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The True Self and Psychological Health: Emerging Evidence and Future Directions
Abstract
A variety of philosophical and psychological perspectives converge to suggest that a happy and meaningful life is the product of living in accord with one’s true self. This idea similarly appears throughout literature, film, and folk wisdom. The current paper examines both theoretical and lay conceptions of the true self and reviews the empirical evidence that supports its role in psychological health, with a particular emphasis on current research that demonstrates that both the accessibility and ease of thinking about one’s true self-concept is associated with the experiences of meaning and satisfaction. The merits of different approaches to defining the true self, measurement issues, and directions for future research are discussed.
... Finally, the concept of the "true self" and its relationship to psychological health has been examined by Schlegel and Hicks (2011), who have presented empirical evidence showing that the harmony between a person's self-concept and actions (authenticity) significantly supports psychological well-being. These studies suggest that self-authenticity is an important component of psychological health, affecting both personal satisfaction and social functioning (Schlegel & Hicks 2011). ...
... Finally, the concept of the "true self" and its relationship to psychological health has been examined by Schlegel and Hicks (2011), who have presented empirical evidence showing that the harmony between a person's self-concept and actions (authenticity) significantly supports psychological well-being. These studies suggest that self-authenticity is an important component of psychological health, affecting both personal satisfaction and social functioning (Schlegel & Hicks 2011). In conclusion, psychological health is a complex and dynamic structure that involves the interaction of emotional, cognitive, and social factors. ...
The study examines the integration of virtual reality (VR) technology into psychological counseling, highlighting its applications, benefits, and challenges. VR creates immersive, controlled environments, opening new therapeutic possibilities for conditions such as anxiety disorders, PTSD, and phobias. It enhances exposure therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), and skills training, improving patient engagement and treatment adherence. VR's ability to provide safe, realistic simulations allows for the gradual introduction of stimuli, aiding in the management of phobias and anxiety. It also helps in identifying and altering dysfunctional cognitions through simulated experiences. Despite its advantages, the high cost and technological demands of VR systems, along with physical side effects like nausea and dizziness, limit its accessibility and usability. There is a pressing need for empirical evidence to support the long-term efficacy and safety of VR in psychological treatment.
... Frankl states that each person has a unique life path to discover their meaning (Frankl, 1985) and knowing oneself, i.e. having a strong psychological sense of self, is needed before one can find this path (Wong, 2014). Earlier research indicates that a lower psychological sense of self and self-continuity makes it difficult for individuals to define their goals and values, thus obstructing their understanding of the significance of their lives and their ability to perceive their life narrative (Carless and Douglas, 2008;Chu and Lowery, 2024;Flury and Ickes, 2007;Schlegel et al., 2009;Schlegel and Hicks, 2011;Shin et al., 2016). These are essential components of meaning in life (Martela and Steger, 2016). ...
... Specifically, we conducted a path analysis to examine if sense of self, MIL and prosocial behaviours would predict anhedonia in young people with depression symptoms. As deepening an individual's awareness of their own sense of self can be a beneficial step towards finding MIL (Lutz et al., 2022;Schlegel et al., 2009;Schlegel and Hicks, 2011;Shin et al., 2016;Wilt et al., 2021) and prosocial behaviours are considered an antecedent of MIL (Brestovanský et al., 2022;Klein, 2016) we hypothesised that MIL would mediate the effect of sense of self and prosocial behaviours on anhedonia (see Fig. 1). Although previous findings suggest this hypothesised directionality, past evidence is not conclusive. ...
... I find this proposition theoretically highly attractive, although I also feel that in the notion of 'a fluid navigation of the authentic self', the authors perhaps score something of an own goal: it may be the navigation that is in constant flux, rather than the 'authentic self' itself. However, lay conceptualisations tend towards a traditional essentialist view of the 'true self' as being innate and immutable (Schlegel and Hicks, 2011), something waiting to be discovered or revealed. This is central here, as whatever one considers authenticity 'to be', the perception of oneself and others as either inauthentic or authentic may be as important as any philosophical discussion as to that distinction. ...
... Indeed, whichever side of the 'essence/construction' argument one leans towards, authenticity is overwhelmingly found to be perceived as important, as a positive attribute, as being correlated with well-being and quality of life, a pathway -a pre-condition even -to a sense of well-being, meaning, and satisfaction (Debats, Drost and Hansen, 1995;Schlegel and Hicks, 2011;Stark et al., 2021), including within intimate possibilities. Perceptions of self, others, and relationship quality are more positive generally in romantic and other intimate relationships when people consider their own and others' levels of authenticity to be higher (Bottema-Beutel, Park and Kim, 2018). ...
This thesis explores autistic people’s experiences of sexuality, intimacy, and authenticity. The cultural and scientific contexts in which autistic people and autism researchers are embedded tend to assume deficit, limitation or damage when considering social, sexual, or intimate autistic possibilities. These assumptions are omnipresent and stated as fact in much mainstream autism research, casting a pall over discussions of sexuality, intimacy, authenticity, and indeed any inter- or intra-personal endeavour undertaken by an autistic person.
Working within a framework of critical autism studies, and using a qualitative and participative methodology, the main thrust of this research involved a total of 24 in-depth interviews with 16 participants, leaning on Grounded Theory for data collection and analysis. An online survey with 567 respondents was also carried out, and a research website set up. A Research Advisory Group of nine autistic people provided input regarding appropriate research methods and instruments and piloted interviews, many communicating with me and each other through the research website’s private forum.
Findings show that the challenges experienced by participants as they set out on their intimate journeys had less to do with intrinsic difficulties linked to ‘being autistic’ than with the point of encounter with a hostile and alienating environment. This environment is one in which difference of any kind is policed and punished, and sexual and gender identities and behaviours other than cis-gendered heterosexuality are rendered invisible or undesirable. For many participants, an intimate future was initially unimaginable. The ways in which they move to resolve these unpromising beginnings, however, reveal themselves to be interwoven with participants’ autistic subjectivity, involving, inter alia, intense interests, accessing and creatively navigating diagnosis, and meeting and loving other autistic people. Running through and expressed within all these themes is the whisper of authenticity. When authenticity is threatened, so are intimate possibilities; when it is recognised and nurtured, it is revealed to be a highly valued quality, a central part of what it means to participants to ‘be autistic’, and an important step on the path to accessing and maintaining satisfying, safe, and meaningful intimate relationships.
... Tyrimai rodo, kad subjektyvus jausmas ir (ar) žinojimas, kad gyveni pagal jį (nesvarbu, ar tu jį vertini kaip atradęs, ar sukūręs), teikia žmogui prasmingo gyvenimo jausmą, teigiamai veikia psichosocialinę gerovę, pasitenkinimą gyvenimu ir pan. (Schlegel et al. 2009;Schlegel and Hicks 2011). Atitinkamai atitrūkimas nuo savęs, savęs neradimas, gyvenimas ne pagal tikrąjį Aš yra kančios ir kitų psichosocialinių problemų šaltinis, todėl savęs atradimas ir (ar) sukūrimas kai kuriems žmonėms tampa viena iš pamatinių egzistencinių užduočių. ...
... Susirūpinimas minėtais egzistenciniais komponentais kaip tendencija gali rastis tose demokratinėse valstybėse (ar socialinėse grupėse), kurios užsitikrinusios pakankamą ekonominę, materialinę gerovę ir 16 Svarbu pažymėti, kad mūsų vartojamos sąvokos, metaforos atspindi ir kuria mūsų santykį su pačiais savimi, supančiu pasauliu ir (ar) tikrove, lemia mūsų elgseną. Metaforos "(at)rasti save" (savęs atradimo perspektyva) ir "(su)kurti save" (savęs konstravimo perspektyva) atspindi skirtingą požiūrį į žmogaus tapatumo raidą ir gali lemti skirtingą elgesį sprendžiant tapatumo dilemas ir (ar) klausimus (Schlegel et al. 2009;Schlegel and Hicks 2011;. Savęs atradimo perspektyva paprastai remiasi tikėjimu, kad egzistuoja kažkokios pamatinės, nekintančios, esminės individo savybės, ontologiškai reali esybė, tas tikrasis Aš, kurį ieškant galima atrasti. ...
In today’s post-industrial societies, young people, compared to previous generations, experience longer and more complex processes of creating professional identity, developing a career or finding “one’s vocation”. They also face difficulties in achieving financial independence, starting a family, and leaving parental homes, which altogether define the status of an adult person. Based on the overview of sociological and psychological scholarly literature, the complexity of young people’s identity formation in the context of a passage towards social maturity is analysed. The most significant tensions related to the question of “who am I and what do I want” are emphasized in the article, together with the circumstances of contemporary society that stimulate them. (Non-)applicability of the concept of the quarter-life crisis is finally highlighted in order to summarise, reflect, and explain some of the experiences and life events of young people. The title of the article is a famous quotation of Tennessee Williams.
... Authenticity has gained considerable attention in both fundamental and applied research recently (Lehman et al., 2019b;Luthans and Avolio, 2003), and it has proved relevant for both selfperception and wellbeing (Rivera et al., 2019;Schlegel et al., 2009;Schlegel and Hicks, 2011), as well as the perception of other people (e.g., Stiers et al., 2021). Moreover, it has been at the center of research on how to tackle various personal and societal challenges in these turbulent times (e.g., Luthans and Avolio, 2003;Seligman, 2004). ...
We assessed the perceived authenticity of attitudes expressed toward several social groups as a function of whether those attitudes were expressed by the self or by other people, and whether those expressions were automatic (without time to ponder) or controlled (without time constraints). Participants considered their controlled responses more authentic than their automatic responses. However, the same did not happen when considering others’ attitudes. Implications for social perception are discussed.
... Socially, those same attributes form part of how some autistic people and communities narrate themselves, in contrast to non-autistics who are perceived as having deficits in these same areas (see also Brownlow, 2010). And yet, despite all indications that authenticity might be central to autistic experience, sustained discussion of this overwhelmingly positively perceived attribute (see, for example, Schlegel & Hicks, 2011;Stark et al., 2021;Bottema-Beutel et al., 2018) is missing from the literature. I noted at the beginning of this section that theories formulated by Mead had in a sense definitionally written out any possibilities of autistic authenticity. ...
It has become something of a truism in certain circles to say that the road to epistemologically and ethically sound autism research requires the inclusion of autistic input into research processes. However, autism research is still overwhelmingly dominated by medical, psychological, and associated disciplines in which an assumption of autistic deficit is omnipresent. The processes supporting and perpetuating epistemic injustice in autism research are therefore intricate, long-standing, deeply entrenched, and powerful. As things stand, is the inclusion of autistic perspectives sufficient to disrupt the circular logic which characterizes much research in the field? What are some potential pitfalls of inclusive or participatory research in the current climate? While participation clearly holds value, is it the panacea that we have been led to believe? Or do we first need to unknow much of what we have been led to believe about autism, or indeed neurodivergence more broadly? This chapter critically analyzes these and other questions. To do so, it takes as a case study the largely absent concept of authenticity in autism research, relating this absence to epistemic injustice. The chapter goes on to propose the potential of unknowing as a methodological tool for Neurodiversity Studies, concluding with an unknower's toolbox, with concrete suggestions for integrating unknowing into research practice.
... Acting authentically in the role that one occupies in the workplace can allow for the full expression of one's human potential (e.g., Van den Bosch et al., 2019;Van den Bosch & Taris, 2014). This is in line with several studies highlighting that trait authenticity in community samples was associated with a series of individual differences related to the development of human potential (e.g., Davis et al., 2015;Di Fabio, 2014;Satici et al., 2013;Schlegel & Hicks, 2011;Wood et al., 2008). ...
Introduction
Trait authenticity has been defined as a dispositional individual difference, and it refers to people's experience of living in accordance with their true Self. Despite research conducted in working contexts has found that trait authenticity is related to people's work engagement, it is not clear if this association may be mediated by other variables.
Objective
Framing trait authenticity within the job demands-resources model, we hypothesized that trait authenticity allows the release of human full potential in terms of personal resources that, in turn, promote work engagement, especially in highly challenging work settings, such as educational ones.
Method
We administered a self-report questionnaire composed of several measurement scales to 446 teachers working in kindergartens, primary schools, and middle schools.
Results and conclusions
A moderated mediation analysis revealed that trait authenticity can promote teachers’ emergence of personal resources, which in turn enhances their work engagement. The study highlights that the role of trait authenticity and personal resources on work engagement acquires a particular salience when teachers face high (vs. low) challenge job demands (i.e., workload), that is when this reservoir of potential is needed the most.
... The study explores the role of self-concept clarity in purpose, personal meaning, and life satisfaction in Chinese and Indonesian emerging adults. Corroborating prior studies (Bigler et al., 2001;Light, 2017;Schlegel et al., 2011), we found that self-concept clarity positively predicts purpose and facilitates selfregulation and goal pursuit in both samples. ...
Background
The importance of self-concept clarity to oneself has been shown in prior studies among Western communities. However, few studies have investigated self-concept clarity and its outcomes cross-culturally in the Asian context. Therefore, we as-sessed self-concept clarity in relation to purpose in life, life satisfaction, and personal meaning among Chinese and Indone-sian samples.
Participants and procedure
The survey participants were 248 Indonesian undergraduates and 311 Chinese, aged 18-25 years, recruited through conven-ience sampling. An online survey was distributed to universities in Hong Kong and in Indonesia in which all participants gave written informed consent. Reliability and confirmatory factor analyses of each scale were performed in each sample. A multi-group confirmatory factor analysis was performed to test the invariance of the analysis of the data.
Results
The findings of the study demonstrate a consistent and significant positive impact of self-concept clarity on purpose in life, which subsequently predicts life satisfaction and personal meaning in both groups. Interestingly, only in the Chinese sample did self-concept clarity exhibit a direct positive correlation with personal meaning. Meanwhile, in the Indonesian sample, there was no significant effect of self-concept clarity on meaningfulness. In other words, the Indonesian sample emphasizes the need to shape goals after achieving self-concept clarity to make a meaningful life.
Conclusions
This study highlights the importance of fostering self-concept clarity among students in both countries to shape their goals and aims for better well-being.
... To be real or true to oneself, termed self-authenticity, is an ancient concept that relates to optimal human functioning (Nehamas, 1998). Despite a few boundary conditions (Ibarra, 2015;Niu et al., 2020;Womick et al., 2019), most research consistently suggests that self-authenticity is beneficial for individuals' wellness (Schlegel & Hicks, 2011;Sutton, 2020). For example, being true to oneself can predict psychological well-being (Sutton, 2020), moral behavior (Christy et al., 2017;Heiphetz et al., 2017), and good performance at work (Baek et al., 2019;Hannah et al., 2011;Walumbwa et al., 2008). ...
The benefits of self-authenticity have been well-documented, although courage is needed to be true to oneself. The present work aims to test whether courage is associated with and promotes self-authenticity. This hypothesis was confirmed across six studies (N = 3868). Study 1 showed that courage was positively related to self-authenticity. Having participants recall courageous (vs. cowardly or neutral) acts, Study 2 showed that temporarily heightened courage could enhance self-authenticity. Studies 3–5 further showed that sense of power could mediate the effect of courage on self-authenticity both at the trait and the state levels. Study 6 demonstrated the causal effect of sense of power on state self-authenticity by manipulating the sense of power. Overall, the current findings provide empirical evidence for the classic wisdom that courage enables one to be authentic and reveal the mediating role of sense of power in this process. Implications and limitations are also discussed.
... Considering that autonomy is a motivational state of self-initiation, which is based on a good sense of control and behavioral effectance, the findings of Weinstein et al. [29] support the idea that guilt experiences are more likely than shame-eliciting experiences to be integrated into the self-concept. Similarly, Vess, Schlegel, Hicks, and Arndt [36] showed that the participants who thought about the characteristics of the self that they believed to be reflective of who they truly are (i.e., true self-concept; [37]) increased their (shame-free) guilt and decreased their (guilt-free) shame for negative evaluative experiences (e.g., poor performance). It is important to note that the buffering effect of the concept of the true self in response to self-threatening information held true only for guilt, suggesting that guilt is more likely than shame to be included in one's self-concept when an individual feels safe with regard to maintaining one's positive self-image. ...
This study explored the integration of guilt and shame experiences into the self-concept, focusing on how perceived future opportunities affect this process. The participants in Study 1 (N = 201) and Study 2 (N = 221) recalled experiences that elicited either guilt or shame and that they believed could occur again in the future (i.e., repeatable) or could not (i.e., non-repeatable). The results showed that when the participants viewed an event as repeatable, suggesting that future opportunities for change were possible, they were more likely to accept and integrate the experiences associated with guilt than with shame. This difference disappeared when the target event was non-repeatable, thereby providing no future opportunities for change. Study 2 further demonstrated the moderating role of future coping confidence in the relationship between the interaction effect of emotion type and event repeatability on self-integration. These findings underscore the different roles of guilt and shame in identity development and intrapersonal learning.
... Emerging perspectives in psychological science conceptually view authenticity as the subjective experience of knowing and being one's true self (Sedikides et al. 2017 ). The "true" self, here, reflects people's appraisal of who they are at their core, irrespective of how they might act or what characteristics they might present publicly ( Schlegel & Hicks 2011 ). This emphasis on a true self concept -rather than some sort of ontologically "real" essence -makes the empirical existence of a true self irrelevant for the experience of authenticity. ...
... First, it makes people realize "who they really are." This realization of the authentic self provides people with a "life philosophy" to guide them to act in line with their authentic selves, increasing the sense of meaning in life (Schlegel & Hicks, 2011). Thus, authenticself pursuit enhances meaning in life because it increases the accessibility of the authentic self (Schlegel et al., 2009). ...
Awe is theoretically proposed as a meaning-making emotion. However, empirical evidence has shown that awe has mixed effects on meaning in life. The explanations for such complicated results have been limited. To fill this gap, in this research, we aimed to clarify how and when awe contributes to meaning in life. In six studies (N = 1,115), we examined the indirect effect of awe on meaning in life through authentic-self pursuit as well as trait authenticity’s moderating effect on this indirect effect. We consistently found a positive indirect effect of awe on meaning in life via authentic-self pursuit (Studies 1–3 and Study 5), which arised beyond happiness and self-smallness (Studies 2a, 2b, and 3) and also held for awe brought on by a threatening experience (Study 3). Moreover, we found that manipulating authentic-self pursuit improved meaning in life (Study 4). Importantly, the main effect of awe on meaning in life and indirect effect of awe on meaning in life through authentic-self pursuit were significant for those with low to average rather than high trait authenticity (Study 5). These findings facilitate the understanding of awe as a meaning-making emotion.
... These interpersonal responses also lead to subjective feelings of inauthenticity and perceptions from others that the person is not being genuine among people with SAD (107,108). Authenticity refers to whether a person is behaving in a way that is true to what they really experience (109) and has been associated with higher personal (110)(111)(112) and ...
Background
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a serious and prevalent psychiatric condition that heavily impacts social functioning and quality of life. Though efficacious treatments exist for SAD, remission rates remain elevated and a significant portion of those affected do not access effective treatment, suggesting the need for additional evidence-based treatment options. This paper presents a protocol for an open-label pilot study of MDMA-assisted therapy (MDMA-AT) for social anxiety disorder. The study aims to assess preliminary treatment outcomes, feasibility and safety, and psychological and physiological processes of change in the treatment of SAD with MDMA-AT. A secondary aim includes the development of a treatment manual for MDMA-AT for SAD.
Method
The outlined protocol is a randomized, open-label delayed treatment study. We will recruit 20 participants who meet criteria with moderate-to-severe social anxiety disorder (SAD) of the generalized subtype. Participants will be randomly assigned to an immediate treatment (n = 10) or delayed treatment condition (n = 10). Those in the immediate treatment condition will proceed immediately to active MDMA-AT consisting of three preparation sessions, two medicine sessions in which they receive oral doses of MDMA, and six integration sessions over approximately a 16-week period. The delayed treatment condition will receive the same intervention after a 16-week delay. Our primary outcome is SAD symptom reduction as measured by the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale administered by blinded raters at post-treatment and 6 month follow up. Secondary outcomes include changes in functional impairment, feasibility and safety measures, and novel therapeutic processes of change including shame and shame-related coping, belongingness, self-concealment, and self-compassion at post-treatment. Exploratory outcomes are also discussed.
Discussion
The results of this pilot trial advance the field’s understanding of the acceptability and potential effectiveness of MDMA-AT for social anxiety disorder and provide an overview of relevant therapeutic mechanisms unique to SAD. We hope findings from this protocol will inform the design of subsequent larger-scale randomized controlled trials (RCT) examining the efficacy of MDMA-AT for SAD.
Clinical trial registration
https://clinicaltrials.gov/, NCT05138068.
... Based on Metin et al. (2016) andHarter (2002), this research explained authenticity as the degree to which individuals are acted according to their beliefs, values, and characteristics. Living according to the true self is thought to help an individual get a meaningful and happy life (Schlegel & Hicks, 2011). Wood et al. (2011) introduced the authenticity scale, which included three dimensions: accepting external influence, self-alienation, and authentic living, which improved psychological well-being and selfesteem. ...
Proactive behavior helps an individual in improving the work setting. Based on the JD-R theory and Borden and build approach, this research proposes and tests a serial mediation relating the strengths used with proactive behavior sequentially through work authenticity and self-resilience. A sample of 256 employees of hospitals in Bangladesh was approached in three-time lags. The Process Marco of Preacher and Hayes was applied to investigate the proposed hypotheses. The indirect effects of the proposed hypotheses were measured by applying the bootstrap procedure. The results showed that work authenticity mediated the relation among strengths use and self-resilience, self-resilience mediated the association between work-authenticity and proactive behavior, and work-authenticity and self-resilience sequentially judged the connection between forces use and assertive behavior. Through an investigation of self-resilience, the outcomes provide proof supporting combining the JD-R and Borden and building theories in the research stream. Future research should add potential moderators that can impact the paths and apply longitudinal design to permit solid causal relationships. Considering the role of work authenticity and self-resilience in positive psychology, organizations must stimulate employees to become more authentic and self-resilient on the job. This increases proactive behavior and leads to the success of an organization.
... The present study did not consider this self-control and, indeed, self-control may matter. People with high self-esteem would have higher aspirations (Baumgardner, 1990;Campbell, 1990) and would persist more in dealing with failure (Shrauger & Sorman, 1977), and they might experience more clarity, selfconnection, and self-efficacy (Klussman, Curtin, Langer & Nichols, 2022;Schlegel & Hicks, 2011;Sheldon, 2014). Because self-control increases with a favorable self-view, it may be that what is at stake in our results is specifically due to this selfcontrol: Self-control may lessen the risk of being engaged in problematic social interactions through increased awareness of how to act, what to say, etc., and could help one not to feel negatively judged by others (e.g., Stavrova, Ren & Pronk, 2022). ...
Can self-esteem reduce the deleterious effects of solitude on adolescents' mental and social health? Solitude is twofold because it can be chosen (self-determined) or forced (not self-determined). When it is not a chosen behavior (e.g., social ignorance, exclusion, or fear of others' judgment), individuals experience higher levels of anxiety and depression and feel the deleterious effects of loneliness more. On the other hand, the level of self-esteem relates positively to lower levels of anxiety and depression as well as to good social relationships. We hypothesized that self-esteem moderates the effects of unchosen solitude. Eighty high school students participated in this study by filling out a self-report booklet of questionnaires. We first examine the links between unchosen solitude and anxiety, depression, loneliness, hopelessness, and quality of the connection to family and peers; next, we examine the moderating role of self-esteem in these links. Regression analyses confirm the classic negative effect of not-self-determined solitude on the health outcomes considered, and moderation analyses show that a good level of self-esteem decreases this effect, at least on depression, hopelessness, and connection to peers. We suggest further studies to complete and refine these results and propose to assess more systematically the adolescents' self-esteem and to reinforce it to prevent negative mental and social health outcomes.
... Furthermore, feminists being unable to fully share their feminist identity with those in all contexts reduces their ability to live as true selves (Schlegel & Hicks, 2011), which is important because being able to express one's true self increases various indicators of well-being, such as selfesteem (Heppner et al., 2008) or meaning in life (Schlegel et al., 2009). This is especially the case for women sample, where we found a significant correlation between public self-consciousness and the identity disclosure, meaning that caring about how others view them contributed to disclosing who they are -a feminist. ...
Given feminist backlash and stigma in society, whether people would publicly say that they are a feminist might depend on their social context, which could have implications for understanding who identifies as a feminist and why, as well as community and coalition-building. We therefore tested whether disclosure of feminist identity varies across interaction contexts and by gender/sex, given some gender/sex-specificities to stigma about feminist identity. In our study, we asked women, men, and nonbinary people who are feminists (N = 640) about their willingness to disclose their feminist identity in eight interaction contexts: immediate family, extended family, friends, partners, work, strangers, anti-feminists, and pro-feminists. Results revealed substantial intra-person contextual variability in feminist identity disclosure, suggesting participants’ decision to disclose their feminist identity varies across contexts. In general, participants were most reluctant to disclose their feminist identity to a stranger, with anti-feminists and work contexts showing the next greatest likelihood to not disclose. Finally, participants were most likely to share their feminist identity with their immediate family, friends, pro-feminist, and romantic partners. We also examined the disclosure pattern for each gender/sex group (women, men, and nonbinary participants). Results emphasize that holding a feminist identity might not necessarily lead to identity disclosure and that disclosure decisions may depend on contextual pressure and gender/sex considerations.
... While people may disagree about what decision being "rational" would lead to, each person is the ultimate arbiter on their own true selves. In this way, perceptions of the true self could export meaning and value to whatever decision is reached regardless of how difficult decision-making is or what decision is made (Schlegel & Hicks, 2011). On this view, perceptions are what matter and even illusions of authenticity can be beneficial. ...
The current research presents five experiments (N = 1298) that examine what decision-making strategies lead to satisfying decisions in moral dilemmas. Past research in other contexts suggests that when people believe that they are using the true self as a guide (TSAG) to make decisions, they experience more decision satisfaction. However, it was unclear whether this past work would generalize to moral dilemmas given that people believe their true selves are morally good and moral dilemmas require a violation of at least one moral code to be resolved. However, results of five studies suggested that TSAG effects extend to moral dilemmas. Studies 1-3 indicated that when participants were given instructions for how to solve moral dilemmas, TSAG instructions led to more satisfying decisions relative to rational thinking, intuition, or no instruction conditions. In Study 4, all participants received non-true self instructions (rational thinking or intuition) during the decision-making process , but half were asked to reframe their decision as being guided by the true self after the decision was made. We found that this reframing facilitated decision satisfaction even though the decision was actually made using alternative instructions, suggesting that perceptions of TSAG may directly drive the observed effects on decision satisfaction as opposed to actual use of the true self per se. Finally, in Study 5, we found evidence that the effect of TSAG instructions was more robust in moral (vs. nonmoral) dilemmas and not contingent on the dilemmas being easy or difficult.
... Perceptions of free will are also related to perceptions of the true self (Newman et al., 2015;Schlegel & Hicks, 2011). The true self is a fundamental subset of psychological properties that constitute identity, which includes one's sense of agency: how people assign authorship to their actions shapes their sense of self (Ryan & Deci, 2000;Schlegel et al., 2009;Strohminger et al., 2017;Waller 2019;Wegner, 2003). ...
Two experiments tested the hypothesis that neurological abnormalities decrease punishment by decreasing perceptions of free will. Experiment 1 found that a brain tumor decreased punishment for criminal behavior by decreasing perceptions of the afflicted criminal’s free will. This effect was stronger for liberal and non-religious participants than for conservative and religious participants. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1 and additionally found that a brain tumor decreased perceptions of the afflicted criminal’s conscious decisions and true self, thereby decreasing perceptions of his free will, thereby decreasing his punishment. Collectively, these results suggest that neurological abnormalities decrease punishment by decreasing perceptions of free will, especially among liberals and non-religious people. These results also suggest that neurological abnormalities decrease perceptions of free will—and ultimately decrease punishment—by decreasing perceptions of conscious decisions and the true self.
... The construct of authenticity connotes living in ways that represent the true self, and it is considered a hallmark of psychological well-being (Schlegel & Hicks, 2011). Moment-tomoment variations in state authenticity are positively associated with value-consistent behavior, self-esteem, and positive moods (Sedikides et al., 2017). ...
Research suggests that trait introverts feel more authentic when acting extraverted. We explored boundaries of this idea by assessing trait and identities as introvert or extravert and asking participants to debate extraversion’s value. Students (Study 1: N = 310, Study 2 direct replication: N = 407) were randomly assigned to pro or con sides in the debate and then reported their state authenticity and affect. Results suggested interactions between individual differences (trait, identity) and debate condition on authenticity. Counter-dispositional and counter-identity debating decreased authenticity, though with variation in strength across studies. Affect did not follow this pattern. These findings provide preliminary evidence for the importance of trait-related identities and suggest limits to the benefits of embracing counter-dispositional extraversion.
... The construct of authenticity connotes living in ways that represent the true self, and it is considered a hallmark of psychological well-being (Schlegel & Hicks, 2011). Moment-tomoment variations in state authenticity are positively associated with value-consistent behavior, self-esteem, and positive moods (Sedikides et al., 2017). ...
Research suggests that trait introverts feel more authentic when acting extraverted. We explored boundaries of this idea by assessing trait and identities as introvert or extravert and asking participants to debate extraversion’s value. Students (Study 1: N = 310, Study 2 direct replication: N = 407) were randomly assigned to pro or con sides in the debate and then reported their state authenticity and affect. Results suggested interactions between individual differences (trait, identity) and debate condition on authenticity. Counter-dispositional and counter-identity debating decreased authenticity, though with variation in strength across studies. Affect did not follow this pattern. These findings provide preliminary evidence for the importance of trait-related identities and suggest limits to the benefits of embracing counter-dispositional extraversion.
... Authenticity is traditionally studied as a trait linked to eudemonic well-being (Kernis & Goldman, 2006) and psychological health (Schlegel & Hicks, 2011). Recently, however, authenticity has been explored as a state-level variable, reflecting a state of congruence between an individual's identity and their actions within a given situation (Lenton, Bruder, Slabu, & Sedikides, 2013). ...
Special Issue description: Despite equal rights, minority groups such as ethnic minorities, LGBTQ + people, and people with mental or physical disabilities face discrimination on a day-to-day basis in subtle and hard-to-recognize forms. As discrimination slips beneath the surface, it becomes difficult to fight the stigma using collective social identity coping mechanisms. Instead, individual mobility responses such as distancing the self from the stigmatized identity (“self-group distancing”) become more viable as a way to improve one's individual standing. In this overview of the state of the art, we take a social identity lens to reflect on the current empirical knowledge base on self-group distancing as a coping mechanism and provide a framework on what self-group distancing is; when, where and why self-group distancing likely occurs; and what its consequences are at the individual and the collective level. The contributions in this special issue provide novel insights into how these processes unfold, and serve as a basis to set a future research agenda, for example on what can be done to prevent self-group distancing (i.e., interventions). Together, the insights highlight that while self-group distancing may seem effective to (strategically and temporarily) alleviate discomfort or to improve one's own position, on a broader collective level and over time self-group distancing tends to keep the current unequal social hierarchy in place.
... Authenticity refers to whether a person is expressing their "true" or "core" self in their behavior or whether the person is behaving in a way that is true to what they really experience (144). Authenticity has been associated with higher personal (145)(146)(147) and interpersonal well-being (148,149). People with SAD have been shown to experience lower self-rated authenticity in dyadic interactions as well as being rated by conversational partners as less authentic (150). ...
Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a prevalent and often debilitating psychiatric disorder that can assume a chronic course even when treated. Despite the identification of evidence-based pharmacological and behavioral treatments for SAD, much room for improved outcomes exists and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) has been proposed as a promising adjunctive treatment to psychological interventions for disorders characterized by social dysfunction. A small randomized, placebo-controlled trial of MDMA-assisted therapy (MDMA-AT) for social anxiety in autistic adults offered encouraging results, but more research is sorely needed to explore the potential for MDMA-AT in treating SAD. This review aims to stimulate future study by summarizing research on disruptions in neurological, perceptual, receptive, and expressive systems regulating social behavior in SAD and proposing how MDMA-AT may alter these systems across four domains. First, we review research highlighting the roles of social anhedonia and reduced social reward sensitivity in maintaining SAD, with specific attention to the reduction in positive affect in social situations, infrequent social approach behaviors, and related social skills deficits. We posit that MDMA-AT may enhance motivation to connect with others and alter perceptions of social reward for an extended period following administration, thereby potentiating extinction processes, and increasing the reinforcement value of social interactions. Second, we review evidence for the central role of heightened social evaluative threat perception in the development and maintenance of SAD and consider how MDMA-AT may enhance experiences of affiliation and safety when interacting with others. Third, we consider the influence of shame and the rigid application of shame regulation strategies as important intrapersonal processes maintaining SAD and propose the generation of self-transcendent emotions during MDMA sessions as a mechanism of shame reduction that may result in corrective emotional experiences and boost memory reconsolidation. Finally, we review research on the role of dysfunctional interpersonal behaviors in SAD that interfere with social functioning and, in particular, the development and maintenance of close and secure relationships. We discuss the hypothesized role of MDMA-AT in improving social skills to elicit positive interpersonal responses from others, creating a greater sense of belonging, acceptance, and social efficacy.
... Research indicates that experiential acceptance and authenticity correlate with one's level of psychopathology (Chawla & Ostafin, 2007). Ego states and self-realization are also correlated (Arndt et al., 2002;Schimel et al., 2001;Schlegel & Hicks, 2011;Vos, 2017). Individuals who feel that they are able to live a meaningful and satisfying life experience less psychopathology and better overall well-being (Vos, 2016a(Vos, , 2016b(Vos, , 2017. ...
This article presents a focused review of the research literature in transactional analysis (TA). TA was developed in the 1950s as a theory of human personality and social behavior and as a comprehensive form of psychotherapy, but there has not been any systematic research to test the empirical evidence for the efficacy of TA theory and practice. The aim of this study was to develop the conceptual model of transactional analysis on the basis of a systematic review of the actual, self-reported practice of international TA psychotherapists and on the evidence found in research. The article systematically reviews common conceptual components of TA and their empirical evidence by examining the common denominator and the empirical evidence for the central clinical phenomenon, etiology, therapeutic mechanisms, therapeutic competencies, outcomes, and synthesis. TA focuses on problems in ego states (operationalized as Parent, Adult, and Child) with distinctive behavioral functions of Controlling Parent, Nurturing Parent, Adult, Adapted Child, and Free Child. Individuals can develop long-term problems in their ego states, social functioning, and self-efficacy as the result of unfavorable messages from their social context (negative parental messages in early life, lack of developing mature coping mechanisms, intergenerational messages, negative stroke balance), script decisions (accepting or rejecting unfavorable messages via behavior, emotional disconnection, or cognitive styles), life events, and genetics/temperament. TA treatment intends to help clients by developing constructive ego states, improving social functioning, and stimulating a sense of self-efficacy. Research confirms that TA improves psychopathology, behavior, and general well-being thanks to improvement in ego states, self-efficacy, and social functioning. These effects are achieved by four evidence-based therapist competencies: creating a positive client-practitioner relationship, working with experiences in the present, etiological analysis (life scripts, injunctions, counterinjunctions), and therapeutic structure (treatment contracts, treatment stages, psychoeducation/didactics). Meta-analysis of 75 studies shows that TA has moderate to large positive effects on psychopathology, self-efficacy, social functioning, and ego states. This conceptual model shows that TA can be considered a bona fide and evidence-based treatment for a wide range of clients.
... Meaning in life is defined as a sense that one's life matters, makes sense, and has purpose (George & Park, 2016;King, Heintzelman, & Ward, 2016;Martela & Steger, 2016;Schlegel & Hicks, 2011). Some argue that finding meaning in life is at the core of human existence (Park, 2017). ...
During the COVID-19 pandemic, various restrictions forced people around the world to socially isolate. People were asked to stay at home and were largely unable to do many of the activities that they derived meaning from. Since meaning is often related to mental health, these restrictions were likely to decrease mental health. The current study aimed to examine these effects and additionally benefit individuals' mental health by making their meaning salient. Specifically, the goal of the research was to design an intervention that could counter the potential negative effects of social distancing. We recruited a total of 96 U.S.A. residents (M
age
= 34.45, 92.7% Female) and assigned them to either the control group or to a meaning salience intervention. That is, participants either focused on the meaning of their daily activities (n = 45) or did not participate in any study-related activities during the week (n = 51). They completed various measures of mental health before and after this experimental period. Results suggested that the control group reported significantly greater anxiety, depression, and stress at the end of the week. In contrast, the experimental group reported less anxiety and trended toward less depression and stress at the end of that same week. In all, results suggest that simply focusing on one's daily activities and the meaning found in them protected people from the otherwise detrimental effects of the restrictions. This provides a promising and simple intervention that may assist both individuals and practitioners aiming to improve mental health, especially in challenging times.
... Because when people think about their true selves, they feel a greater increase in self-esteem. Moreover, the choices and actions consistent with one's true self lead to a more excellent feeling of meaning and satisfaction [43]. Hence, the closer employees feel to their true selves in the workplace, the more likely they are to report higher psychological well-being. ...
... Furthermore, authenticity has also been linked with wellbeing (Lakey, Kernis, Heppner, & Lance, 2008;Schlegel & Hicks, 2011;Wood, Linley, Maltby, Baliousis, & Joseph, 2008), and may help foster positive interpersonal relationships (Baker, Tou, Bryan, & Knee, 2017;Brunell et al., 2010;Tou, Baker, Hadden, & Lin, 2015;Wickham, Williamson, Beard, Kobayashi, & Hirst, 2016). ...
There is growing interest in surfing as a recreational activity that may facilitate skill development and improved mental health. However, there remains uncertainty regarding the causal processes through which surfing may improve psychological well-being. With the aim to guide future research, we review potential mechanisms that may underpin the psychotherapeutic effects of surfing. A range of plausible factors are identified, including exercise, water immersion, exposure to sunlight, transcendent experiences, reductions in rumination and the satisfaction of basic psychological needs. Further research is needed to clarify the effectiveness of surfing-based therapies and to establish the relative contributions of the causal mechanisms at play.
This work examined the power of live music events to enhance wellbeing through collective effervescence (CE)—the sense of sacredness and connection felt when in large groups. Four studies ( N = 789) using both university and community samples examined the relationship between live music events and CE and how this relationship contributes to positive, lasting outcomes. Results suggest that CE is highly related to positive outcomes associated with attending live music events. CE uniquely predicted meaning in life and enjoyment during the event above and beyond related constructs. Feeling CE was also related to greater meaning in life during the event and continued happiness a week after live music events. Further, CE mediated effects between various elements of live music events (e.g., parasocial bonds with the artist) and positive lasting outcomes. In summary, CE plays a key role in the lasting wellbeing that follows live music events.
We test the hypothesis that the perception of stability in one's self-concept (i.e., future self-continuity) enables the experience of meaning in life because perceiving a stable sense of self confers a sense of certainty to the self-concept. Study 1 provided initial evidence of the influence of future self-continuity on feelings of meaning in life (MIL) in a nationally representative sample. In Studies 2a and 2b, we manipulated future self-continuity by varying the expectedness of one's future self, demonstrating the causal influence of future self-continuity on self-certainty and feelings of MIL. Study 3 again manipulated future self-continuity, finding an indirect effect on feelings of meaning in life via self-certainty. Our findings thus suggest the experience of meaning in life arises from the perception of a stable sense of self. We discuss the implications for the antecedents and conceptualization of MIL as well as the nature of the self-concept.
This chapter describes the role of the religious self in relation to sustainability ideation. The religious self that can foster sustainability ideation is the genuine religious self. The process is to realize the duty of humans as a caliphate and learn the science of God’s creation as part of human obedience to God. The traditional perspective of religiosity that separates the science of religion from the general science, and considers the general science has nothing to do with religiosity, needs to be retheorized. Retheorization is necessary. Thinking about religiosity provides the opportunity to a Muslim who studies the natural sciences and other sciences to carry out the human duties as caliph, namely guarding the earth.
Recent developments in neuroscience and artificial intelligence have allowed machines to decode mental processes with growing accuracy. Neuroethicists have speculated that perfecting these technologies may result in reactions ranging from an invasion of privacy to an increase in self-understanding. Yet, evaluating these predictions is difficult given that people are poor at forecasting their reactions. To address this, we developed a paradigm using elements of performance magic to emulate future neurotechnologies. We led 59 participants to believe that a (sham) neurotechnological machine could infer their preferences, detect their errors, and reveal their deep-seated attitudes. The machine gave participants randomly assigned positive or negative feedback about their brain's supposed attitudes towards charity. Around 80% of participants in both groups provided rationalisations for this feedback, which shifted their attitudes in the manipulated direction but did not influence donation behaviour. Our paradigm reveals how people may respond to prospective neurotechnologies, which may inform neuroethical frameworks.
Four experiments (N = 1,064) examined how primes enhancing the cognitive accessibility of money influence meaning in life (MIL) as a function of socioeconomic status (SES) and current financial self-efficacy. Study 1 demonstrated that financial self-efficacy mediated the association between SES and MIL following a prime of gaining money. In the control condition, SES was unrelated to financial self-efficacy, but following the prime of gaining money, SES was positively linked with financial self-efficacy, which in turn predicted enhanced meaning. Studies 2, 3a, and 3b demonstrated that primes of losing money similarly enhanced MIL as a function of SES and financial self-efficacy. Extending these results, exploratory analyses in Studies 3a and 3b suggested that money priming may influence occupational choices differently as a function of SES via MIL and financial self-efficacy. Reminders of money amplify the link between SES and financial self-efficacy, which bolsters MIL and can guide occupational preferences.
The farming communities in the Christiana district with a population of close to 21 000 residents struggled with issues including poverty, unemployment, financial problems, alcoholism, occultism and Satanism and family issues such as father absence, fatherlessness and single parenting. An intervention that included training and equipping of fathers, who were farm workers from the local faith community, was necessary and crucial. Farm workers (faith communities) responded to the need for a biblical fatherhood programme. Human fatherhood should be recognised and given serious consideration because it gave an anticipation of who God the Father is. If human fatherhood did not exist, then all truth and knowledge about God the Father would be void and insignificant. Fatherhood today is an element of broken families and perhaps the most threatened element in the world. The aim of this article was to lessen the social issue of father absence through the implementation of the Biblical Fatherhood Programme. The programme has a biblical nature to solve social ills within communities. The programme was developed from a practical-theological study on fatherhood, with the primary reason to train and equip participants with fatherhood knowledge. This article presents a reflective and community engagement strategy, based on the author’s reflection of items that arose when a biblical fatherhood programme was presented to farm workers in the Christiana district of South Africa. Reflection as a methodology enabled researchers and practitioners to theorise from their own practice, improving and developing their work. Reflection was a turning back onto ‘a self’ where the researcher was the observer of the scenario. Reflection was also a significant and mental activity for researchers to use in their work with participants. The results and this article presented the reflective, rather than empirical findings of the programme implementation. The training intervention was presented in a narrative form and based on research about the essence of fatherhood. This was conceptualised from biblical truth and perspective. Participants showed immense interest in the programme and the Bible. Their theological views concerning the Bible for answers were crucial to their problems and situations. Participants’ spiritual life was pivotal to enjoy healthy relationships with God.Contribution: The programme contributed monumentally to the lives of participants. It was impossible for participants to live their lives without the Bible. The Bible is not just an authoritative source of teaching, but it speaks of human fatherhood and serves as a guideline to enunciate the care of God the Father.
The aim of this chapter is to articulate the state of the art in the moral psychology of personal identity. It begins by discussing the major philosophical theories of personal identity, including the Psychological View, the Biological View (animalism), and the Anthropological View (humanism). The chapter discusses shortcomings of those theories including their lack of empirical support. It then turns to recent psychological work on personal identity and the self, investigations that often illuminate person-related normative concerns. It concludes by discussing the implications of this psychological work for some contemporary philosophical theories, and suggests fruitful areas for future work on personal identity.
The present research investigated whether risk perception of COVID-19 relates to subjective well-being and the mediating role of authenticity in this association. We conducted a 12-day daily diary study with 133 undergraduates (Mage = 19.9 years, SD = 1.27 years; 64 females). Participants self-reported risk perception of COVID-19, authenticity, and subjective well-being every day. Results revealed that (1) risk perception of COVID-19 was negatively related to subjective well-being at the interindividual level; (2) authenticity mediated the relationship between risk perception of COVID-19 and subjective well-being at the interindividual level but not at the intraindividual level. In general, findings suggested that risk perception of COVID-19 is negatively related to subjective well-being only at the interindividual level, and authenticity plays a mediating role in this relationship. The finding suggested that keeping authenticity is a good strategy for avoiding the disruption caused by COVID-19. Longitudinal studies on samples with a broader age range, larger sample size, and extended sociodemographic background, as well as experimental studies, should be conducted to explore the causal relationship among interested variables that the current research has not detected.
Objective:
The present study sought to examine: (1) how the components of authenticity (i.e., authentic living, self-alienation, accepting external influence) relate to one another at between- and within-person levels of analysis; (2) how the authenticity facets relate to meaning in life (i.e., purpose, comprehension, mattering) and life satisfaction at these levels of analysis; and (3) whether these relationships persist when controlling for affect and self-esteem.
Method:
Canadian undergraduates (N = 203) completed a trait questionnaire and end-of-day reports on these constructs for two weeks (n = 2335).
Results:
At between- and within-person levels, authentic living was negatively associated with self-alienation and accepting external influence, while the latter two facets were positively associated. Authentic living was positively related to well-being and predicted greater well-being the following day. Alternatively, self-alienation and accepting external influence were negatively related to well-being, and self-alienation predicted lower well-being the following day. Relationships involving authentic living and self-alienation were more robust than those involving accepting external influence.
Conclusion:
Extending research on authenticity beyond between-person relationships, our findings show that daily states of authenticity predict well-being in nuanced ways, depending on the facet of authenticity. This highlights the importance of distinguishing levels of analyses and facets of authenticity.
The question of what makes someone the same person through time and change has long been a preoccupation of philosophers. In recent years, the question of what makes ordinary or lay people judge that someone is—or isn’t—the same person has caught the interest of experimental psychologists. These latter, empirically oriented researchers have sought to understand the cognitive processes and eliciting factors that shape ordinary people’s judgments about personal identity and the self. Still more recently, practitioners within an emerging discipline, experimental philosophical bioethics or “bioxphi”—the focus of this chapter—have adopted a similar aim and employed similar methodologies, but with two distinctive features: (a) a special concern for enhanced ecological validity in the examples and populations studied; and (b) an interest in contributing to substantive normative debates within the wider field of bioethics. Our aim in this chapter is to sample illustrative work on personal identity in bioxphi, explore how it relates to studies in psychology covering similar terrain, and draw out the implications of this work for matters of bioethical concern. In pursuing these issues, we highlight recent work in bioxphi that includes the perceived validity of advance directives following neurodegeneration, the right of psychologically altered study participants to withdraw from research, how drug addiction may cause one to be regarded by others as “a completely different person,” the effect of deep-brain stimulation on perceptions of the self, and the potential influence of moral enhancement interventions on intuitive impressions of a person’s character.
Fidelity with self-transcendent values is hailed as a hallmark of mature and magnanimous character by classic psychological and philosophical theories. Dozens of contemporary experiments inspired by self-affirmation theory have also found that when people are under threat, focus on self-transcendent values can confer magnanimity by improving psychological buoyancy (less anxious and more courageous, determined, and effective) and decreasing belligerence (less defensive, extreme, and hostile). The present research was guided by the postulate that both aspects of magnanimity—its buoyancy and its freedom from belligerence—arise from the approach motivated states that self-transcendent foci can inspire. Experimental manipulations of self-transcendent foci (values, spirituality, compassion) heightened state approach motivation as assessed by electroencephalography (Study 1, n = 187) and self-report (Study 2, n = 490). Further, even though the heightened approach motivation was transient, it mediated a longer-lasting freedom from moral (Study 1) and religious (Study 2) belligerence. Importantly, self-transcendent-focus effects on approach motivation and belligerence occurred only among participants with high trait meaning search scores. Results support an interpretation of meaningful values and spiritual ideals as self-transcendent priorities that operate according to basic motivational mechanics of abstract-goal pursuit. The transient, approach-motivated state aroused by transcendence-focus causes longer lasting relief from preoccupation with threat, leaving people feeling buoyant and generous. Relevance of results for self-affirmation theory and the psychology of spirituality are discussed.
We provide a theoretical framework for what it means to be self-connected and propose that self-connection is an important potential contributor to a person’s well-being. We define self-connection as consisting of three components: 1) an awareness of oneself, 2) an acceptance of oneself based on this awareness, and 3) an alignment of one’s behavior with this awareness. First, we position the concept within the broader self literature and provide the empirical context for our proposed definition of self-connection. We next compare and contrast self-connection to related constructs, including mindfulness and authenticity. Following, we discuss some of the potential relationships between self-connection and various aspects of mental health and well-being. Finally, we provide initial recommendations for future research, including potential ways to promote self-connection. In all, we present this theory to provide researchers with a framework for understanding self-connection so that they can utilize this concept to better support the efforts of researchers and practitioners alike to increase individuals’ well-being in various contexts.
What would happen if we succeeded in ‘turning down’ our emotional reactions? In this paper I compare two conditions that play out the answer to this question in very different ways—the lived experience of flattened affect characteristic of depression, and the idealised emotional restraint of the tranquil Epicurean ataraxic. I use this comparison to develop a new proposed source of value for the presence of emotion in our ordinary lives: it feels good to feel like oneself, and there are facts about our reflexive relationship to our emotional lives that provides one explanation of when and why we get to feel that way.
Self-connection is composed of three factors: (1) self-awareness, (2) self-acceptance, and (3) self-alignment. Although some promising results suggest that self-connection uniquely contributes to well-being, they have relied on an untested, single-item measure. To advance empirical examination of self-connection and its role in well-being, the current research developed and validated a 12-item Self-Connection Scale (SCS). A total of 1,469 participants were recruited across three studies to examine the SCS and its three underlying components. Using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, we found evidence supporting the factor structure and inter-item reliability as well as evidence of construct, concurrent, and incremental validity. Importantly, results from three studies suggest that the SCS is associated with multiple important indicators of health and well-being. The scale also demonstrated incremental validity beyond mindfulness, authenticity, self-concept clarity, self-compassion, and self-acceptance in its association with various mental health and well-being indicators. Thus, the SCS provides a valuable tool to measure and study self-connection and its relationship to well-being and other important psychological outcomes.
Self-connection is defined as an (1) awareness of oneself, (2) acceptance of oneself based on this awareness, and (3) alignment of one's behavior with this awareness. Although some promising results suggest that self-connection uniquely contributes to well-being, they have relied on an untested, single-item measure. To advance empirical examination of self-connection and its role in well-being, the current research developed and validated a 12-item Self-Connection Scale (SCS). We recruited a total of 1,469 participants across three studies to examine the SCS and its three underlying components. Using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, we found evidence supporting the factor structure and inter-item reliability as well as evidence of construct, concurrent, and incremental validity. Importantly, results from three studies suggest that the SCS is associated with multiple important indicators of health and well-being. The scale also demonstrated incremental validity beyond mindfulness, authenticity, self-concept clarity, self-compassion, and self-acceptance in its association with various mental health and well-being indicators. Thus, the SCS provides a valuable tool to measure and examine self-connection and its relationship to well-being and other important psychological outcomes.
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Authenticity predicts greater presence of meaning in life, in general (between-persons) and in the moment (within-persons). However, little is known about whether authenticity predicts negative aspects of life meaning, such as struggles with ultimate meaning. Across three studies (total N = 719), two of which used daily diaries (daily reports = 1,980), correlations, confirmatory factor analyses, and multilevel path models together showed that higher levels of authenticity related positively to presence of meaning and negatively to struggle with ultimate meaning at the between- and within-person levels. These findings are consistent with humanistic, existential, and positive psychology theories of authenticity and meaning and raise the possibility that increasing authenticity states over time may predict sustained improvement in multiple aspects of meaning.
The farming communities in the Christiana district with a population of close to 21 000 residents struggled with issues including poverty, unemployment, financial problems, alcoholism, occultism and Satanism and family issues such as father absence, fatherlessness and single parenting. An intervention that included training and equipping of fathers, who were farm workers from the local faith community, was necessary and crucial. Farm workers (faith communities) responded to the need for a biblical fatherhood programme. Human fatherhood should be recognised and given serious consideration because it gave an anticipation of who God the Father is. If human fatherhood did not exist, then all truth and knowledge about God the Father would be void and insignificant. Fatherhood today is an element of broken families and perhaps the most threatened element in the world. The aim of this article was to lessen the social issue of father absence through the implementation of the Biblical Fatherhood Programme. The programme has a biblical nature to solve social ills within communities. The programme was developed from a practical-theological study on fatherhood, with the primary reason to train and equip participants with fatherhood knowledge. This article presents a reflective and community engagement strategy, based on the author’s reflection of items that arose when a biblical fatherhood programme was presented to farm workers in the Christiana district of South Africa. Reflection as a methodology enabled researchers and practitioners to theorise from their own practice, improving and developing their work. Reflection was a turning back onto ‘a self’ where the researcher was the observer of the scenario. Reflection was also a significant and mental activity for researchers to use in their work with participants. The results and this article presented the reflective, rather than empirical findings of the programme implementation. The training intervention was presented in a narrative form and based on research about the essence of fatherhood. This was conceptualised from biblical truth and perspective. Participants showed immense interest in the programme and the Bible. Their theological views concerning the Bible for answers were crucial to their problems and situations. Participants’ spiritual life was pivotal to enjoy healthy relationships with God.
Contribution: The programme contributed monumentally to the lives of participants. It was impossible for participants to live their lives without the Bible. The Bible is not just an authoritative source of teaching, but it speaks of human fatherhood and serves as a guideline to enunciate the care of God the Father.
This work incorporates concepts from the behavioral confirmation tradition, self tradition, and interdependence tradition to identify an interpersonal process termed the Michelangelo phenomenon. The Michelangelo phenomenon describes the means by which the self is shaped by a close partner's perceptions and behavior. Specifically, self movement toward the ideal self is described as a product of partner affirmation, or the degree to which a partner's perceptions of the self and behavior toward the self are congruent with the self's ideal. The results of 4 studies revealed strong associations between perceived partner affirmation and self movement toward the ideal self, using a variety of participant populations and measurement methods. In addition, perceived partner affirmation—particularly perceived partner behavioral affirmation—was strongly associated with quality of couple functioning and stability in ongoing relationships.
Adolescence brings with it displays of false self-behavior, including the suppression of opinions. C. Gilligan (1993) argued that lack of “voice” is problematic for girls when they enter adolescence. In the present study, the authors examined level of self-reported voice with parents, teachers, male classmates, female classmates, and close friends among both female and male high school students. Findings revealed no gender differences nor evidence that voice declines in female adolescents. For both genders, perceived support for voice was predictive of level of voice. Moreover, feminine girls reported lower levels of voice than did androgynous girls in public (but not private) relational contexts. Lower levels of voice were associated with more negative evaluations of self-worth. Discussion focused on the need to understand the causes of individual differences in voice within each gender, cautioning against generalizations about either gender as a group.
Personal Projects Analysis (B. R. Little, 1983) was adapted to examine relations between participants’ appraisals of their goal characteristics and orthogonal happiness and meaning factors that emerged from factor analyses of diverse well-being measures. In two studies with 146 and 179 university students, goal efficacy was associated with happiness and goal integrity was associated with meaning. A new technique for classifying participants according to emergent identity themes is introduced. In both studies, identity-compensatory predictors of happiness were apparent. Agentic participants were happiest if their goals were supported by others, communal participants were happiest if their goals were fun, and hedonistic participants were happiest if their goals were being accomplished. The distinction between happiness and meaning is emphasized, and the tension between efficacy and integrity is discussed. Developmental implications are discussed with reference to results from archival data from a sample of senior managers.
Experienced ease of recall was found to qualify the implications of recalled content. Ss who had to recall 12 examples of assertive (unassertive) behaviors, which was difficult, rated themselves as less assertive (less unassertive) than subjects who had to recall 6 examples, which was easy. In fact, Ss reported higher assertiveness after recalling 12 unassertive rather than 12 assertive behaviors. Thus, self-assessments only reflected the implications of recalled content if recall was easy. The impact of ease of recall was eliminated when its informational value was discredited by a misattribution manipulation. The informative functions of subjective experiences are discussed.
Proposes that an adequate conceptualization of the person perception process must consider the interpersonal context in which that process occurs as well as the purpose for which it is intended. In line with this proposal, a pragmatic approach to person perception is presented that emphasizes the interpersonal aspects of person perception, particularly those whereby perceivers and targets negotiate the identities that targets are to assume during their interactions. A major implication of this formulation is that contemporary accounts underestimate the accuracy of the person perception process. It is concluded that past treatments of the person perception process are limited and misleading because theorists and researchers have refrained from considering the uniquely social aspects of that process. Research may wish to devote more attention to the manner in which this process is woven into the fabric of people's ongoing social relationships. (4|14 p ref)
The authors propose an interpersonal social-cognitive theory of the self and personality, the relational self, in which knowledge about the self is linked with knowledge about significant others, and each linkage embodies a self-other relationship. Mental representations of significant others are activated and used in interpersonal encounters in the social-cognitive phenomenon of transference (S. M. Andersen & N. S. Glassman, 1996), and this evokes the relational self. Variability in relational selves depends on interpersonal contextual cues, whereas stability derives from the chronic accessibility of significant-other representations. Relational selves function in if-then terms (W. Mischel & Y. Shoda, 1995), in which ifs are situations triggering transference, and thens are relational selves. An individual's repertoire of relational selves is a source of interpersonal patterns involving affect, motivation, self-evaluation, and self-regulation.
Three studies examined the possibility that being liked intrinsically by others - for who one is - reduces self-esteem defense, whereas being liked for what one has achieved does not. All 3 studies contrasted the effects on self-esteem defense of liking based on intrinsic or achievement-related aspects of self. Study 1 showed that thoughts of being liked intrinsically reduced defensive bias toward downward social comparison. Study 2 demonstrated that being liked for intrinsic aspects of self reduced participants' tendency to defensively distance themselves from a negatively portrayed other. Study 3 revealed that being liked for intrinsic aspects of self encouraged a preference for upward over downward counterfactuals for a negative event. In all 3 studies, similar reductions in defensiveness were not found when liking was based on achievements. Discussion focuses on implications for understanding the functional value of different bases of self-worth.
Two studies used the self-concordance model of healthy goal striving (K. M. Sheldon & A. J. Elliot, 1999) to examine the motivational processes by which people can increase their level of well-being during a period of time and then maintain the gain or perhaps increase it even further during the next period of time. In Study I, entering freshmen with self-concordant motivation better attained their 1st-semester goals, which in turn predicted increased adjustment and greater self-concordance for the next semester's goals. Increased self-concordance in turn predicted even better goal attainment during the 2nd semester, which led to further increases in adjustment and to higher levels of ego development by the end of the year. Study 2 replicated the basic model in a 2-week study of short-term goals set in the laboratory. Limits of the model and implications for the question of how (and whether) happiness may be increased are discussed.
An integrative model of the conative process, which has important ramifications for psychological need satisfaction and hence for individuals’ well-being, is presented. The self-concordance of goals (i.e., their consistency with the person’s developing interests and core values) plays a dual role in the model. First, those pursuing self-concordant goals put more sustained effort into achieving those goals and thus are more likely to attain them. Second, those who attain self-concordant goals reap greater well-being benefits from their attainment. Attainment-to-well-being effects are mediated by need satisfaction, i.e., daily activity-based experiences of autonomy, competence, and relatedness that accumulate during the period of striving. The model is shown to provide a satisfactory fit to 3 longitudinal data sets and to be independent of the effects of self-efficacy, implementation intentions, avoidance framing, and life skills.
A case is made for the substitutability of self-esteem regulation mechanisms such as cognitive dissonance reduction, self-affirmation, and social comparison. For example, a threat to self via cognitive dissonance might be reduced by a favorable social comparison outcome. To explain substitution, it is suggested that self-esteem regulation mechanisms inevitably produce affect and that affect mediates the completion of various self-esteem regulation processes. Substitution can be understood in terms of the transfer of affect from the initial mechanism to the substitute mechanism. To be effective, this transfer must take place without awareness. Also discussed is the substitution of self-esteem regulation mechanisms across different self-domains versus within a single self-domain. Current theory suggests that substitution might be more effective within domain; that is, it is better to bolster the aspect of self that has been threatened. It is suggested here, however, that substitution across self-domain might be relatively resilient and easier to accomplish.
Two studies were conducted to assess the hypothesis that shifting individuals’ base of self-esteem to more stable, intrinsic self-attributes would reduce psychological defensiveness in the form of self-handicapping attributions and conformity. In Study 1, participants visualized an individual who liked them contingently or noncontingently, or who was neutral toward them, and then made attributions for an impending test performance. Participants who visualized the noncontingently accepting other made fewer self-handicapping attributions. In Study 2, partici pants wrote about an intrinsic self-attribute, an achievement, or a neutral event and then evaluated several abstract art paintings while knowing how other participants purportedly rated the paintings. Participants for whom the intrinsic self was primed conformed less to others’ judgments relative to achievement self-primed and control participants. Discussion focuses on the implications of these findings for understanding the connection between self-esteem and defensiveness.
Psychology after World War II became a science largely devoted to healing. It concentrated on repairing damage using a disease model of human functioning. This almost exclusive attention to pathology neglected the idea of a fulfilled individual and a thriving community, and it neglected the possibility that building strength is the most potent weapon in the arsenal of therapy. The aim of positive psychology is to catalyze a change in psychology from a preoccupation only with repairing the worst things in life to also building the best qualities in life. To redress the previous imbalance, we must bring the building of strength to the forefront in the treatment and prevention of mental illness.
Søren Kierkegaard's The Sickness unto Death is widely recognized as one of the most significant and influential works of Christian philosophy written in the nineteenth century. One of the cornerstones of Kierkegaard's reputation as a writer and thinker, the book is also a masterclass in the art of interpretation. In critical thinking, interpretation is all about defining and clarifying terms - making sure that everyone is on the same page. But it can also be about redefining terms: showing old concepts in a new light by interpreting them in a certain way. This skill is at the heart of The Sickness unto Death. Kierkegaard's book focuses on the meaning of "despair" - the sickness named in the title. For Kierkegaard, the key problem of existence was an individual's relationship with God, and he defines true despair as equating to the idea of sin - something that separates people from God, or from the idea of a higher standard beyond ourselves. Kierkegaard's interpretative journey into the ideas of despair, sin and death is a Christian exploration of the place of the individual in the world. But its interpretative skills inspired generations of philosophers of all stripes - including notorious atheists like Jean-Paul Sartre.
I: Background.- 1. An Introduction.- 2. Conceptualizations of Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination.- II: Self-Determination Theory.- 3. Cognitive Evaluation Theory: Perceived Causality and Perceived Competence.- 4. Cognitive Evaluation Theory: Interpersonal Communication and Intrapersonal Regulation.- 5. Toward an Organismic Integration Theory: Motivation and Development.- 6. Causality Orientations Theory: Personality Influences on Motivation.- III: Alternative Approaches.- 7. Operant and Attributional Theories.- 8. Information-Processing Theories.- IV: Applications and Implications.- 9. Education.- 10. Psychotherapy.- 11. Work.- 12. Sports.- References.- Author Index.
Investigated the hypothesis that in some contexts people may give more weight to their cognitive-affective reactions than to their behavioral reactions when making self-evaluative inferences. 69 university students who participated as Ss were administered the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventories and a self-concept inventory. In 1 of 2 contexts, Ss recalled either their positive cognitive-affective reactions, their positive behavioral reactions, or their unspecified positive reactions to several standard situations; these were reactions that had led them to feel a special appreciation for their own personal qualities. The experimental context of these recollections involved either private rehearsal, in which Ss simply thought about their past reactions, or public expression, in which they presented their reactions verbally while being tape-recorded. The impact of Ss' recollections on their subsequent self-esteem in each context was assessed. Results show that recalling positive cognitive-affective reactions had a significantly greater impact on self-esteem than did recalling positive behavioral or unspecified reactions when these recollections took place in a private, nonevaluative context, but not when they took place in the more public context in which the perspective of outside observers was likely to have been salient. Findings are discussed in terms of theories of self-inference processes and of actor–observer differences. Probable limitations of the findings are outlined. (73 ref)
Two studies examine the relations of self-complexity (Linville, 1987) and the authenticity of self-aspects to well being. Study 1 results show that self-complexity is largely unrelated to well being, whereas the authenticity of the self-aspects that constitute it is associated with greater well being. Study 2 uses a two-week, prospective design to replicate Linville's finding of a buffering effect of complexity on the negative outcomes associated with stressful events. In addition, study 2 results revealed either null or negative relations of complexity to well being, whereas the authenticity of self-aspects was again positively related to well being. The findings are discussed with respect to the meaning of self-complexity for personality functioning, and the importance of having one's self-aspects be authentic.
In 2 studies, college students evidenced differing levels of the "Big-Five" traits in different roles, supporting social-contextualist assumptions regarding trait expression. Supporting organismic theories of personality, within-subject variations in the Big Five were predictable from variations in the degree of psychological authenticity felt in different roles. In addition, two concepts of self-integrat ion or true selfhood were examined: 1 based on high consistency of trait profiles across roles (i.e., lowself-concept differentiation; E. M. Donahue, R. W. Robins, B. W. Roberts, & O. P. John, 1993) and 1 based on high mean levels of authenticity felt across roles. The 2 self-integration measures were found to be independent predictors of psychological and physical well-being indicating that both self-consistency and psychological authenticity are vital for organized functioning and health.
Four studies examined perceived sources of self-knowledge. In Study 1, participants asked to generate the sources of their self-knowledge reported most frequently that they acquire self-knowledge through self-reflection (e.g., thinking about the past, thinking about the future) and social mechanisms (i.e., social comparison and reflected appraisal). In Studies 2 and 3, participants ranked and rated the relative importance of these sources. The results indicated that, although social sources were perceived to have an influence on the self, self-reflection was perceived to be the more crucial determinant of self-knowledge. Study 4 found individual differences in ratings of source importance : Participants high in private self-consciousness rated self-reflection as more important to self-knowledge than participants low in private self-consciousness, whereas high self-monitors rated social sources as more important to self-knowledge than low self-monitors. Implications of these findings are discussed.
The present research extended the applicability of cognitively based and affectively based self-inference processes into the domain of specific trait inferences. In particular, the salience of past thoughts and feelings or past behaviors vis-a-vis religious matters was manipulated by inducing subjects to agree with a set of cognitive-affective or behavioral statements that were either proreligious or antireligious in nature. Subjects' subsequent self-inferences in the domain of religiousness were then assessed. Relatively “pure” cognitive-affective and behavioral statements were utilized, and differences in the abstractness of these two types of items were controlled by means of identical generic content. Nevertheless, results showed that salient cognitive and affective reactions had more of an impact on subjects' self-inferences than did salient behavioral reactions. Hence, this phenomenon cannot be accounted for by differences in the relative abstractness of thoughts and feelings in contrast to overt be...
George Lakoff and Mark Johnson take on the daunting task of rebuilding Western philosophy in alignment with three fundamental lessons from cognitive science: The mind is inherently embodied, thought is mostly unconscious, and abstract concepts are largely metaphorical. Why so daunting? "Cognitive science--the empirical study of the mind--calls upon us to create a new, empirically responsible philosophy, a philosophy consistent with empirical discoveries about the nature of mind," they write. "A serious appreciation of cognitive science requires us to rethink philosophy from the beginning, in a way that would put it more in touch with the reality of how we think." In other words, no Platonic forms, no Cartesian mind-body duality, no Kantian pure logic. Even Noam Chomsky's generative linguistics is revealed under scrutiny to have substantial problems.
Parts of Philosophy in the Flesh retrace the ground covered in the authors' earlier Metaphors We Live By , which revealed how we deal with abstract concepts through metaphor. (The previous sentence, for example, relies on the metaphors "Knowledge is a place" and "Knowing is seeing" to make its point.) Here they reveal the metaphorical underpinnings of basic philosophical concepts like time, causality--even morality--demonstrating how these metaphors are rooted in our embodied experiences. They repropose philosophy as an attempt to perfect such conceptual metaphors so that we can understand how our thought processes shape our experience; they even make a tentative effort toward rescuing spirituality from the heavy blows dealt by the disproving of the disembodied mind or "soul" by reimagining "transcendence" as "imaginative empathetic projection." Their source list is helpfully arranged by subject matter, making it easier to follow up on their citations. If you enjoyed the mental workout from Steven Pinker's How the Mind Works , Lakoff and Johnson will, to pursue the "Learning is exercise" metaphor, take you to the next level of training. --Ron Hogan Two leading thinkers offer a blueprint for a new philosophy.
"Their ambition is massive, their argument important.…The authors engage in a sort of metaphorical genome project, attempting to delineate the genetic code of human thought." -The New York Times Book Review
"This book will be an instant academic best-seller." -Mark Turner, University of Maryland
This is philosophy as it has never been seen before. Lakoff and Johnson show that a philosophy responsible to the science of the mind offers a radically new and detailed understandings of what a person is. After first describing the philosophical stance that must follow from taking cognitive science seriously, they re-examine the basic concepts of the mind, time, causation, morality, and the self; then they rethink a host of philosophical traditions, from the classical Greeks through Kantian morality through modern analytical philosophy.
Nothing is so insufferable to man as to be completely at rest, without passions, without business, without diversion, without effort. Then he feels his nothingness, his forlornness, his insufficiency, his weakness, his emptiness. (Pascal, The Pensees, 1660/1950, p. 57). As far as we know humans are the only meaning-seeking species on the planet. Meaning-making is an activity that is distinctly human, a function of how the human brain is organized. The many ways in which humans conceptualize, create, and search for meaning has become a recent focus of behavioral science research on quality of life and subjective well-being. This chapter will review the recent literature on meaning-making in the context of personal goals and life purpose. My intention will be to document how meaningful living, expressed as the pursuit of personally significant goals, contributes to positive experience and to a positive life. THE CENTRALITY OF GOALS IN HUMAN FUNCTIONING Since the mid-1980s, considerable progress has been made in under-standing how goals contribute to long-term levels of well-being. Goals have been identified as key integrative and analytic units in the study of human Preparation of this chapter was supported by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. I would like to express my gratitude to Corey Lee Keyes and Jon Haidt for the helpful comments on an earlier draft of this chapter.
INTRODUCTION, To be or not to be, that is the question. To thine own self be true. –Shakespeare Playwrights, musicians, philosophers, and psychologists have long concerned themselves with notions of authenticity. Shakespeare, for example, wrote often of themes related to being “true” to oneself and presenting a “false” self to others. Philosophers such as Lacan, Nietzsche, and Rorty take aim at the construct of authenticity by denying the existence of a coherent, unified self. The Grateful Dead, purveyors of “psychedelic” enlightenment, exhort their diehard fans to “wake up to find out that you are the eyes of the world.” The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Tests that they participated in were said to promote “higher states of consciousness” that elevated participants' understanding of their roles in the material and “cosmic” universes. What all these conceptions of authenticity have in common is that authenticity is rooted in subjective internal experiences that have implications for one's self-knowledge, understanding, and their relationship to behavior. In this chapter, we present a new multicomponent conceptualization of psychological authenticity and discuss its implications for a wide range of psychological and interpersonal functioning. We begin with a brief historical overview of the authenticity construct. Of necessity, this review is highly selective, focusing entirely on the psychological literature. Following this overview, we present our conceptualization of authenticity. We then report findings from our research that bears on this conceptualization.
This study examined relationship styles of self-focused autonomy (SFA), other-focused connection (OFC), and mutuality in adult couples, examining the links among relationship style, power, authenticity, and psychological health. Participants included 251 couples in long-term heterosexual relationships, with each partner completing a separate survey questionnaire (N = 502). Most participants reported having a mutual style, and in half of the couples both partners were mutual. No sex differences in style were found. Results showed that styles were related to power in the relationship: SFA was linked to dominance, OFC to subordinance, and mutuality to equality, although power also depended on partners' styles. OFC participants most often described their style as false-self behavior. Inauthenticity was linked to a lack of power and to poorer psychological outcomes. Mutual participants had the best outcomes, especially those with mutual partners.
This paper presents the findings of four studies on the rules of friendship. Studies I and 11 established the strength of endorsement of 43 friendship rules in British, Italian, Hong Kong and Japanese samples. Study Ill found differences in reported rule-keeping between sustained and lapsed friendships by self and other, and between sustained relationships rated high and low in quality. Study IV examined the role of rule breaking in friendship breakdown, and dissolution of friendship was attributed to the breaking of a number of our endorsed rules. Six rules were endorsed as very important in Study I and distinguished between behaviour in lapsed and current friendships; also relationship breakdown was related to failure to keep to these rules. They dealt mainly with the exchange of rewards and intimacy. Dissolution of friendships was also attributed to the breaking of third party rules.
The purpose of this study was to develop and test a latent-variable model to assess the relationship between self-expression and depressive symptoms in late life. Data from a nationwide survey of older adults (n = 1,013) provided empirical support for the following theoretical linkages embedded in this conceptual framework: (1) Higher levels of educational attainment are associated with greater self-expression, (2) older people who find avenues for self-expression are more likely to develop senses of meaning in life, (3) older adults who find senses of meaning in life are more likely to feel grateful, and (4) elders who feel grateful are less likely to experience symptoms of depression.
Self-affirmation processes are being activated by information that threatens the perceived adequacy or integrity of the self and as running their course until this perception is restored through explanation, rationalization, and/or action. The purpose of these constant explanations (and rationalizations) is to maintain a phenomenal experience of the self-self-conceptions and images as adaptively and morally adequate—that is, as competent, good, coherent, unitary, stable, capable of free choice, capable of controlling important outcomes, and so on. The research reported in this chapter focuses on the way people cope with the implications of threat to their self-regard rather than on the way they cope with the threat itself. This chapter analyzes the way coping processes restore self-regard rather than the way they address the provoking threat itself.
Three studies investigated whether affirming the self intrinsically (vs. extrinsically) would reduce defensive concerns and improve cognitive and social functioning in evaluative contexts. Study 1 found that an intrinsic self-affirmation reduced self-handicapping and increased performance on a threatening serial subtraction task relative to an extrinsic self-affirmation. Study 2 replicated the effects of Study 1, showing that an intrinsic (vs. extrinsic) self-affirmation increased women's performance on a math test under conditions that arouse stereotype threat. A third study extended these findings to threatening social contexts. Focusing participants on intrinsic (vs. extrinsic) aspects of self reduced thoughts about social rejection prior to an evaluative social interaction. Discussion focused on the need for further investigation into the multifaceted nature of the self and self-esteem.
Two studies examined the role of religious commitment in moderating the relationship between positive affect (PA) and meaning in life. In Study 1, Sample 1, religiosity was found to moderate the relationship between naturally occurring PA and meaning in life, showing that high levels of religiosity attenuated the effects of PA on meaning in life. In Study 1, Sample 2, religiosity similarly moderated the effects of induced mood on meaning in life. In addition, this pattern of results was shown to be unique to meaning in life compared to another life domain (life satisfaction). In Study 2, subliminally priming Christians with positive religious words (e.g., “Heaven”) was further shown to weaken the association between PA and meaning in life, whereas subliminal primes of negative religious words (e.g., “hell”) weakened the association between religious commitment and meaning in life. A competition of cues model is proposed to account for these effects.