Affective-Cognitive Consistency and Self-Conceptual Structure

Abstract

This study evaluated a model of self-conceptual organization. The model, an adaptation of the affective-cognitive theory of social attitudes, predicted the maintenance of consistency in the perceived organization or structure of self-conceptual items. Undergraduate subjects ( N = 74) completed a questionnaire assessing self-conceptual structure and then returned one week later to complete a similar instrument. Control subjects were simply retested; subjects in four experimental groups completed the posttest following adoption of roles designed to create different types of imbalance in self-conceptual organization. Pretest results indicated a moderately consistent structuring of self-conceptual items. In response to the various types of role-induced imbalance, subjects tended to reestablish consistency through a significant reorganization of self-conceptions.