INTERPERSONAL DYNAMICS OF SELF-CONCEPT STABILITY

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This is a request for continuing support for research concerns the reciprocal influence of people's social beliefs and the interpersonal environments that sustain those beliefs. One concern is with a phenomenon that has long puzzled clinicians: the tendency for people to behave in ways that perpetuate their own aversive psychological states. Specifically, the propensity for people with negative self-views to enter interpersonal cycles that make their self-concepts very resistant to change is examined. Attention is focused on the possibility that people with negative self-views seek relationship partners who reinforce their negative self-views in an effort to bolster their perceptions of control. 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 self-congruent feedback and a desire for self-enhancing feedback. Attempts are made to understand the nature of such crossfires as well as strategies through which people escape them. One potential escape mechanism self-concept change is given special consideration. For example, the processes through which people themselves and outside agents initiate self-concept change are considered. The final series of studies examines 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, a longitudinal investigation examines 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 ultimate goal of this research is to develop a truly interpersonal theory of person perception that embraces the intricate interplay between social thought and social action.