title: In search of clarity: self-esteem and domains of confidence and confusion.
abstract: To date, research suggests that self-concept clarity is a monolithic construct: Some people have clearly defined self-concepts in all domains, whereas others do not. The authors argued that self-concept clarity is instead multifaceted and varies across trait domains. The authors predicted that social commodities (SCs; e.g., looks, popularity, social skills) would show less self-concept clarity than would communal qualities (CQs; e.g., kindness, warmth, honesty), due to domain differences in observability, ambiguity, and controllability. Results replicated past findings that self-esteem predicts self-concept clarity but also demonstrated that participants' SC self-views were less clear than their CQ self-views. Moreover, people showed greater clarity about traits that were lower in observability and higher in ambiguity and controllability. These findings suggest that everyone, regardless of self-esteem, has self-concept domains of relative confidence and confusion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. dbanthon@uwaterloo.ca
authors.forename: Danu Anthony
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Stinson
authors.forename: Joanne V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Wood
authors.forename: Juliana R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Doxey