Handbook of Self and Identity

769 Pages·2012·5.849 MB·English

by  Mark Leary

Handbook of
Self and Identity
Second edition
Edited by
Mark R. Leary
June Price tangney
tHe GUiLFoRd PReSS
New York London
To Mike Kernis and Fred Rhodewalt,
whose enthusiasm, warmth, and contributions
to the psychology of the self are sorely missed
© 2012 The Guilford Press
A Division of Guilford Publications, Inc.
72 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012
www.guilford.com
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher.
Printed in the United States of America
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Last digit is print number: 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Handbook of self and identity / edited by Mark R. Leary, June Price Tangney.–2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4625-0305-6 (hbk.)
1. Self. 2. Identity (Psychology). I. Leary, Mark R. II. Tangney, June Price.
BF697.H345 2012
155.2—dc23
2011026421
About the Editors
Mark R. Leary, PhD, is Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke Univer-
sity. His research focuses on the processes by which people think about and evaluate
themselves; the effects of self-reflection on emotion and psychological well-being; and
how people are influenced by concerns about how they are perceived and evaluated by
others. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the Association for
Psychological Science, and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and a
recipient of the Lifetime Career Award from the International Society for Self and Iden-
tity. Dr. Leary was the founding editor of the journal Self and Identity and is currently
Editor of Personality and Social Psychology Review.
June Price Tangney, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at George Mason University. A Fel-
low of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology and of the Association for
Psychological Science, she is Associate Editor of American Psychologist. Dr. Tangney’s
primary research interest is the development and implications of moral emotions; her
current work focuses on moral emotions among incarcerated offenders. A recipient of
George Mason University’s Teaching Excellence Award, she strives to integrate service,
teaching, and clinically relevant research in both the classroom and her lab.
iii
Contributors
Mark D. Alicke, PhD, Department of Psychology, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio
Jamie Arndt, PhD, Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri,
Columbia, Missouri
Arthur Aron, PhD, Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University,
Stony Brook, New York
Mahzarin R. Banaji, PhD, Department of Psychology, Harvard University,
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Roy F. Baumeister, PhD, Department of Psychology, Florida State University,
Tallahassee, Florida
Jennifer S. Beer, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin,
Austin, Texas
Michael D. Buhrmester, BA, Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin,
Austin, Texas
Charles S. Carver, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Miami,
Coral Gables, Florida
Jennifer Crocker, PhD, Department of Psychology, Ohio State University,
Columbus, Ohio
Susan E. Cross, PhD, Department of Psychology, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
Edward L. Deci, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Rochester,
Rochester, New York
Thierry Devos, PhD, Department of Psychology, San Diego State University,
San Diego, California
David Dunning, PhD, Department of Psychology, Cornell University,
Ithaca, New York
Carol S. Dweck, PhD, Department of Psychology, Stanford University,
Stanford, California
Kari M. Eddington, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina
at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina
iv
contributors v
Kristen Elmore, MSW, Institute for Social Research, Department of Psychology,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Elena L. Goetz, BA, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University,
Durham, North Carolina
Jonathan S. Gore, PhD, Department of Psychology, Eastern Kentucky University,
Richmond, Kentucky
Jennifer T. Gosselin, PhD, Department of Psychology, Sacred Heart University,
Fairfield, Connecticut
Jeff Greenberg, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona,
Tucson, Arizona
Corey L. Guenther, PhD, Department of Psychology, Creighton University,
Omaha, Nebraska
Susan Harter, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Denver,
Denver, Colorado
Michael A. Hogg, PhD, School of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences,
Claremont Graduate University, Los Angeles, California
Que-Lam Huynh, PhD, Department of Psychology, San Diego State University,
San Diego, California
Stanley B. Klein, PhD, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences,
University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California
Mark R. Leary, PhD, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University,
Durham, North Carolina
Geoff MacDonald, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
James E. Maddux, PhD, Department of Psychology, George Mason University,
Fairfax, Virginia
Walter Mischel, PhD, Department of Psychology, Columbia University,
New York, New York
Robert W. Mitchell, PhD, Department of Psychology, Eastern Kentucky University,
Richmond, Kentucky
Carolyn C. Morf, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Bern,
Bern, Switzerland
Natalie Nardone, PhD, Department of Psychology, Stony Brook University,
Stony Brook, New York
Daphna Oyserman, PhD, Institute for Social Research, Department of Psychology,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Lora E. Park, PhD, Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo,
State University of New York, Buffalo, New York
David Paunesku, MA, Department of Psychology, Stanford University,
Stanford, California
vi contributors
Tom Pyszczynski, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Colorado,
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Frederick Rhodewalt, PhD (deceased), Department of Psychology, University of Utah,
Salt Lake City, Utah
Richard M. Ryan, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Rochester,
Rochester, New York
Barry R. Schlenker, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Florida,
Gainesville, Florida
Constantine Sedikides, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Southampton,
Southampton, United Kingdom
Carolin J. Showers, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Oklahoma,
Norman, Oklahoma
Paul J. Silvia, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina
at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina
George Smith, MS, Institute for Social Research, Department of Psychology,
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Timothy J. Strauman, PhD, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience,
Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
William B. Swann, Jr., PhD, Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin,
Austin, Texas
June Price Tangney, PhD, Department of Psychology, George Mason University,
Fairfax, Virginia
Meredith L. Terry, PhD, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience,
Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
Dianne M. Tice, PhD, Department of Psychology, Florida State University,
Tallahassee, Florida
Jessica L. Tracy, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia,
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Kathleen D. Vohs, PhD, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Harry M. Wallace, PhD, Department of Psychology, Trinity University,
San Antonio, Texas
Gregory M. Walton, PhD, Department of Psychology, Stanford University,
Stanford, California
Ethan Zell, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina
at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina
Virgil Zeigler-Hill, PhD, Department of Psychology, Oakland University,
Rochester, Michigan
Preface
In retrospect, we find it difficult to understand why behaviorism dominated academic
psychology throughout much of the 20th century. The notion that we might be able to
explain the complexities of human behavior without any consideration of what people
might be thinking and feeling now seems absurd. In overlooking important aspects of
human experience and important antecedents of human behavior, behaviorism stymied
for decades many areas of research that involved cognitive or mentalistic concepts.
One of the fatalities of the behaviorist monopoly was research on the self. Building
on millennia of thought in philosophy, William James had given the self a prominent
place in his groundbreaking 1890 text, The Principles of Psychology. Reading James’s
chapter “The Consciousness of Self,” many turn-of-the-century psychologists and soci-
ologists could not escape the sense that people’s thoughts and feelings about themselves
are important determinants of their behavior. James’s writing influenced many early
theorists, most prominently Baldwin, Cooley, and Mead, who shared and elaborated
upon this view, but mentalistic concepts such as the self, self-concept, and self-esteem
were all but banished from mainline behavioral and social science once behaviorism
took hold.
A century later, the self reappeared with a vengeance, energized partly by the cog-
nitive revolution in psychology. Today, one cannot make much progress through most
areas of human psychology without encountering constructs that invoke the self, and
other social and behavioral sciences are replete with self-related research as well. Even
animal researchers have come to appreciate the fact that at least some nonhuman ani-
mals have the capacity to self-reflect, and that this ability has implications for under-
standing their behavior. In addition to the hundreds of thousands of scholarly articles
and chapters published about the self in the past 50 years, there now exist a thriving
international, interdisciplinary society for scholars who study self and identity (the In-
ternational Society for Self and Identity), numerous conferences that deal with the self,
and a journal called Self and Identity.
Given the tremendous advances in theory and research on topics related to the self,
we assimilated the work in this burgeoning area in the first edition of the Handbook
of Self and Identity, published in 2002. Now, 10 years later, not only has the field
vii
viii Preface
advanced markedly in many of the areas that we included in the first edition, but also
new areas of investigation have emerged. The second edition of the Handbook reflects
an effort to offer updated reviews of well-established areas of self research and to pre-
sent coverage of topics that have blossomed since the earlier edition. Readers who are
familiar with the first edition of the Handbook will see that the new edition contains
nine new chapters.
From the beginning, we faced massive challenges in terms of deciding which lines
of work should be covered in such a volume and identifying the scholars who should
contribute to it. There is far more important, influential work on self and identity than
can be glimpsed in a single volume, and far more noted scientists who have contributed
important work than could be invited to contribute chapters. We have tried to craft a
volume that reflects both established and emerging topics in the field, but we make no
pretense that we have included all important lines of work.
After an introductory chapter that provides a broad historical and conceptual per-
spective on self and identity, the chapters are organized into four sections. Part I ex-
amines topics that primarily involve self-related cognition, including self-awareness,
self-related thought, and self-regulation. A great deal of theory and research have been
devoted to cognitive aspects of the self—not only the content of people’s thoughts about
themselves but also how self-relevant information is organized, stored, and retrieved,
and how people bring it to bear on regulating themselves. The chapters in Part I cover
topics such as self-awareness, identity, self-concept, self-organization, implicit self-
processes, self-efficacy, and self-regulation.
The topics covered in Part I involve largely “cold” self-processes, focusing on how
people develop, process, store, and use information about themselves. The chapters in
Part II, in contrast, deal with “hot” processes that involve motivation and emotion.
A great deal of research has studied self-motives such as self-enhancement and self-
verification, as well as how self-thought and self-evaluation are related to people’s emo-
tional experiences. The chapters in this section share a focus on self-processes that
involve evaluation, motivation, and emotion.
One criticism that has been leveled at some research on self and identity is that it
has treated the self in a disembodied, decontextualized manner, thereby losing much
of its inherently interpersonal nature. The chapters in Part III redress this complaint
by focusing on interpersonal aspects of the self. Clearly, much of what happens when
people interact—in relationships, groups, or casual interactions—is influenced by how
the individuals construe themselves. In turn, those self-construals are greatly affected
by interpersonal and cultural factors.
The chapters in Part IV deal with physiological, phylogenetic, and developmental
perspectives on the self. Many of the major advances in the past 10 years have in-
volved neuroscientific efforts to understand the brain processes that underlie self-related
thought, motivation, and emotion. Thus, this edition of the Handbook includes two
new chapters that address neuroscientific perspectives on the self. Most psychologists
would agree that newborn babies, like most nonhuman animals, have at most a rudi-
mentary bodily or ecological self but no capacity for true self-awareness or self-relevant
thought. Chapters in this section also address interesting questions about the selves of
other animals and the ways in which people’s self-thoughts and self-evaluations change
with age.
One of the most notable things about human beings that distinguishes them from
all other animals is their ability to reflect on themselves in abstract and symbolic ways,
to form images and ideas of what they are like, to ponder important questions about
Preface ix
themselves, to seek outcomes that are congenial to their sense of self, to exert deliberate
control over themselves, and to engage in other acts of selfhood. Although our under-
standing of these processes will undoubtedly advance in the coming years, researchers
and theorists have made enormous strides in illuminating these quintessential human
processes related to the self. This volume represents an attempt to integrate and sum-
marize state-of-the-art knowledge about self and identity.
Mark r. Leary
June Price Tangney
Reference
James, W. (1890). The principles of psychology. New York: Holt.