Testing the self as a control system: Theoretical and methodological issues

This report describes an evolution of research methodology for adducing evi dence regarding whether the self functions as a control system. While there has been a great number of studies in the literature on personality and so cial psychology aimed at demonstrating that behavior of many kinds can be a ffected by focusing attention upon the subject's self-concept, or by challe nging or threatening it, little attention has been given to the question of why this would be so. A proposed explanation would be that the self functi ons as a control system. Testing this hypothesis has entailed development o f a methodological approach in which control action occurs predictably rath er than having a statistical probability. This has required defining a mode l and testing it by predictions rather than attempting to isolate underlyin g variables with multivariate techniques. (C) 1999 Academic Press.