states are commonly understood as forces acting within the agent that create a disposition to engage in goal-directed behavior. It is often held that different mental states compete with each other and that only the strongest state determines behavior. This means that we can be motivated to do something without actually doing it. The paradigmatic mental state providing motivation is desire. But various other states, such as beliefs about what one ought to do or intentions, may also provide motivation. Motivation is derived from the word 'motive', which denotes a person's needs, desires, wants, or urges. It is the process of motivating individuals to take action in order to achieve a goal. The psychological elements fueling people's behavior in the context of job goals might include a desire for money. Various competing theories have been proposed c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Individualistic Culture
Individualistic cultures are characterized by individualism, which is the prioritization or emphasis of the individual over the entire group. In individualistic cultures people are motivated by their own preference and viewpoints. Individualistic cultures focus on abstract thinking, privacy, self-dependence, uniqueness, and personal goals. The term individualistic culture was first used in the 1980s by Geert Hofsted a Dutch social psychologists to describe countries and cultures that are not collectivist, Hofsted created the term individualistic culture when he created a measurement for the five dimensions of cultural values. People in individualistic cultures see each other as loosely connected and have a diverse population of different races, ethnicities, languages, and cultures. In modern society, the number of individualistic cultures is on the rise due to wealth, and urbanization. Individuals in individualistic cultures gain the most happiness from three key factors: personal s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Positive Mental Attitude
Positive mental attitude (PMA) is a concept first introduced in 1937 by Napoleon Hill in the book ''Think and Grow Rich''. The book never actually uses the term, but discusses about the importance of positive thinking as a contributing factor of success. Napoleon, who along with W. Clement Stone, founder of Combined Insurance, later wrote ''Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude,'' defines positive mental attitude as comprising the 'plus' characteristics represented by words as faith, integrity, hope, optimism, courage, initiative, generosity, tolerance, tact, kindliness and good common sense. Positive mental attitude is that philosophy which asserts that having an optimistic disposition in every situation in one's life attracts positive changes and increases achievement. Adherents employ a state of mind that continues to seek, find and execute ways to win, or find a desirable outcome, regardless of the circumstances. This concept is the opposite of negativity, defeatism a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Self-evaluation Maintenance Theory
Self-evaluation maintenance (SEM) concerns discrepancies between two people in a relationship. The theory posits an individual will maintain as well as enhance their self-esteem via a social comparison to another individual. Self-evaluation refers to the self-perceived social ranking one has towards themselves. It is the continuous process of determining personal growth and progress, which can be raised or lowered by the behavior of others. Abraham Tesser created the self-evaluation maintenance theory in 1988. The self-evaluation maintenance model assumes two things: that a person will try to maintain or increase their own self-evaluation, and self-evaluation is influenced by relationships with others. A person's self-evaluation (which is similar to self-esteem) may be raised when a close other performs well. For example, a sibling scores the winning goal in an important game. Self-evaluation will increase because that person is sharing his/her success. The closer the psychological r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Self-determination Theory
Self-determination theory (SDT) is a macro theory of human motivation and personality that concerns people's innate growth tendencies and innate psychological needs. It pertains to the motivation behind people's choices in the absence of external influences and distractions. SDT focuses on the degree to which human behavior is self-motivated and self-determined. In the 1970s, research on SDT evolved from studies comparing intrinsic and extrinsic motives, and from growing understanding of the dominant role that intrinsic motivation played in individual behavior.e.g. Lepper, M. K., Greene, D., & Nisbett, R. (1973). Undermining children's intrinsic interest with extrinsic reward: A test of the "overjustification" hypothesis. ''Journal of Personality and Social Psychology'', ''28'', 129–137. It was not until the mid-1980s Edward L. Deci and Richard Ryan wrote a book titled "''Self-Determination and Intrinsic Motivation in Human Behavior''" that SDT was formally introduced an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
