Beyond self-esteem: Influence of multiple motives on identity construction.

Abstract

Diverse theories suggest that people are motivated to maintain or enhance feelings of self-esteem, continuity, distinctiveness, belonging, efficacy, and meaning in their identities. Four studies tested the influence of these motives on identity construction, by using a multilevel regression design. Participants perceived as more central those identity elements that provided a greater sense of self-esteem, continuity, distinctiveness, and meaning; this was found for individual, relational, and group levels of identity, among various populations, and by using a prospective design. Motives for belonging and efficacy influenced identity definition indirectly through their direct influences on identity enactment and through their contributions to self-esteem. Participants were happiest about those identity elements that best satisfied motives for self-esteem and efficacy. These findings point to the need for an integrated theory of identity motivation.

Click ‘Like’ and Post It on Your Wall! Chain Posts on Facebook – Identity Construction and Values

“…This way, testing chain posts with their answers can satisfy young people's need for belonging and relating, which some researchers (e.g. Vignoles et al 2006;Deci & Ryan 2008: 183) regard as the primary need in self-defining theory. The need for belonging must constantly be proved by various relation contacts.…”

“…Sometimes, these posts are used to learn about mutual relationships; they can reveal who are leaders or who are ostracised from a social group. It is this kind of posts that support the identity construction of developing youngsters, the main motivator of which (see above: Vignoles et al 2006) is satisfying the needs related to self-esteem, belonging and efficacy. Facebook 'like', 'comment' and 'share' buttons enable friends to react to posts and also get feedback from the community members about concrete posts.…”

Ethnic dissimilarity predicts belonging motive frustration and reduced organizational attachment

“…First, identity is multifaceted (Burke, 1980;Deaux, 1992). Thus, people define themselves with multiple identity aspects including traits, behaviors, roles, relationships, and group memberships (McConnell, 2010;Vignoles et al, 2006). Second, identity is malleable (Markus & Wurf, 1987).…”

“…To investigate whether ethnic dissimilarity leads to identity shift, we adapted the method of Vignoles et al (2006) for examining identity motives. Participants described themselves by freely generating a series of identity aspects, and then rated how central each aspect was for their identity, and how much each aspect satisfied their needs for belonging and distinctiveness.…”

“…In contrast, when a motive is satisfied, identity shift is not expected because motive satisfaction does not require a compensatory response (e.g., Tesser, Crepaz, Collins, Cornell, & Beach, 2000). Thus, although we expect frustrated belonging to result in identity shift, satisfaction of the distinctiveness motive in dissimilar groups may not cause any identity shift associated with the distinctiveness motive.To investigate whether ethnic dissimilarity leads to identity shift, we adapted the method of Vignoles et al (2006) for examining identity motives. Participants described themselves by freely generating a series of identity aspects, and then rated how central each aspect was for their identity, and how much each aspect satisfied their needs for belonging and distinctiveness.…”