Becker, Maja, Vignoles, Vivian, Owe, Ellinor, Easterbrook, Matthew, Brown, Rupert, Smith, Peter B and et al, (2018) Being oneself through time: bases of self-continuity across 55 cultures. Self and Identity, 17 (3). pp. 276-293. ISSN 1529-8868

PDF - Accepted Version Download (591kB)

Abstract

Self-continuity – the sense that one’s past, present, and future are meaningfully connected – is considered a defining feature of personal identity. However, bases of self-continuity may depend on cultural beliefs about personhood. In multilevel analyses of data from 7287 adults from 55 cultural groups in 33 nations, we tested a new tripartite theoretical model of bases of self-continuity. As expected, perceptions of stability, sense of narrative, and associative links to one’s past each contributed to predicting the extent to which people derived a sense of self-continuity from different aspects of their identities. Ways of constructing self-continuity were moderated by cultural and individual differences in mutable (vs. immutable) personhood beliefs – the belief that human attributes are malleable. Individuals with lower mutability beliefs based self-continuity more on stability; members of cultures where mutability beliefs were higher based self-continuity more on narrative. Bases of self-continuity were also moderated by cultural variation in contextualized (vs. decontextualized) personhood beliefs, indicating a link to cultural individualism-collectivism. Our results illustrate the cultural flexibility of the motive for self-continuity.

Item Type:	Article
Schools and Departments:	School of Psychology > Psychology
Depositing User:	Ellena Adams
Date Deposited:	12 May 2017 11:44
Last Modified:	29 Jun 2018 15:55
URI:	http://srodev.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/68078

View download statistics for this item

📧 Request an update