Research on the relation between the structure of the self-concept and psychological well-being has yielded seemingly inconsistent and even conflicting results. This article presents studies that examined the validity of often-used measures of self-complexity and self-concept differentiation and tested their ability to predict personal identity and active cognitive processing. The findings revealed several conceptual and methodological problems that continue to plague self-structure research, including the conflating of self-concept content and self-concept structure. In short, our data indicated that the commonly used indices of self-complexity and self-concept differentiation cannot be considered pure measures of the underlying dimensions of self-structure. In addition, only weak correlations of the self-structure variables with measures of personal identity and thinking dispositions have been found. Moreover, once the theoretically irrelevant sources of variance were controlled, the effects of the included structural features of the self-concept on the outcomes of interest either did not occur or were less pronounced. Given the above, it seems reasonable to suggest that at least some of the conclusions regarding the adaptive value of self-structural variables drawn from previous research in this field need revision.

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backgroundThe aim of the study was to evaluate the usefulness of the core dimensions of personality organization introduced by Kernberg and the basic aspects of the sense of personal identity as criteria of mental health, and to verify those theses of Kernberg's theory that link the maturity of one's sense of identity with one's development in the domains of functioning considered the core dimensions of personality. The main predictions were that (a) the core dimensions of personality organization and the basic aspects of the sense of identity would discriminate between patients diagnosed with mental disorders and individuals drawn from the general population, and (b) lower levels of personality functioning would be related to weakening and disorganization of the sense of identity. participants and procedureThe sample consisted of 94 persons from the general population and 49 psychiatric patients diagnosed with neurotic disorders, affective disorders, personality disorders, and psychotic disorders. Two research tools were used to collect data: the Inventory of Personality Organization (IPO) and the Multidimensional Questionnaire of Identity (MQI). resultsStatistical analysis revealed significant differences in the levels of personality dimensions and the sense of personal identity between participants from the general population and psychiatric patients. Moreover, the results confirmed the role of the level of personality organization as a factor responsible for the differences in the strength of the sense of identity.

The results show that identity deficits should be considered as an important symptom of personality disorders, regardless of the adopted model of personality. The most disordered identity is observed in individuals falling into the group with odd or eccentric disorders and into the anxious or fearful cluster. The group with dramatic, emotional or erratic disorders is the most heterogeneous in terms of the level of identity disorganization.