Being oneself through time: Bases of self-continuity across 55 cultures

Perceiving a Stable Self-Concept Enables the Experience of Meaning in Life

We test the hypothesis that the perception of stability in one's self-concept (i.e., future self-continuity) enables the experience of meaning in life because perceiving a stable sense of self confers a sense of certainty to the self-concept. Study 1 provided initial evidence of the influence of future self-continuity on feelings of meaning in life (MIL) in a nationally representative sample. In Studies 2a and 2b, we manipulated future self-continuity by varying the expectedness of one's future self, demonstrating the causal influence of future self-continuity on self-certainty and feelings of MIL. Study 3 again manipulated future self-continuity, finding an indirect effect on feelings of meaning in life via self-certainty. Our findings thus suggest the experience of meaning in life arises from the perception of a stable sense of self. We discuss the implications for the antecedents and conceptualization of MIL as well as the nature of the self-concept.

Mental Time Travel as Self-Affirmation

ACADEMIC ABSTRACT

This article integrates and advances the scope of research on the role of mental time travel in bolstering the self. We propose that imagining the self in the future (prospection) or in the past (retrospection) highlights central and positive self-aspects. Thus, bringing to mind one's future or past broadens the perceived bases of self-integrity and offers a route to self-affirmation. In reviewing corresponding research programs on self-prospection and nostalgia, we illustrate that mental time travel serves to affirm the self in terms of self-esteem, coherence, and control. Mental time travel could be implemented as a source of self-affirmation for facilitating coping and behavior change in several domains such as relationships, health, education, and organizational contexts.

PUBLIC ABSTRACT

People can mentally travel to their future or to their past. When people imagine what they will be like in the future, or what they were like in the past, they tend to think about themselves in terms of the important and positive attributes that they possess. Thinking about themselves in such an affirming way expands and consolidates their self-views. This broader image of themselves can increase self-esteem (the extent to which one likes who they are), coherence (the extent to which one perceives life as meaningful), and control (the extent to which one feels capable of initiating and pursuing goals or effecting desirable outcomes). Mental time travel, then, has favorable or affirming consequences for one's self-views. These consequences can be harnessed to modify one's behavior in such life domains as relationships, health, education, and work.

Low Self-Concept Clarity Inhibits Self-Control: The Mediating Effect of Global Self-Continuity

Whether and how self-concept clarity (SCC) affects self-control has not been sufficiently explored in empirical research. We proposed that low SCC inhibits self-control through a lower sense of global self-continuity. The results of five studies provided converging support for our mediation model (N = 898). Compared with participants with high SCC, participants with low SCC scored lower on self-control scales (Studies 1 and 2), spent less time practicing to improve their performance on a tedious task (Study 3), and were less likely to stay focused on an ongoing task (Study 4) or to adhere to the exercise plan to stay healthy (Study 5). Global self-continuity mediated the effects of low SCC on self-control (Studies 1-5) even after emotional affect (Study 5) and self-esteem (Studies 4 and 5) were controlled for. These findings highlight the importance of fostering SCC for coping with self-control failures.

Taking command of continuity-An interview study with agency nurses

AIM

The aim of the study was to describe continuity from the perspective of working as an agency nurse (AN).

DESIGN

Qualitative design was applied using individual semi-structured interviews.

METHOD

Individual interviews with fifteen registered nurses working at agency companies were conducted in 2020. The interviews were analyzed with thematic analysis. The study followed the guidelines addressed in the COREQ (Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research) framework.

RESULTS

Thematic analysis yielded one theme - standing strong and taking command - and four categories: being competent and experienced, being prepared and at ease, ensuring an unbroken chain of care, and belonging on my own terms. The categories illustrated the engagement, professionalism, and natural leadership showed by the ANs to uphold quality and continuity.

Multicultural Identity Integration versus Compartmentalization as Predictors of Subjective Well-Being for Third Culture Kids: The Mediational Role of Self-Concept Consistency and Self-Efficacy

Globalization has resulted in an exponential increase in the number of Third Culture Kids (TCKs), defined as being raised in a culture other than that of their parents (or the passport country) and meaningfully interacting with different cultures. Inconsistencies regarding the effect of multicultural and transient experiences on well-being exist in the psychological literature. We aimed to reveal associations between multicultural identity configurations (integration, categorization, compartmentalization) and well-being with the mediating role of self-concept consistency and self-efficacy. Participants (n = 399, M = 21.2 years) were students at an international university in the United Arab Emirates. We used the Multicultural Identity Integration Scale, the Berne Questionnaire of Subjective Well-Being, the General Self-Efficacy Scale, and the Self-Consistency Subscale from the Self-Construal Scale. The findings suggest that not merely exposure to diversity but also internal integration versus identity compartmentalization moderate the well-being of TCKs. We explained such mechanisms via partial mediation of self-consistency and self-efficacy. Our study contributed to a better understanding of the TCKs' identity paradigm and pointed to multicultural identity integration as vital to TCKs' well-being via its effect on self-consistency and self-efficacy. Conversely, identity compartmentalization decreased well-being via a reduction in the sense of self-consistency.

Self-Continuity

Self-continuity is the subjective sense of connection between one's past and present selves (past-present self-continuity), between one's present and future selves (present-future self-continuity), or among one's past, present, and future selves (global self-continuity). We consider the motivational character of the three forms of self-continuity, their regulatory properties, and the internal or external factors that consolidate them. We also review their consequences for attitudes and judgments or decisions, motivation, intentions and behavior, and psychological and physical health. We further detail the psychological and behavioral benefits of self-discontinuity (i.e., a sense of disconnect among temporal selves). We next turn to the brain regions that are activated synchronously with self-continuity. We consider developmental perspectives on self-continuity, discuss collective self-continuity (along with its consequences and regulatory properties), and elaborate on cultural differences in self-continuity. This inaugural Annual Reviews chapter demonstrates the breadth, excitement, and sense of synergy among self-continuity researchers and points to promising research directions.

Culture, Aging, Self-Continuity, and Life Satisfaction

The present work examines how culture and age interact to influence self-continuity and life satisfaction. Specifically, we compared Canadian and Chinese young (17-26 years old) and older adults (60-88 years old) in their sense of self-continuity and life satisfaction (N = 424). Consistent with past research, older adults reported greater self-continuity compared to their young counterparts, while cross-cultural comparisons showed that young Chinese reported greater self-continuity than young Canadians. In terms of life satisfaction, older adults again scored higher than younger adults, while cross-cultural comparisons indicated that, this time, young Canadians reported higher life satisfaction than young Chinese. Although the data were cross-sectional, indirect effects analyses showed that self-continuity mediated the effect of age on life satisfaction in both cultural groups, with the indirect effect stronger among Canadians than among Chinese. These findings highlight the importance of considering culture and age when examining psychological outcomes, and the potential of self-continuity as a mechanism to enhance overall life satisfaction.

The Neurobiological Basis of the Conundrum of Self-continuity: A Hypothesis

Life, whatsoever it is, is a temporal flux. Everything is doomed to change often apparently beyond our awareness. My body appears totally different now, so does my mind. I have gained new attitudes and new ambitions, and a substantial number of old ones have been discarded. But, I am still the same person in an ongoing manner. Besides, recent neuroscientific and psychological evidence has shown that our conscious perception happens as a series of discrete or bounded instants-it emerges in temporally scattered, gappy, and discrete forms. But, if it is so, how does the brain persevere our self-continuity (or continuity of identity) in this gappy setting? How is it possible that despite moment-to-moment changes in my appearance and mind, I am still feeling that I am that person? How can we tackle with this second by second gap and resurrection in our existence which leads to a foundation of wholeness and continuity of our self? How is continuity of self (collective set of our connected experiences in the vessel of time) that results in a feeling that one's life has purpose and meaning preserved? To answer these questions, the problem has been comprehended from a philosophical, psychological, and neuroscientific perspective. I realize that first and foremost fact lies in the temporal nature of identity. Having equipped with these thoughts, in this article, it is hypothesized that according to two principles (the principle of reafference or corollary discharge and the principle of a time theory) self-continuity is maintained. It is supposed that there should be a precise temporal integration mechanism in the CNS with the outside world that provides us this smooth, ungappy flow of the Self. However, we are often taken for granted the importance of self-continuity, but it can be challenged by life transitions such as entering adulthood, retirement, senility, emigration, and societal changes such as immigration, globalization, and in much unfortunate and extreme cases of mental illnesses such as schizophrenia.

Relationship Between Socioeconomic Status and Win-Win Values: Mediating Roles of Childhood Neglect and Self-Continuity

The family plays a key role on the development of children. One with low socioeconomic status was more likely to suffer childhood neglect, which might impact on development of self-continuity and win-win values. Using cross-sectional data from 489 participants, this study conducted a mediation model to examine the roles of childhood neglect and self-continuity between socioeconomic status and win-win values. Our results showed that childhood neglect and self-continuity fully mediated the effect of socioeconomic status on win-win values. Specifically, socioeconomic status might affect win-win values through three roles: the individual mediating role of childhood neglect, the individual mediating role of self-continuity, and the multiple mediation roles of childhood neglect and self-continuity.

Spirit Mediumship and Mental Health: Therapeutic Self-transformation Among Dang-kis in Singapore

While some early studies suggested that spirit mediums were psychiatrically ill individuals who found a culturally sanctioned role, subsequent work has found that they are generally in good physical and mental health. While the calling to be a healer often involves an initiatory illness, practitioners go on to play demanding social roles, suggesting that involvement in mediumship may be therapeutic for the practitioner. This study focuses on dang-ki healing, a form of Chinese spirit mediumship practiced in Singapore to explore whether participation in dang-ki healing is therapeutic for the mediums. We interviewed eight dang-kis from five temples about their life trajectories and assessed their mental health status with standardized psychological questionnaires. Most of the dang-kis did not appear to suffer from clinically significant emotional distress. Their narratives suggest that involvement in dang-ki mediumship may have therapeutic effects in which the embodied experience of self plays a central role. The dang-kis experienced changes in social identity, bodily experiences during spirit possession, and their overall sense of self through recurrent possession rituals. In general, the practice of spirit mediumship illustrates how the experiences and meanings of the self are constructed and reconstructed through body-world relations in ways that may confer a sense of wellness and social efficacy.

The "Self" under COVID-19: Social role disruptions, self-authenticity and present-focused coping

Social role disruption is a state involving upheaval of social identities, routines and responsibilities. Such disruption is presently occurring at a global scale due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which poses a threat not only to health and security but also to the social roles that underlie people’s daily lives. Our collective response to combat the virus entails, for example, parents homeschooling children, friends socializing online, and employees working from home. While these collective efforts serve the greater good, people’s social roles now lack continuity from what was authentic to the roles before the pandemic began. This, we argue, takes a psychological toll. Individuals feel inauthentic, or alienated and out-of-touch from their “true” selves, to the extent their social roles undergo change. As evidence, we report survey (Studies 1 & 4) and experimental (Studies 2 & 3) evidence that COVID-19-related role changes indeed increase inauthenticity. This effect occurs independent of (a) how positively/negatively people feel about COVID-19 (Study 2) and (b) how positively/negatively people feel about the role change itself (Studies 3 & 4). Moreover, we identify two moderators of this effect. First, this effect occurs when (and ostensibly because) the social roles undergoing change are central to an individual’s sense of self (Study 2). Second, this effect depends on an individual’s temporal perspective. People can safeguard their self-authenticity in the face of changing social roles if they stay focused on the here-and-now (the present and immediate future), rather than focusing on the past (pre-COVID-19) or future (post-COVID-19) (Studies 3 & 4). This advantage for present-focused coping is observed in both the U.S.A. (Study 3) and Hong Kong (Study 4). We suggest that the reason people feel more authentically themselves when they maintain a present focus is because doing so makes the discontinuity of their social roles less salient.

How Does Nostalgia Conduce to Global Self-Continuity? The Roles of Identity Narrative, Associative Links, and Stability

In five studies (N = 1,074), we examined the relation-both correlational and causal-between nostalgia, a sentimental longing for one's past, and global self-continuity (GSC), a sense of connection among past, present, and future selves. Furthermore, we addressed mechanisms underlying this relation. We asked, in particular, whether nostalgic individuals might achieve GSC by constructing a narrative to give meaning to life transitions (narrative), connecting to the past (associative links), or believing in a self that is resistant to change (stability). Nostalgia predicted (Studies 1-3) and caused (Studies 4 and 5) GSC. The relation between nostalgia and GSC was consistently mediated by narrative, sporadically mediated by associative links, and unmediated by stability. The robust indirect effect via narrative remained significant when controlling for rumination (Study 3). We discuss theoretical and practical implications.

Nostalgia strengthens global self-continuity through holistic thinking

Nostalgia, a sentimental longing for one's meaningful past, promotes global self-continuity (GSC), a sense of connection among one's past, present, and future selves. We identified a cognitive mechanism for this effect: holistic thinking, and in particular interactional causality (presupposing multiple causes that interact to influence an object's behaviour). In three studies, using measurement-of-mediation and experimental-causal-chain designs, nostalgia was related to, and caused, higher GSC through interactional causality. In cross-sectional Study 1, trait nostalgia was associated with GSC via interactional causality. In Study 2, induced nostalgia led to higher interactional causality and ensuing GSC. In Study 3, manipulated interactional causal thinking increased GSC.

Life Narratives Are More Other-Centered, More Negative, and Less Coherent in Turkey Than in Germany: Comparing Provincial-Turkish, Metropolitan-Turkish, Turkish-German, and Native German Educated Young Adults

An individualized and coherent life story has been described as the form of identity that is required by highly mobile individualistic Western societies, whereas more family-oriented, traditional societies require more role-based, synchronic identities. Therefore in individualistic cultures entire life narratives can be expected to be more coherent and to contain more autobiographical arguments that contribute to life narrative coherence. This cultural group difference is expected to be mediated by individuals’ conformity to their respective cultural normative concept of biography, such that more conformity leads to less life narrative coherence and fewer autobiographical arguments. We tested these expectations by eliciting entire life narratives and cultural life scripts from four different cultural groups of students of technical universities: from provincial Karabük and from metropolitan Istanbul in Turkey, as well as from students with a Turkish migrant and with a native German background from urban Frankfurt am Main, Germany (N = 96). Expectations were confirmed for global life narrative coherence and autobiographical arguments with self-event connections. Conformity with a normative concept of biography indeed partially mediated cultural influences on life narrative coherence. Life narratives from Turkey also contained more family-related events and, unexpectedly, were more negative. Thus creating a coherent life narrative is more typical for cultures that require autonomous, individualized selves rather than for cultures requiring more related selves, reflecting the life story’s suitability for expressing individualized identities and its lesser suitability for expressing interdependent identities.

Character Strengths, Strengths Use, Future Self-Continuity and Subjective Well-Being Among Chinese University Students

The study was designed to explore the relationships among character strengths, strengths use, future self-continuity and subjective well-being. A total of 225 undergraduates completed paper-and-pencil questionnaires assessing character strengths, strengths use, future self-continuity, and subjective well-being. Results suggested several character strengths were correlated with subjective well-being and the strongest correlations were found for hope, curiosity, zest, perseverance and love. All character strengths were significantly correlated with strengths use. Strengths use and future self-continuity were robustly correlated with subjective well-being. The mediation analysis showed that strengths use mediates the relationship between character strengths and subjective well-being, and specifically, the indirect effects of strengths use varies from different character strengths. The moderated mediator suggested that future self-continuity moderated the mediation of strengths use because future self-continuity moderates the effect of strengths use on subjective well-being. Furthermore, the indirect effect of strengths use was stronger with high level of future self-continuity than those with low level of future self-continuity. The present findings make a contribution to understand the underlying mechanisms involving in character strengths are associated with higher level of well-being. Additionally, the findings expand knowledge about future self-continuity and its relation to strengths use and subjective well-being among undergraduates, having significant implications in the educational context.

In Search of a Pan-European Culture: European Values, Beliefs, and Models of Selfhood in Global Perspective

What, if any, are the common cultural characteristics that distinguish European societies and groups when viewed against a backdrop of global cultural variation? We sought to identify any shared features of European cultures through secondary multilevel analyses of two large datasets that together provided measures of cultural values, beliefs, and models of selfhood from samples in all inhabited continents. Although heterogeneous in many respects—including the value dimension of autonomy versus embeddedness—European samples shared two distinctive features: a decontextualized representation of personhood and a cultural model of selfhood emphasizing difference from others. Compared with samples from other regions, European samples on average also emphasized egalitarianism and harmony values, commitment to others in their models of selfhood, and an immutable concept of personhood, but not uniformly so. We interpret these findings in relation to a Durkheimian model of individualism.