STABLE AND DYNAMIC COMPONENTS OF SELF-REPORT SELF-CONCEPT.

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Personality Psychology

Background:

• Understanding the structure of the phenomenal self is crucial in psychology.
• Previous research has explored self-concept but often lacks detailed analysis of its components.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the dimensional structure of the phenomenal self in university freshmen.
• To differentiate between self-descriptions and self-evaluations within the phenomenal self.

Main Methods:

• Principal components analysis (PCA) was applied to responses of university freshmen.
• Participants rated four self-concepts (MY PAST, MY FUTURE, MY REAL SELF, MY IDEAL SELF) on 15 bipolar adjective scales.
• Data were analyzed separately for males and females to identify sex-specific patterns.

Main Results:

• PCA revealed two distinct component types: evaluative and descriptive scales.
• Evaluative scales showed consistency within each self-concept but independence across concepts.
• Descriptive scales demonstrated consistency across all four concepts and independence from other descriptive scales.
• Sex-specific analyses showed similar component patterns with some unique sex-related components.

Conclusions:

• The phenomenal self is composed of stable self-descriptions and dynamic self-evaluations.
• These findings contribute to a nuanced understanding of self-perception and its underlying structure.
• The study highlights both universal and sex-specific aspects of self-concept formation in emerging adulthood.