Isabelle just made a verbal blunder and mispronounced a word. She feels foolish and is worried that others may think she is lack
ing in intelligence. According to the _______ theory, it is predicted that she will proceed to discuss her artistic talent by telling everyone how many paintings she sold this week.
Self affirmation theory is a theory of psychology that centers on how someone adapts to experiences, situations or information which tends to diminish their self image. When people see their self image being threatened, they tend to affirm themselves and do everything possible to restore their self image. This theory was made popular by Claude Steel in the late 1980s.
The theory of self-perception refers to the situation in which the individual changes his attitude towards himself in relation to the attitudes and conclusions that other people have about him, or that he thinks that other people have about him.
That is, in this theory, individuals talk about other people's perception of him and the personality he has. An example of this can be seen in the question above, where because of a grammatical error, Isabelle believes that people are having conclusions about her being stupid and this is affecting Isabelle's perception of herself.
