IDENTITY SALIENCE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CENTRALITY - EQUIVALENT, OVERLAPPING, OR COMPLEMENTARY CONCEPTS

Social psychologists currently conceptualize self as composed of many parts; often they visualize the parts as organized hierarchically by d ifferences in salience or psychological centrality. We ask whether the se concepts are equivalent, overlapping, or independent, and whether o ne concept ''works'' better in an identity theory context. Models rela ting commitment to role relations to salience and centrality, and sali ence and centrality to time spent in role, are estimated for four role s and identities related to university students. Results show that ide ntity salience and centrality are independent for some roles, but over lap for others. When they are independent, both are predicted by commi tment and both predict time in role, although salience ''works'' somew hat better in these terms. When they overlap, considerable commonality is present in the variance of time in role they explain. Salience aga in links somewhat better to commitment and time in role, but centralit y again contributes to explaining time in role. This study considers w hen salience and centrality overlap in impact and when they do not, bu t no clear answer is at hand. Until an answer is available, researcher s would be well advised to incorporate both salience and centrality in to their designs.