Implications of Independent Versus Interdependent Self-knowledge for Motivated Social Cognition: The Semantic Procedural Interface Model of the Self

The Semantic Procedural Interface Model of the Self (SPI) suggests that, depending on the strength of the situational accessibility of independent or interdependent self-knowledge, people will tend to process stimuli either unaffected by context (context-independency) or cognizant of context (context-dependency). In this paper we describe the cognitive processes underlying context-independent or context-dependent information processing. We suggest that degree of context-dependency depends on cognitive control processes (attentional focus on focal or task-relevant information; inhibition of contextual or task-irrelevant information; task-management). Second, we predict motivational effects of the self's independence/interdependence by including assumptions about possible selves.