Self-concept clarity lays the foundation for self-continuity: The restorative function of autobiographical memory.

Abstract

[Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported online in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology on Sep 9 2019 (see record 2019-54516-001). 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 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).