Mutual influences between the implicit and explicit self-concepts: The role of memory activation and motivated reasoning

Kurt R. Peters, Bertram Gawronski
2011 Journal of Experimental Social Psychology  
Whereas previous research has predominantly focused on dissociations between the explicit and implicit selfconcepts, the current research investigates how these aspects of self-representation come into correspondence through the activation of information about the self in memory. Experiment 1 provides evidence for a "bottom-up" process of self-construal in which information activated in the implicit self-concept produces congruent changes in the explicit self-concept. Experiment 2 provides
more » ... nce for a "top-down" process of self-construal in which the motivated assertion of a propositional belief in the explicit self-concept leads, via a process of confirmatory hypothesis testing, to the activation of substantiating information in the implicit selfconcept. These two processes of self-concept change are integrated within a framework that specifies how the explicit and implicit self-concepts are related within an overall, dynamic self-system. Possibilities for expanding the framework to account for self-concept dissociations are discussed.
doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2010.11.015 fatcat:ta3aaybaurc2pangwkdsufbj3q