Downward Social Reflection Theory

-Lilienfeld, Woolf, Namy, and Lynn. Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2008.

DeLamater, John D., and Daniel J. Meyers. Social Psychology. 7th ed. N.p.: Cengage Learning, May 20, 2010. Print.

After this week’s reading and videos I learned many new intriguing perspectives about society.  Also, the video taught me a very important lesson about discrimination. I thought the lesson the teacher taught was unique and got her point across extremely well. She really put people in the shoes of the less fortunate that are being discriminated. The readings on the first day I found very interesting because people are the only ones that affect the rapid changes of society. The weeks readings and videos relate to each other because the way society changes now is how discrimination on skin colors started and affected millions of lives that could of even took lives away.

Carter, K & Seifert, C. M. (2013) Learn psychology. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

During my time in my senior seminar class, I took a personality test that gave me

Thinking about this topic I found myself stuck in some aspects. Taking these tests and thinking about who I am to myself and my peers is not a regular thing I have thought about before. After assessing, I had learned things about myself that I have never noticed before, such as how independent I am, my honesty, my mean side, my less confident sides, and all my weird sides. While taking these tests I also had thought about how I was brought up into the world.

Leon Festinger (1954) was the first to explore the Social Comparison theory and give it a definition. He tested several hypotheses and concluded that human beings experience a socio-psychological process which drives the necessity for them self evaluate and to do so by comparing themselves to others (Festinger, 1954). George R. Goethals and John M. Darley (1987) later defined the theory as an interpersonal process in that “one person evaluates his or her own opinion or ability by comparing it with the opinions expressed or abilities displayed by other people” (p. 21). They also noted that when a person is going to compare his or herself to another, he or she will often choose a person who is similar is such categories as gender and age (Goethals & Darley, 1987).

Although this test is interesting, what everyone must realize is that people are way more complex than any personality test will tell them. No test can be 100% accurate for everyone and it shouldn’t be taken as gospel. This test organizes everyone into a box; learn from it, but don’t let its walls limit

My first thought about this test is that it is not real and it really does not mean anything. The test results are very accurate about me. It does measure everything it claims to measure about me. My personality type is “Determined Realist”. The validity says I am practical, traditional, and organized, and things are true about me. The hard-working part really made me believe this is very accurate because my grandfather made sure that was something I picked up from him. I am a very loyal person who is a good citizen who value security and peaceful living. When I graduated high school, my plan was to go in the military, but I changed my mind. This test showed me that the military could have fit me. Some of the other careers I have had an

If one is basing their value off of a comparison to someone they believe is socially or physically lower than them, arrogance and condescension may result. If one is basing their value off of a comparison to someone they believe is better than them, feelings of worthlessness and emptiness may occur. Within the process of social comparison, one may also begin to take into consideration how others see them. This is known as reflected appraisal and this not only can be destructive towards how one views themselves, but it can also overtake one’s mindset and become an obsessive habit of trying to please

This personality test did show accurate information which informed me what my weaknesses and strengths are without me even knowing what they were before. This helped me understand my traits better and maybe I’ll able to prevent them next time they come

I have found the test really interesting. All the questions were answered honestly and with great curiosity for the output. Although I had an idea of how my behavior and my attitude is, in some parts the results really surprised me. I know for example, that I am not really the best person to hang out; therefore the grade for Gregariousness was really high. I had also found out that I can be described as a little lazy, which I cannot say it is true, or although I feel a terrible sympathy for blind people (I really don’t know why) instead of another group of disabled people, nevertheless the test indicated that my level of sympathy is low, which was quite a big shock.

Research has been done to identify how SJT can affect self-esteem in individuals of both high and low status groups. Jost et al. (2002) suggests that the process of system justification makes way for implicit ramification on the self-esteem for individuals within the lower social system by stating that “members of low as well as high status groups expressed non conscious favoritism toward members of higher status groups on cognitive affective and behavioral measures” (Jost et al., 2002, p. 598). It can be argued that this is representative of a social hierarchy in which those who are lower may socially compare themselves to those on top. According to Myers (2013), social comparisons can be detrimental to personal satisfaction as we compare ourselves upward toward others. It can be assumed that SJT is a form of social comparison, in which the lower group favors the top, thus causing a decrease in satisfaction. This assumption is further supported by Jost et al. (2002) that favoritism later continues to the social hierarchy, thus causing self-esteem problems for those of lower stature. Jost et al. (2002) postulates that “our thoughts, feelings, and actions seem to reproduce biases in favor of high status groups, often

This semester has been filled with informative information when speaking about our own social skill, but also other people’s social psychology as well, thus is why it will be very useful in future. Throughout the semester we studied everything from the introduction of social psychology, social influences, aggression in psychology, and interpersonal attraction and close relationships. A lot of the knowledge that I gained was not only from the “Social Psychology” textbook, but also in the videos and the reactions that we needed to come up with on a weekly basis. I like the idea of being able to watch the video to see if the experiment was successful or unsuccessful and commenting on it by giving my opinion if I agreed or not. For me,

When it comes to objective tests, it is implied that they are accurate, precise, and resistant to biased influences. Scoring errors are another potential concern. In reviewing the projective test, it is determined by Meyer and Kurtz (2006) that one‘s personality will not shine through with force and clarity regardless of the medium, the presence of the client’s responses confuses the efforts to interpret the test scores, and that is what the psychologists are most interested in interpreting (Meyer & Kurtz, 2006)