When Chronic Isn't Chronic: The Moderating Role of Active Self-Aspects

The current work considered how self-concept organization moderates the consequences of chronic attributes, which are widely assumed to be always accessible and influential. In Study 1, the accessibility of participants' chronic attributes was assessed before and after activating a self-aspect that was either relevant or irrelevant to participants' chronic attributes. Results showed that chronic attributes were more accessible when they were relevant to a participant's active self-aspect than when they were irrelevant to it. In Study 2, participants read ambiguous behaviors performed by others, some of which could be interpreted in line with their own chronic attribute or an alternative attribute. Participants were more likely to interpret behaviors as consistent with their own chronic attributes, but only when a relevant self-aspect had been previously activated. These studies suggest that chronicity can be moderated by self-aspect activation, consistent with the perspective that the self consists of multiple, context-dependent self-aspects.