Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Developments in self-concept theory and research: affect, context, and variability
- Commentary: the self-concept is dead, long live … which construct or process? Differentiation and organization of self-related theories
- 3 The self and emotions
- Commentary: the self and emotions
- 4 Fish, foxes, and talking in the classroom: introducing dynamic systems concepts and approaches
- Commentary: fish, foxes, identity, and emotion
- 5 A relational perspective on the development of self and emotion
- Commentary: the personal experience of coherence
- 6 Affective processes in a multivoiced self
- Commentary: affective processes in a multivoiced self in action
- 7 Old–new answers and new-old questions for personality and emotion: a matter of complexity
- Commentary: emotions as sources of information about the self
- 8 Cognitive–emotional self-organization in personality development and personal identity
- Commentary: two faces of identity
- 9 A self-organizational approach to identity and emotions: an overview and implications
- References
- Author index
- Subject index
- Titles in the series
Commentary: two faces of identity
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Developments in self-concept theory and research: affect, context, and variability
- Commentary: the self-concept is dead, long live … which construct or process? Differentiation and organization of self-related theories
- 3 The self and emotions
- Commentary: the self and emotions
- 4 Fish, foxes, and talking in the classroom: introducing dynamic systems concepts and approaches
- Commentary: fish, foxes, identity, and emotion
- 5 A relational perspective on the development of self and emotion
- Commentary: the personal experience of coherence
- 6 Affective processes in a multivoiced self
- Commentary: affective processes in a multivoiced self in action
- 7 Old–new answers and new-old questions for personality and emotion: a matter of complexity
- Commentary: emotions as sources of information about the self
- 8 Cognitive–emotional self-organization in personality development and personal identity
- Commentary: two faces of identity
- 9 A self-organizational approach to identity and emotions: an overview and implications
- References
- Author index
- Subject index
- Titles in the series
Summary
Marc Lewis, who was one of the first to apply dynamic systems constructs to an explication of personality development, and who did so in a very exciting way, provides us in the present chapter with more stimulating ideas and further food for thought. Here Lewis and Ferrari distinguish between implicit identity, which refers to personality characteristics, and explicit identity, which is a “specialized product” of the personality system and is self-reflective and dialogic. Both of these “identities” are subject to change as modeled in a dynamic systems framework. This is an interesting and potentially useful distinction; I would like to explore a comparison between these two aspects a bit further.
It seems to me that implicit and explicit identity may be differentially stable and differentially permeable to change. An examination of the literatures on “personality” and “self systems” suggests that implicit identity or personality may be more stable than explicit identity or self identity. According to a number of accounts, personality is in large measure grounded in emotional dispositions that have roots in temperament (McCrae and Costa, 1996; Goldsmith, 1994), though regularities and repetitive emotional experiences triggered by environmental conditions also shape dispositions (Malatesta, 1990). In any event, whether or not emotional dispositions of particular individuals accrue largely from temperamental substrates or from repetitive emotional events during early development, it is clear that mood states, which are products of personality, are fairly stable by the time individuals reach adulthood. The literature indicates that stability coefficients for positive and negative affect are quite high.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Identity and EmotionDevelopment through Self-Organization, pp. 199 - 201Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2001