Affective and Self-Presentational Responses to an Exercise Identity Challenge: Investigating Identity Theory and the Role of the Other

Abstract

According to Identity Theory (IT), identity-inconsistent feedback is associated with negative affect and motivation to change the situation to match identity. Responses to identity-relevant feedback from others remains an understudied IT tenet. The affective and self-presentational responses of high-identity exercisers provided with identity confirming or disconfirming feedback in the presence of another person were examined in a randomized experiment. MANCOVA procedures revealed that compared to confirmed individuals, disconfirmed individuals demonstrated greater negative affect, desire to self-present, and attempts to self-present. Regression analyses determined that among disconfirmed individuals, satisfaction with self-presentation was negatively related to negative affect. Findings support IT predictions. KEYWORDS: identity; Identity Theory; affect; role of the other; public; self-presentation; MANCOVA; bivariate regression