Me versus the millennial : desire for self-verification as a function of self-descriptiveness of stereotype and anticipated interaction type

• Main Author: Lim, Eunice Wan Lin
• Other Authors: Catherine Wan Ching
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Psychology::Motivation
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/77174
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Decades of research have demonstrated self-verification strivings among individuals, with individuals motivated to be viewed upon consistently across dimensions of the “self” – the personal self and the social self. Nonetheless, past studies have examined self-verification on each “self” separately, where the effect of discrepancies between the two selves on desire for self-verification have yet been considered. To fill this gap, the current study thus examined the relationship between self-descriptiveness of stereotype and anticipated interaction type on individuals’ desire for personal self-verification. It was hypothesized that when individuals anticipated an interaction where one would be perceived stereotypically (social self salience anticipated interaction condition), the lower the self-descriptiveness of the stereotype, the greater the individuals’ desire for personal self-verification. Also, it was hypothesized that when individuals anticipated an interaction where one would be perceived as an individual (personal self salience anticipated interaction condition), self-descriptiveness of stereotype would have no effect on individuals’ desire for personal self-verification. Contrary to the hypothesis, findings showed that individuals’ desired personal self-verification at similarly high intensities regardless of whether they anticipated being perceived stereotypically or not. Links to factors that motivate self-verification, methodological considerations of the study, as well as new directions for future research are discussed.