PSYC14H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Social Comparison Theory, Protestant Reformation, Learned Helplessness
Document Summary
Self-enhancement is the motivation to view oneself positively. Chapter 8: motivation: first, you can see evidence of this motivation when you look at measures of self-esteem. Without this information, there is nothing to prove that one is not above average. Another strategy you might try is compensatory self-enhancement, in which you acknowledge the poor grade you got in class but instead start to think about your excellent clarinet-playing skills. You might also try discounting, where you reduce the perceived importance of the domain in which you performed poorly. Alternatively, you may try to make an external attribution, where people attribute the cause of their actions to something outside themselves, in contrast to internal attribution in which people locate the cause within ourselves, such as our abilities. You might try basking in the reflected glory of a successful group to which you belong.
