On confidence and consequence: the certainty and importance of self-knowledge.

Belief certainty and belief importance represent 2 relatively independent forms of investment in the self-concept. Three studies suggested that whereas certainty is associated with epistemic (i.e., rational or informational) factors, importance is more closely associated with emotive (i.e., emotional and motivational) factors. A 4th study explored the implications of certainty and importance for the temporal stability of people's self-views and revealed that whereas belief certainty was associated with the stability of both positive and negative beliefs, belief importance was associated with the stability of positive beliefs only. The implications of belief investment for the verification-enhancement debate and for the structure and measurement of the self-concept are discussed.

[1]  K. Gergen,et al.  Self-Concept, Advances in Theory and Research , 1981 .

[2]  J. Krosnick.  Attitude importance and attitude change , 1988 .

[3]  L. Festinger.  A Theory of Social Comparison Processes , 1954 .

[4]  H. Markus.  Self-schemata and processing information about the self. , 1977 .

[5]  M. Rosenberg.  Conceiving the self , 1979 .

[6]  E. E. Jones,et al.  Foundations of Social Psychology , 1967 .

[7]  S. Fiske,et al.  The Handbook of Social Psychology , 1935 .

[8]  A. Greenwald,et al.  Psychological perspectives on the self , 1982 .

[9]  W. Swann,et al.  A battle of wills: self-verification versus behavioral confirmation. , 1984, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[10]  T. Mischel,et al.  The self : psychological and philosophical issues , 1977 .

[11]  S. Jones,et al.  Self- and interpersonal evaluations: esteem theories versus consistency theories. , 1973, Psychological bulletin.

[12]  W. Swann,et al.  Agreeable fancy or disagreeable truth? Reconciling self-enhancement and self-verification. , 1989, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[13]  T. Abel,et al.  Mind, Self, and Society , 1934 .

[14]  Mark Snyder,et al.  Behavioral confirmation in social interaction: From social perception to social reality. , 1978 .

[15]  H. Kelley.  The processes of causal attribution. , 1973 .

[16]  E. Aronson,et al.  Performance expectancy as a determinant of actual performance. , 1962, Journal of abnormal and social psychology.

[17]  E. E. Jones,et al.  Control of Attributions about the Self Through Self-handicapping Strategies: The Appeal of Alcohol and the Role of Underachievement , 1978 .

[18]  W. Swann.  Identity negotiation: where two roads meet. , 1987, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[19]  S. Read,et al.  Self-verification processes: How we sustain our self-conceptions , 1981 .

[20]  Gordon W. Allport,et al.  Pattern and growth in personality , 1961 .

[21]  H. Gerard,et al.  The Dynamics of Opinion Formation , 1987 .

[22]  Edward E. Jones,et al.  Effects of strategic self-presentation on subsequent self-esteem. , 1981 .

[23]  R. Baumeister.  A SELF-PRESENTATIONAL VIEW OF SOCIAL PHENOMENA , 1982 .

[24]  F. Allport,et al.  The Measurement and Motivation of Atypical Opinion in a Certain Group , 1925, American Political Science Review.

[25]  W. Swann,et al.  Change through paradox: using self-verification to alter beliefs. , 1988, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[26]  M. Hoffman,et al.  Affect, cognition, and motivation. , 1986 .

[27]  A. Tesser,et al.  Some effects of self-evaluation maintenance on cognition and action. , 1986 .

[28]  Shelley E. Taylor,et al.  Illusion and well-being: a social psychological perspective on mental health. , 1988, Psychological bulletin.

[29]  Herbert W. Marsh,et al.  Global self-esteem: Its relation to specific facets of self-concept and their importance. , 1986 .

[30]  I. Janis,et al.  The influence of role playing on opinion change. , 1954, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[31]  D. Watson,et al.  Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: the PANAS scales. , 1988, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[32]  Douglas N. Jackson,et al.  Personality: Nomothetic or idiographic? A response to Kenrick and Stringfield , 1981 .

[33]  C. Cooley.  Human nature and the social order , 1902 .

[34]  A. Buss.  Self-consciousness and social anxiety , 1980 .

[35]  N. Anderson.  Likableness ratings of 555 personality-trait words. , 1968, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[36]  P. Levy,et al.  Regulating affect interpersonally: When low esteem leads to greater enhancement. , 1989 .

[37]  N. Smith,et al.  The Development of Self-Image Bias , 1989 .

[38]  Daniel T. Gilbert,et al.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology of Thoughts Unspoken Social Inference and the Self-regulation of Behavior , 2022 .

[39]  S. Duval,et al.  A theory of objective self awareness , 1972 .

[40]  A. Beck.  Depression : clinical, experimental, and theoretical aspects , 1967 .

[41]  D. Bem.  Self-Perception Theory , 1972 .

[42]  Silvan S. Tomkins,et al.  The quest for primary motives: Biography and autobiography of an idea. , 1981 .

[43]  J. D. Campbell,et al.  Self-esteem and clarity of the self-concept. , 1990, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[44]  J. Singer.  Motivation for Consistency , 1966 .

[45]  Russell H. Fazio,et al.  Self-perceptions following social interaction. , 1981 .

[46]  K. Gergen,et al.  Social comparison, self-consistency, and the concept of self. , 1970, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[47]  J. Marecek,et al.  Avoidance of continued success as a function of self-esteem, level of esteem certainty, and responsibility for success. , 1972, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[48]  M. Rosenberg.  Society and the adolescent self-image , 1966 .

[49]  R. Wylie,et al.  The Self Concept , 1962 .

[50]  E. E. Jones,et al.  From Acts To Dispositions The Attribution Process In Person Perception1 , 1965 .

[51]  R. Buck.  Prime theory: An integrated view of motivation and emotion , 1985 .

[52]  M. Snyder.  Self-monitoring processes , 1979 .

[53]  H. Kelley.  Attribution theory in social psychology , 1967 .

[54]  W. Swann,et al.  From self-conceptions to self-worth: on the sources and structure of global self-esteem. , 1989, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[55]  H. Markus,et al.  Stability and malleability of the self-concept. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[56]  A. Baumgardner,et al.  To know oneself is to like oneself: self-certainty and self-affect. , 1990, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[57]  W. James.  The principles of psychology , 1983 .