Chapter Recap

• Your self is an evolving blend of three components: self-awareness, self-concept, and self-esteem. These shape how you communicate in all situations and contexts.

• The positive self you want others to see and believe is your face; your face is a mask when you hide parts of it. To avoid embarrassment, work on maintaining your face.

• Perception is how you view the world around you. You use attributions to explain why things happen.

• There are many ways to form impressions of others, including constructing Gestalts, forming algebraic impressions, and stereotyping.

• You can improve your perception by practicing perception-checking and empathy.

1. Applying Self-Discrepancy Theory

   Question

   Revisit Higgins’s Self-Discrepancy Theory on page 38, and consider how it applies to you and your feelings about your self. Then, write a brief paper describing your self-esteem: Overall, how do you feel about your self? Briefly explain your self-concept, your ideal self, and your ought self. Where did your ideal and ought selves come from? When you compare them to your self-concept, are there any self-discrepancies? If not, how is the lack of discrepancies related to your self-esteem? If there are discrepancies, how might they be overcome? Be specific. If you resolved these discrepancies, would your self-esteem improve? Why or why not?

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   1. Revisit Higgins’s Self-Discrepancy Theory on page 38, and consider how it applies to you and your feelings about your self. Then, write a brief paper describing your self-esteem: Overall, how do you feel about your self? Briefly explain your self-concept, your ideal self, and your ought self. Where did your ideal and ought selves come from? When you compare them to your self-concept, are there any self-discrepancies? If not, how is the lack of discrepancies related to your self-esteem? If there are discrepancies, how might they be overcome? Be specific. If you resolved these discrepancies, would your self-esteem improve? Why or why not?

2. Recovering from Embarrassment

   Question

   Either individually or in groups, find an example of an embarrassing moment from a TV show, Web series, or movie. (You can revisit Goffman’s discussion of face and embarrassment on pp. 42–43.) If possible, find a clip online to share with your class; if not, describe it in detail. How did the character communicate in response to his or her embarrassment? Did he or she maintain face? Now consider the three practices suggested for maintaining face, and the recommendations for recovering from losing face. Based on these, how would you evaluate the character’s handling of the situation? What specific advice would you give to him or her on how to better recover from losing face?

   r7CokDU8ZLs=

   2. Either individually or in groups, find an example of an embarrassing moment from a TV show, Web series, or movie. (You can revisit Goffman’s discussion of face and embarrassment on pp. 42–43.) If possible, find a clip online to share with your class; if not, describe it in detail. How did the character communicate in response to his or her embarrassment? Did he or she maintain face? Now consider the three practices suggested for maintaining face, and the recommendations for recovering from losing face. Based on these, how would you evaluate the character’s handling of the situation? What specific advice would you give to him or her on how to better recover from losing face?