Self-belief change despite the desire to remain the same.
2009-03
Loading...
View/Download File
Persistent link to this item
Statistics
View StatisticsJournal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Title
Self-belief change despite the desire to remain the same.
Authors
Published Date
2009-03
Publisher
Type
Thesis or Dissertation
Abstract
In order to understand behavior change, it is important to understand self-belief change. People prefer to verify, and thus to have stable self-beliefs in order to maintain the perception that they know themselves well, or self-knowledge confidence. Explanations of self-belief change must take into account people's desire to maintain self-knowledge confidence. I offer a new perspective of self-belief change. According to this perspective, people's self-beliefs change when they can maintain self-knowledge confidence. I conducted two experimental studies to test this perspective. In the first study, participants received feedback that either verified or challenged one of their self-beliefs that they held with either certainty or uncertainty. Participants' self-knowledge confidence was bolstered when one of their certain self-beliefs was verified. In the second study, participants received feedback that challenged one of their self-beliefs that they held with either certainty or uncertainty. Some were also given feedback that verified a different one of their certain self-beliefs. When participants had one of their certain self-beliefs verified before they had one of their self-beliefs challenged, they were more likely to change their self-belief. In addition, participants were more likely to change a certain self-belief than an uncertain self-belief. These effects were mediated by the extent to which participants were open to accepting self-inconsistent information and weren't motivated to verify their self-belief that was challenged. I discuss the role of self-knowledge confidence in self-belief change. I also discuss implications for the perspectives of self-belief change that have been offered in the literature to date, and the extent to which self-belief changes last over time and across situations.
Description
University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. March 2009. Major: Psychology. Advisors: Alexander J. Rothman, Marti Hope Gonzales. 1 computer file (PDF); vi, 124 pages.
Related to
Replaces
License
Collections
Series/Report Number
Funding information
Isbn identifier
Doi identifier
Previously Published Citation
Suggested citation
Hertel, Andrew William. (2009). Self-belief change despite the desire to remain the same.. Retrieved from the University Digital Conservancy, https://hdl.handle.net/11299/49202.
Content distributed via the University Digital Conservancy may be subject to additional license and use restrictions applied by the depositor. By using these files, users agree to the Terms of Use. Materials in the UDC may contain content that is disturbing and/or harmful. For more information, please see our statement on harmful content in digital repositories.