SELF-CONCEPT STABILITY AND INTERPERSONAL PROCESSES

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The research concerns the dynamic interplay between social beliefs and the interpersonal environments that sustain those beliefs. Once concern is with a phenomenon that has long puzzled clinician: the tendency for people to behave in ways that perpetuate their own aversive psychological states. Attention if focused on the possibility that people with negative self-views seek relationship partners who reinforce their low self-esteem or depression, thereby creating interpersonal cycles that make their self-concepts very resistant to change. Complementary lab and field studies attempt to specify the generality and psychological antecedents of such potentially self-destructive tendencies. The tendency for individuals with negative self-views to seek people who dislike them is puzzling because, at some level, such individuals want approval and suffer when they are rejected. This suggests that they may be caught in a crossfire between a desire for negative and positive feedback. Attempts are made to identify the processes that underlie such crossfires. In addition, mechanisms for escaping them such crossfires are explored. One such mechanism -- self-concept change -- is examined. For example, the processes through which people themselves and outside agents initiate self-concept change are considered. The final series of studies examine self-concept change in the context of the larger process of identity negotiation. Efforts are made to lay bare the mechanisms whereby people's relationship partners help stabilize or change their self-views,. Furthermore, longitudinal investigations examine the impact of the fit between the appraisals of perceivers and the self-conceptions of targets on: (a) change in the appraisals of perceivers and self-views of targets; (b) the health and happiness of targets and (c) the quality and duration of the relationships. The complexity and breadth of the issues under scrutiny require deepening and broadening of the PI's knowledge base. The renewal will facilitate this goal by enriching the intellectual environment at the applicant's home institution, releasing time to take relevant coursework, and making it possible to take one or more extended visits to other institutions. Such experiences will enhance the applicant's ability to pursue his goal of developing a comprehensive theory of social perception that embraces the reciprocal influence of social thought and social action.