Beyond self-esteem: influence of multiple motives on identity construction.

By Vivian L. Vignoles, Camillo Regalia, Claudia Manzi, J. Golledge, E. Scabini. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2006

756 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Diverse theories suggest that people are motivated to maintain or enhance feelings of self-esteem, continuity, distinctiveness, belonging, efficacy, and meaning in their identities. Four studies tested the influence of these motives on identity construction, by using a multilevel regression design. Participants perceived as more central those identity elements that provided a greater sense of self-esteem, continuity, distinctiveness, and meaning; this was found for individual, relational, and group levels of identity, among various populations, and by using a prospective design. Motives for belonging and efficacy influenced identity definition indirectly through their direct influences on identity enactment and through their contributions to self-esteem. Participants were happiest about those identity elements that best satisfied motives for self-esteem and efficacy. These findings point to the need for an integrated theory of identity motivation.

Subfields: Developmental and Educational Psychology, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1d633e297c5239734df5cdfb907e01b91d856fc6

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Citations in the corpus

Brands as Rivals: Consumer Pursuit of Distinctiveness and the Role of Brand Anthropomorphism (2018, background): “Distinctiveness Motivation and Identity Expression Prior work defines distinctiveness motivation as the desire to differentiate oneself from others in appearance, qualities, traits, and abilities (Vignoles et al. 2006; White and Argo 2011).”
How nostalgia infuses life with meaning: From social connectedness to self‐continuity (2018, background): “Our findings indicate that self-continuity is not only linked to MIL (Vignoles et al., 2006), but it also confers MIL, and, further, is part of a critical chain through which nostalgia confers MIL.”
Perceptions of ‘coming out’ among British Muslim gay men (2011, background): “These suspicions were viewed as imperilling his formerly positive relationship with his mother, which could be understood to threaten feelings of closeness to and acceptance from a significant other (Vignoles et al., 2006).”
Co-creating Relationship Repair (2015, background): “Although identified members are driven to behave in ways that are congruent with what they believe to be the organization’s goals (Tompkins and Cheney, 1985; Barker, 1993), they are also motivated to enact roles that are self-consistent (Vignoles et al., 2006).”
Self, social identity and psychological well-being (2010, background): “Those identity elements are perceived central and salient that provide a greater sense of SE, continuity, distinctiveness and meaning ( Vignoles, Regalia & Manzi et al., 2006 ).”
Measuring entrepreneurial passion: Conceptual foundations and scale validation (2013, background): “Lastly, EP and self-efficacy both highlight the importance of engaging in activities that are meaningful for one's self-identity (Bandura, 1997; Vignoles et al., 2006).”
The presence of the past: Identity continuity and group dynamics (2015, methodology): “…collective self-continuity can be empirically distinguished from other identity motives that have been shown to predict group identification (Vignoles et al., 2006), and whether feelings of collective self-continuity uniquely predict national identification when taking these other identity…”
The Costs of Consumer Culture and the “Cage Within”: The Impact of the Material “Good Life” and “Body Perfect” Ideals on Individuals” Identity and Well-Being (2007, background): “There is a close psychological association between identity—the subjective concept (or representation) that a person holds of him- or herself ( Vignoles, Regalia, Manzi, Golledge, and Scabini, 2006 )—and material goods.”
Entrepreneurial Passion as Mediator of the Self–Efficacy to Persistence Relationship (2015, background): “Second, identity theory suggests that individuals are more likely to identify with things that they are confident in doing, so as to protect their feelings of self-efficacy (Vignoles et al., 2006).”