Possible selves and academic outcomes: How and when possible selves impel action

Puzzled by the gap between academic attainment and academic possible selves (APSs) among low-income and minority teens, the authors hypothesized that APSs alone are not enough unless linked with plausible strategies, made to feel like "true" selves and connected with social identity. A brief intervention to link APSs with strategies, create a context in which social and personal identities felt congruent, and change the meaning associated with difficulty in pursuing APSs (n = 141 experimental, n = 123 control low-income 8th graders) increased success in moving toward APS goals: academic initiative, standardized test scores, and grades improved; and depression, absences, and in-school misbehavior declined. Effects were sustained over a 2-year follow-up and were mediated by change in possible selves.     

Possible selves of individuals with Alzheimer's disease

This study is one of the first to examine self-goals and their relationship to affect among individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD). Using the construct of possible selves, the authors collected data from 50 participants with mild to moderate AD and 50 demographically similar cognitively intact older adults. Findings suggest a resourcefulness and flexibility of the self-system in response to the presence of dementia-related concerns. Positive affect was associated with family-related self-goals of AD participants, indicating particular importance of this domain. Some of these responses may represent goal modifications that result in a more satisfactory adjustment to the illness; further inquiry may lead to a better understanding of resiliency and quality of life in persons with AD.     

Possible selves in adulthood and old age: a tale of shifting horizons

Young, middle-aged, and elderly adults (N = 308) evaluated themselves on 6 dimensions of psychological well-being according to present, past, future, and ideal self-assessments. Young and middle-aged adults saw considerable improvement in themselves from the past to the present on all dimensions of well-being. The elderly, however, indicated largely a perception of stability with prior levels of functioning. Future ratings showed that the 2 younger groups expected continued gains in the years ahead, whereas the oldest respondents foresaw decline on most aspects of well-being. The comparison of present and ideal self-ratings supported (cross-sectionally) the hypothesis that with age, individuals achieve a closer fit between their ideal and their actual self-perceptions.     

Prudence and past selves

An important platitude about prudential rationality is that I should not refuse to sacrifice a smaller amount of present welfare for the sake of larger future benefits. I ought, in other words, to treat my present and future as of equal prudential significance. The demands of prudence are less clear, however, when it comes to one’s past selves. In this paper, I argue that past benefits are possible in (at least) two ways, and that this fact cannot be easily accommodated by traditional approaches to prudential rationality. Against univocal accounts of prudential rationality, I hold that the possibility of past benefits suggests that a bias toward the present and future is defensible when it comes to some welfare goods, but that prudential reasons are temporally neutral between when it comes to the success or failure of one’s long-term projects.     

Respect for other selves

Philosophers have mostly advocated that advance directives should bear the same authority, with regard to refusal of life-extending treatment, as a patient's contemporaneous consent or refusal. Such authors typically support this position through a theory of persistent personal identity. I agree that the loss of mental competence does not render someone a moral stranger to their prior goal but argue that equating advance direction with consent is to ignore the capacity of nonpersons to attribute and withhold moral value. A distinction should be drawn between advance directives that seek to pursue deeply held goals and those that express contempt for the mentally incompetent.     

Self-concept and delinquency proneness

Contrary to the theory of the homeostatic model of self-concept, i.e., the expectancy that engaging in anti-social or pro-social behavior results typically in shifts in the self-concept (Graf, 1968; Deitz, 1970 shifts did not occur. Subjects, 12- 14-year-old boys enrolled in junior high school, delinquent prone (DP) and non-delinquent prone bright (NDPB), reacted to manipulation by engaging in reparative behavior as indicated via an aggression module in a fashion generally expected but the expected shift from chronic self-images did not occur. Both DP and NDPB viewed themselves similarly on self concept. The authors postulated that if shifts would occur for the delinquent prone it would be after they left school with its accompanying identification with a sub-culture outside the school setting.     

Family size and delinquency

A review of the literature shows that large family size is related to greater delinquency. The relationship remains when a number of variables, i.e., income, socioeconomic status, parental criminality, and family composition, have been controlled. The higher birth rate for lower classes does not appear to be an adequate explanation for this relationship, nor does less close parent-child affectional ties or less parental supervision although all of these may have some influence. The presence of an "infectious example" may partly account for the relationship, as does overcrowding. Large family size is typically associated with the constellation of undesirable family conditions involving poor role models (e.g., poor parental behaviour, parental criminality, sibling delinquency), poor child-rearing practices (e.g., inadequate parental supervision and discipline), and competition for physical (e.g., overcrowding, low income) and psychological (e.g., lack of attention, affection, family interaction) resources. An immediate solution is to reduce the size of families by helping prospective parents plan their families, and for those who wish it, making medical abortions more readily available. The long-range solution is through research to identify variables which significantly influence the relationship between family size and delinquency. Such studies must control for birth order, sibling spacing, siblings' sex, and sex of the delinquents in these families.     

Relational selves as self-affirmational resources

Three studies examined the self-affirmational role of relational selves, or aspects of the self in relation to significant others. The overriding hypothesis was that individuals who view relational self-aspects as core to their identity are particularly likely to use them as self-affirmational resources in the face of threat. Supporting this, threat was especially likely to lead individuals for whom relationships are highly self-defining to spontaneously refer to relational self-aspects in a subsequent, self-relevant task. Moreover, spontaneous and induced relational self-affirmations in response to threat were especially esteem-repairing for such individuals. Together, these findings carve out a much-needed role for relational self-aspects in the self-affirmation literature, and dovetail with mounting appreciation of the far-ranging impact of significant others on the self-system.     

Locus of control and delinquency

A sample of delinquent and nondelinquent male adolescents was assessed with respect to locus of control and intellectual achievement responsibility. Data were also gathered concerning age, family size, birth order, socioeconomic status, race, and school grade. Results were subjected to a multivariate analysis and showed support for a multidimensional model of locus of control. There was no difference in expectancy of control for negative academic events between delinquents and nondelinquents. In general, birth order and delinquency were the two most important determinants of locus of control. Results are discussed in terms of previous literature on locus of control with particular consideration paid to expectations of control.