Exercises — Chapter 9: Identity and Self-Concept

These exercises move from conceptual understanding through structured self-examination to applied synthesis. Work through them in order where possible; later exercises build on earlier ones.

Part A: Conceptual Foundations

Exercise 1: Distinguishing the Three Constructs

The chapter distinguishes between personality, identity, and self-concept.

A) Define each in your own words in one sentence.

B) Consider this scenario: Lena is 32, high in conscientiousness and openness (personality). She describes herself as "someone who takes commitments seriously and cares about doing excellent work" (self-concept). She sees herself as a teacher-in-the-making — someone who has always been drawn to helping others learn, though she's only recently considered pursuing it professionally (identity narrative).

For each construct — personality, self-concept, identity — explain how it is illustrated in Lena's case and how the three relate to each other.

C) If Lena were to abandon her teaching plans due to a family crisis, which of the three constructs would be most affected, and how?

Exercise 2: Self-Schemas in Action

A) List three self-schemas you currently hold — domains in which you have strong beliefs about "the kind of person you are." For each, give the schema ("I am a reliable person") and a specific behavioral example that confirms it.

B) Now, for each schema, think of a counterexample — a time when you did NOT act in keeping with that schema. How did you process that incident? Did you dismiss it, explain it away, remember it less vividly? This is the schema-filtering process in action.

C) Identify one schema that you think may be outdated — formed in an earlier period of your life and not fully reflective of who you are now. What would it mean to revise it?

Exercise 3: The Working Self-Concept

The working self-concept shifts with context — different aspects of self-concept become salient in different situations.

A) Describe who you are in three different contexts: (1) a professional or school context, (2) with close family, (3) alone. Use 3–5 adjectives for each.

B) Which context produces the set of self-descriptions that feels most "you"? Which feels least? What does this reveal?

C) The chapter argues that variability across contexts is NOT inauthenticity — it is the normal functioning of self-concept. Do you agree? Are there limits to this view?

Part B: Identity Development

Exercise 4: Marcia's Identity Statuses

For each of the following vignettes, identify the most likely identity status (diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, or achievement) and explain your reasoning.

Vignette A: Marcus, 28, has always planned to take over his family's restaurant. He has never seriously considered any other path. When asked about his career, he says, "It's what we do." He feels settled and purposeful.

Vignette B: Priya, 22, is in her second year of college and has changed her major three times. She attends every club meeting she can find, dates a series of very different people, reads books on philosophy, religion, and psychology. She is frequently exhausted and says she feels like she's "in the middle of something she can't quite name."

Vignette C: Jordan, 34, built a career in marketing and worked hard to become a manager. But recently he has begun questioning whether this was genuinely chosen or simply the path he found himself on. He is uncomfortable, but he is not looking away. He calls it "an expensive midlife question mark."

Vignette D: Sofia, 19, was recently asked by her university counselor to explore what she wanted to do with her life. She replied, "I don't know and I don't really care yet." She picks courses based on what fits her schedule. She has no particular concerns about the future.

Exercise 5: Your Own Identity History

Think about your identity development across three life periods: childhood/early adolescence, late adolescence/early adulthood, and your current life.

For each period, write a brief paragraph (100–150 words) describing: - What your central identity commitments were (or weren't) - Whether the status you were in at that time resembles diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, or achievement - One event or relationship that was most significant to your identity in that period

Then write a synthesis paragraph: What has been the trajectory of your identity development? Where are you now?

Exercise 6: The Erikson Stage Audit

Erikson describes a central conflict at each life stage. Look at the stage most relevant to your current age.

A) Describe the conflict in your own words — what does "winning" and "losing" this conflict look like concretely, not just theoretically?

B) Based on honest reflection, where do you currently sit on this conflict? Give specific evidence.

C) The chapter notes that Erikson's stages carry Western and middle-class assumptions. In what ways might your cultural, economic, or family context make the stage model fit better or worse for your experience?

Exercise 7: Your Social Identity Map

List six group memberships that are significant to your identity — categories that feel like they are meaningfully "part of who you are." These might include race, ethnicity, gender, nationality, religion, profession, class background, family role, subculture, or other meaningful categories.

For each, answer: - How central is this to your self-concept? (1 = peripheral, 5 = very central) - In what contexts is this identity particularly salient? - What does membership in this group give you? (community, purpose, values, history, etc.) - Are there any ways this membership creates tension or conflict with other identities on your list?

Exercise 8: Stereotype Threat — The Mechanism

Claude Steele's research on stereotype threat is one of the most practically significant findings in social psychology.

A) Explain the mechanism of stereotype threat in your own words. How can a stereotype impair performance in someone who consciously rejects it?

B) Describe a situation in which you have experienced something that felt like stereotype threat — a context in which being reminded of a group membership seemed to affect your performance, behavior, or comfort. What was the context, and what did you notice?

C) Research suggests several interventions that reduce stereotype threat: values affirmations, belonging uncertainty reduction, growth mindset framing. Choose one and explain how it might work mechanistically to interrupt the stereotype threat process.

Exercise 9: In-Group Favoritism

Tajfel's minimal group paradigm showed that even arbitrary group categorization produces in-group favoritism.

A) Give three examples from your own recent experience where you may have evaluated your own group more favorably than an out-group — in professional, social, or other contexts. Be honest.

B) Is in-group favoritism always problematic? When might it be functionally useful? When does it become genuinely harmful?

C) What specific strategies can reduce in-group favoritism in evaluative contexts (e.g., hiring, grading, promotions)?

Part D: Narrative Identity

Exercise 10: Your Life Chapters

Dan McAdams asks people to divide their life into "chapters" — not chronological decades, but meaningful periods defined by their emotional tone, central concerns, or major transitions.

A) Identify 3–5 chapters in your life. Give each a title and a brief description (2–3 sentences).

B) What transitions between chapters are most significant? Were they gradual or sudden?

C) What theme, if any, runs through the chapters? If you had to title the whole story at this point, what would the title be?

Exercise 11: Redemption and Contamination Sequences

A) Identify one event in your life that you initially experienced as negative but that you now narrate as having led to something positive (a redemption sequence). Describe both the event and the "redemption" it led to.

B) Identify one event that you tend to narrate as a contamination sequence — a situation that went wrong, that soured something good. Describe the sequence.

C) For the contamination sequence: is there a plausible redemptive reframing available? Does this reframing seem dishonest, or does it accurately capture something about the situation? What is the difference between redemptive reframing and rationalization?

Exercise 12: Your Self-Defining Memories

Self-defining memories are the handful of autobiographical memories that feel most central to identity — often recalled frequently, emotionally vivid, and used (consciously or not) to explain "why I am the way I am."

A) Identify 2–3 self-defining memories from your own life. Describe each briefly.

B) What does each memory "explain" about you — what aspect of your identity does it seem to support or illustrate?

C) How accurate are these memories likely to be? (Review Chapter 5 on memory as construction.) What does it mean if identity is partly built on reconstructed memories?

Exercise 13: The Possible Selves Inventory

A) Write a paragraph describing your most important hoped-for self — the person you most want to become in the next 10 years.

B) Write a paragraph describing your most feared self in the same domain — the failure-mode version.

C) Research suggests that the most motivationally effective configuration is a hoped-for self paired with a feared self in the same domain. Looking at what you wrote: how vivid and specific are each? Which feels more motivating — the pull toward the hoped-for self, or the push away from the feared self?

D) How does the gap between your current identity and your hoped-for self feel? Is it motivating, discouraging, or something else?

Part E: Cultural Context and Identity

Exercise 14: Independent vs. Interdependent Self-Construal

A) Read the following two self-descriptions:

Person A: "I am an independent thinker who values personal achievement. I have a clear sense of my own values and I make decisions based on what's true to who I am."

Person B: "I am a daughter, a sister, a colleague, and a friend. My identity is defined by my relationships and my obligations. I feel most like myself when I am fulfilling my responsibilities to the people I care about."

Which description more closely matches your own self-understanding? This is not a trap — both are legitimate. Reflect on why.

B) In which contexts has your self-construal been shaped by more independent norms? In which by more interdependent norms?

C) Are there costs to very strong independent self-construal? To very strong interdependent self-construal? Describe specific costs of each.

Exercise 15: Identity Intersectionality

Your identity is not a single thread but an intersection of multiple social categories, each carrying its own history, meaning, and social position.

A) Choose two of your social identities from Exercise 7 that sometimes pull in different directions — where the expectations, values, or demands of one membership conflict with another.

B) Describe a specific situation in which this tension was salient. How did you navigate it?

C) How has navigating multiple social identities shaped your sense of self? What capacities have you developed as a result?

Part F: Identity Reconstruction

Exercise 16: Disruption and Revision

Think of a significant transition, loss, or failure that required you to revise your identity — to update the story you were telling about who you were.

A) What identity claim did the event challenge or invalidate?

B) Describe your experience of the disruption period — the time before you had a revised narrative. What did that feel like?

C) How did you eventually rebuild or revise your identity? Was there a specific insight, relationship, or experience that helped? If the revision is still in progress, describe where you currently are.

Exercise 17: The Name Tag Problem

Return to Amara's struggle to fill in the "one word" on the name tag.

A) If you had to fill in that name tag right now, what word would you write? Write your answer before reflecting.

B) How confident are you that the word you wrote is genuinely yours, as opposed to the word that feels expected or appropriate?

C) If you could have written a more honest word — one that captured who you actually are, not who you present as — what would it be?

Part G: Synthesis

Exercise 18: Your Identity Statement

Drawing on the work from this chapter, write a 300–400 word identity statement. Not a biography. Not a resume. An identity narrative: who you are, where you came from in terms that matter for understanding who you are, what you care about, and where you are going.

The statement should include: - At least two self-schemas central to your identity - Your current Marcia status in at least one domain - At least one social identity that is meaningfully yours - A narrative theme or chapter description - A hoped-for self

Exercise 19: Chapter Integration

Write a 400-word response to the following:

"The chapter suggests that identity is a story that can be deliberately constructed and revised. If that is true, what prevents people from simply writing themselves a better story? What are the real constraints on identity revision?"

Your response should draw on at least four concepts from the chapter (e.g., self-consistency motivation, social identity, narrative identity, identity statuses, possible selves, cultural self-construal).

Discussion Questions

Discussion 1: Is "authentic identity" coherent? If identity is a constructed story, what makes one identity more authentic than another?

Discussion 2: Foreclosed identity — commitment without exploration — is sometimes treated as a problem to be solved. But is it always? Are there circumstances in which inheriting an identity without questioning it is wise or functional?

Discussion 3: Social identities are partly imposed by others' perceptions and social structures, not just claimed by individuals. How does this affect the sense that your identity is "yours"?

Discussion 4: McAdams found that redemptive narratives predict wellbeing. Does this mean people with contamination narratives should simply "reframe" their stories? What are the ethical limits of narrative revision advice?