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Self analysis is an expansion of affect control theory formulated by Neil MacKinnon and David Heise in Self, Identity, and Social Institutions (Palgrave, 2010). The basic idea is that each individual seeks to inhabit identities that reflect the individual's self-sentiment (self-esteem, self-efficacy, and self-activation), within constraints imposed by social institutions.
This form allows you to see which identities an individual with a given self-sentiment might take, in various circumstances.
Radio buttons at the bottom left of the form allow you to select Chart or Lists.
The chart has color-coded components.
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The blue dot in the center represents an individual's self-sentiment. |
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The green area shows the range of identities that are self-actualizing for an individual with that self-sentiment. Self-actualizing identities are distinguished further by gray text. |
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The yellow area encompasses identities that might be sustaining for the individual. |
The overall circle is a cross-section of a sphere in three-dimensional space, with axes of Evaluation, Potency, and Activity . The letters "E", "P", and "A" mark endpoints of each major axis. The markers are at the good, potent, active sides of the dimensions.
Identities are positioned according to their EPA profiles―an identity's point location is at the bottom-middle of the word. The chart displays just identities within the current cross-section of the sphere. Other identities in the sphere can be seen by revolving the sphere.
The cross-sectional view that appears first has Evaluation as the horizontal axis and Potency as the vertical axis. Other cross-sections can be viewed by revolving the sphere.
The visible cross-section is as thick as the green self-actualizing sphere, so all self-actualizing identities always show. Identities outside of the actualizing sphere move in or out of the visible cross-section, and thereby appear and disappear, as the chart is rotated.
The three scrollbars at the right side of the form allow you to rotate the sphere and thereby see different cross-sections. Rotations also can be useful for separating overlapping texts.
The leftmost scrollbar rotates the sphere around the Activity axis of the EPA space.
The middle scrollbar rotates the sphere around the Potency axis.
The rightmost scrollbar rotates the sphere around the Evaluation axis.
At the bottom of the form a pair of radio buttons titled "Sex of Raters" controls whether analyses are based on ratings of identities from males or from females. Click Male to use male sentiments; click Female to use female sentiments.
The self-sentiment applying when the self form first appears is the average Evaluation, Potency, and Activity (EPA) rating of self by 23 Indiana male undergraduates in 1994. The self-sentiment can be changed to a new value by typing an EPA profile in the box titled Self EPA, at the bottom of the form. Numerical values between -3 and +3 work best. Separate the three EPA numbers with spaces. Press Enter to begin analyzing the new profile.
The two numbers in the box titled "Bounds" set distances from self that delimit self-actualizing identities (first number) and sustaining identities (second number). To change, type two numbers separated by a space. Press Enter to get new results.
Analyses can be conducted in different cultures by making selections with the Cultures menu in Interact's main menu bar.
The male-female checkboxes below the phrase "Concept gates" control the gender of displayed identities. Identities that males may occupy are shown if the Male box is checked. Identities that females may occupy are shown if the Female box is checked.
The rest of the checkboxes control the institutional alignments of displayed identities. Checking a box shows identities related to the social institution named beside the box, and unchecking a box removes those identities from the display.
Lay refers to informal identities outside of major social institutions. Just the Lay box is checked when the chart first appears.
Clicking an identity highlights it on a red background. Simultaneously, other identities are highlighted on a black background. Identities with black highlighting theoretically are complements, or redeeming identities, that compensate for experiencing the identity with a red background.
Technically, an identity is a complement of a clicked identity if its EPA deviations from the self-sentiment, summed with the clicked identity's EPA deviations, produce an EPA profile that is close to zero, where "close" means that the square root of the profile's sum of squares is less than the bound for self-actualizing identities.
Rotate the sphere to see other complements of the clicked identity.
Click different filtering checkboxes to see complements of the clicked identity in different social institutions.
Click in the gray area around the circle to remove all highlighting.
Clicking an identity and then clicking another identity simulates experiencing the identities in sequence. The divergences of each identity from the self-sentiment are summed, and the point corresponding to the cumulative divergence is marked with the "at" symbol, @. The @ point is the reference point for determining which identities are redeeming (marked with black backgrounds).
Clicking a third identity sums divergences from all three into the cumulative divergence, clicking a fourth identity sums all four, etc.
Holding down the Control key while clicking maintains a constant number of identities in the sum. For example, clicking identity_1, then identity_2 produces an @ point based on those two identities. Next clicking identity_3 with the Control key down also produces an @ point based on two identities, namely identity_2 and identity_3.
Clicking in the gray area around the circle resets the system so that the sequence contains no identities and the EPA profile of the cumulative divergence is 0 0 0.
Clicking the Lists radio button takes you to a form presenting lists in two text boxes.
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The box titled "Self Actualizing Identities" lists identities that best confirm the given self-sentiment. The EPA profile for the self-sentiment is printed at the top of the box. The profile of divergences of recently experienced identities from the self-sentiment is printed on the second line. The reference profile for selecting identities is the self-sentiment profile minus the divergence profile. |
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The box titled "Sustaining Identities" lists identities that disconfirm the self-sentiment somewhat, but the resulting inauthenticity might be compensated by occupying other sustaining identities. |
Identities in both boxes are sorted by social institutions.
Each line specifies an identity and the distance of that identity from the reference profile.
The text in either box can be copied and pasted into a word processor or spreadsheet.
Identities in the green area are self-actualizing for an individual with the given self-sentiment, more so as they are closer to the blue dot.
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Manipulate the scroll bars to see all of the identities in this category. |
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Check and uncheck institutional boxes to examine the individual's self actualizing potential in different social institutions. |
Theoretically, identities in the yellow area are divergent enough from the individual's self-sentiment to require redemptioons via compensating identities, though not so inauthentic as to create pressure for changes in self-sentiment. The further an identity is from the blue dot in the middle, the greater the inauthenticity of that identity for an individual and the more compelling is the individual's need to occupy a redeeming identity.
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Occupying an identity in the yellow area creates an inauthenticity that has to be corrected by occupying a complementary identity. |
Click a divergent identity of interest to highlight it and its compensatory identities. Then:
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Manipulate the scroll bars to see redeeming identities throughout the sphere. |
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Check and uncheck institutional boxes to examine how an individual's inauthentic experience in one social institution may generate redemption efforts in other institutions. |
Alternatively, click an identity of interest to see all of the inauthenticities that it redresses.
The following table shows some average EPA self-sentiments that you can examine with the Explore a self form. The information is from Table 6.1 in Neil MacKinnon and David Heise, Identities, Selves and Social Institutions (forthcoming). You can transfer the EPA profiles as follows.
| Population | Sex | N | E | P | A |
| 1977 North Carolina Undergraduates | Females | 25 | 1.58 | 0.28 | 1.34 |
| Males | 26 | 1.98 | 1.23 | 1.33 | |
| 1994 Indiana Undergraduates | Females | 46 | 2.83 | 1.57 | 1.70 |
| Males | 23 | 2.48 | 1.74 | 1.83 | |
| 2001 Ontario Undergraduates | Females | 25 | 2.45 | 1.20 | 2.44 |
| Males | 25 | 1.55 | 0.97 | 1.74 | |
| 1962 British Sociopaths | Females and Males | 20 | -0.17 | -0.70 | 1.30 |