| Summary: | This research sought to operationalize some of the central psychological elements
of emergent contemporary selves, herein broadly dubbed, postmodern. These
elements involve both the multiplicity of the self-concept (as measured by
Linville's self-sorting task) and the accounts that people employ to justify their
self-identity (obtained by semi-structured interview and scored using Chandler's
developmental taxonomy). Participants also responded to six measures of wellbeing
and adaptiveness: perceived stress, locus of control, behavioral flexibility,
self-concept confusion, self-esteem, and self-focused attention. It was
hypothesized that the combination of high self-multiplicity with more dynamic,
or functional, accounts of self-identity, termed multiplicitous functionalism, will
contribute to well-being. Participants were 64 female and male undergraduates
in the 18- to 24-year age group - a point in the lifespan when self-identity is
undergoing considerable flux. Results indicated that, as expected, higher levels
of self-identity were associated with greater self-multiplicity. The various
measures of well-being were meaningfully correlated. The locus of control
construct was used to make a number of important distinctions. For example,
those low in perceived stress and those high in behavioral flexibility, self-esteem,
and self-clarity reported greater internality. Consistent with the central thrust of
this research, multiplicitous functionalism (high in both self-multiplicity and self-identity)
was associated with overall psychological adaptiveness and well-being,
as evidenced by greater behavioral flexibility and reflection, and less rumination
and perceived stress. This thesis has sought to buttress the argument for a
developmental consideration of selfhood, contending that recent talk of protean,
polyphonic selves do suggest themselves as adaptive, particularly in a culture
where instability and fragmentation seem often the case. === Arts, Faculty of === Psychology, Department of === Graduate
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