Stability and malleability of the self-concept.

Abstract

The self-concept literature is characterized by a continuing controversy over whether the self-concept is stable or malleable. In this article we suggest that it is both but that the stability observed for general descriptions of the self may mask significant local variation. In this study the social environment was varied by creating a situation in which subjects found themselves to be either very unique or very similar to others. Following this manipulation, subjects responded to a series of self-concept measures. Although the uniqueness and similarity subjects did not differ in the trait terms they used to describe themselves, they did differ systematically in their latency for these judgments, in positivity and negativity of their word associations, and in their judgments of similarity to reference groups. These findings imply that subjects made to feel unique recruited conceptions of themselves as similar to others, whereas subjects made to feel similar to others recruited conceptions of themselves as unique. The results suggest that very general self-descriptive measures are inadequate for revealing how the individual adjusts and calibrates the self-concept in response to challenges from the social environment.

Sexual Self Schema as a Moderator of Sexual and Psychological Outcomes for Gynecologic Cancer Survivors

“…The data suggest its utility for use in identifying patients at risk. Schemas are generally stable (Markus & Kunda, 1986). That does not imply, however, that negative cognitions arising from a negatively valenced schema cannot be changed (for a discussion, see Padesky, 1994).…”

“…Self schemas are cognitive generalizations about the self (Markus, 1977(Markus, , 1987Markus & Kunda, 1986) and, in this case, generalizations about sexual aspects of oneself. As conceptualized (Andersen & Cyranowski, 1994;Andersen, Cyranowski, & Espindle, 1999), sexual self schemas are manifest in current experience; they guide sexual behavior (past, present, and future) and influence the processing of sexually-relevant information.…”

The self-schema model: A theoretical approach to the self-concept in eating disorders

“…Markus has used the construct of the working self-concept to describe the dynamically changing collection of self-cognitions active in working memory (Markus & Kunda, 1986). The working self-concept refers to the subset of self-cognitions accessible in working memory at a given point in time.…”

“…The accessibility of a cognition is a function of features of both the internal and external environment (Markus & Kunda, 1986). Factors that impact accessibility include: (1) expectations of the likelihood that the stimulus will match the category; (2) current motivation, goals, or need states; (3) recency of activation; (4) frequency of activation; and finally, (5) distinctiveness of the attributes of the cognition (Higgins & King, 1981).…”

Versión reducida del cuestionario CMA de Metas para Adolescentes (CMA-R)

“…La comunidad científica comparte la afirmación de la adolescencia (Berger, 2007;Carretero, Palacios, & Marchesi, 1985;Domínguez, 2008) como la etapa adecuada para formular metas, que no serán más que el fruto de los procesos psicosociales que se dan en ella, tales como la formación de la identidad (Kroger, 2004;Markus & Kunda, 1986;Markus & Nurius, 1986;Waterman, 1999), la consolidación de valores, las relaciones con los demás y la construcción de planes para el futuro, vocación etc. (Hechinger, 1992).…”