THE PUZZLE OF NEGATIVE SELF-VIEWS - AN EXPLANATION USING THE SCHEMA CONCEPT

People with negative self-views seem to behave more predictably than p eople with positive self-views. To explain this puzzle, the authors co nceptualized a self-view as a schema and postulated that negative self -views are more tightly organized schemas than are positive self-views . Studies la and Ib demonstrated that the elements of a negative self- view are more tightly interconnected than those of a positive self-vie w. Studies 2-6 demonstrated and examined a consequence of this princip le, namely, that negative self-descriptions are more consistent than p ositive self-descriptions. For people with negative self-views, differ ent contexts evoke the same tight schema, producing more consistent se lf-descriptions. This explanation integrates several findings about th e self and has important im plications for personality theory and asse ssment.