Does the Self Conform to the Views of Others?

Abstract

The interactionist tenet that we come to see ourselves as others see us has received only inconsistent support throughout its history, in part because of a number of factors that can disrupt the process. In this study we address several elements that have been suggested as important, including which others might be influential, the self's agency in protecting self-views from change, the time frame involved, and the individuals' openness to change. We address these factors using data from newly married couples over a two-year period. Regarding who may be influential, we draw on expectation states theory and hypothesize that views held by the spouse with higher status than the partner will be more likely to influence the partner's self-views. The higher-status spouse also should influence the lower-status spouse's views of the higher-status person. The results are consistent with these expectations. The findings suggest that the scope conditions of EST are broader than initially posited. Perhaps more important, the results reaffirm the idea that social psychological processes maintain the social structural arrangements in which they take place.