ABSTRACT
The self is an organized, dynamic, and reflexive system of self-referent thoughts, feelings, and motives that shape people’s experience of themselves, others, situations, and social relations (Hoyle, Kernis, Leary, & Baldwin, 1999; Mischel & Morf, 2003). The raw material of the self-system is the self-referent information that accumulates in memory with experience and with the passage of time (Greenwald & Banaji, 1989; Kihlstrom & Cantor, 1984). Mental representations of the self draw on this accumulated store of information, providing an organized and efficient context for processing information and planning behavior (Markus, 1977; Mischel & Morf, 2003). The content, structure, and accessibility of these mental representations vary across individuals, and within individuals across situations, giving rise to questions about the implications of variability in the characteristics of self-knowledge for personal and social experience. Of particular interest is the link between characteristics of self-knowledge and self-esteem.
