Ever wonder what makes you you and how that changes and develops over time? Research in press at the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology by Jennifer Lodi-Smith, PhD, assistant professor of psychology, along with Canisius alumna and co-author Kimberly Cologgi ’13 shed some light on this question.
Their work examines how self-concept clarity, the extent to which individuals hold a clear and consistent view of themselves, changes over time and with age and how these changes relate to changes in the content of individual identity. Specifically, within a sample of 461 adults ages 19 – 86, they used longitudinal modeling to demonstrate that self-concept clarity is remarkably stable over three years but that there is significant variability in self-concept clarity trajectories across individuals. These individual differences in development of self-concept clarity corresponded to developmental patterns in Big Five personality traits and health-related role limitations.
Results of this two-wave longitudinal study suggest three primary conclusions: (1) people higher and increasing on self-concept clarity become more mature in their personality traits over time, (2) people experience declines in self-concept clarity when they begin to feel limited in what they can do because of health challenges, and (3) these effects are somewhat contingent on gender and age
Ongoing work by Dr. Lodi-Smith and her research team include examining the effects over longer periods of time, examining the relationship of self-concept clarity to other aspects of the content of identity such as life story narratives and distinct types of physical, cognitive, and psychological health outcomes, and understanding the impact high functioning autism may have on self-concept clarity.
Submitted by: Sara Morris, PhD, associate vice president, academic affairs
