Self-construals and their association with affective functioning and wellbeing.

Correlational and regression analyses of frequencies and rank order of micro- and macro-categories coding participants' (N=531) “Who am I ?” responses showed that several Reflexive and Social self-categories were significantly associated with, and predicted, affective functioning and wellbeing. The self is the integrated concept of one's own stable abilities, values, personality attributes, preferences, feeling states, and attitudes, developed through social interaction according to socioculturally based norms, values, expectations; e.g., independent self-construals differ from interdependent ones for number and type of positive attributes. The study hypothesized that self-construals are related and predict affective functioning and wellbeing. Within a larger project assessing and training emotional abilities, participants (N=531, 25,38 yrs (sd 3,41), 28,2 % males) in response to a training exercise had to write ten responses to an open question “Who am I ?” (a modified version of the Twenty Statements Test) and order them according to subjective importance. A 35 microcategories scheme, within 3 macrocategories, was developed; 20% of descriptions were coded by two coders. Correspondence, correlational and regression analyses of frequencies and their rank order showed that several categories within the Reflexive Self (50% of all descriptions, especially salient for women and younger participants), and Social self (36%) were significantly associated with, and predicted, affective functioning and wellbeing. Objective self categories (e.g., age, profession, physical traits,13%) were instead not very salient. For instance, positive and negative Relational characteristics were associated with Positive and Negative affect, Optimism, habitual Coping strategies, Alexithymia, and predicted Life satisfaction, Emotional loneliness, and subjective Health. Positive and negative traits (e.g., reliable, honest; rigid, lazy) in the Reflective self macrocategory were likewise associated with Affect, Optimism, Avoidant coping, Alexithymia, and predicted wellbeing. The results confirmed that self-construal aspects are significantly related to affective functioning and wellbeing.