The Multiply Motivated Self

Either out of intellectual curiosity (e.g., `What kind of person am I?"), as a consequence of interpersonal feedback in their daily lives (e.g., evaluations from teachers, employers, or leisure activity partners), or because of the unavoidable force of life events (e.g., new occupation, involvement in a romantic relationship, chronic illness), people may wonder how socially fit are their personality traits, how appropriate are their behaviors, how adequate are their skills and talents, or how fulfilling are their goals, personal relationships, group memberships, and lifestyles. Whenever people engage in subjective and valenced (i.e., good/bad) judgments of aspects of their self-concepts, they engage in self-evaluation. The self-evaluation process can result in substantial benefits for the individual, particularly better selfunderstanding. This is likely to lead to more successful self-regulation and coping; to more informed choices of friends, romantic partners, and social groups; to more beneficial choices of occupational settings, hobbies, and interests; and to the selection of more fitting long-term goals. In other words, along with better self-understanding comes a greater likelihood of positive outcomes. Because of its presumed critical role in human functioning, the topic of self-evaluation has attracted the persistent and keen interest of social and personality psychologists. Four major themes run through selfevaluation research. First, how many motives have been empirically supported as guides to self-evaluation? Second, in what circumstances does each motive become activated? Third, are motives differentially prevalent in different people? Fourth, how can research on the selfevaluation motives become integrated? We use these themes to structure the discussion that follows and end with some suggestions about the direction of future research.