Publications
Publication details [#12419]
Bench, Schlegel,Davis,Vess, Shane W, Rebecca J,William E, Matthew. 2015. Thinking about Change in the Self and Others: The Role of Self-Discovery Metaphors and the True Self. Social Cognition 33 (3) : 169–185. 17 pp.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English
Keywords
Place, Publisher
Guilford Press
Abstract
The paper is a study upon the evaluative judgments of changes that relate to the type of metaphors used by people while thinking about such changes. It is assumed that the more positively a change is evaluated, the more likely it is to be perceived as a self “discovery” (i.e. a change driven by discovering something within the self). Therefore, the authors stress the importance of the so-called self-discovery metaphors which facilitate the understanding of how people make sense of changes in the self and close others. To prove this, two studies are described in the paper. In Study 1 the authors examine a correlational relationship that occurs between perceived positivity and self-discovery in changes referring to both the self and a close other. In Study 2 they rely on the valence of change and arrive at the conclusion that positive changes are more likely to be endorsed as self-discoveries rather than negative ones.