Аннотация:An experiment was conducted to examine the effects of a threat to a person's self-definition on the subsequent rating of a target person and on the person's distancing from a associating with that target person. Devaluation of the target and dissociation from the target were found, given the following theoretical preconditions: (a) The subjects were highly committed to a given self-definition, in this case that of psychologist; (b) the target person was initially perceived as relatively incompetent in the area of psychology; and (c) the ratings of the target had to do with the particular self-definition in question and not with other facets of the target. The experiment was designed, and results interpreted, from the perspective of a theory of symbolic self-completion (Wicklund & Gollwitzer, 1982). Linkages to the other theories are also discussed.
