"Self-concept clarity lays the foundation for self-continuity: The restorative function of autobiographical memory": Correction to Jiang, Chen, and Sedikides (2019).

Abstract

Reports an error in "Self-concept clarity lays the foundation for self-continuity: The restorative function of autobiographical memory" by Tonglin Jiang, Zhansheng Chen and Constantine Sedikides (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Advanced Online Publication, Jul 25, 2019, np). In the article, the first phrase of the second sentence of Study 1 should appear as "This study begins to test H1". The third sentence of the Participants and design section of Study 5 should read as follows: We excluded seven participants for not completing the study, and 13 for not following instructions (on participant in the autobiographical memory condition wrote: "Future of the country," "Childrens future," "Economy," "Finances," "Finding a job I enjoy," "Health," "Comfort," "I would talk about my travels," "My experience with family issues"). In the Manipulation check section of Study 6 and Study 7, participants instead reported lower self-concept clarity. In the third sentence in the second paragraph of the Low self-concept clarity, autobiographical memory, and self-continuity section of Study 6, the first instance of the word participants should be deleted. The third sentence of the Procedure and material section of Study 7 should read as follows: "in the control condition, they wrote in favor of environmental protection." Additional corrections are provided in the erratum. All versions of this article have been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2019-41525-001.) The current research concerns the relations among self-concept clarity, autobiographic memory, and self-continuity. We hypothesized, and tested in 7 studies, that low self-concept clarity would disrupt self-continuity, but resorting to autobiographic memory would counter this disruption, thus restoring self-continuity. In Studies 1 and 2, low or threatened self-concept clarity was associated with decreased, or led to a decrease of, self-continuity. In Study 3, participants low (vs. high) in self-concept clarity manifested a stronger preference for an autobiographical memory task (but not for a control task). In Study 4, a suppressed mediational model of autobiographical memory received empirical backing: Threatened self-concept clarity decreased self-continuity, but also increased the propensity to evoke autobiographical memory, which fostered self-continuity. By manipulating autobiographical memory in different ways, Studies 5 through 7 provided additional direct evidence for the capacity of autobiographical memory to restore self-continuity. Taken together, the results converge in support of the hypothesis. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).