Self and identity in personality psychology

Abstract

Research on self and identity has greatly enhanced personality science by directing inquiry more deeply into the person’s conscious mind and more expansively outward into the social environments that contextualize individual differences in behavior, thought, and feeling. After delineating key concepts and offering reasons why personality psychologists should care about self and identity processes, we highlight important empirical discoveries that are of special relevance to personality science in the areas of (1) self-insight, (2) self-conscious emotions, (3) self-esteem, (4) narrative identity, and (5) the role of culture in shaping self, identity, and the integration of personality. We anticipate that future research will also move vigorously to (1) develop more comprehensive and precise accounts of how life experiences influence the development of self and identity, (2) explore more fully how the brain builds a sense of self, and (3) harness what we know about self and identity to improve people’s lives and promote personality development.

Expression and Detection of Triarchic Psychopathy Traits in the Self-Defining Memories of U.S. Undergraduates

“…Conversely, personal narratives with limited emotion, specificity, and meaning lack coherence and suggest unhealthy identity development (Adler et al, 2012). Narrative-identity theory goes as far as equating people's life stories with their identities (McAdams et al, 2021).…”

Expression and detection of triarchic psychopathy traits in the self-defining memories of U.S. undergraduates

“…Traits and identity comprise two of personality's major domains (McAdams et al, 2021), and psychologists are beginning to address how these domains are connected (Adler & Clark, 2019;Blagov et al, 2022;Dimitrova & Simms, 2022). Traits are enduring individual differences in temperament (Plomin et al, 2016) and cognitive-affective processes (Fleeson, 2017) that give rise to characteristic and recurring consistencies in behavior across time and situations.…”

Parental Control and College Students’ Adversarial Growth: A Discussion on Chinese One-Child Families

“…The formation of self-identity needs to consider the influence of the social environment, which is a socialization process that emphasizes the individual’s survival in the social environment [ 20 ]. At the same time, self-identity is also significantly correlated with personal traits [ 22 ], such as extraversion and conscientiousness, and can significantly predict the level of individual self-identity [ 23 , 24 ]. Individuals with high self-identity can accept themselves and the outside world more easily, enjoy life more, and have lower anxiety [ 25 ].…”