Self-Complexity and Affective Extremity: Don't Put All of Your Eggs in One Cognitive Basket
Abstract
This research develops and tests a model relating complexity of self-representation to affective and evaluative responses. The basic hypothesis is that the less complex a person's cognitive representation of the self, the more extreme will be the person's swings in affect and self-appraisal. Experiment 1 showed that those lower in self-complexity experienced greater swings in affect and self-appraisal following a failure or success experience. Experiment 2 showed that those lower in self-complexity experienced greater variability in affect over a 2-week period. The results are discussed, first, in terms of self-complexity as a buffer against the negative effects of stressful life events, particularly depression; and, second, in terms of the thought patterns of depressed persons. The results reported here suggest that level of self-complexity may provide a promising cognitive marker for vulnerability to depression.
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Life designs or self-systems with a diversified, multifaceted structure of goals and personal projects will generally enhance flexible accommodation of goals.
“Life designs or self-systems that involve a diversified, multifaceted structure of goals and personal projects will generally enhance flexible accommodation of goals; this assumption converges with findings suggesting that high ''self-complexity'' renders persons less vulnerable to depression (Linville, 1985(Linville, , 1987)).”
From The Life-Course Dynamics of Goal Pursuit and Goal Adjustment: A Two-Process Framework (2002) · cites this paper as Linville, 1985
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- Authors
- Linville, P. W.
- Affiliations
- Yale University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Linville, Patricia W.
- Venue
- Social Cognition
- Publisher
- Guilford Publications
- Published
- 1985-03
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 94-120
- ISSN
- 0278-016X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2027488617
- Cited by
- 934
- References
- 24
- Citations by year
- 2026: 22 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 42 · 2021: 31 · 2020: 33 · 2019: 28 · 2018: 36 · 2017: 27 · 2016: 27 · 2015: 39 · 2014: 37 · 2013: 34 · 2012: 28
- FWCI
- 5.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Social Cognition (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Identity, Memory, and Therapy
- Keywords
- self-complexity, self-representation, affective variability, self-assessment, depression, cognitive vulnerability to depression, life events, cognitive markers
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