Content Summary CH. 3-4
Introduction
In this assignment, Chapter 3 will discuss social self and how it relates in social psychology. The
chapter will provide an in depth discussion of knowledge on self-concepts, self-esteem, and also self-
presentations. Also, it will give a better understanding on who people own thoughts, emotions and
motivations. Chapter three will also provide more information on how behaviors self-present
themselves towards others and how challenging the self is when it is presented to others by discussing
theories and different mechanisms of the self. In Chapter Four, there will be concepts and new aspects
of attribution and the theories from social perceptions. The chapter will focus on how people perceive
other people in their own views and how they also make up their own explanations called attributions.
This chapter will also bring up new theories and how biases into question and also bring into question
on their own impression of reality.
Chapter 3- The Social Self
Chapter Three begins by discussing social concept and how it refers to the belief that a person
has about themselves (Kassin et. al. 2021). Kassin also informed how self-concept is also made of what is
called self- schemas. Self-Schemas is described as cognitive molecules of what ones beliefs of one’s self
(2021). The chapter describes an example such as body image and how it can trigger esteem to a
person. Charles Horton Cooley, a sociologist, introduced how we look at ourselves by coining the term of
“looking glass” that he describes how other people are like a mirror on how we view ourselves. Also, it
discusses how sociologist are breaking ground in how they are determining how people find ways to
understand their social self. The chapter explains how self-knowledge comes from introspection.
Introspection is described as looking more into your feelings and opinions. It also discusses the
Content Summary CH. 3-4
relevance on self-esteem and how it is important and also how human use their self-esteem around
others.
Self-Perception Theory and other Theories
Through introspection, another sociologist has developed their own theory. Daryl Ben
developed what is called Self-Perception Theory. Ben theorized how people would come to learn about
themselves by when a situation event forces them learn about their own behavior. Ben also believes
that there are certain limitations on self-perception and how the situation alone would be sufficient
enough to have cause on their behavior (2021). Due to Ben theory, he also argued on how individual
would learn from their own behavior through observation. On the other hand, Leon Festinger argues
differently. Festinger Social Comparison Theory argued how people are to evaluated their own abilities
by comparing themselves to others (2021). Through research, other sociologist have tested his theory
and have decided that it is not clear on his importance of social comparison processes due to his
question of when. Festinger questions on social communication forced others to acknowledge
importance to inform their own opinions.
However, other researchers support him by believing that people are not as easily influenced by
social comparisons. In classic experiments testing social comparisons, two factor theory was developed
through experimentation. Chadee informs how social comparison is a fundamental mechanism between
self and others (Chadee, 2022). The two-factor theory of emotion that was theorized by Sociologist
Schachter and Singer, based their theory on the emotional experience of physiological arousal and
cognitive interpretation of that arousal. These two experts wanted to test the source of a person
emotional state on their reaction of others around them. Sociometer theory was also explained in
Chapter three as well in discussion the self-esteem. It was described as the theory that self-esteem like a
scale that monitors our social interactions and decides of out behavior is appropriate (2021) Also, terror
Content Summary CH. 3-4
management theory was described as the theory that human cope with fear of their own deaths by
constructing worldviews that help preserve their self-esteem (2021). These theories are share self-
perceptions and how they influence our thought and also the thoughts of others.
Chapter 4- Perceiving Persons
In this chapter, it discussed how we observe, learn, and perceive the other people around us.
Through our own social perception, we have developed our own unique way of understanding one
another through our own lenses. Social perception has been studied by sociologist on such as first
impression or superficial cues. Additionally, this chapter introduces us to dispositions and attributions.
Disposition is defining as stable characteristics that are includes as a person’s attitudes or personality
traits. Attributions is described as the explanations of how we see others. This chapter focus on
Attribution theory and others. Attribution theory is described as the cause of one’s behaviors through
observations and analyzing and explanations. Chadee also discuss this by explaining how attribution is
seen through both object and personal perception (Chadee, 2022). Chadee also explained how Heider
model argued on social perception underlying causes of events in different environments and mental
states. His model provided perception on a person’s intentional behavior. However, it does not mean
that theory does not have it limitations. One expert informs how classical attributions theory has it
limitation due to the their experiment using word of mouth. In their research study, they attempted
using word of mouth as a way of communication but it was negatively conveying without enough
evidence, their research suggested that classical attribution was not enough to support their research
study and more research was needed to be made (Lacniak et. al. 2001).
Conclusion
As human, we want to fit in but are eluded with our own social perceptions of what we think of
our selves and also how others may perceive us. These chapters have demonstrated how people will
Content Summary CH. 3-4
make judge their own judgments and we will also do the same through our personal or situation
attributions. Research has also shown how social perception has been and will continue to be influenced
through out others interactions. People first impression will also have a form of impact on how we
perceive them. Furthermore, these chapters also demonstrate through several theories that people
have the tendency to make their own perceptions and it can be true based on their own reality. Also,
social perception makes us quick to make assumptions and this can lead to influencing others about
what we perceive someone else to be. Overall, social perception has been proven to be powerful in our
way of social interaction.
Content Summary CH. 3-4
References
Chadee, D. (2022). Theories in social psychology (2nd ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN:
9781119627883.
Kassin, S., Fein, S., & Markus, H. R. (2021). Social psychology (11th ed). Cengage Learning. ISBN:
9780357122846
Laczniak, R. N., DeCarlo, T. E., & Ramaswami, S. N. (2001). Consumers’ Responses to Negative
Word-of-Mouth Communication: An Attribution Theory Perspective. Journal of Consumer
Psychology, 11(1), 57–73. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1480311
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