The Empirical Study concerning the Effects of the Flexibility of the Self-concept on the Mental Health : a Critical View against the Consistency of the Self-concept

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The purpose of this study aims at investigating the regulatory functions of the self-concept, in particular, we examined the effects of the interrelation patterns of the self-beliefs as a whole on the mental health. Taking a "Gestalt" perspective, we propose that a particular pattern of self-beliefs, as a whole, has a distinct psychological significance, not just the self-beliefs as independent elements. The interrelations focused on here were of three distinct self-aspects; "should self ", "actual self", and "can self". Patterns of self-beliefs were defined as the "inconsistency" among these three self-beliefs. By the "inconsistency among the self-beliefs" is meant the degree to which there exit the differences among the strength of each of these three self-beliefs. LMH type, for example, signifies low "should self", middle "actual self" and high "can self". We also propose that "can self" may determine the valence of the self-belief pattern as a whole. We predicted that persons with … More the positive inconsistent interrelation patterns (inconsistent interrelation patterns with high "can self") would show higher mental health than those with negative inconsistent interrelation patterns. In addition, from the viewpoint of cognitive complexity, positive inconsistent interrelation patterns were expected to show better mental health than those with positive consistent interrelation (HHH type), for the former consists of more complex self-view whereas the Latter contains simple cognitive style. The findings were along with predictions.In the second study, we examined the relationship between the causal attribution style about. negative experiences and inconsistency among self-beliefs. It turned out that persons with positive inconsistent interrelation patterns were more likely to think the negative events in such an articulated way as a certain negative event would not occur in future again nor would this harm the self-esteem in the self-aspects other than a given self-aspect. In the last study, we investigated what caused the better mental health of persons with positive inconsistent interrelation pattern. Based on the Scott's definition (1960), positive inconsistent interrelation can be interpreted as flexible cognitive style, for there doesn't exist extremely strong correlations among the degree of three self-beliefs. We suggest that this flexible cognitive style will enable people to flexibly take the appropriate strategies for the stress-solving. Our results indicated that persons with positive inconsistent interrelations were more likely to change the strategies in accordance with the property of the stressful situation. These results support our hypothesis that the flexibility in the positive inconsistent interrelation patterns will lead to better mental health. Less