SELF-EVALUATION MOTIVES AND UNCERTAINTY ORIENTATION - ASKING THE WHO QUESTION

An individual difference dimension, uncertainty orientation, is discus sed as it relates to self-evaluation (specifically, self-assessment an d self-verification). Research is presented suggesting that uncertaint y-oriented people are best described in terms of self-assessment motiv es and that self-verification may be more important for certainty-orie nted people The impact of factors like personal relevance and amount o f self-knowledge may also be moderated by the person's uncertainty ori entation. Analysis of these motives from an individual differences per spective raises a number of questions about the nature of these self-e valuation motives and suggests that the ''who'' question is likely to be as important as the ''when'' question in addressing the relative im portance of these different motives.