Being oneself through time: Bases of self-continuity across 55 cultures
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2018
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.
Keywords
Identity, culture, self-continuity, mutability, personhood beliefs, mindset
Divisions
Education
Funders
Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC, UK),Rupert Brown [grant number RES-062-23-1300],ESRC doctoral studentship [grant number ES/G015074/1],Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Cient?fico y Tecnol?gico [grant number FONDECYT/1161371],Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Research (CIIR) [grant number FONDAP/15110006],Centre for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies [grant number FONDAP/15130009]
Publication Title
Self and Identity
Volume
17
Issue
3
Publisher
Taylor & Francis