The study concerning the influences of the differentiation of and flexibility of the self-concept on psychological functioning

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

In this study we examined the functional relationship between the integrative complexity and mental health. The integrative complexity of the self-concept was defined as tolerance to the inconsistency in the interrelation among the following three self beliefs "should" self "behavior" self and "can" self Secondly we predicted that the meaning of the whole interrelation would be determined by the degree of the "can" self.From this perspective, the inconsistent interrelation was classified as positive inconsistent interrelation (e.g., HLH, high "should" self, low "behavior" self and high "can" self) and negative Inconsistent Interrelation (e.g., HML). Furthermore, HHH indicating high scores in all the dimensions was labeled positive consistent interrelation and LLL with all the low scores was labeled negative consistent interrelation. To capture the mental health, we employed the General Health Questionnaire.This research comprised two studies. In Study 1, the functional relationship bet … More ween integrative complexity of the self-concept and mental health was examined by specifying the domain of the self-concept into interpersonal behavior with investigating the influence of the cultural view of the self on this functional relationship. The participants were 122 Japanese and 119 American university students. In Study 2, to examine the validity of the Study l, the gender-identity was chosen as the domain of the working self-concept for the participants of 245 nurses.The findings were :1) Positive inconsistent interrelation among the self-aspects (e.g., MLH) was related to better mental state, whereas negative inconsistent interrelation (e.g., HML) was associated with negative mental scores.2) Positive inconsistent interrelation was more strongly associated with positive mental score than positive consistent interrelation (HHH).3) This kind of functional relationship was similarly observed in both countries and in the domain of gender-identity.The flexibility of the self-concept with positive inconsistent interrelation was found to be thus effective in social adaptation. Less