Susan Andersen

New York University, NY, NY.

The Relational Self

We suggest that the self is fundamentally relational - entangled with
significant others - and that the self in relation to significant others
is experienced with new people when significant others are not there.
The social-cognitive process of transference underlies this and consists
of representations of significant others being activated and used with new
people, as individuals encounter cues these people that remind them of a
significant other. The significant-other representation is thus activated
and used, which involves shifts in inferences, affect, expectancies,
motivations, and behaviors, along with changes in the working
self-concept. Based on significant-other activation, people become more
the version of themselves that they are with their significant other,
because self-knowledge linked to significant-other representations is
activated, including generic self-other knowledge such as interpersonal
roles and self-standards. Self-regulatory processes are also activated.
Hence, the evocation of prior experiences with significant others in
everyday encounters tells us something about the self.