Exploring Memories of the Self: 2412 Self-image Norms for Adults Aged 17 to 88

Frontiers in Psychology

Clare J. Rathbone¹ 

关键词: self-images;    identity;    self;    autobiographical memory;    personality;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01445

学科分类：心理学（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Self-images are “I am” statements (such as “I am an optimist”). They are frequently used in psychological research as a measure of identity, as primes in experimental tasks, and as cues to elicit autobiographical memories. Typically, participants are simply asked to answer the question “Who am I?,” such as in the 20 Statements Test (Kuhn and McPartland, 1954) which asks participants to generate up to 20 sentences starting with the words “I am.” A more recent modification of this approach (the IAM Task; Rathbone et al., 2008) asks participants for between 4 and 10 “I am” statements and then uses these as autobiographical memory cues. Self-images can include traits (e.g., I am happy), roles (e.g., I am a nurse), hobbies (e.g., I am a tennis player), hopes (e.g., I am keen to work with animals), and fears (e.g., I am scared of being lonely). They comprise semantic facts about the self which help to scaffold narrative continuity and reflect the multi-faceted nature of the self (Kuhn and McPartland, 1954; Markus, 1977), allowing researchers to tap into the multiple identities people possess. One important benefit of self-image generation tasks is their open-ended nature. Tasks involving the completion of “I am” statements allow people to describe their identity using their own words. As a result, they are a powerful tool for examining differences in how identity is constructed across different groups.

【 授权许可】

CC BY