Agency and Communion in Self-Concept and in Self-Esteem

Abele and Hauke build on symbolic interactionism and show that in a similar vein as for actor-observer differences, the self-concept also contains an “actor” component (“how do I see myself”; called self-as-identity) and an “observer” component (“how do others see me”; called self-as-reputation). By distinguishing these two components they can reconcile a seeming contradiction in research on self-esteem: Whereas several theories on self-esteem suggest that it is dominated by communion, research rather shows that it is dominated by agency. Abele and Hauke argue and show that the self-as-identity component is dominated by agency, but the self-as-reputation component is also influenced by communion. They further demonstrate the fruitfulness of distinguishing the facets of competence/assertiveness for agency and warmth/morality for communion.