The Multiple Self-Aspects Framework: Self-Concept Representation and Its Implications

Abstract

The multiple self-aspects framework (MSF) conceives of the self-concept as a collection of multiple, context-dependent selves. From this perspective, five principles are derived, addressing issues such as how context activates particular regions of self-knowledge and how self-relevant feedback affects self-evaluations and affect. Support for these principles is discussed. Furthermore, the MSF advances several novel predictions, including how active self-aspects filter one’s experiences and perceptions, how the impact of chronic accessibility is more circumscribed than previously realized, and how self-concept representation modulates the experience of affect. In addition, the MSF helps integrate isolated lines of research within several diverse literatures, including self-regulation, stability and variability for the self, the integration of others into the self-concept, and several individual difference factors as well. Overall, the current work speaks to issues of relevance to several subdisciplines in psychology (e.g., cultural, developmental, personality, social) interested in the self, providing conceptual and methodological insights.