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Handbook of the Uncertain Self

Edited by
Robert M. Arkin
The Ohio State University

Kathryn C. Oleson
Reed College

Patrick J. Carroll
The Ohio State University-Lima
Published in 2010 Published in Great Britain
by Psychology Press by Psychology Press
270 Madison Avenue 27 Church Road
New York, NY 10016 Hove, East Sussex BN3 2FA
www.psypress.com www.psypress.com

Copyright © 2010 by Psychology Press

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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any
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recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

ISBN: 978–0–8058–6187–7 (hbk)

Without doubt, with love to my family (Carol, JD, Jamie, and Jordan) for who they are and
all they do. (RMA)

To Gordon, Sydney, and Jackson—my secure base as I research self-doubt—with love.

(KCO)

Thanks to my dad, mom, and sisters, Amy, Jenny, and Katie. I am so grateful for your
unconditional love and support. Thanks to my advisors James Shepperd and Robert Arkin.
You both have had an immeasurable impact on my personal as well as scholarly
development. (PJC)

To Michael Kernis, as well:

In addition to our independent dedications, we also dedicate this book collectively to the
memory of Michael Kernis. Colleague and friend, Michael was one of the first people we
thought of as a contributor when the idea for this volume first gelled. Michael will be very
much missed by all who knew him, but his professional excellence and contributions and
his personal warmth and humanity will enjoy a lasting impact. Because of Michael’s impact,
most of the authors in this edited volume are better theorists and researchers, and we wish
to dedicate collectively this volume to Michael Kernis.
 Contents

About the Editors xi

Contributors xiii
Preface xvii

1 Introduction: The Uncertain Self 1

Patrick J. Carroll, Robert M. Arkin, and Kathryn C. Oleson

Part I: Meta-Cognition and Uncertainty in Self 11

2 Processes by which Confidence (vs. Doubt) Influences the Self 13
Pablo Briñol, Kenneth G. DeMarree, and Richard E. Petty

3 Social Influences on Eyewitness Confidence: The Social Psychology

of Memory Self-Certainty 36
Donna Eisenstadt and Michael R. Leippe

4 Be Careful What You Wish For: The Dark Side of Freedom 62

Barry Schwartz

5 The Causal Uncertainty Model Revisited 78

Gifford Weary, Stephanie J. Tobin, and John A. Edwards

6 Uncertainty Orientation: Myths, Truths, and the Interface of Motivation

and Cognition 101
Andrew C. H. Szeto and Richard M. Sorrentino

7 The Social Psychology of Fairness and the Regulation of Personal

Uncertainty 122
Kees van den Bos and E. Allan Lind

8 Procedural Fairness Responses in the Context of Self-Uncertainty 142

Constantine Sedikides, David De Cremer, Claire M. Hart, and
Lieven Brebels

9 On First versus False Instincts 160

Derrick Wirtz, Justin Kruger, Dale T. Miller, and Pragya Mathur
viii CONTENTS

10 Meta-Cognitive Regulation as a Reaction to the Uncertainty of

Stereotype Threat 176
Michael Johns and Toni Schmader

Part II: Motivation and Uncertainty in Self 193

11 Coping with Life’s One Certainty: A Terror Management Perspective on
the Existentially Uncertain Self 195
Mark J. Landau, Jeff Greenberg, and Spee Kosloff

12 The Role of Uncertainty in Self-Evaluative Processes: Another Look at the

Cognitive–Affective Crossfire 216
Christine Chang-Schneider and William B. Swann, Jr.

13 Defensive Conviction as Emotion Regulation: Goal Mechanisms and

Interpersonal Implications 232
Denise C. Marigold, Ian McGregor, and Mark P. Zanna

14 The New Adventures of Regulatory Focus: Self-Uncertainty and the

Quest for a Diagnostic Self-Evaluation 249
Geoffrey J. Leonardelli and Jessica L. Lakin

15 Preparedness 266
Patrick J. Carroll

16 The Uncertainty Surrounding Ostracism: Threat Amplifier or Protector? 291

Zhansheng Chen, Alvin Ty Law, and Kipling D. Williams

17 Perceived Evaluative Styles and Self-Doubt 303

Darcy A. Reich and Robert M. Arkin

Part III: Clinical and Applied Implications of the Uncertain Self 319
18 Deconstructing the Link between Self-Doubt and Self-Worth: Ideas
to Reduce Maladaptive Coping 321
Aaron L. Wichman and Anthony D. Hermann

19 Defense Mechanisms and Self-Doubt 338

Phebe Cramer

20 Fragile versus Secure High Self-Esteem: Implications for

Defensiveness and Insecurity 360
Michael H. Kernis and Chad E. Lakey
 CONTENTS ix

21 The Phenotypic Expressions of Self-Doubt about Ability in

Academic Contexts: Strategies of Self-Handicapping and Subjective
Overachievement 379
Kathryn C. Oleson and Maureen T. Steckler

Part IV: General Commentaries 399

22 Human Groups, Social Categories, and Collective Self: Social Identity
and the Management of Self-Uncertainty 401
Michael A. Hogg

23 Self-Uncertainty and its Cousins 421

Ron Wright

24 Commentary: The End of the Beginning 444

Robert M. Arkin, Patrick J. Carroll, and Kathryn C. Oleson

Author Index 449

Subject Index 465
 About the Editors

Bob Arkin is Professor of Psychology in the Social Psychology pro-

gram at The Ohio State University. He moved to Ohio State (to
become Undergraduate Dean) from the University of Missouri,
Columbia where he was Assistant, Associate, and then Full Profes-
sor and held the Middlebush Chair in Psychology.
Bob has been Associate Editor of Personality and Social Psych-
ology Bulletin and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
He has served on the editorial boards of the JSCP, SPQ, and P&M;
he is now the Editor of Basic and Applied Social Psychology.
He is also Editor of the forthcoming volumes: Most Under-
appreciated: 50 Prominent Social Psychologists Talk about Hidden
Gems* [*Scholarship that Missed the Mark . . . Misconstruals, Misunderstandings, Mis-
reporting, Misuses, and Just Plain Missed], published by Oxford University Press in 2009
and Handbook of the Self, published by Oxford University Press (2010). He is now writing a
new book entitled How to Read a Lot . . . and is co-authoring (with Jonathon Brown) a
revision of the textbook The Self, for Taylor & Francis (2010).
His research is centered on the self in social interaction, with special reference to
attribution processes and general issues of motivation, achievement and educational psych-
ology, and social perception. His recent research interests include self-handicapping, over-
achievement, and the core construct linking these two (self-doubt) as well as issues of
personal security in the post-9/11 era.

Kathryn C. Oleson is Professor and Department Head of Psych-

ology at Reed College. She was a National Institute of Mental
Health Postdoctoral Fellow at The Ohio State University from 1993
to 1995 after finishing her Ph.D. in Social Psychology at Princeton
University. She has been Associate Editor of the journal Basic and
Applied Social Psychology. Much of her research is focused on the
social self, with particular attention to chronic self-doubt and its
affective, cognitive, and behavioral consequences for how indi-
viduals respond to academic challenges.
xii ABOUT THE EDITORS

Patrick J. Carroll is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at The

Ohio State University-Lima. Carroll had spent the previous 3 years
as a National Institute of Mental Health Postdoctoral Fellow in the
Social Psychology program at The Ohio State University. Before his
NIMH fellowship appointment, he received his Ph.D. (2004) and
Masters (2002) degrees at the University of Florida. Carroll has
served as an Associate Co-editor of Basic and Applied Social Psych-
ology as well as an editorial consultant for several social and person-
ality psychology journals. In addition, he served as co-organizer of
the 2006 and 2007 Self and Identity Pre-conferences at the Annual
Meeting of the Society of Experimental Social Psychologists.
His research examines how and why people revise self-views in response to social
feedback. Stated otherwise, his research examines the social negotiation of self across the
lifespan. As with any negotiation table, he examines the table of identity negotiation as
consisting of two sides. In turn, his research program has and continues to represent both
sides in two interrelated lines of inquiry. On the first side, his work explores the Psychology
of the Changed. This line of inquiry explores how and why someone would revise a
self-view in response to social feedback. Moreover, this line of inquiry examines the
consequences of self-revision for ongoing mental health and well-being. On the flip side,
his work explores the Psychology of the Changer. This line of inquiry explores how and why
someone would try to change another person’s self-views. Moreover, this line of inquiry
examines the consequences of inducing self-revision in a social partner for ongoing
relational satisfaction and well-being.
 Contributors

Robert M. Arkin Kenneth G. DeMarree

Department of Psychology Department of Psychology
The Ohio State University Texas Tech University
Columbus, OH, USA Lubbock, TX, USA

Lieven Brebels John A. Edwards

Rotterdam School of Management Department of Psychology
Erasmus University Oregon State University
Rotterdam, The Netherlands Corvallis, OR, USA

Pablo Briñol Donna Eisenstadt

Department of Social Psychology Department of Psychology
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid John Jay College of Criminal Justice
Madrid, Spain City University of New York
New York, NY, USA
Patrick J. Carroll
Department of Psychology Jeff Greenberg
The Ohio State University-Lima Psychology Department
Lima, OH, USA University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ, USA
Christine Chang-Schneider
Department of Psychology Claire M. Hart
University of Texas at Austin School of Psychology
Austin, TX, USA University of Southampton
Southampton, UK
Zhansheng Chen
Department of Psychology Anthony D. Hermann
University of Hong Kong Department of Psychology
Hong Kong Bradley University
Peoria, IL, USA
Phebe Cramer
Department of Psychology Michael A. Hogg
Williams College School of Behavioral and Organizational
Williamstown, MA, USA Sciences
Claremont Graduate University
David De Cremer Claremont, CA, USA
Rotterdam School of Management
Erasmus University Michael Johns
Rotterdam, The Netherlands Brooklyn, NY, USA
xiv CONTRIBUTORS

Michael H. Kernis Denise C. Marigold

Psychology Department Renison University College at
University of Georgia University of Waterloo
Athens, GA, USA Waterloo, ON, Canada
Spee Kosloff Pragya Mathur
Psychology Department Marketing and International Business
University of Arizona Baruch College
Tucson, AZ, USA City University of New York
New York, NY, USA
Justin Kruger
Leonard N. Stern School of Ian McGregor
Business Department of Psychology
New York University York University
New York, NY, USA Toronto, ON, Canada
Chad E. Lakey Dale T. Miller
Department of Psychology Graduate School of Business
East Tennessee State University Stanford University
Johnson City, TN, USA Stanford, CA, USA
Jessica L. Lakin
Kathryn C. Oleson
Department of Psychology
Department of Psychology
Drew University
Reed College
Madison, NJ, USA
Portland, OR, USA
Mark J. Landau
Richard E. Petty
Department of Psychology
Department of Psychology
University of Kansas
The Ohio State University
Lawrence, KS, USA
Columbus, OH, USA
Alvin Ty Law
Department of Psychological Darcy A. Reich
Sciences Department of Psychology
Purdue University Texas Tech University
West Lafayette, IN, USA Lubbock, TX, USA

Michael R. Leippe Toni Schmader

Department of Psychology Department of Psychology
John Jay College of Criminal Justice University of British Columbia
City University of New York Vancouver, BC, Canada
New York, NY, USA
Barry Schwartz
Geoffrey J. Leonardelli Department of Psychology
Rotman School of Management Swarthmore College
University of Toronto Swarthmore, PA, USA
Toronto, ON, Canada
Constantine Sedikides
E. Allan Lind School of Psychology
Fuqua School of Business University of Southampton
Duke University Southampton, UK
Durham, NC, USA
 CONTRIBUTORS xv

Richard M. Sorrentino Gifford Weary

Department of Psychology Department of Psychology
The University of Western Ontario The Ohio State University
London, ON, Canada Columbus, OH, USA

Maureen T. Steckler Aaron L. Wichman

Department of Psychology Department of Psychology
Reed College Western Kentucky University
Portland, OR, USA Bowling Green, KY, USA

William B. Swann, Jr. Kipling D. Williams

Department of Psychology Department of Psychological Sciences
University of Texas at Austin Purdue University
Austin, TX, USA West Lafayette, IN, USA

Andrew C. H. Szeto Derrick Wirtz

Department of Psychology Department of Psychology
The University of Western Ontario East Carolina University
London, ON, Canada Greenville, NC, USA

Stephanie J. Tobin Ron Wright

Department of Psychology Department of Psychiatry
University of Houston University of Arizona
Houston, TX, USA Tucson, AZ, USA

Kees van den Bos Mark P. Zanna

Department of Social and Organizational Department of Psychology
Psychology University of Waterloo
Utrecht University Waterloo, ON, Canada
Utrecht, The Netherlands
 Preface

The Handbook of the Uncertain Self is a handbook for our age. National and personal
confidences have been shaken; doubt threatens our times. From the fears and newfound
vulnerabilities brought on by recent breakdowns in global and local economic markets, to
our ongoing lives within the shadow of terror and uncertainty stemming from the toppling
of the World Trade Center Towers on September 11th, the world we have known, the world
that has sheltered us, is being remade. Change is upon us, and financial security and
personal self-assurance are under threat. Many have been forced to make bold changes in
their careers, their lifestyles, their homes, and their places of residence. Certainly some
changes can be exciting ones—especially those that are voluntarily initiated. Thomas
Friedman (2005), for instance, tells how breathtaking our new global world can be, but
he also reminds us that people will be trampled if they don’t keep up with the change.
Individuals—from our neighbors to our political leaders—must decide how to respond to
their doubts and uncertainties about these changes. Maneuvering through the terrain of
doubt may become the defining skill of our age. In a recent article Maureen Dowd sug-
gested that Presidents Bush and Obama had quite different responses to their doubt, such
that “W. was immune to doubt and afraid of it. (His fear of doubt led to the cooking of war
intelligence.) Obama is delighted by doubt” (Dowd, 2009, p. WK15). Whether introduced
by the individual or the environment, this ascendance of the need to change injects modern
life with a degree of uncertainty and self-doubt that presents new challenges that can be
difficult to respond to and manage. This uncertainty muddies self-views, world-views, and
the interrelation between the two. Learning to negotiate uncertainty has thus become a
requirement of modern individual life.
This burgeoning age of doubt seems an ironically propitious moment for social and
personality psychologists to gather forces and confront the issue of personal uncertainty in
the social world. With such a backdrop, it was natural that we began discussing the causes
and consequences of self-doubt and uncertainty and the usefulness of a volume that would
coalesce our understanding on these concepts. The seed of the idea for the Handbook has
been germinating among the three of us for years, but more recently the study of the
uncertain self has become a more focal part of research in social and personality psych-
ology. The time seemed critical to bring together, in a novel, contemporary, and theoretic-
ally organized way, cutting edge theory and research on the antecedents, mechanisms, and
consequences associated with personal uncertainty in social life. We hoped to create a high
quality handbook with a coherent structure in which each chapter independently serves as
an important resource but also, crucially, with the collection of chapters serving as a
valuable interlocking set of resources. Collectively, the goal of the individual contributions
as well as the commentaries that summarize them is to showcase the diversity and the unity
that defines contemporary perspectives on uncertainty in self within social and personality
psychology. We designed the present Handbook to provide readers with a relatively com-
prehensive, albeit accessible, survey of recent advancements in the study of personal
xviii PREFACE

uncertainty that would be generative of future research in the area and across research
domains.
Armed with these goals, we contacted individuals on the forefront of theory and
research on self-doubt and uncertainty and asked them to contribute to this Handbook; we
were thrilled by the enthusiastic responses. Our excitement for the project only increased
when we began receiving the stimulating individual chapters and seeing the multifaceted
mosaic that was created across the collection of contributions. We hope that you the reader
share our enthusiasm and use this Handbook as a resource not only for creating the next
generation of research and theory on the uncertain self but also for applying these ideas to
the complex and uncertain social world in which we live.
There are many individuals who helped to make this Handbook possible. Of course, the
volume would not have been possible without the gifted and creative authors who contrib-
uted their chapters; we are grateful to them for their profound insights on the uncertain self
and their hard work in getting this volume together. We want to thank our editors—first
Debra Riegert of Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers for her initial enthusiasm, and more
recently Paul Dukes of Psychology Press for his continuing support as the project pro-
ceeded. Finally, we want to thank our mentors, colleagues, and students who have, over the
years, kept us inspired, supported, and invigorated in our search to understand personal
uncertainty.

Kathryn C. Oleson
Robert M. Arkin
Patrick J. Carroll

REFERENCES
Dowd, M. (2009, January 17). The long lame goodbye. New York Times, p. WK15.
Friedman, T. L. (2005). The world is flat: A brief history of the twenty-first century. New York: Farrar,
Straus, & Giroux.