1987/01/01 by William B. Swann, John J. Griffin, Steven C. Predmore +1 · 8 citations
Psychology · #Academic and Historical Perspectives in Psychology #Cultural Differences and Values #Psychology #Consistency (knowledge bases) #Cognition #Mood #Affect (linguistics) #Self-enhancement #Social psychology #Social cognition #Social cognitive theory #Cognitive psychology #Negative mood #Social perception #Perception #Communication
paper · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.52.5.881
openalex publication_date 1987/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/13
Self-consistency theory assumes that people want others to treat them in a predictable manner. Self-enhancement theory contends that people want others to treat them in a positive manner. We attempted to help reconcile the two theories by testing the hypothesis that people's cognitive responses conform to self-consistency theory and their affective responses conform to self-enhancement theory. We presented individuals who possessed either positive or negative self-concepts with either favorable or unfavorable social feedback. We then measured cognitive reactions to the feedback (e.g., perceived self-descriptiveness) and affective reactions to the feedback (e.g., mood states). Cognitive responses were primarily driven by the consistency of the feedback and affective responses were controlled by how enhancing it was. We propose that conceptualizing cognition an affect as partially independent mental systems helps resolve some long-standing paradoxes regarding people's responses to self-relevant social feedback.