ABSTRACT
People’s psychological adjustment to the world in which they live appears to be strongly influenced by the perceptions they have of themselves. Perhaps because of this, the determinants and effects of people’s self concepts have been a major focus of psychological inquiry since the turn of the century (James, 1890; see also Cooley, 1902; Mead, 1934). This concern has been an integrative force in many areas of clinical, personality, social, and, more recently, cognitive psychology. The specific issues that have been investigated are too numerous to recount. Indeed, it is hard to think of a social psychological phenomenon in which people’s perceptions of themselves are unlikely to have either a direct or an indirect influence. This is partially because “self” is implicated, in one way or another, in virtually all cognitive activity as well as the overt behavior that results from this activity. Almost all of the information we receive is acquired under conditions in which we are more or less aware of ourselves as the receiving agent. Cognitions that we have about ourselves in these situations, as either an observer or active participant, are potentially a part of every mental representation we form (cf. Tulving, 1983).
