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Evaluatively Integrative Thinking about Characteristics of the Self

University of Wisconsin-Madison

A process of evaluatively integrative thinking may limit the impact of negative self-knowledge by strengthening associative links between negative and positive items of knowledge about the self. Subjects generated lists of items to describe themselves in social situations and in academic situations. Subjects whose lists were evaluatively integrated (i.e., positive and negative items were intermixed) reported higher self-esteem or less negative affect than subjects who clustered items of similar valence. In paragraph descriptions of their most negative characteristic, subjects who used evaluatively integrative statements had higher self-esteem even when the importance and negativity of the characteristics were held constant. These findings may hold only for evaluative integration with respect to negative characteristics. They suggest that there are important individual differences in the organization of the self-concept, not just in content.

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