Journal
PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN
Volume 37, Issue 6, Pages 745-756Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC
DOI: 10.1177/0146167211400424
Keywords
true self-concept; actual self-concept; meaning in life; metacognitive ease; self-knowledge
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The essence of who a person really is has been labeled the true self, and an emerging area of research suggests that this self-concept plays an important role in the creation of a fulfilling existence. Three studies investigate the role of the subjective feeling that one possesses knowledge of one's true self in meaning in life judgments. Consistently, the perception of availability of true self-knowledge (operationalized as the metacognitive experience of ease in describing one's true self) predicted meaning in life judgments over and above other potentially related constructs such as mood and self-esteem. Conversely, the subjective availability of knowledge of how one actually behaves (i.e., one's actual self) was unrelated to meaning in life judgments. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
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