Self-Continuity

Abstract

Self-continuity is the subjective sense of connection between one's past and present selves (past–present self-continuity), between one's present and future selves (present–future self-continuity), or among one's past, present, and future selves (global self-continuity). We consider the motivational character of the three forms of self-continuity, their regulatory properties, and the internal or external factors that consolidate them. We also review their consequences for attitudes and judgments or decisions, motivation, intentions and behavior, and psychological and physical health. We further the detail psychological and behavioral benefits of self-discontinuity (i.e., a sense of disconnect among temporal selves). We next turn to the brain regions that are activated synchronously with self-continuity. We consider developmental perspectives on self-continuity, discuss collective self-continuity (along with its consequences and regulatory properties), and elaborate on cultural differences in self-continuity. This inaugural Annual Reviews chapter demonstrates the breadth, excitement, and sense of synergy among self-continuity researchers and points to promising research directions. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology, Volume 74 is January 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Water From the Lake of Memory: The Regulatory Model of Nostalgia

“…Self-discontinuity, a sense of disjointedness between one’s past and present selves, is a discomforting state (Sedikides, Hong, & Wildschut, 2022). With two of our colleagues, we implemented the experimental-causal-chain design to examine if self-discontinuity instigates nostalgia and whether, in turn, nostalgia increases self-continuity (i.e., a sense of connection between one’s past and present selves; Sedikides, Wildschut, Routledge, & Arndt, 2015).…”

Collective nostalgia: Triggers and consequences for collective action intentions

“…Our findings extend the nascent collective nostalgia literature. In particular, they highlight that, similar to personal nostalgia being triggered by self‐discontinuity (Kim & Wohl, 2015 ; Sedikides et al, in press ; Sedikides, Wildschut, Routledge, & Arndt, 2015 ), nostalgia for one's country constitutes a response to perceived discontinuities in one's national identity, so whereas personal nostalgia increases as a reaction to perceived discontinuity in one's individual self, collective nostalgia can increase as a reaction to perceived discontinuity in one's national identity, with the potential to restore it (Milligan, 2003 ; Sedikides & Wildschut, 2019 ; Smeekes et al, 2018 ).…”

“…The panel is based on a true probability sample of households drawn from the population register of Statistics Netherlands, including households without Internet access (which are provided with computer and Internet connection). We were offered the opportunity to collect the first two data waves with a 5‐month interval (Sedikides et al, in press ), free of charge via a competitive round of research proposals organized by Open Data Infrastructure for Social Science and Economic Innovations. 1 In particular, Waves 1 and 2 were collected in March 2019 and July 2019, respectively.…”

“… 1 The measures of collective nostalgia, personal nostalgia and control variables of Wave 1 have been used in a previous publication (Sedikides et al, in press ), which addressed collective nostalgia as a predictor of populist radical‐right voting. …”

A Flexible Threshold Theory of Change Perception in Self, Others, and The World

“…Cutting across these ideas is the further notion that people care about maintaining a sense of consistency in their behaviors over time, as posited in theories of commitment and choice justification (e.g., Bem, 1972;Festinger, 1962), self-verification motivations (e.g., Swann, 2012), and assumptions of self-coherence (e.g., Sedikides et al, 2022;Ross, 1989). People are highly attuned to threats to self-consistency in what they encode and remember both in everyday life (Epstude & Roese, 2008;Roese, 1997) and beyond.…”