On the experience of self-relevant feedback: How self-concept organization influences affective responses and self-evaluations

We evaluated how self-concepts are represented in memory, testing predictions about how self-relevant feedback influences mood and self-evaluation. Specifically, we view the self as comprised of multiple self-aspects (e.g., daughter, sorority sister), each associated with specific attributes (e.g., shy, philanthropy). Study 1 showed that priming a self-aspect increased the accessibility of attributes idiosyncratically associated with the activated self-aspect. In Studies 2 and 3, positive or negative self-relevant feedback was provided to observe how affect and self-evaluations are mediated by self-concept representation. Study 2 demonstrated that changes in mood were accounted for by how feedback impacted evaluations of the currently activated self-aspect. Moreover, evaluations of other self-aspects shifted as they shared more attributes with the self-aspect implicated by feedback. In Study 3, feedback about an attribute also influenced affect, with stronger mood change revealed for attributes associated with a greater proportion of self-aspects. This work demonstrates that affective experiences resulting from self-relevant feedback are not determined by one’s self-concept representation in its entirety, but rather, by the impact of that feedback on activated self-aspects.