Being oneself through time: Bases of self-continuity across 55 cultures

Abstract

Self-continuity-the sense that one's past, present, and future are meaningfully connectedis considered a defining feature of personal identity. However, bases of self-continuity may depend on cultural beliefs about personhood. In multilevel analyses of data from 7,287 adults from 55 cultural groups in 33 nations, we tested a new tripartite theoretical model of bases of self-continuity. As expected, perceptions of stability, sense of narrative, and associative links to one's past each contributed to predicting the extent to which people derived a sense of selfcontinuity from different aspects of their identities. Ways of constructing self-continuity were moderated by cultural and individual differences in mutable (vs. immutable) personhood beliefs-the belief that human attributes are malleable. Individuals with lower mutability beliefs based self-continuity more on stability; members of cultures where mutability beliefs were higher based self-continuity more on narrative. Bases of self-continuity were also moderated by cultural variation in contextualized (vs. decontextualized) personhood beliefs, indicating a link to cultural individualism-collectivism. Our results illustrate the cultural flexibility of the motive for self-continuity.Keywords: Identity, Culture, Self-Continuity, Mutability, Personhood Beliefs, Mindset SELF-CONTINUITY ACROSS CULTURES 7Being Oneself Through Time: Bases of Self-Continuity Across 55 CulturesSelf-continuity can be defined as the sense that past, present, and future time-slices of one's identity are meaningfully connected. Philosophers (Taylor, 1989;Wiggins, 2001), as well as both classic (Erikson, 1968;James, 1892) and contemporary (Chandler, Lalonde, Sokol, & Hallett, 2003;Vignoles, Sani, Easterbrook, & Cvetkovska, 2017) psychologists, portray self-continuity as a defining feature of personal identity. Both personal and societal functioning arguably depend on people's forming identities that are seen to persist over time-not just from past to present but also into the future. Without self-continuity, people could not learn from experience, be held accountable for their past actions, make plans for their future, nor cooperate with others in the present to secure future benefits.During the life-course, however, people experience physical, psychological and social changes, and neither past nor future selves can be directly experienced in the present. Hence, people's sense of being the same person through time is not a given, but must be actively constructed-and both individuals and cultural groups may prioritize different bases of selfcontinuity within identity construction (Chandler et al., 2003). In the current paper, we examine the role of cultural and personal beliefs about personhood in moderating the ways in which people construct their personal sense of self-continuity. Self-Continuity and its BasesMotivated Identity Construction Theory (Vignoles, 2011) portrays self-continuity as a core identity motive. The theory states that people strive to construct and maintain a se...

Culture, psychological proximity to the past and future, and self‐continuity

“…Research on self-continuity posited that self-continuity may be achieved through a variety of ways such as stability, narratives, and associative links (Becker et al, 2018;Chandler et al, 2003). First, we took an expansive approach to examine the effect of culture on self-continuity by measuring different facets of selfcontinuity.…”

“…Becker et al (2018) found in a cross-cultural study that holding an identity that is stable, construing one's life as a story, and making an associative link to the past were all associated with greater connectedness to the past, present, and future, and greater self-continuity. Becker et al (2018) found in a cross-cultural study that holding an identity that is stable, construing one's life as a story, and making an associative link to the past were all associated with greater connectedness to the past, present, and future, and greater self-continuity.…”

“…Through narratives, people can make sense of changes, connect different experiences, and achieve meaning and coherence of the self (Becker et al, 2018;Chandler et al, 2003). People can also strengthen their self-continuity by making associative links to the past (Becker et al, 2018). People can also strengthen their self-continuity by making associative links to the past (Becker et al, 2018).…”

“…Change and instability in self are almost inevitable, but individuals can construct their sense of self-continuity by developing narratives or stories to account for change or instability. Through narratives, people can make sense of changes, connect different experiences, and achieve meaning and coherence of the self (Becker et al, 2018;Chandler et al, 2003). This approach emphasizes the relatedness or connectedness between things and experiences, rather than "to imagine the existence of anything enduring or immune to time" (Chandler et al, 2003, p. 9).…”

“…People can also strengthen their self-continuity by making associative links to the past (Becker et al, 2018). Without explicitly reasoning about stability or storylines, people can derive a sense of self-continuity "from thoughts, feelings, actions or objects that remind them of, or make them feel close to, their past selves" (Becker et al, 2018, p. 3).…”