Interpersonal Factors Underlying Self-Concept Change: Role of Sociotropy and Autonomy

The beliefs, ideas, and theories we have about ourselves (i.e., the "self-concept") are powerful determinants of how we think, feel, and act. This dissertation was interested in one aspect of the self-concept that is concerned with the need for relationships and positive interchanges with others and the need for independence and personal achievement (Beck, 1983). Beck (1983) termed these concerns sociotropy and autonomy. It has been theorized the self-concept can shift with situational demands (e.g., Beck et al., 2021). This dissertation employed Beck's (1983) sociotropy-autonomy model of personality as a framework to investigate interpersonal factors underlying change in self-concept content and mood. Four empirical studies looked at: a) the extent to which sociotropy-autonomy predict spontaneous self-concept content and mood, b) the effect of contextual cues about interpersonal orientation on patterns of spontaneous self-descriptions and mood, and c) participants' subjective interpretations of situation descriptions and elements that may be important in situation appraisals among sociotropic and autonomous individuals. A key finding was that for those scoring high on sociotropy, an increased focus on independent aspects of the self-concept was associated with less negative mood and negative self-descriptions, but may not have reflected a shift to individualistic views of the self-concept as previous research suggests. Results are discussed in terms of clinical, theory, and research implications. One implication of the results is that constructing the self-concept can be done more intentionally.