THE INFLUENCE OF THE SIGNIFICANT OTHER ON THE REPRESENTATION OF IDENTITY

Abstract

The article presents the results of experimental research of significant other's influence on personality identity representation. The phenomenon of significant other's presence is considered as a component of self-identification mechanism, it allows to define the character of its influence on identity content. The research was carried out on a sample of 86 students of Samara University. Google-form testing to identify cognitive orientation (individualistic/collectivistic), narrative method to identify verbal markers of identity, "target choice" experiment on the distribution of gain in situations of primary spontaneous choice and with the imagined presence of significant other were conducted. The findings were analyzed toward an intergroup comparison of "individualists" and "collectivists" in both experimental situations using Fisher's angular transformation. The influence of the significant other as a regulator of activity was revealed. The significant other is a motivator of prosocial choice for "collectivists" and individualistic choice for "individualists". The category "person" is a verbal marker of social identity. People with a collectivist orientation use the category "person" in representation, referring themselves to all of humanity. People with individualistic orientation use this category in the aspect of "person as a set of individual traits," allowing to stand out from the group, to emphasize their uniqueness.