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Shaping Self‐Concept: The Elusive Importance Effect
Author(s) -
Hardy Lew,
Moriarty Tom
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of personality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.082
H-Index - 144
eISSN - 1467-6494
pISSN - 0022-3506
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6494.2005.00379.x
Subject(s) - discounting , psychology , contrast (vision) , regression analysis , social psychology , regression , econometrics , cognitive psychology , statistics , mathematics , economics , artificial intelligence , computer science , psychotherapist , finance
This study examined the hypothesis that the contributions of specific domains of self‐concept to global self‐concept are dependent upon their perceived importance. The Self Description Questionnaire III was administered to a sample of 506 male and female participants. Analysis of the data using Marsh's original individually weighted multiple regression model confirmed previous findings of no support for the importance hypothesis. In contrast, the results from alternative individually weighted regression models provided strong support for the importance hypothesis. These alternative models utilized idiographically determined as opposed to nomothetically determined relative importance. The data also showed evidence of strong discounting for certain domains, moderate discounting for other domains, and no discounting for still others. The findings challenge previous thinking on the limited role of the importance hypothesis.