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but it is unclear how the self could not be itself. Perhaps these statements are nonsensical.
Before addressing these questions, an appropriate definition of self is first needed. It has been suggested that the self is a mental representation of the under- lying organism, an online simulation being run within the psyche. In somewhat different terms, the self is a lived character in an unfolding personal drama, one which is constantly being updated within the organism’s brain. The conscious self is in an important sense a phenomenal fiction, both in that the content of the dominant self-narrative can be somewhat arbitrarily or randomly determined, and in that the self-narrative may be an inaccurate or even inadequate simulation of the underlying organism’s actual condition. Rather than being powerless, however, this fiction has several important functions. In addition to supplying a more or less accurate read-out of the current state of the system, the self also supplies high-level goals and standards for the action system, supplies animated personas for effective social interchange, and supplies defenses against anxiety and mortality.
With this definition in mind, let us consider some theoretical and empirical attempts to conceptualize and legitimate psychological authenticity. The concept was given its most important expression by the humanistic and third force psy- chologists of the 1950s and 1960s. Rogers (1961) defined authenticity (or congruence) as occurring when “the feelings the person is experiencing are available to him, available to his awareness, and he is able to live these feelings, be them, and is able to communicate them if appropriate” (p. 61). Feelings can be subtle and difficult to detect online, and Rogers argued that they may be obscured precisely because people are committed to self-images inconsistent with these feelings. Thus, iron- ically, the conscious, cognitive self may be the very cause of its own deeper blind- ness or inauthenticity. Rogers’ perspective also shows what it may mean for the conscious self to fail to be itself, or to be true to itself – specifically, the conscious self-character may fail to apprehend and express the more subtle thoughts and feelings occurring within its own organism and brain. An important Rogerian assumption is that societal failings and inadequate nurturing can push people to adopt false or inauthentic selves. Accordingly, Rogers argued that optimal thera- peutic outcomes occur when therapists are able to accept their clients uncondi- tionally. Also important is the therapist’s ability to contact and appropriately express his or her own subtle feelings and reactions, modeling this process for clients and showing them how to go about integrating the new insights that emerge in therapy. This humanistic model of therapeutic change and the optimal helping relationship still predominates within typical counseling practice.
Despite the intuitive appeal of Rogers’ ideas, they received little empirical scrutiny at the time. However, similar ideas have been developed within con- temporary research psychology, under the aegis of self-determination theory (SDT). SDT is an organismic/dialectical theory built on the idea that people have inherent interests and passions that motivate behavior for its own sake (intrinsic motivation). Of course, not all important behavior can be enjoyable, and thus the
Authenticity 77 theory expanded to incorporate identified motivation, in which nonenjoyable behavior is nevertheless undertaken willingly because it expresses important identities and beliefs. Both intrinsic and identified motivations are said to be autonomousmotivations, because both express the interests of a deeper, enduring self. In contrast, controlled motivations evoke behaviors that feel caused by the situation, or by unmastered introjects that overwhelm the person’s sense of self.
These ideas supply an interesting possible definition of authenticity – that it involves acting for reasons of interest and/or conviction, rather than with a sense of being compelled by uncontrollable forces.
The self-concordance model applied SDT to the domain of self-generated per- sonal goals. The list of possible personal goals is infinite – people can choose to strive in countless directions. However, time and energy are very finite resources, and thus people can select only a very small set of goals from among the myriad of possibilities. This makes self-appropriate goal selection a crucial skill. Sheldon and colleagues showed that those who pursue goals for reasons of interest and identification rather than for reasons of pressures or guilt gain many functional benefits and as a result are higher in many forms of psychological well-being.
Sheldon argued that because self-concordant goals properly represent the person- ality, attaining them nurtures the personality and satisfies its needs. In contrast nonconcordant goals, which are based on false self-premises and beliefs, may do people no good even when they are attained. From the self-concordance perspective, then, to be authentic is to select and pursue long-term life objectives and purposes that one really believes in and enjoys.
Other empirical approaches to authenticity also exist. For example, Sheldon, Ryan, Rawsthorne, and Ilardi compared true self and trait self-conceptions of optimal functioning, showing that feeling authentic and self-expressive within various life domains (such as student, child, friend, and romantic partner) predicted positive functioning within those domains, above and beyond the influence of the Big Five trait profiles expressed within those domains. More recently, Kernis and colleagues have presented a four-component conceptualization of authenti- city, involving awarenessof one’s motives, feelings and desires, unbiased (i.e. non- defensive) processingof internal information, behaviorconsistent with one’s values, preferences and needs, and a relational orientationin which one values openness and truthfulness in interpersonal relationships, even if it means letting others see unflattering sides of oneself. The consistency of this view with the Rogerian and self-determination theory perspectives, outlined above, should be clear. The Authenticity Inventory is specifically designed to measure these four facets of authentic functioning, and has already shown itself to be useful in predicting a variety of positive outcomes.
In sum, the ability to create, live in, and project a self-character, both to oneself and to others, may be one of the most defining human attributes – an attribute which allows us to make our way through the complex mental and social worlds in which we find ourselves. However, emerging research suggests that not all self- characters are equally successful at representing the entirety of the personality in
78 Autonomy
which they emerge. This ability, in conjunction with a commitment to express what is found moment-to-moment and also a commitment to treat others with caring and respect, appear to be defining characteristics of psychological authen- ticity. Notably, the Rogerian psychotherapy model discussed above suggests that authenticity is a skill, which people can develop over time. In other words, we can learn to create and live in selves that better express who we are, and better connect us to others.
The concept of psychological authenticity is an important one for positive psychology, because it epitomizes positive psychology’s quest for the good, and also epitomizes positive psychology’s need to put this quest on firm conceptual and philosophical footings. The concept of authenticity is also crucial for under- standing the meaningful life, the most subtle but potentially important form of optimal functioning identified by Seligman.
SEE ALSO: Actualizing tendency Autonomy Rogers, Carl
Self-determination
Reference
Rogers, C. R. (1961). On becoming a person. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.