title: Internalizing the closet: concealment heightens the cognitive distinction between public and private selves.
abstract: The present studies are the first in which social psychological methods were used to test the popular claim that the experience of concealing a stigmatized social identity leads to a "divided self." For people with concealable stigmas, concealment in public settings makes the public-private dimension of self-expression particularly salient, leading them to organize self-relevant information along this dimension. The result is a strengthened cognitive distinction between public and private aspects of the self, what we have termed public-private schematization. We developed and tested a measure of the cognitive accessibility of the distinction between public and private self-schemas by measuring how quickly participants sorted trait attributes into self-in-public (e.g., self-at-work) and self-in-private (e.g., self-at-home). People with more accessible distinct public and private self-schemas should be faster at categorizing trait attributes into public- and private-self aspects than those with more integrated public and private self-schemas. Relative to people without such identities, people with concealable stigmas (Study 1a, sexual orientation; Study 1b, religiosity at a secular college), show greater public-private schematization. This schematization is linked to concealment (Study 2) and to the experimental activation of concealable versus conspicuous stigmatized identities (Study 3). Implications of distinct public and private self-schemas for psychological well-being are explored in Studies 4 and 5. Two different measures of distress-perceived social stress (Study 4) and depressive symptoms (Study 5)-provided evidence showing that the accessibility of the distinction between public and private self-schemas accounted for the association of concealment on heightened distress. Implications for research on concealment and self-structure are discussed.
authors: Department of Psychology, Yale University, USA.
authors: Alexandra
authors: A
authors: Sedlovskaya
authors: Valerie
authors: V
authors: Purdie-Vaughns
authors: Richard P
authors: RP
authors: Eibach
authors: Marianne
authors: M
authors: LaFrance
authors: Rainer
authors: R
authors: Romero-Canyas
authors: Nicholas P
authors: NP
authors: Camp
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003219:Confidentiality; D003463:Cues; D003674:Defense Mechanisms; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D018451:Homosexuality, Male / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011930:Reaction Time; D012649:Self Concept; D012650:Self Disclosure; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D012931:Social Environment; D012933:Social Identification; D057545:Social Stigma; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult