[from Jeff Vancouver 980313.1500 EST]
I read the Robertson, Goldstein, Mermel, & Musgrave paper on testing the
self as a control system. It says at the top that it is not available for
comment, so I guess I cannot comment directly. However, they might find
Steel, C.M. (1988) The psychology of self-affitmation: Sustaining the
integrity of the self. _Advances in Experimental Social Psychology_ 21,
261-302.
to be a good read. He removed the confound of the object of the
discrepancy from the design. In other words, it is not clear from the
designs used (particularly the latter two) whether we were observing the
control a self-concept or control of the perception that others have of the
participant.
What might be an interesting follow-up is to provide statements about a
particular attribute that is discrepant from the participants self-concept,
and then put them (or leave them "unattended") in a room that provides them
the opportunity to correct the discrepancy "alone." For instance, tell
them they are 'very aggressive/very passive' and leave them in a room to
wait for the next part of the experiment, but provide for them access to a
couple of computer games, one aggressive and one not.
I cannot believe Rick would like such a design.
Sincerely,
Jeff
[Jeff Vancouver 941213]
>From Lars Christian Smith 941213 16:00 CET
I was intrigued by the reference to "the behavior of defending a
self-concept against invalidation". What is the reference? Can the
paper be downloaded?
I have just been skimming so I do not know who made the reference, but
Claude Steele has a theory of self-affirmation the addresses this. He
seems to be talking about the highest level in the hierarchy. Of course,
I suspect he has little knowledge of PCT, he hangs with the Carver &
Scheier crowd. In general the social cognition people are dealing with
the self-concept in a self-regulatory framework.
Jeff
P.S. I am an I/O psychologist or organiztional behaviorist depending on my
audience.
>From Lars Christian Smith 941213 16:00 CET
I was intrigued by the reference to "the behavior of defending a
self-concept against invalidation". What is the reference? Can the
paper be downloaded?
The person most associated with this work in psychology is Bill Swann who
has written several papers since 1982. The 1982 piece is "When our
identities are mistaken: reaffirming self-conceptions through social
interaction" which appeared in the Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, 43:59-66. More recent is a 1990 paper, "To be adored or to be
known? The interplay of self-enhancement and self-verification", pp
408-450 in Handbook of Motivation and Cognition (edited by Higgins and
Sorrentino) New York: Guilford (vol. 2).
This idea has also been used in sociology. Peter Burke, 1991, "Identity
processes and social stress" American Sociological Review, 56:836-849.