Self‐congruity effects: A critical review and an integrative model

This research conducts an extensive review study on the extant research on self‐congruity, and presents some recommendations and propositions for future research. It describes the differences between two constructs (i.e., self‐congruity and brand personality) regarding the symbolic benefits of a brand. It also suggests an integrative model to encompass important cognitive and motivational factors to moderate the relationship between self‐congruity and brand evaluation. Although there should be meaningful moderators of self‐congruity effects that are not addressed in the model, this research can be a starting point for future research in order to develop a better research model for analyzing self‐congruity effects.     

The Self‐Ambivalence Measure: A psychometric investigation

The purpose of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the Self‐Ambivalence Measure and its subscales developed by Bhar and Kyrios. The factor structure, reliability, and validity of the measure were examined utilising a non‐clinical sample of 415 participants who completed self‐report measures of aspects of the self. Results indicated that the Self‐Ambivalence Measure exhibited levels of internal consistency and convergent and divergent validity, warranting its use in further research. In contrast to earlier research finding a two‐factor structure, a three‐factor structure was found to best fit the current sample and the factors were labelled Self‐Worth Ambivalence, Moral Ambivalence, and Public Self‐consciousness. This solution separated internal aspects of self‐ambivalence from social aspects which were conceptualised as an aspect of lovability. A discussion of implications is provided.     

Social and emotional self‐efficacy at work

Research has shown that self‐efficacy is often one of the most important personal resources in the work context. However, because this research has focused on cognitive and task‐oriented self‐efficacy, little is known about social and emotional dimensions of self‐efficacy at work. The main aim of the present study was to investigate social and emotional self‐efficacy dimensions at work and to compare them to a cognitive and task‐oriented dimension. Scales to measure social and emotional self‐efficacy at work were developed and validated and found to be well differentiated from the cognitive task‐oriented occupational self‐efficacy scale. Confirmatory factor analyses of data from 226 Swedish and 591 German employees resulted in four separate but correlated self‐efficacy dimensions: (1) occupational; (2) social; (3) self‐oriented emotional; and (4) other‐oriented emotional. Social self‐efficacy explained additional variance in team climate and emotional self‐efficacy in emotional irritation and emotional exhaustion, over and above effects of occupational self‐efficacy. Men reported higher occupational self‐efficacy, whereas social and emotional self‐efficacy revealed no clear gender differences. The scales have strong psychometric properties in both Swedish and German language versions. The positive association between social self‐efficacy and team climate, and the negative relationships between self‐oriented emotional self‐efficacy and emotional irritation and emotional exhaustion may provide promising tools for practical applications in work settings such as team‐building, staff development, recruitment or other training programs aiming for work place health promotion. The next step will be to study how social and emotional self‐efficacy relate to leadership, well‐being and health over time.     

Social self‐esteem and self‐reported bullying behaviour among adult prisoners

This paper addresses how social self‐esteem relates to self‐reported bullying behaviour among adult prisoners. It explores both level of self‐esteem and participants’ certainty of their self‐esteem. A total of 502 adult prisoners (285 men and 217 women) completed a self‐report behavioural checklist (Direct and Indirect Prisoner Behaviour Checklist) [Ireland JL. 1999. Aggres Behav 25:162–178] that addressed the level of bullying behaviour at their present institution. Prisoners also completed a questionnaire that measured social self‐esteem (Texas Social Behaviour Inventory) [Helmreich R, Stapp J. 1974. Bull Psychonomic Soc 4:473–475]. Four categories of prisoners were compared: bullies, victims, those who reported both bullying others and being victimised themselves (bully/victims), and those who were not involved in bullying behaviour. There were no significant differences among bully categories in total self‐esteem scores. Men reported significantly higher levels of self‐esteem than did women. There were no significant sex or bully category differences in certainty of self‐esteem. Self‐esteem was found to include a number of individual components that differed between the sexes. The findings are discussed, and directions for future research are suggested. Aggr. Behav. 28:184–197, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Collective school-type identity: predicting students' motivation beyond academic self-concept

In Germany, according to their prior achievement students are tracked into different types of secondary school that provide profoundly different options for their future educational careers. In this paper we suggest that as a result, school tracks clearly differ in their social status or reputation. This should translate into different collective school‐type identities for their students, irrespective of the students’ personal academic self‐concepts. We examine the extent to which collective school‐type identity systematically varies as a function of the school track students are enrolled in, and the extent to which students’ collective school‐type identity makes a unique contribution beyond academic self‐concept and school track in predicting scholastic motivation. In two cross‐sectional studies a measure of collective school‐type identity is established and applied to explain motivational differences between two school tracks in Berlin. In Study 1 (N = 39 students) the content of the collective school‐type identity is explored by means of an open format questionnaire. Based on these findings a structured instrument (semantic differential) to measure collective school‐type identity is developed. In Study 2 (N = 1278 students) the assumed structure with four subscales (Stereotype Achievement, Stereotype Motivation, Stereotype Social, and Compensation) is proved with confirmatory factor analysis. This measure is used to compare the collective school‐type identity across school tracks and predict motivational outcomes. Results show large differences in collective school‐type identity between students of different school tracks. Furthermore, these differences can explain motivational differences between school tracks. Collective school‐type identity has incremental predictive power for scholastic motivation, over and above the effects of academic self‐concept and school track.     

The relationship between second‐order false belief and display rules reasoning: the integration of cognitive and affective social understanding

To investigate the relation between cognitive and affective social understanding, Japanese 4‐ to 8‐year‐olds received tasks of first‐ and second‐order false beliefs and prosocial and self‐presentational display rules. From 6 to 8 years, children comprehended display rules, as well as second‐order false belief, using social pressures justifications decreasingly and motivational justifications with embedded perspectives increasingly with age. Although not related to either type of display across ages, second‐order tasks were associated with both types of display tasks only at 8 years when examined in each age group. Results suggest that children base their second‐order theory of mind and display rules understanding on distinct reasoning until middle childhood, during which time the originally distinct aspects of social understanding are integrated.     

Children's explanations for self‐presentational behaviour

Previous research has underestimated children's capacity to understand the self‐presentational behaviour of other people. We argue from recent research in mental‐state understanding that 8‐year‐olds should be able to attribute self‐presentational motives in order to explain others' behaviour. In the present study, children aged 6 to 11 years heard stories involving emotion‐masking displays and were then asked to explain the motivations for those displays. Results supported our prediction. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Core self‐evaluations and subjective well‐being in the U.S. and the Philippines: The moderating role of self‐construal

Extant literature has shown that the compound personality variable core self‐evaluations (CSE) is associated with various psychological outcomes. However, there is a dearth of research on CSE across cultures. Consistent with self‐construal theory, because there can be differences in self‐construals within and between cultures, the present study examined the moderating role of culture on the relation between CSE and subjective well‐being while also allowing for individual differences in self‐construal in the US and the Philippines. In both countries, CSE positively predicted subjective well‐being. Notably, the association between CSE and subjective well‐being was stronger in the US than in the Philippines. In addition, independent self‐construal strengthened the positive impact of CSE on subjective well‐being especially in the US. Overall, CSE positively predicts subjective well‐being; however, the relationship depends on not only the cultural context, but also on individual differences in self‐construal.     

Positive Self‐regard and Claim to Leadership: Two Fundamental Forms of Self‐evaluation

The present article examines the common factor structure of various self‐evaluative personality constructs. Consistent with previous research, we found considerable redundancy between constructs. Two basic forms of self‐evaluation could be distinguished: Positive Self‐regard (PSR) reflects people's contentedness with themselves in comparison with their own standards. Constructs such as depression, self‐esteem and neuroticism have very high loadings on this factor. In contrast, Claim to Leadership (CTL) reflects the subjective conviction that one is called to take charge and lead others. This conviction is often called ‘narcissism’. PSR mainly reflects an intra‐personal kind of self‐evaluation, whereas CTL reflects an inter‐personal kind. Both forms of self‐evaluation independently predict intellectual self‐enhancement, but only one of them (PSR) also predicts self‐reported mental health. Moreover, the two forms of self‐evaluation are differentially associated with self‐reported and peer‐reported inter‐personal traits (Dominance and Affiliation). Finally, the concepts of ‘Grandiosity’ and ‘Vulnerability’ from narcissism research may easily be reframed in terms of CTL and PSR. The two‐dimensional framework may help overcome the conceptual confusion that exists around different forms of self‐evaluation and streamline the field for future research. Copyright © 2013 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Predicting Self‐Confident Behaviour with Implicit and Explicit Self‐Esteem Measures

The present research compared the validity of popular direct and indirect measures of self‐esteem in predicting self‐confident behaviour in different social situations. In line with behavioural dual‐process models, both implicit and explicit self‐esteem were hypothesized to be related to appearing self‐confident to unacquainted others. A total of 127 participants responded to the Rosenberg Self‐Esteem Scale, the Multidimensional Self‐Esteem Scale, and an adjective scale for measuring explicit self‐esteem (ESE). Participants' implicit self‐esteem (ISE) was assessed with four indirect measures: the Implicit Association Test (IAT), the name‐letter task (NLT), and two variants of an affective priming task, the reaction‐time affective priming task (RT‐APT) and the error‐based affective priming task (EB‐APT). Self‐confident behaviour was observed in four different social situations: (i) self‐introduction to a group; (ii) an ostracism experience; (iii) an interview about the ostracism experience; and (iv) an interview about one's personal life. In general, appearing self‐confident to unknown others was independently predicted by ESE and ISE. The indirect measures of self‐esteem were, as expected, not correlated, and only the self‐esteem APTs—but not the self‐esteem IAT or the NLT—predicted self‐confident behaviours. It is important to note that in particular the predictive power of the self‐esteem EB‐APT pertained to all four criteria and was incremental to the ESE measures. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Children's understanding of modesty in front of peer and adult audiences

Previous research has suggested that the understanding of modesty—downplaying one's achievements to evoke a positive social evaluation—develops in the primary school years. However, very little is known about how children's understanding of modesty is associated with social contextual factors, such as audience type. A sample of 92 children aged 8–11 years responded to hypothetical vignettes where the protagonist responded either modestly or immodestly to praise. The findings supported earlier indications of an increase with age in the understanding of modesty, and further found that modesty was judged as more appropriate for peer audiences than for adult audiences. No interactions between age group and audience type were observed. Children's increasing approval of modesty was associated with a tendency to justify their judgements by referring to concerns about social evaluation. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Teacher Racism,Academic Self‐Concept,and Multiculturation: Investigating Adaptive and Maladaptive Relations With Academic Disengagement and Self‐Sabotage for Indigenous and Non‐Indigenous Australian Students

The issue of patterns of educational disengagement for Indigenous Australian students has long been of considerable concern within Indigenous education research. Although there is an expanding research base identifying factors that may increase (or decrease) the risk of disengagement for Indigenous students, little acknowledgement has been given to international research highlighting how stigma and discrimination may be associated with student disengagement and the resiliency factors that may nullify these associations. Utilising a sample of 1,376 (305 Indigenous; 1,071 non‐Indigenous) students from five New South Wales high schools in Australia, this study sought to examine the influence of academic self‐concept and two culturally sensitive constructs—specifically, perceived multiculturation (perceived cultural respect) and racial discrimination—on two disengagement‐orientated outcomes: affective disengagement and self‐sabotaging behaviour (behavioural disengagement) for both Indigenous and non‐Indigenous students. The findings showed relatively consistent direct and positive effects of academic self‐concept and direct negative effect of teacher racism for both groups of students. An interaction effect (discrimination × multiculturation) for the Indigenous students only was also identified, which suggested that the negative effects of racial discrimination on self‐sabotaging behaviour are exacerbated when the Indigenous students perceived higher levels of cultural respect from others. Overall, while these findings suggest that promoting higher levels of inter‐cultural respect may be beneficial for Indigenous and non‐Indigenous alike (e.g., culturally inclusive programmes), such positive perceptions may put Indigenous students at greater risk if the impact of racism is not also addressed. The implications of these findings suggest that cultural safety must be framed both in promoting the positive (cultural respect) and in eliminating the negative (racism).     

Uncovering the diverse cultural bases of social identity: Ingroup ties predict self‐stereotyping among individualists but not among collectivists

On what basis do people form their social identities? To investigate this issue, the present research investigates cross‐cultural differences in self‐stereotyping, a key outcome of social identification. In particular, the research tests the hypothesis that ingroup ties are a stronger predictor of self‐stereotyping among people from individualist cultures than among people from collectivist cultures. In Study 1, university students (N = 117) completed measures of ingroup ties and self‐stereotyping with respect to an intimacy group (family and friends). Consistent with predictions, ingroup ties significantly predicted self‐stereotyping among individualists but not among collectivists. Study 2 (N = 104) found a similar pattern of results among members of the global internet community who considered either an intimacy group (their friends), a task group (their work group) or a social category (their gender). These results indicate that people in individualist cultures are more likely than those in collectivist cultures to base their social identities on ingroup ties. The implications of these results are discussed in relation to self‐categorization theory's depersonalization account of social identification.     

Employing autobiographical memory perspective to influence self‐congruence and brand preference

This paper advances our understanding of consumer behavior by examining the influence of autobiographical memory perspective on consumer's self‐congruence. While extant research has primarily restricted itself to the consequences of self‐congruence, this work focuses on an antecedent, by examining the psychological processes associated with the consumer's autobiographical memory perspective and the resulting impact on self‐congruence. Through three experiments, we demonstrate that visualizing autobiographical memories from a first‐person versus a third‐person perspective impacts consumers' self‐brand congruence differently under varied circumstances. Specifically, differing degrees of self‐brand congruence are experienced when consumers focus on differences (vs. similarities) between their present and recalled selves, combined with distinct autobiographical memory perspectives. The autobiographical memory perspective is identified as a key determinant of consumers' perceived change in self‐image, which, in turn, has a cascading effect on their self‐brand congruence. Thus, consumers' perceived change in self‐image is identified as the mechanism underlying the main effect. Furthermore, as an important component of self‐image, this research determines and examines a moderating influence of self‐esteem in the relationship between autobiographical memory perspective and self‐congruence. Collectively, these results facilitate our understanding of the autobiographical memory perspective as an antecedent of consumer's self‐congruence, with implications for nostalgia advertising and retro branding.     

Workers' self‐objectification and tendencies to conform to others

Recent research showed that workers' self‐objectification—their self‐perception as objects rather than human beings—leads to detrimental intrapersonal consequences. In the present research, we explored whether this phenomenon may also affect interpersonal relations, by increasing workers' tendencies to conform. In a correlational study, Italian workers who perceived their work as more objectifying self‐objectified more—self‐attributed less human mental states and self‐perceive as more instrument‐like than human‐like—and, in turn, were more inclined to conform with others. The second study experimentally confirmed this pattern, showing that British workers who recalled an objectifying (vs. a non‐objectifying) work experience self‐objectified more. Self‐perception as instrument‐like was associated, in turn, with an increased tendency to adapt to others' opinions. The implications for organizational and social psychology are discussed.     

Upsetting others and provoking ridicule: Children's reasoning about the self‐presentational consequences of rule violation

This study examined children's understanding of the distinctive ‘self‐presentational’ impacts of moral and social‐conventional rule violations. A sample of 80 children aged 7–8 and 9–10 years generated examples of interpersonal events that would upset others and events that would elicit social attention to the self. As expected, both age groups consistently identified moral violations as leading to the former, and deviations from social norms as leading to the latter. Crucially, when children were asked to identify the social‐evaluative consequences of those breaches, they exhibited a significant increase with age in recognizing the self‐presentational risks of social‐conventional deviations.     

On Self‐Love and Outgroup Hate: Opposite Effects of Narcissism on Prejudice via Social Dominance Orientation and Right‐Wing Authoritarianism

Previous research has obtained mixed findings as to whether feelings of self‐worth are positively or negatively related to right‐wing ideological beliefs and prejudice. We propose to clarify the link between self‐worth and ideology by distinguishing between narcissistic and non‐narcissistic self‐evaluations as well as between different dimensions of ideological attitudes. Four studies, conducted in three different socio‐political contexts: the UK (Study 1, N = 422), the US (Studies 2 and 3, Ns = 471 and 289, respectively), and Poland (Study 4, N = 775), investigated the associations between narcissistic and non‐narcissistic self‐evaluations, social dominance orientation (SDO), right‐wing authoritarianism (RWA), and ethnic prejudice. Confirming our hypotheses, the results consistently showed that after controlling for self‐esteem, narcissistic self‐evaluation was positively associated with SDO (accounting for RWA), yet negatively associated with RWA (accounting for SDO). These associations were similar after controlling for psychopathy and Machiavellianism (Study 3) as well as collective narcissism and Big Five personality characteristics (Study 4). Studies 2–4 additionally demonstrated that narcissistic self‐evaluation was indirectly positively associated with prejudice through higher SDO (free of RWA) but indirectly negatively associated with prejudice through lower RWA (free of SDO). Implications for understanding the role of self‐evaluation in right‐wing ideological attitudes and prejudice are discussed. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology     

The importance of social and ideal social dimensions in self‐congruity research

Chronic or situational self‐construal moderates the effects of four self‐congruity (SC) dimensions (i.e., actual, ideal, social, and ideal social) on brand evaluations. Past research has mainly focused on the actual and ideal SC effects; these effects have been found to be stronger than the social and ideal social SC effects. However, the findings of past research are based on samples from individualistic cultures. Individualists have a dominant independent self‐construal. We conduct two experiments to show that the social and ideal social SC effects are stronger than the actual and ideal SC effects for individuals with a dominant interdependent self‐construal. In Study 1, using samples from collectivistic cultures, four SC effects are compared. In Study 2, we examine how primed self‐construal, whether independent or interdependent, impacts the four SC effects. This research documents the importance of the social and ideal social dimensions in SC research.     

Stuck in the Muck? The Role of Mindsets in Self‐Regulation When Stymied During the Job Search

Although there is a vast amount of literature on the psychologically harmful effects of unemployment, there has been less scholarship aimed at helping those struggling with the motivational challenges involved in a frustrated job search. This conceptual article draws on theory and extensive research in educational, social, and organizational psychology to explain the likely role of mindsets in self‐regulation during the job search. Specifically, the authors outline how a person's mindset can cue patterns of functional and dysfunctional thoughts, feelings, and behaviors during a range of job search tasks. They then provide practical advice for counseling individuals—and for people helping themselves—through the job search process.     

Culture and self‐presentation: Influence of social interactions in an expected social relationship

This study investigates how the length and strength of an expected social relationship are related to different self‐presentations. Participants from Korea and the USA were assigned to different relationship conditions using vignettes, and indicated their self‐evaluation of personal abilities and social skills. The main effects of both relationship length and strength were found. There were more drastic interactions of culture and relationship length in intensive social relationship conditions than in loose conditions. Based on the results, we claim that the fundamental motivation for positive self‐regard is universal, regardless of culture and the self‐presentations that are tactical by individuals' social needs.