Western cultures, people have an independent view of the self Defining oneself in

terms of ones own internal thoughts, feelings, and actions and not in terms of the
thoughts, feelings, and actions of others
Non-Western cultures have an interdependent view of the self Defining oneself in
terms of ones relationships to other people and recognizing that ones behavior is
often determined by the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others.
Women have more relational interdependence, meaning that they focus more on their
close relationships, such as how they feel about their spouse or their child.
Men have more collective interdependence, meaning that they focus on their
memberships in larger groups
Self-Awareness Theory
The idea that when people focus their attention on themselves, they evaluate and
compare their behavior to their internal standards and values.
Causal Theories
-Theories of the cause of one's own feelings and behaviors.
Often learned from Culture
Reasons-generated Attitude Change
-Attitude change resulting from thinking about the reasons for your attitudes.
Happens because when people analyze the reasons for their attitudes, they:
i. Bring to mind reasons that dont really reflect how they feel and
ii. Talk themselves into believing that this is how they feel.
Analyzing reasons people tend to focus on the things that are easy to put into
words and ignore feelings that are hard to explain.
But the hard-to-explain feelings often matter in the long run
Self-perception theory
-argues that when our attitudes and feelings are uncertain or ambiguous, we infer
these states by observing our behavior and the situation in which it occurs.
OverJustification Effect
-The tendency for people to view their behavior as caused by compelling extrinsic
reasons, making them underestimate the extent to which it was caused by intrinsic
reasons

2 Factor Theory of Emotion

-The idea that emotional experience is the result of a two-step self-perception process
in which people first experience physiological arousal and then seek an appropriate
explanation for it.
People socially compare when there is no objective standard to measure themselves
against and when they experience some uncertainty about themselves in a particular
area.
Who people compare themselves to depends on their Goal.
Social Tuning: Process whereby people adopt another persons attitudes
Can happen Unconsciously
An important function of the Self is to be the chief executive who makes choices about
what to do in the present and plans for the future.
According to the Self Regulatory Resource Model, Self control is achieved when we
make sure we have plenty of Energy when trying to control our actions.
Research suggests that this Energy is the level of glucose in the bloodstream
The more we try to exert self-control in one setting, the more successful we will be at
it in the future.
2 Impression Management Strategies:
1. Ingratiation : Using Flattery or Praise
2. Self-Handicapping : Creating Obstacles and Excuses to avoid blame if fail
Behavioural S-H = people act in ways that reduce the likelihood that they will
succeed on a task, so that if they fail they can blame it on the obstacles they
created rather than on their lack of ability.
Reported S-H = People devise ready-made Excuses in case of fail
Terror Management Theory
-Theory that holds that self-esteem serves as a buffer, protecting people from
terrifying thoughts about their own mortality