Feeling unique or similar to the group : an investigation of the processes involved in temporary self-concept activation

A study was Conducted in order to investigate the processes and content involved in the activation of a uniqueness/similarity working self-concept (Markus Kunda,1986). A group situation was formed for each of 80 introductory female psychology students at Acadia University, in which three confederates participated with each subject. Eighteen posters (each containing either three colours, greeting cards, or comic strips) were presented to the group, and subjects were required to first pick their favourite of the three items, and then to recite their choices to the group. Subjects were seated around a table so that the real subject always recited her answers first. Subjects were randomly assigned to either a similarity condition (in which confederates mostly agreed with subject's responses) or a uniqueness condition (in which confederates mostly disagreed with subject's responses, and agreed with each other). Half of the subjects in each group were randomly assigned to perform a cognitive load task while reciting responses to the items, in order to determine whether the working self-concept observed in the Markus and Kunda (1986) study could be activated under conditions of limited cognitive resources. The principle dependent measure was latency of "me" and "not me" responses to trait adjectives conceptually related to uniqueness and similarity. Results indicated that the effect of cognitive load was nonsignificant. However, similarity subjects responded "me" significantly faster to both similarity and uniqueness words, compared to uniqueness subjects. The same trend was evident, though nonsignificant, for "not me" responses. Results are explained in terms of Carver's (1979) cybernetic model of self-attention.