Spotlight Effect Essay

In class and through our readings we have learned a lot. Part of learning is putting the terms and ideas into tangible examples. I will be discussing spotlight effect, possible selves, planning fallacy, automatic thinking, controlled thinking, and immune neglect.
“The spotlight effect means seeing ourselves at center stage…” (Myers, 2013, pg. 34). People have the tendency to think that others attention is on them, even when it is not. This happens a lot which students in middle school. They think that the attention of others is always on them. Middle school girls believe they have to look their best because they think everyone is looking at them. A personal example of this is, I have fallen or tripped on nothing multiple times while walking. Every time I do this I automatically think that everyone saw me and are laughing at me. I will put my head down and my face will get extremely red. In many instances, not everyone saw me and not everyone is laughing at me. A lot of times when this happens, people are in their own world or on their devices. They many times do not even see what is happening around them and if they do see it they don’t think twice about it. This is a perfect …show more content…
37). Our possible selves refers to not only who we think we could become but also who we may be afraid of becoming. Our possible selves make it possible for us to achieve our goals. A possible self focused on school would push someone to do their best in school and strive to become a doctor, teacher, or nurse. A negative possible self would be something we fear or who we are afraid of becoming. Negative possible selves could be being afraid of failing out of school or failing at being a nurse. It someone has possible selves that are positive it will push them to do better where negative possible selves may push us to avoid what could