Self-concept clarity: Measurement, personality correlates, and cultural boundaries.

JD Campbell, PD Trapnell, SJ Heine…�- Journal of personality�…, 1996 - psycnet.apa.org
JD Campbell, PD Trapnell, SJ Heine, IM Katz, LF Lavallee, DR Lehman
Journal of personality and social psychology, 1996psycnet.apa.org
Self-concept clarity (SCC) references a structural aspect of the self-concept: the extent to
which self-beliefs are clearly and confidently defined, internally consistent, and stable. This
article reports the SCC Scale and examines (a) its correlations with self-esteem (SE), the Big
Five dimensions, and self-focused attention (Study 1);(b) its criterion validity (Study 2); and
(c) its cultural boundaries (Study 3). Low SCC was independently associated with high
Neuroticism, low SE, low Conscientiousness, low Agreeableness, chronic self-analysis, low�…
Abstract
Self-concept clarity (SCC) references a structural aspect of the self-concept: the extent to which self-beliefs are clearly and confidently defined, internally consistent, and stable. This article reports the SCC Scale and examines (a) its correlations with self-esteem (SE), the Big Five dimensions, and self-focused attention (Study 1);(b) its criterion validity (Study 2); and (c) its cultural boundaries (Study 3). Low SCC was independently associated with high Neuroticism, low SE, low Conscientiousness, low Agreeableness, chronic self-analysis, low internal state awareness, and a ruminative form of self-focused attention. The SCC Scale predicted unique variance in 2 external criteria: the stability and consistency of self-descriptions. Consistent with theory on Eastern and Western self-construals, Japanese participants exhibited lower levels of SCC and lower correlations between SCC and SE than did Canadian participants.
American Psychological Association